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Hollis was so surprised to see everyone gathered in there that he stood in the doorway for longer than was probably polite.

To the left of the principal’s desk was Timothy and James. To his right were the younger girls he’d vaguely remembered being around the fire, as well as two adults who looked enough like Jorge that Hollis could comfortably assume they were his parents.

They looked furious.

“Sit.”

Hollis made his way to the only empty chair next to Tim and James and sat down.

The principal, Mr. Feehan, was the sort of man who got angrier at being bothered than he did about actual problems. He was sweaty and balding, but younger than most principals usually were. Hollis knew him to be fair, and kind more often than not.

So it was jarring to see him with this expression, like Hollis had done something very wrong.

“Do you know why you’re here?”

“This is about Rose Town... ?” Hollis asked, purposefully vague.

Mr. Feehan took off his glasses and folded his hands.

“Can you give me your account of Friday night?”

Hollis glanced over at Timothy and James. They seemed annoyed.

“Annie Watanabe and I got there around nine,” Hollis started. “We went in to set up a place to sleep, then came back outside. Jorge had an argument with Annie because they just broke up. So, Annie and I decided to take a walk away from the group. We went off on our own for a while, then came back when we heard screaming. Something happened to Jorge that got him all cut up, and no one was waiting around to help, so Annie, Stephanie, and I took him to the hospital. Then we all went home.”

Mr. Feehan flicked his eyes over to Jorge’s parents, then back to Hollis.

“So, you agree that you and Jorge fought before he got hurt?” he asked.

Timothy sighed loudly and muttered something Hollis didn’t catch.

“Uh... not really? He punched me in the stomach, and then I left. Annie and I didn’t show up to the house until after whatever happened to him happened,” Hollis clarified. “They were playing truth or dare or something, I don’t know.”

“He’s lying,” Jorge’s father cried.

That pissed him off. Hollis turned around in his chair to face the man directly.

“I spent most of Saturday morning scrubbing Jorge’s blood out of the seat of my friend’s car because me and Annie and Stephanie were the only people who cared enough to stick around to help him,” Hollis said bluntly.

Jorge’s father ignored Hollis completely. “What if he just did that to cover up what he did?!”

To Hollis’s surprise Timothy spoke up. “He didn’t. Look, I don’t like this guy as much as anyone, but he quite literally wasn’t there when Jorge went into the basement. I don’t know how many times we have to say it. Hollis and Annie were blocks away.”

Hollis’s blood went cold, and the hairs rose on the back of his neck.

So that’s why it had taken so long for them to call him: Jorge was pinning this on him.

Mr. Feehan held up a hand, and the room went quiet. He nodded over at the sophomore girls.

“They say Tim and James came to your defense during the fight you had with Jorge, so I’m having a hard time believing they aren’t on your side. Stephanie went with you to the hospital, so there’s a chance she was an accomplice.”

Hollis leaned forward and drove the heels of his hands into his eyes and rubbed hard, trying to get his heart rate down.

Everyone knew Rose Town was “haunted,” but it’s one thing to make spooky jokes and another to try to wiggle out of assault charges by claiming that “a ghost did it.”

“I barely know Stephanie, and Timothy and James aren’t my friends,” Hollis said, sitting back up. “Tim broke my nose freshman year, and we haven’t exchanged a single word since, until Friday.”

He glanced over at James. “James beat me up so bad last week I had to go to urgent care myself. To be honest, I’m shocked they aren’t joining Jorge in whatever the fuck this is.”

Mr. Feehan leaned forward, curious. “Will urgent care have a record of this?”

“Urgent care has cameras in their parking lot. You can literally watch Annie and Yulia dragging me in there. Hospitals should have cameras too.”

Hollis turned to Jorge’s parents, then stood up and peeled off his sweater. The bruise on his stomach from Jorge’s fist was still purple and green. James’s marks were also there but fading yellow. One of the sophomore girls gasped and turned away quickly.

“Jorge punched me so hard I almost threw up because he thought I stole his girlfriend and I still carried him on my back out of that house and into the hospital.” Hollis seethed. “He’s a fucking dickhead, but I’m not going to just let another kid bleed out in a filthy basement. Why don’t you start asking everyone who was there why they didn’t stay to help?”

Jorge’s mom started crying, but Hollis didn’t care.

“We stuck around the hospital until two a.m., checking to make sure he was all right.” He continued louder. “Stephanie spent an hour calling people, trying to get your phone number, so that you’d know where he was. I can’t believe I have to sit around defending myself. That Tim and James, who truly don’t care whether I live or die, have somehow decided to defend me too. But it’s still easier for you to believe I sprinted to the pond and back to stab Jorge and then felt bad enough to take care of him. It’s fucking insane.”

“ Hollis! ” Mr. Feehan yelled. “Put on your shirt and sit down.”

Hollis wrestled his sweater back over his head but didn’t stop talking.

“Also, Jorge punched me only once. James punched me like eight times into a brick wall, and he’s sitting there extremely unstabbed,” he spat.

“Maybe if you weren’t a bitch, people would punch you less,” James muttered.

“Exactly!” Hollis cried. “I get punched way too often for that to even be considered a viable motive for anything.” He folded his arms. “Besides, Annie and I aren’t dating, and Jorge probably would have figured that out in about forty-eight hours. He was just mad and confused. It wasn’t even a punch with intention, unlike James, who was punching me for a reason.”

“And what reason was that?” the principal asked.

Hollis paused in his rant, deflating a bit.

He didn’t know how to articulate what happened between him and James without making himself look bad.

James rescued him again. “He called me stupid. Don’t like being called stupid.”

“And I feel worse about that now that you’re... here and all,” Hollis admitted.

Mr. Feehan held up a hand. “Jesus. Give me a second to think.”

Hollis glanced back over at James, who rolled his eyes and shifted his chair to face away from him. Timothy was staring at his shoes, hands clasped beneath his chin. Jorge’s parents seethed at him from across the room. Jorge’s ma was still crying quietly.

“All right. It will take a bit of time for the authorities to corroborate your story. The police will need to pull the security tapes from the hospital and urgent care, as well as probably send some officers to the scene to check for footprints around the pond. But in the meantime, the school can’t move forward without disciplinary action of some kind. Two days in-school suspension for you, James and Timothy. Stephanie and Annie will be receiving the same.” Mr. Feehan paused and looked at Hollis. “A week’s suspension for you, Hollis. Out of school. We can’t have you on the school grounds during an investigation.”

“ What? ” Hollis stood up fast.

“And—” Mr. Feehan continued, undeterred. “I highly suggest you don’t leave town. If your claims are verified by the police, we’ll have the suspension scrubbed from your permanent record. You’ll have a week to make up any classwork or tests you may have missed. It’s the best I can do, under the circumstances.”

Jorge’s parents looked smug, but Mr. Feehan wasn’t finished.

“And you two. If it comes back that this child had nothing to do with your son’s injuries, I would strongly suggest giving him and his family some sort of apology. Because if this situation happened as he described, it would be a considerable wickedness to pin your own child’s foolishness on the only person who was brave enough to save him. Now get out of my office.”