“Emma’s right,” Dad says, then turns to me. “You look great, hon.”

Tears prick my eyes as I take a piece of toast, swing Gram’s bag over my shoulder, and go out to wait for the school bus, squinting against the sunlit frost that sparkles across every yard.

When the bus arrives, I clench my hands into fists. As I walk down the aisle to my normal seat, I keep my chin held high, but I’m careful not to look at anyone. I want them to see me, but I don’t want to see their reactions.

Ruby gets on a few minutes later. I think I feel her hesitate as she walks back to sit with the Graces, but I don’t look up at her.

I do when Edie gets on, though. We lock eyes for a second, and as she takes in my face—both shades of it—her mouth rounds. Then she looks away.

At school, it’s the same. People stare as I walk by. They fall silent first, then start whispering again. I try to imagine that I am back in the Spinney, that their whispers are just the wind rustling in the trees.

But I can’t.

Fina isn’t at school yet when my bus arrives, so I go straight to homeroom and don’t see her until English class.

“You didn’t wait for me this morning,” she says as she sits down next to me, sounding hurt.

“Sorry,” I reply. “It was cold out.”

She looks at me and does a double take. But instead of gawping like everyone else, she smiles. “No makeup,” she chirps, pushing her glasses farther up the bridge of her nose. “Cool.”

I look down at my warm-up.

After class, Ms. Singh crouches by my desk.

“Feeling better?” she murmurs.

“A little.”

“I’m glad,” she replies. “You know I’m always here if you need anything. Or if anyone gives you any trouble.”

At lunch, Fina and I sit at our usual table. I glance at the empty seat where Ruby used to sit, then across the cafeteria to where she’s sitting beside Edie. I wonder if she’s happier there than she was here with us. I wonder if she thinks telling Edie about me was worth it.

Fina tries to keep me distracted. She talks about how her dad has finished Pretty Little Liars and started watching The Vampire Diaries.

“If you don’t mind sharing a roof with the most embarrassing dad of all times, maybe you could come over this weekend,” she says. “Sleepover?”

“Maybe,” I say. But I don’t mean it.

I know Fina is trying as hard as she can to act like everything is normal, but somehow it feels like things are different between us now. Like in The World at the End of the Tunnel when Jack is taken to the hobgoblin king’s castle and thrown in the highest tower.