“Tell her you’ll go out Tuesday night,” Lily said. “To that sketchy bar by the Kroger. They never card. I’m out of oxy until next month, so I’ll get some from Austin. Once Delilah sees you have it she won’t be able to say no.”

“Yes, she will. The night before a practice when the league championship is three days away? She will.”

“Well, if she does, then when she goes to the bathroom you put it in her drink.”

Maria’s head jerked up. “I what?”

Lily’s face was so calm it was scary. “You’re not doing anything to her she doesn’t do to herself every weekend already.”

Maria closed her eyes so she wouldn’t have to see that look on Lily’s face anymore.

This was crazy. It was beyond crazy—it was insane. Resenting your friend was one thing. Drugging her was something else.

“But—no,” Maria said. “I just can’t.”

Lily said something else, but Maria didn’t hear her.

There were rules. Laws. The world was set up a certain way.

Maria’s mother was a politician. All her life, Maria had been trained to be the model daughter. Speak when spoken to, keep your hair combed, and don’t break the rules. Or, if you do break the rules, don’t let anyone catch you.

The problem was, Maria never really understood the rules. She didn’t get why everyone cared about them so much. She just knew that if she acted like she did, most of the time she got what she wanted. If she studied long enough, she got an A. If she practiced hard enough, she won the game. If she worked hard to raise money for charity, her name moved up the ranks for the Kingsley Prize.

And most of the rules were pretty simple. You didn’t kick puppies. You didn’t say mean things to little kids.

You didn’t put things in people’s drinks.

“I can’t do that.” Maria spoke each word slowly, carefully. “I can’t just drug someone.”

“She’s drugging herself right now! If the test were tomorrow, the same thing would’ve happened, and you would’ve been fine with that.”

Maria’s head was spinning. She didn’t know if it was the beer, or Lily’s words, or that strange, otherworldly humming in her ear.

She wasn’t supposed to think this way.

But what Lily was saying made sense. Too much sense to ignore.

This might be the last chance she got. The only time she could beat Delilah.

Lily was right. She always was.

They weren’t doing anything to Delilah she wasn’t already doing to herself.

“Besides,” Lily went on, “this is what the spirits said would happen anyway, right?”