Page 134 of All These Beautiful Strangers

“How do we determine the minimum starting bid for each of these?” Crosby asked.

“I’ll need to see what we made on ticket sales first,” Leo said. “Then we’ll know how much to gouge people at the auction to meet our goal. Charlie, can you get the cash box from Stevie and see if she has a final number yet?”

“You’re very bossy lately,” I said. “I think all this political power you wield is going to your head.”

“Yeah, don’t be such a tyrant, Calloway,” Dalton said. “At least say ‘please.’”

“Has a class president ever been impeached before?” I asked.

“There’s no precedent for that, I’m afraid,” Dalton said.

“We could stage a coup,” I said. “I have a free period after trig tomorrow.”

Leo sighed. “Pretty please with a cherry on top, will you go ask Stevie what we made on ticket sales and bring me the cash box?”

“Well, since you asked so nicely,” I said, standing.

I meandered across the dining hall to where Stevie and Yael were sitting with the cash box. I hadn’t talked to Yael since Drew was expelled, and I hadn’t spoken to Stevie since she had made that peace offering outside the dining hall a few weeks back. I still felt a little bad about brushing her off, but I hadn’t meant to. It was more bad timing than anything.

I knew that I had kind of been an ass, and that Drew was the common factor that linked us, the glue that held our friendship together, but still. Stevie and Yael were my friends (weren’t they?), and I missed them.

“Hey there,” I said, a little too cheerfully. I knew I sounded fake, but I couldn’t help it. I didn’t have much practice playing nice and trying to ingratiate myself with others. I had never cared to before.

Yael stopped midsentence. The smile slid off her face when she saw that it was me. Stevie looked at me briefly and then back at the calculator in her hand. There were stacks of checks on the table in front of her.

“Leo needs the cash box and the final ticket sale count,” I said.

“It’ll be a minute,” Stevie said, still not looking at me.

“Okay,” I said, sinking into the chair next to her as she punched another number into her calculator and the number on the screen grew. “Do you need any help?”

“That wasn’t an invitation,” Yael said, glaring at me.

I hadn’t exactly expected a warm welcome, but this was downright cold. I mean, I was at least trying here.

“What exactly is your problem?” I asked.

Yael sighed. “You can drop the act, Charlie,” she said. “We know it was you.”

“You know what was me?”

“Really? That’s how you’re going to play this?”

“Yael, I’m not playing anything. I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“The damn fish we found in our room,” Yael said, her voice rising. Stevie leaned forward and shushed her, and Yael lowered her voice to a fervent whisper. “I’m talking about the damn fish.”

“The fish?” I asked.

This whole time, I’d thought they were mad at me because they thought I was the one who asked Drew to steal the exam. I’d also considered they were mad at me because I’d been spending so much time with Dalton and the boys, like I had forgotten about them or something. But they weren’t talking to me because of something to do with a fish?

“You know, you walk around all high and mighty with your secret little friends in your secret little group with your secret little secrets,” Yael said. “And you think everybody doesn’t know.”

“Yael—” Stevie started, but Yael cut her off.

“No, I’m not scared of her and her precious friends,” Yael said. She turned back to me, a fire in her eyes. “I overheard Darcy and Ren in the restroom a while back, talking about how they made you and Leo take the term ‘kissing cousins’ to a whole new level. That’s a strange kind of friendship, making you stick your tongue down your cousin’s throat before they deigned to hang out with you. They seemed to have a good laugh about it.”

My cheeks flamed red. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said.