I had been afraid, afterward, that anyone might give them trouble for it, but nothing like that happened; instead, they received smiles every time they walked down the hallway holding hands.

“No, the update of the Hottest Students ranking,” Seth ripped me out of my thoughts.

“I haven’t seen that yet. Why, anything interesting?”

Seth and Jasper exchanged an amused glance. “You’re in first place.”

“No way,” I gasped. “Really?”

Noelle cocked her head. “Why so surprised? Have you never looked into a mirror?”

“Seriously, princesse, have a little more confidence!” Jasper said. “You and Seth are selling yourselves too short. He’s in fourth place now.”

“You are?”

Seth rubbed at his neck, a sure sign that he was flustered.

“Apparently. But I honestly think it’s just because The Watcher bases the ranking on how they like certain people, not really their looks.”

“You sound like you have an idea who The Watcher might be,” Noelle commented, leaning a little closer. “Do you know anything we don’t?”

“I have my theories,” was all that Seth said, crossing his arms before his chest with a smug grin.

Jasper looked at him with an amused flicker in his eyes. “I don’t take it you want to share them with us just yet?”

“No, not yet. I don’t feel like I have all the evidence I need to draw a definitive conclusion yet.”

Noelle raised an eyebrow and turned around in her seat again, just as the bus started moving. After a few moments of driving through the woods, past shivering trees desperately trying to cling onto their red and orange dresses, Noelle picked up her backpack and ruffled through it. She made a triumphant little noise when she found her headphones and plugged them in.

“Do you want to listen to something?” she asked me.

“Sure.”

Noelle handed me the second earbud and scrolled through her music library, her face lighting up a little as she selected a song. I recognized it almost immediately as the ringtone that had sounded when her mom had called her the other night. The song was catchy and Crystal’s voice was incredible, warm but rough at the same time, emotional and composed all at once.

“She’s an amazing singer,” I said. Luckily everyone else around us was loud enough to drown our voices out completely.

Noelle nodded, her eyes alight with something that was half pride, half longing. “I know. I always loved it when she would sing to me as a child.”

“It must be so cool to have a singer for a mom.”

She shook her head. “Not always. After she got her record deal, she barely had any time for me.”

“Oh.” After a moment of hesitation, I asked, “What about your dad?”

“What about him?”

“You never really talk about him.”

“There’s not much to talk about. He got my mom pregnant when she was still in college and then split. Never called or anything. The only time we heard from him again was when Mom had her breakthrough, but she was smart enough to know he was only out for money.”