win's blazer is a s

s like him, even though he's not here. It fit

llar and tying Silas's tie the way he used to...sloppy on purpose, j

ght before still sat

ld

ouc

she wasn't r

nd you won't surviv

igna

sce

t they had seen through her already.

-

ctly 6 a.m., echoing acros

res in oil paint frames. Daxton's morning ritual had already begun: unif

of students huddl

d when she

sta

whisp

Isn't he suppo

oks dif

winked. Teased. Thrived under the attention

ing wasn't pa

-

rofessor Helena Gage, Literature teacher and Daxton's official m

Sonia fought th

A few stude

ay. You'll try to keep up." Sonia nodded and slid int

e didn't gla

lipping open a copy of Childe Ha

ed. Gage read aloud in her dry British drawl, "I only know that summer sang in me....A little while, that in me sings no more..." And So

g her tone even. "I'

there," he said, wa

I grew up." Eric tilted his head. "O

hought you liked mysteries." "I do," he murmur

-

module. In Business Tactics, she accidentally answered with a fact Silas had once challenged publicly

across the courtyard and made her move,

ng her arm around Sonia's.

a fr

boyfriend." Gasps. Whispers. Some clapped. A girl act

" she interrupted

protest, she was dragged to the golden t

lose and whispered,

one else claim you no

ried what peopl

the edge in her voice.

they think. I only

-

umbled back into her r

r was cutting o

d from walkin

o a lower register all day. She colla

r, but her window. It was slow and delibe

cked open. She was

alked over slowly

e reached out to close it and that's when she saw it

not sa