I turned around just in time to see the gust blow my fire sideways. My charred pop quiz sailed away on the strong wind. The flame was out.

Time to start over. I crouched in the frosty grass and flicked the cigarette lighter again and again with numb fingers. Howling wind slapped my leather earflaps against my cheeks. After ten minutes of struggling, and failing, and cursing, I heard another perky greeting behind me: ‘Hey there!’

Thinking the Cupcakes were back, I whirled around in irritation. But it was Katie Casey, looking predictably precious and snow-bunny-like in a pink beanie and white ski jacket.

‘I went to your room, and Mary Kate said you might be out here,’ she explained.

‘What? I didn’t tell her that. I’m not even speaking to her.’

‘She said she saw you leaving with a lighter and some bras, and that you’d probably be setting them on fire in the middle of campus.’

Dammit! The dimpled witch knew me too well.

‘So you’re really gonna start a fire?’

‘Yup.’

‘Aren’t you gonna get in trouble?’

‘Yup.’

‘So you’re not worried that a dorm nun is gonna come by, or a teacher, or Father Hughes?’

‘Oh, Father Hughes is definitely gonna come by,’ I told her. ‘So, if you’re scared of getting in trouble, you’d better hit the road.’

Unexpectedly, Katie Casey said, ‘I’m not.’ Then, surprisingly, she sat down, cross-legged in her ski pants, right there in the cold grass.

‘You know,’ she said, ‘it’s been so crazy these past two days, I haven’t had the chance to tell you how sorry I am about the Monologues. I know all of us are, like, totally heartbroken about the festival. We’ve been working this whole semester, and –’

‘Look,’ I told her, hopping from motorcycle boot to motorcycle boot to keep warm, ‘I get that you’re trying to be nice. And that your thing got canceled, too. And that your thing was actually bigger than my thing, with way more people involved, and you had to recruit all those nuns, and you had to bake all those doughnuts, and then have that weird debate about whether the Boston cream ones were too “suggestive” …’

Boston cream doughnuts actually sounded really amazing right now. I shook my head. Focus, Alex.