Chapter 23

After the morning study period, students gathered in little groups around the classroom.

Vivian had been miserable ever since she arrived at school. She lay with her head buried in her arms on her desk.

The DNA results would be back in a few days. She had counted on Adrian to stand up for her, only to find that he had taken Elise's side as well. Once the results came, she would be thrown out.

Around her, the room was full of talk. It was the first day back, and everyone had weeks of news to catch up on.

Kayla Morris came over as soon as she noticed Vivian slumped at her desk.

“Viv, what's wrong?”

Vivian didn't want to answer. She tucked her face further into her arms, but that only brought more of her friends over. A few concerned questions were enough to undo her. All the hurt she had been trying to hold in came up at once.

“Oh, Viv. Why are you crying?”

Someone crying in class was news. Crying where everyone could see was embarrassing enough that people rarely did it, and the noise in the room dropped by half. Even the students who kept talking were listening now.

Vivian had no choice but to lift her head. Her eyes were red.

She was hurt, and she was furious. Julian and Adrian had changed so suddenly. All their warmth went to Elise now. When she learned a few days ago that Elise had even been assigned to her homeroom, she had almost stopped wanting to come to school at all.

Her friends kept asking what had happened. She accepted a tissue from one of them and began explaining through her tears.

She left out the DNA test. She left out the fact that she was adopted. What she told them was that her brothers favored Elise, that she had been made to give up her dressing rooms, and that all her clothes had to be moved to the fourth floor so Elise could have the space.

“That's disgusting.”

“Your sister must have said something to your brothers.”

“She comes back, and suddenly they start treating you like this? She's obviously trying to turn them against you!”

Vivian drew a shaky breath. “She wasn't brought home for all those years. I suppose it's only natural that she'd resent it.”

“That doesn't give her the right to treat you like that. She's gone way too far.”

“Please, don't.” Vivian's voice shook with tears. “She's transferring into our class today. If my brothers hear any of this, they'll yell at me again for talking about her behind her back.”

She was crying this hard, and she still had to worry about her brothers taking Elise's side and blaming her?

Was she supposed to suffer in silence, too?

Kayla and the other girls crowded closer to comfort her, silently furious with Elise.

The rest of the class had heard most of it.

“Elise Whitmore? That's her name?”

“Wait. She's the transfer student we're getting?”

“She's coming into our class?”

“Everyone on the school discussion board says her grades are terrible. Won't she drag our average down?”

“And she bullies Vivian? That's vile.”

They had spent all of last year with Vivian. If she was crying like this on the first day back, things at home must have been awful. One by one, they began to feel that someone had wronged one of their own.

A few of the boys who were hardest for teachers to manage were particularly stirred up by the tears on her face.

“Come on. Let's talk to Ms. Parker. She can put her in another class.”

“I don't want someone like that in here.”

“Exactly. She bullies one of us, then expects to join us? She's got some nerve.”

Their voices grew louder. They sounded ready to march straight to the teachers' office.

Vivian wiped the tears from her cheeks. A small smile touched her mouth.

Let the whole class shut Elise out. She would like to see how Elise managed here with everyone against her.

Elise had made her miserable. She could return the favor.

“Quiet. All of you!”

The voice cut across the uproar, loud enough to stop the room at once.

Ms. Parker stood in the doorway with her textbook in her arms. Her expression was forbidding.

Students hurried back to their seats. Even the boys who had been shouting loudest lost most of their nerve. They sat down and closed their mouths.

Elise stood just behind the teacher. The shout had startled her into tightening her grip on her schoolbag strap.

Was this the same woman who had been so kind in the office? One stern look from her was enough to make a person jump.

Once the room was quiet, Ms. Parker glared at the worst offenders and walked to the front.

She spoke about the new semester, getting off to a good start, and putting proper effort into their work. Then she paused.

“We have a new student joining us this semester. Let's give her a welcome.”

Students exchanged looks.

It had to be Elise.

She was here.

Kayla and several of Vivian's closest friends rolled their eyes. Other faces showed open contempt or hostility.

Ms. Parker's frown deepened. What was wrong with them? They all seemed to have decided they couldn't stand the girl already. She had heard quite clearly from outside that some of them didn't want Elise in their class.

