I kept rambling on and on—I don’t even know exactly what I said. Something about how Wither didn’t actually kill anyone, that the girls chose to go with him. That they wanted to be with him and were willing to leave their families and friends to go with him. Finally, I realized that no one was looking at me anymore and everyone was looking at Kaley Martin, who was crying at her desk in the back of the room.

“Shut up!” Jordyn said and poked me on the arm.

I stopped talking and Kaley got up and ran out of the room. Mr. Dover sent Violet to go check on her and said that Jordyn and I could sit down.

Another group got up and started their presentation but I wasn’t listening because I was so confused. Gabe leaned forward in his seat and whispered in my ear, “Way to go, Einstein. Kaley’s aunt was Rachel Farmer.”

Then Violet came back and said that Kaley wouldn’t come out of the bathroom so Mr. Dover stepped out into the hall and didn’t come back for like ten minutes. Once he left, Jordyn started to yell at me. “I thought we told you not to include the yearbook in the presentation!”

I told her I was sorry, that I didn’t know, but she wouldn’t listen. She yanked the yearbook off my desk. “I bet you wrote this,” she said, shoving the page in my face. I told her no, that I would never do that, but I could tell she didn’t believe me. I looked at Violet but she just stared down at her desk.

Then someone from the back of the room said, “Everyone knows about Kaley’s aunt. She and Kaley’s mom were twins. She ran away when she was a teenager and they never heard from her again. They do a thing at church in memory of her every year.”

“You are so stupid,” Jordyn said. “You probably think Wither is real.”

And I said it out loud. I knew I shouldn’t have. I shouted, “He is real. He is! He told me so!” And then everyone laughed and laughed. Even Gabe. Even Violet.

“Shut up!” I yelled at Jordyn. “Shut up! Shut up! Everyone thinks you’re a bitch. Even Gabe says so!”

“Well, everyone knows you’re crazy and a thief!” Jordyn yelled. Then I slapped her. Right across the face. The room went quiet. And I realized I made a really big mistake. Four big mistakes. I told Jordyn to shut up, told everyone that the boy Jordyn likes called her a bitch, told the world I was talking to an urban legend and I slapped the most popular girl in my class. I’m dead.