“I was hoping the joke was on you,” Tinsley, who wore a strapless gown, said to Norah Alvarez.

“Well, I hoped it was on you,” Norah snapped back, smoothing the feather collar on her flapper dress.

Makeup artists whirled around, swiping each girl’s mouth with corpse-blue lipstick. Emma leaned toward Charlotte. “So we’re sure Gabby and Lili don’t suspect anything?”

Charlotte glanced at the dressing room on the second floor. The door was shut tight. “Last I checked, they had no clue.” Pulling a walkie-talkie from her hip, she pressed TALK. “How’s everything going, Laurel?”

“Great!” Laurel’s voice blared fuzzily through the speaker. “I’m just helping Gabby and Lili get dressed. They look fabulous!”

A crafty smile appeared on Charlotte’s lips. “Perfect. We need them down here in five minutes, okay? Stay up there until then. We’ll send the makeup artists up.”

“Aye aye!”

When Laurel radioed off, Charlotte rubbed her hands together. “We need to keep them up there until the very second they have to go on stage. They’ll have no time to change.”

Madeline joined them, giggling. “This is going to be so good.”

“I hope so.” Charlotte stared at the velvet curtain that separated the back stage from the front, a serious look suddenly crossing her face. “Just as long as we don’t land Gabby in the hospital again.”

Madeline stiffened. “We didn’t land Gabby in the hospital. Sutton did.”

Both of them turned and glanced at Emma. Emma felt a sharp punch to her stomach. They had to be talking about the train prank. She waited for either of them to elaborate, but Madeline started fiddling with her clipboard and Charlotte strode away.

The final bell rang, and the doors to the lobby flung open. Emma peeked out from behind the curtains. Students poured down the center aisle and filled the plush red seats. Freshman girls gaped at the Titanic set, squealing about how they couldn’t wait until they were old enough to be on the court. A group of girls Madeline and the others called the Vegan Virgins—for reasons Emma wasn’t entirely sure of, though she had a pretty good guess—plopped down next to a couple of the corpses and screamed. The entire football team sat together, shoving one another and jockeying for attention. Nearly everyone in the audience pulled their phones from their bags and sneakily checked the screens.

Charlotte’s words swirled in Emma’s mind. Just as long as we don’t land Gabby in the hospital again. What exactly happened that night? Had Sutton hurt Gabby? The message in the box with the train charm flooded back: I will always be seized with the memory.