What on earth had happened?

When the teacher finished, Elise walked in. She had introduced herself in front of groups plenty of times. There was nothing about it to make her nervous.

“Hi, everyone. I'm Elise Whitmore.”

She went on to talk about her interests and the things she was good at, finishing with a friendly smile.

Julian had told her to get along with her new classmates. She hadn't forgotten.

Only when she finished did she realize how unnaturally quiet the room had become.

Everyone seemed frozen.

The boys who had been shouting about getting her thrown out of the class were staring with their mouths hanging open.

Hold on. Vivian hadn't said she looked like this.

Her pale checked shirt and plaid skirt were the same uniform everyone else wore, yet on her they looked like something out of a magazine. There was a freshness to her that made it hard to look away.

She had a small, delicately pointed face and finely drawn features. When she looked at someone, a blink was enough for a smile to brighten her eyes. Her waist was slender, her legs below the hem of her skirt long and fair.

Standing beside Ms. Parker made the difference all the more striking. Elise's face looked tiny beside hers. The two of them barely seemed to belong in the same picture.

The new girl could have stepped out of a comic book.

It wasn't only the boys staring. Plenty of the girls were looking, too.

So this was the horrible Elise Whitmore? How could she be this pretty?

They had been picturing a wicked stepsister. The girl in front of them belonged in a fairy tale.

Elise blinked, puzzled by all the attention.

Several of the boys had to resist clutching their chests.

Mom. The fairy-tale girl had just blinked at them.

Ms. Parker cleared her throat.

Now what was the matter? A minute ago, they had been trying to shout the roof off. Now the whole class seemed to have lost the use of their voices. The loudest boys were sitting as though someone had pinned them in place.

Her eyes narrowed as she remembered what she had heard outside.

They had actually been demanding that Elise be sent away. At the time, she had wanted to march in and give those unruly children a good smack. She had been too embarrassed even to turn and look at Elise. What a way for her class to behave.

With a classroom pointer in her hand, she began walking slowly between the desks.

“You will treat a new classmate with kindness.” Her tone made the room go still. “Now. Who was it who said she should be put in another class?”

Faces tightened around the room.

She had heard them.

Elise had caught a little of the conversation outside, too. She hadn't heard all of it, only something about wanting someone out of the class. For a moment, she had thought they meant her.

Then she had dismissed it. This was her first day at Northbridge. She didn't know these people. Why would they want her gone?

They might have been talking about someone else.

Ms. Parker, who had been closer to the door, had heard every word. Her lips pressed together as she looked from one of the boys to the next.

“I see the vacation has done wonders for your manners. Who started this?”

The boys avoided her eyes. They hadn't expected Elise to look like that, either. They had barely had a chance to put on a show of defiance before a single look from her had taken all the fight out of them.

Ms. Parker stopped beside one desk.

“Logan Reed. I could hear you through the wall. Tell me again, who did you want out of this class?”

Caught by name, Logan looked painfully stuck for an answer. A few students laughed at his predicament.

He glanced at Elise. She was watching him curiously, her long hair loose over her shoulders, looking so quiet and sweet.

His face flushed. He looked away.

“When did I say I wanted anyone out? Did I say that? You must have heard wrong, Ms. Parker.”

She gave him a hard stare. But he had backed down, and no one else seemed inclined to object to the new student. For the moment, she let it go.

Under her desk, Vivian clenched her hands.

They had promised to stand up for her. They had said they would get Elise sent away. Now, barely a moment later, they were taking it all back.

Logan was the worst of them. He was the most conspicuous boy in the class, and the most popular: tall, handsome, captain of the basketball team. More than once, he had made it clear that he liked her.

That was all it had taken for him to switch sides?

She stared down at the exercise book on her desk. She wished it were Elise, so she could tear it to pieces.

“For now, we'll keep the seating arrangement from the end of last semester,” Ms. Parker said. “But with a new student joining us, we'll need to make an adjustment. Who would like to help her settle in and sit beside her?”

She had a reason for asking. Before Elise arrived, there had been an even number of students, all paired off. If she changed nothing, Elise would be left sitting by herself.