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"So now that Laura's gone, they just picked up on you," Theresa said.

"With someone else's help," I added glaring across the cafeteria at Adam. He was obviously elaborating on his lies, gesturing emphatically and nodding in Cary's direction.

"They don't ever stop. They'd eat each other to the bone if they could. But Cary and Laura," Theresa said, "they gave them something to chew on." She shook her head again. "It was as if they didn't care, as if they thought no one could touch them with nasty words and looks. I couldnt understand it."

"Your father works with my uncle and with Cary, what does he think?"

She pulled back a moment and gazed at me indignantly. Then she calmed and sat forward again. "He doesn't talk about the Logans except to say they are hardworking people," she remarked with an andthat's-that tone.

"I don't know which one of them first suggested it," I said, nodding at Janet, Lorraine, and Betty, "but they implied that Cary had something to do with Laura and Robert's accident. They made it sound as if he deliberately put them in harm's way."

"Some people think that," Theresa said.

"Do you?"

She ate for a while and then she sighed. "Look, I didn't exactly hang out with Laura Logan or Robert Royce. Laura was always polite and nice to me and I liked her, but she sat on one side of the world and I sat on another one. Cary . . . he sat somewhere in outer space. I'm not swearing for anyone, but I'm not spreading any gossip, so stop asking all these questions."

She paused and turned completely to me so her back was to her friends. Then, in a low voice, she added, "Just like the rest of the bravas here, I mind m

y own business. What happens in the homes of the rich and famous isn't my concern. My daddy taught me that was the best way to stay out of trouble. Now don't you go telling anyone I said anything else, either," she warned with cold ebony eyes.

"I wouldn't do that."

"Good." Theresa turned back to her food.

I had barely touched mine. Was no one on our side? I gazed at Cary again. He looked so lost and lonely. In my put-away heart, I thought it wasn't fair. It wasn't fair what they were saying about him and me and what had happened to him.

I nibbled my sandwich, my stomach feeling like a tight drum. Theresa talked to her friends for a while and then gazed at me. The hard shell she had formed over herself cracked a bit.

"Look, it doesn't make sense that Cary would do something that would hurt Laura just to get at Robert Royce, does it?" she asked me,

"So? Don't let them drive you nuts about it. The trouble with them," she said, nodding at Janet, Lorraine, and Betty and their friends, "is they have nothing real in their lives so they make up soap operas. Maybe I'm not as rich as they are and I don't live in as nice a house, but I'm not anxious to trade places."

I smiled. "I don't blame you," I said.

Her smile widened. "Just ignore them and maybe they'll get bored or start on someone else," she suggested.

But it wasn't going to be that way for a while, and they were just getting started building their fire of pain. While Theresa and I spoke, neither of us had noticed that notes were being passed from table to table in the cafeteria. At each table they reached, everyone quickly stopped talking and leaned in to read the slander. Soon, the girls at Theresa's table grew curious and one of them got hold of one of the notes. She read it and passed it down to Theresa.

Printed on the slip of paper was: Incest is best. Just ask Cary and Melody.

I felt as if my lower body had evaporated. I had no legs. I would never be able to get up from the table. The cafeteria was buzzing with loud chatter and laughter. My heart was pounding so hard, I thought I could hear it drumming over the noise.

"Bitches," Theresa muttered. Her friends nodded. Again, everyone's eyes were on me. I shifted my gaze slowly toward Cary. Someone had tossed one of the notes over to his table. After he read it, he crumbled it in his fist and turned to me. I shook my head to say, "Don't pay it any mind. Ignore it," but I could see he was fuming.

"Cary!" I called when he stood up. His gaze was fixed on Adam Jackson across the cafeteria. "Oh no," I muttered.

"Don't get in his way," Theresa warned me. "I've seen him pull up a net full of ten-pounders as if it were a net full of nothing more than balloons."

"This is just what they want," I wailed. Cary's determined strut across the room silenced the cafeteria. The lines in his face were taut and his shoulders were raised. One of the teacher monitors, Mr. Pepper, looked up from his newspaper curiously as Cary marched past him.

I got up as Cary rounded the table beside Adam Jackson's. Adam sat there, smirking, his arms folded over his chest.

"Careful," Theresa said touching my arm as I started after him.

"You spread a bunch of filthy lies about us today, didn't you?" Cary accused, loud enough for everyone to hear.

"Hey, if you're embarrassed by the truth, don't blame me," Adam said.