“Check.” Charlotte nodded, pulling her light yellow shorts down over her thighs as she sat on the shaggy cream carpet. “Her name’s Calista—my mom’s used her for lots of parties. We’re doing cauldrons, skeletons, werewolves, and a haunted house. The rest of the gym is going to look like MI6 in L.A. Dark and sexy.”

“A perfect place to sneak booze,” Madeline piped up.

“Or a perfect place to hook up with someone who isn’t your date,” Charlotte added. Then she turned to Emma. “Don’t get any ideas, Sutton.”

Emma didn’t bother protesting. Let Charlotte make her jabs; she knew now that they didn’t mean anything.

“Now we need a theme for this court fete,” Laurel said.

Charlotte rolled her eyes. “It’s so stupid the court fete has to have a different theme than the dance. Sometimes I want to kill the seniors who came up with that tradition.”

Madeline walked to the window and heaved it open with her long, slender arms. “Oh, let’s just plan it and get it over with. I say it should be something spooky yet glam, but not so glam that the faculty will be pissed and not let us do it.”

Laurel propped her legs up on the coffee table. “What about vampires?”

“Ugh.” Madeline made a face. “I’m tired of vampires.”

“What about a gala event for the dead?” Emma said. “You know, a really fancy party, except everyone invited is a corpse?”

Charlotte narrowed her eyes, thinking.

“Wish you’d thought of it yourself, don’t you, Char?” Emma teased. She knew it was something Sutton would say.

Charlotte just shrugged. “It’s interesting,” she admitted. “But it should be rooted in something real. Not just a party full of dead people.”

A thought popped into Emma’s mind. “What about a fancy ball on the Titanic? Except it can be after the ship sank. So it can be at the bottom of the ocean, and everyone can be a corpse, but they’re still partying in high style. Something Kate Winslet’s character in the movie would’ve approved of.”

Laurel widened her eyes. “I like that!”

“Agreed.” Charlotte clapped her hands. “I bet Calista could rustle up some really good Titanic décor.”

Madeline reached into her pocket and extracted a pack of Parliaments and a pink lighter. A blue spark shot into the air, followed by the heady smell of cigarette smoke. “Anyone want one?” she asked, exhaling out the window.

Everyone shook their heads. “You should stop that, Mads.” Charlotte hugged a throw pillow. “What’s Davin going to say when he goes to kiss you and you smell like an ashtray?”

“I’m not a hundred percent sure I’m into him yet.” Smoke poured out of Madeline’s nose. “Maybe ashtray breath will keep him at bay.”