“Sure,” I said, forcing a smile. “Call me later?”
“I will,” he said. “I love you.”
“Love you, too,” I replied.
Then the line went dead. I sat and stared at the phone until the screen went dark. I had this hot, roiling feeling in my gut. Something had been off with that phone call.
“He’s not coming?” Ivy asked.
“Apparently not,” I replied.
“Good. That means we can call Carolina now!”
She snatched the phone out of my hand and leaned toward the computer to reopen Carolina’s file and get her cell number—far more efficient than filling out the cable TV station’s online form. I rolled my eyes, but got up to give her more space. My heart felt heavy and twisted in knots thanks to Josh’s careless disregard of our date, but I told myself it was actually a good thing. Now I could get right on this Billings problem. Really, his sudden and unexpected thoughtlessness was a blessing in disguise.
Right?
“I was so excited when I hung up the phone with you, you have no idea,” Carolina Grant gushed as she walked at an inhuman speed from the parking circle, down the pathway between Bradwell and Pemberly, and toward the quad. Her crew scurried after her—one woman with a headset and an iPad, a guy with a smallish camera, and another toting a ridiculously large microphone over her head. “I haven’t been back here since . . . oh my God, I’m too embarrassed to say when I actually graduated, but let’s just say it’s been a
long
time.”
“Well, I’m glad you could make it on such short notice.” We had only called Carolina last night, and less than eighteen hours later, here she was, ready to get to work and save my butt. I guess Billings connections really did mean something.
Thank you, MT,
I thought, somewhat grudgingly. The very idea that I owed my new luck to some freak who felt the need to text me anonymously made my skin prickle.
“So glad,” Ivy echoed, an admiring gleam in her dark eyes.
“I sent you an invite to the ribbon-cutting festivities this weekend, but it came back to me as undeliverable,” I told her. After our phone call the night before, I’d double-checked my guest-list records and discovered the mistake, which, of course, made me feel somehow totally rude and incompetent. “Otherwise you would have known about this sooner.”
“Oh, that happens all the time, since I’m constantly changing my e-mail to avoid crazed fans,” Carolina said, waving a dismissive hand. She stopped short as she emerged onto the open green space at the center of the Easton campus. “Oh. My. God.
Nothing
has changed!”
She clasped her hands together in front of her chest and I glanced over at Ivy, who had never been a fan of overenthusiasm. Sometimes when she was around Constance I got the awful feeling she was going to haul off and punch the girl in the face just for being her natural bubbly self. Now I expected a good eye roll at the very least, but instead she looked . . . giddy. I guess, like she’d said last night, we all had our things. Then Carolina’s gaze fell on the still dormant construction site and her smile completely disappeared.
“Well. Except for that.” She whipped around and looked at the camera. “Christopher? Can you get a good shot of that? That is where my dorm, Billings, used to be.”
“You got it, CG,” Christopher replied, bringing the camera to his shoulder. “And we’re rolling.”
Carolina took my arm and steered me down one of the stone pathways toward the Billings site, holding me close to her side as Ivy
scurried to keep up. She wore a blue-and-white plaid shirt with snap buttons and destroyed designer jeans. Her thick hair smelled of apricots and, now that I was close up, I could see that she had on tons of makeup to hide what appeared to be acne scars. It was kind of nice to know that someone so beautiful and famous still had a few flaws to deal with.
“Now just act natural,” she said under her breath. “This is all just for the B roll. Establishing shots. Stuff like that.”
“Okay.”
All around us, people dropped what they were doing and turned to stare. A group of freshmen seated in a study circle looked up from their laptops and pointed. Trey and Gage Coolidge stopped tossing around a football and eyed us curiously. Even a group of teachers over by the Hell Hall stairs paused to gape. Suddenly it wasn’t the camera I was worried about. It was all the attention.
“Ugh. I was so disgusted and sad when I heard they had torn this place down,” Carolina said. “Now that I see it, I’m just plain depressed.”
We had come to the edge of the construction site, and she stared down at the spot where the front steps had once stood—a small area still untouched by the construction. You could still make out the indent where the bottom stone stair used to be, and she traced the corner of it with the toe of her work boot.
