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That’s her. That’s the girl.

She’s the one who made Yates and Stangman fight.

Everyone knows Ryder had a big crush on her. Even poor Kiera. It’s no wonder the Stang grew tired of him always staring at her.

I clenched my teeth as scattered remnants of conversation floated back to me. But I’d lived through worse in the past few days; I was surprisingly numb to the gossip. I didn’t particularly care for anyone in this school. It didn’t bother me if none of them returned the love. Not even Mindy, who’d actually acted like a friend. When she saw me, she huddled closer to her boyfriend and turned away as if she wanted me to think she hadn’t seen me.

But what surprised me most was Laina’s sudden appearance at my side.

“I know you’re not the reason for the fight,” she said as soon as I saw her.

For a moment, I blinked, staring blankly. Then my face softened. “Listening at Mr. Howard’s door again?”

She rolled her eyes and grumbled, “No, I couldn’t. As soon as Dad saw me hanging around his office, he shooed me off and shut the door. But I still know you couldn’t have been behind the fight.”

Instead of thanking her for having so much faith in me, I wrinkled my nose. “Your dad?”

Laina arched both eyebrows. “The school counselor.”

“Wait.” Mouth falling open, I gaped. “Your dad is Mr. Howard?”

“What, you didn’t know? I thought everyone knew.”

“No, of course I didn’t know. Why would I know that? Neither he nor you ever told me. I didn’t even know your last name.”

“Oh. Well, I just assumed everyone knew. That’s why no one ever talks to me. My dad knows everything about everyone’s problems and grades. But it’s not like he tells me anything,” she was quick to reassure me. “I usually have to find stuff out on my own.”

“By listening at doors.” I grinned.

She grinned back, and I decided maybe I did care what one or two people at Southeast thought of me.

Laina must’ve been the only person to think I wasn’t the reason behind the big fig

ht, though, because her father called me to his office in the middle of second hour.

Five minutes later, I fidgeted, sitting deep in my chair under a flickering florescent light in Mr. Howard’s office with my freezing hands buried in my lap.

Laina’s dad.

It still felt weird thinking of those two as related, but they did resemble each other now that I knew the truth. He was a middle-aged man, around my mother’s age, with light brown hair and a thin frame. He had an easy manner, almost shy, that immediately made me comfortable.

Well, as comfortable as I could be, sitting there, listening to him say, “Ryder Yates suggested you might need to talk to me.”

My eyes flared wide.

Ryder had been the one to start the rumor that I was behind his and Todd’s fight? I flinched. Well, I had to admit I wasn’t completely innocent. As soon as he’d told me Todd was only acting interested in me to mess with him, I should’ve walked away from both boys—despite how adamantly Todd had tried to get me to date him. I’d known better. And my inability to stand up for myself and say, “no,” when I should’ve was what had started the tension between two best friends.

I sank lower into chair across from Mr. Howard, wincing. “He thought I needed to talk to you? Why?”

Giving a light shrug, Mr. Howard smiled a kind smile. “I don’t know. I guess he thought you needed to…get something off your chest maybe.”

I gasped, and the defensive comment gushed its way from my lips. “But I’m not the reason they got into a fight. Kiera’s the one who cheated on him with Todd. I had nothing to do with it.”

Mr. Howard blinked. Then sat back in his chair, blushing as he glanced away. “Actually, I wasn’t insinuating anything of the kind. I’m sorry, Grace. I guess I should’ve mentioned how both Ryder and Todd have already explained the reason for their fight. No, Ryder said this as more of an afterthought as he was leaving my office. It made me think it was a personal issue for you, something that had nothing to do with him or anyone else in school.”

Everything inside me drained: the color in my face, the starch in my shoulders, the knot in my throat. I gaped at Mr. Howard and opened my mouth a few times before I rasped, “Oh.”

I guess I’d been doing so well at pushing the “event” into the furthest recesses of my brain that I’d completely forgotten about it for a minute there.