Then she studied us more closely, suspiciously. Disheveled? Yes, but deceptively sweet, smiling, so helpful and innocent in the virgin snow, looking extra adorable because of the way Mary Kate was leaning against me, like red panda cubs sharing a branch.

‘Thank you, girls,’ she said rather stiffly.

Sister Hellda hurried off, Tambourine Spanker scurried after her in her kitten pajamas, and we stood there in a strange new world. The snow was falling, the fire trucks were flashing, and the realization dawned on both of us in the bizarre light.

‘We got away with it,’ I whispered in astonishment, exhaling.

‘We got away with it!’ Mary Kate echoed, more excitedly.

We had gotten away with it! We had successfully broken curfew and gotten away with it! Ecstatic, we did a little dance in the snow, Mary Kate hopping around in a peg-leg parody of her usual Charlie Brown Christmas bop, me breakin’ it down in my boots and accidentally giving myself another wedgie.

Then Mary Kate stopped bopping. ‘Except … you did set the campus on fire, like, less than two hours ago.’

‘Fuck,’ I said loudly.

19

The best view at St Mary’s Catholic School is from the top floor of the main building, right under the famous golden statue of the Virgin Mary. From there, you can see the whole campus, covered in a fresh blanket of white snow, with one long stone walkway cutting a path through the white-draped trees down to the frozen lake.

Take a good look, I told myself. This could be the last time you ever see it.

Here I was in the principal’s office again, but this time everything was different.

First off, I was friggin’ terrified.

My sweaty palms kept slipping as I tried to grip the green leather chair, my legs were trembling violently in my black tights and, as my glance flitted anxiously from mosaic to mosaic on the wall of torture, I felt every arrow in St Sebastian’s body piercing my own arms and legs. There was a new mosaic, too: Joan of Arc screaming as she was burned alive. I was pretty sure Father Hughes had just put it up this morning as some kind of subliminal message about me and the fire. Or to scare the shit out of me. It was working. I was scared shitless.

The second big difference was the one Father Hughes pointed out himself.

‘Well, Ms Heck, I wish I could say it was unexpected to find you here for a disciplinary meeting,’ he began, serious as always behind his desk. Then he turned his head and his tone changed. ‘But it is rather unexpected to have you here with her, Ms Casey.’

Katie Casey was sitting in the green leather chair next to mine. For once, she was not smiling.