“This place really was like a second home,” she said, staring wistfully up at the sky. Christopher zoomed in on her as the microphone guy hovered the fuzzy boom over her head. Her expression
was nostalgic and morose. “I’m honored that I’ll have the chance to rebuild it,” she said reverently. Then she looked directly into the lens and brightened like a firework lighting the night sky. “In true green fashion, of course!”
Ivy clapped quietly and I tried not to laugh. As Carolina began to walk the perimeter, dragging her crew and her superfan with her, I gazed across at the trailers and narrowed my eyes. Was that creepy figure yesterday just a curious student checking things out, or had he been here for a more sinister reason? Fingering Eliza Williams’s locket, I was about to walk over and check things out when I got that eerie, skin-tingling feeling that I was being watched. I turned around quickly, half expecting to see a mysterious blond girl staring me down, and was surprised to find Noelle standing under a tree about fifty yards off. Her arms were clutched around her stomach, and her sunglasses covered half her face. I smiled and waved her over, hoping that meeting Carolina might perk her up, but she acted as if she hadn’t even seen me. She slipped her phone out of her bag and ducked her head to talk as she walked off in the opposite direction. My heart thumped with this odd, disappointed foreboding, and again my skin started to prickle. This was never going to feel right if Noelle couldn’t get behind it.
“Now here’s what I’m thinking.” Carolina flung her arms out wide as if getting ready to paint a picture of her vision. “The taller the building, the—”
“Excuse me! Excuse me! Miss Brennan!”
We all turned around to watch as the headmaster speed-walked
toward us across the quad, not even bothering to use the pathways. Missy and her cousin Paige Ryan scurried after him, like his personal and very alert assistants, which made my stomach turn. Paige and Missy had been involved in the previous plan to rebuild Billings—the one that had also included several of the women who had helped orchestrate and execute my latest near-death experience and Mr. Lange’s murder. Which, of course, made me wonder what the hell they were doing here now, and why they appeared to be so buddy-buddy with the headmaster.
Headmaster Hathaway tried to get his breathing under control as he arrived in front of us. He shot the camera a scathing look.
“Would you mind turning that thing off?”
Christopher didn’t move.
“Sorry. He’s under strict orders to only answer to me,” Carolina said with a wide grin. She offered the headmaster her hand. “I’m Carolina Grant of
Go Green!,
the number-one show on Renovate TV. And you are?”
“I’m William Hathaway. Headmaster of Easton Academy,” he replied, quickly grasping her hand. “Now what is the meaning of all of this?”
“Headmaster? Fantastic!” Carolina blurted, clasping her hands. “Then you and I are going to be spending a lot of time together. Reed here has asked me to oversee the reconstruction of Billings House, ensuring that it meets all the green standards of the county, but we’re going to do much more than that, aren’t we, Reed?”
I blinked. Her grin was practically blinding.
“We’re going to exceed those standards!” Carolina announced, putting her arm around the headmaster’s back.
Headmaster Hathaway went as stiff as a board. I’d never seen him look so uncomfortable.
“I thought the project was shelved,” Paige said in a snide tone, looking me up and down. “Isn’t that what you told us, Mr. Hathaway?”
My fingers curled into fists. Why was she even here? And what was the headmaster doing discussing the status of my project with her? Then, just like that, it hit me. It hit me so hard my brain felt suddenly weightless. Maybe Missy and Paige had sent the plans to the county. They definitely had the motive—they wanted more than anything to keep me from rebuilding Billings my way. But how had they gotten hold of the plans?
Headmaster Hathaway extricated himself from Carolina’s grasp and scratched just above his eyebrow. “Yes, well, from what I understood, it was going to take months for Miss Brennan’s contractors to acquire the green supplies required to—”
“Please. Nothing takes months once I get involved!” Carolina said. “I have connections at every major green company in the country. I can have every little thing we need delivered here like that!” she said, snapping her fingers.
