“Good gracious, Rachel.” Bev floated toward us. “These people are my guests and I’ll thank you for keeping your fashion tastes to yourself. Especially given the circumstances of you having no ta ste.”

A small fire flared in Principal Lynde’s eyes. “I beg your pardon, Auntie.”

“You heard me.” Bev’s eyes narrowed. “If you don’t have anything nice to say to my very special guests, you can keep your trap shut. Now what was it you came here for?”

BATTLE OF THE LYNDES! (Guess whose side I was on?)

It was over pretty quickly, actually, as Principal Lynde huffed past Bev and into the house. “I’m just here to pick up some files from Uncle Mackenzie’s office, Auntie. I’ll be gone in a minute.”

Millie and I hopped in the car, which I was expecting to be the end of it, but as Millie shoved her keys in the ignition, there was a tap on the glass next to my head. Bev waited patiently for me to roll down the window.

“I can tell you’re a smart bird,” she said. “Because I’m a smart bird, too.”

Noting that the other bird in this scenario was stuffed and in her sunroom.

“Well. Thanks.”

“Don’t let them get you down.” She waggled a finger at me. “This town is too small to push you down a hill.”

And with that she flicked her braid over her shoulder and headed into the house on wings of velvet.

“Well,” Millie said, backing out of the driveway. “I thought that would be quite something.”

“And it was,” I finished, breathless.

Look. I’m not saying I think it was the best pep talk ever. What hill and how does a town as a collective push you down said hill? Hard to say. But I thought a lot about Beverly after that meeting. So much that later that night I dreamed I was a giant green bird with gray feathers on its head, flying over Greenville.

The next day, inspired by Beverly, I wore a velvet batwing gold-and-pink-tie-dyed poncho top that I like to imagine once belonged to a magician. Or an art teacher. Paired with my pink jeans now cut into shorts and my gold sparkly high-heeled boots that I had sparkled myself.

I left a trail of glitter from the front door of the school to homeroom. Which Berry said looked like some sort of Wizard of Oz yellow glitter road.

I caught the looks of Tanner and Sarah as I took my seat in English class first period, but I didn’t let them bother me.

At the end of class, Mr. Davidson, in a powder-blue vest, held up a crisp new sign-up sheet for the school play auditions.