No one was around when she pushed open the front door. The chill in the empty front hallway made her shiver. Her dress and her bare legs and arms were caked with dirt from the church, the tunnel, the woods.

Where was everyone? It was usually impossible to be alone in this place. Maria rubbed the goose bumps on her shoulders as she gazed up and down the corridors.

No matter. First she had to find Lily. Then she needed to plan.

When Maria turned the key to her door, though, their room was empty. Even the bathroom was dark and silent. Maria pulled her phone out of her pocket and texted Lily, but the text took forever to send, and then a red message popped up on her screen: “Not Deliverable.”

All right, fine. Maria would do this on her own. That was how she’d been doing everything anyway.

On her way back from the woods, she’d had an idea. Just a little something to shake things up. Get Mateo off his game. She sat down at her computer and started typing.

She’d just hit Send on the email when someone knocked on her door. It was Emily, with an odd look on her face.

“Hi there, Maria,” Emily said. There was a quirk to her smile that Maria didn’t like at all. “How are you, uh, feeling?”

Maria didn’t have time for this. “What do you want, Emily?”

“I thought you’d want to know they just posted the new Kingsley list. It’s outside Cumberland’s office.”

“What?” Maria shook her head. “They weren’t supposed to post the next round for another week at least.”

Emily shrugged, that smile still in place. She took in Maria’s dirt-smeared dress. “Nice look, by the way.”

Maria pushed past Emily into the hall and charged toward the dean’s office. Emily kept pace beside her.

“Have you seen Mateo?” Maria said.

Emily laughed. Maria didn’t see what was funny.

“Not since last night,” Emily said. “Any particular reason you want to see him?”

Maria shook her head. They were almost at the office. The crowd looking up at the list was five people thick. Maria was ready to fight through them to get close enough, but when they saw her they parted easily, making a path, giggling. When she got to the front, she saw why.

The list was only two lines long. Maria Lyon was the second name on it. Mateo Pífano was first.

“Mateo?” Maria read the letters over and over. Maybe they’d spell out something different if she looked long enough. “He can’t win. He didn’t even apply.”

“He sent in his application a couple of weeks ago,” Emily said behind her. Maria could still hear the smile in her voice. “Right before the deadline.”

“No.” Maria didn’t believe her. Couldn’t.