Frown lines creased the headmaster’s forehead. “I appreciate your good intentions, Miss Grant, but the truth of the matter is that it’s not that simple,” he said. “This sort of thing must be voted on by the board of directors. Having a camera crew on campus is a serious privacy issue,” he added, glancing at the camera lens as Christopher
zoomed in. He straightened his jacket and cleared his throat. “Each and every one of our students and faculty will need to sign waivers. There are permits to procure . . . ”
With each new objection, my hope deflated further and further until it was nothing but a tiny, wrinkled, airless balloon. I had thought that Headmaster Hathaway had finally come around to being on my side—at least he’d attempted to act disappointed when he’d told me about the county’s restrictions. But now, I had to wonder. Had he been psyched to get that letter from the county? Was he relieved to have a reason to shut me down and blame someone else? I knew he’d never been a fan of Billings—it had been his idea to raze it in the first place—but after I’d donated all that money I thought he’d pretty much jumped on board the Reed train. Apparently not so much.
As Hathaway continued his point-by-point case, Carolina put on a pensive expression and nodded thoughtfully. She shot me a quick glance, clearly prodding me to say something, and panic welled up inside my chest. What was I supposed to say? They were the adults here. I was just a student. And besides, how was I supposed to know how to deal with privacy waivers and consent forms? Did I look like I’d graduated from law school recently?
“Of course, of course,” Carolina said, finally realizing I was going to remain mute. She cast a glance over her shoulder at iPad girl. “And when is the next board meeting?”
“Well . . . this Thursday night,” the headmaster said. “But I’m sure there’s no way you can be prepared in time to—”
She nodded at her assistant, who tapped her iPad’s screen. “We’ll be there.”
My jaw dropped slightly. Was she serious? She was still committed after hearing all that?
Double H stared at her for a moment, dumbfounded as well. For once we were on the same page. “You’ll be there.”
“Yes. We’ll be there. We’ll present our plans and answer any concerns your board may have,” Carolina said definitively. Then the smile was back on again. “I look forward to working with you, Mr. Hathaway!”
The headmaster clicked his teeth together. Clearly the frustration over not having a comeback was killing him. And I was loving every minute of it. I wanted to turn around and kiss Carolina. Calling her in had been the best idea ever.
“See you then,” the headmaster muttered finally. He turned and walked away, retracing his steps through the freshly clipped grass toward Hell Hall. I shot Missy and Paige a triumphant look and they both rolled their eyes at me before following Double H. As they stormed off, I could have sworn I heard Missy let out a growling sort of groan. Apparently the frustration was contagious.
“Well,” Ivy said. “That was fun.”
“Why didn’t you say anything, Reed? This is your baby,” Carolina asked, grasping my shoulder.
“I don’t . . . I mean, you seemed to have it under control, so—”
“Yes, but you’re the one in charge. You’re the face of the project,” Carolina said in a pep-talky way. “If you can’t defend it, no one can.
Or should, for that matter. If a leader doesn’t believe in her own cause, what’s the point?”
I swallowed. It was the quickest plummet of all time from victorious to humiliated, guilty, and unworthy. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. Start sticking up for yourself!” Ivy said, jumping on Carolina’s bandwagon.
Carolina put both hands on my shoulders, forcing me to look her in the eye.
“Money means power, Reed. You’ve got all the power here. Sure, my fame is going to help speed up the process, but you’re the one who got us this far. You can’t let a little grandstanding like that stop you,” she added, chucking her chin toward the retreating headmaster. “If you do, then you are
not
your father’s daughter.”
Just like that, my shoulder muscles coiled. How did she even know who my biological father was? But then . . . maybe she did have a point. My hand fluttered up and touched my locket. Maybe it was time to start accepting, or even embracing, the fact that I had Lange blood in my veins. I’d been through a lot in the past couple of years. I was a seriously strong person, right? I didn’t need Mr. Lange or Noelle to speak for me. I could speak for myself.
“So, are you in or are you out?” Carolina asked me, releasing me finally and standing up straight.
I smiled slowly, my own posture lengthening as the sun warmed my face. “I’m in.”
Later, just as the sun was starting to go down, Josh and I commandeered a couch near the window wall of the solarium, cuddling back against one of the arms with our legs up on the cushions. The large, airy room was jam-packed with students, and we caught more than a few annoyed looks as underclassmen searched for empty seats, but I didn’t care. In a few weeks Josh would be graduating. Each moment like this one was precious. Besides, he was a senior and seniors could pretty much do what they wanted around school these days. A perk of being basically outta there.