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“I can’t let you suffer because of them,” Elia murmured, her voice so quiet that Kamryn wasn’t quite sure if she’d heard her correctly. She was about to ask Elia to repeat that when a loud scream echoed down the bus.

Kamryn leaned up on the seat and eyed the students in the back. “Volume down, please!” she reminded them all. She was going to have to say that a million more times, that was for certain. But that was why she was here, wasn’t it? To teach and be with the kids.

Sliding back into her seat, she didn’t have the heart to ask Elia to open up again. Kamryn threw her head back into the seat and closed her eyes for a moment, attempting to gather herself again. Opening her phone, she checked her work email. Frowning at a recent email that had come in, she hovered her thumb over it before opening it.

From: Yara Cole

Subject: Agenda to Follow

I thought it’d be pertinent to get this information out to you as soon as possible. I don’t want to waste time. We’ll have a meeting Tuesday evening at six, and we’llformulate a plan to make sure that our students’ safety is our number one concern.

Thank you,

Yara

Kamryn’s stomach dropped. She read the email three times over before she closed out of it and reached behind her neck to rub the tension out of the muscles. Except it wasn’t working. She dug her thumb into the line of muscle from the back of her skull down her neck, and that seemed to help but only momentarily.

Yara wasn’t an opposing voice to Susy and Heather, and instead of adding diversity to the team, Kamryn had unwittingly added nothing to it except more pressure against what her goals were. She really needed to start this over or she needed to get someone else in there quickly.

She ran through the list of names in her head, but she couldn’t come up with anyone. Finally, she gave in and asked, because at the very least Elia could help her with this. “Hey, do you know anyone who might be good for the ethics team?”

“What?” Elia’s voice wavered with surprise and worry.

“The ethics team.” Kamryn furrowed her brow. “I told you that one of my jobs is to rebuild it. Since you won’t be on the team, I need to find someone else, and someone who…” Kamryn paused. Could she say this without offending Elia? Probably. “…someone who has a differing point of view. And someone who can stand up for themselves and speak out when necessary.”

“I’m really not the person to ask for this.”

“Why not? You’ve been around the school long enough to know who might be interested and good at that.”

Elia shook her head. “No. I’ve been at the school, yes, but I haven’t been involved in the way you think I have. I’m notsomeone who fully understands the inner workings and who does what. I do my job and that’s about it.”

Kamryn frowned at that. She’d never thought Elia had been someone who was distant from other faculty or staff or even the board. Then again, now that she thought about it, Elia often ate lunch and dinner at her house or in her office—she didn’t come down to the dining hall. And if she did, she usually sat quietly at a table with others instead of engaging them in conversation.

How had Kamryn not noticed that before?

“So you don’t have any names I might approach?” Kamryn asked again, hoping not only for an answer to resolve her issue, but to pry more information out of Elia if she could, just something that might tell her more about who this woman was.

“No, I don’t.”

“Okay.” Kamryn opened Yara’s email again. “I won’t be at practice on Tuesday.”

“You missed practice on Thursday.” Elia glanced over, her gaze dropping to Kamryn’s phone. “Ethics meeting?”

Kamryn glanced up at her. “Unfortunately, and they didn’t ask when I was available—just told me when we were meeting.”

“Typical Yara Cole.”

“Do you know Yara?” Kamryn asked, looking at her directly. “I mean, I guess you would because her kids went to Windermere.”

“I do know her,” Elia responded, but she tightened even more, pushing herself into the window as if to get away from Kamryn.

“I don’t know her that well.”

Elia didn’t respond. She was shutting down even more than before, and it was obvious. Kamryn wished she could take it all back, that she could try to have this conversation at any other time, that they were standing up and yelling at each other, thatthey were doing exactly what they needed to get through to each other.

It might just be one hiccup, and that’s what Kamryn was going to count it as. They were both busy and exhausted after a long day, and they really needed to take time to rest before they tried to talk about anything serious.

The school chant reverberated through the bus before a loud cheer went up. Kamryn smiled, facing Elia and shrugging slightly. “Seemswhisk timeis done for the evening.”