I expect to find William waiting for me in the office, but there’s nobody here. Seconds after we reach the headmaster’s waiting room, though, he bursts through the door after us. He must have been a part of the crowd when I spoke. Good, no need to update him, then.

“Ahh, William,” I say brightly as he storms up to us. “Found you.”

He stops several feet away from me, and scans my face with disbelieving eyes. “Rose, I…” he trails off, shaking his head, “have never been more disappointed in you.”

Molly, Eleanor, and Danni draw closer to me from all sides. It’s a somewhat protective action. As for me, I let out another laugh, one that turns into more of a cackle. “William,” I say, the laugh turning into a sneer. “I have truly never given less of a damn what you think of me.”

I don’t expect him to reply to that, and he doesn’t. Truthfully, I think he’s too gobsmacked to get a word out if he wanted to. Wordlessly, I turn on my heel and lead the girls out of the room. The staircase to the ballroom is accessible from the nearby hallway, so we hurry down it, pour into the ballroom, and pull the heavy door shut as quietly as we can.

“Your parents are going to murder you,” Molly cries, whirling to face me as soon as we’re safe. “There’s impulsive, and then there’s that.”

“Was it impulsive?” Danni asks. “That speech felt awfully prepared.”

“Did you guys see that blond reporter in the front?” Eleanor asks, throwing herself on one of the rows of seats. The same seats I used to sit on while Danni rehearsed, back when we first started dating. “I thought she was gonna pass out when Rose said she’s a lesbian.”

“I don’t remember anything,” Molly says, sitting next to her. “I think I dissociated.”

“Oh, she for sure was. She was like, Whaaaat?”

“Rose?” Danni asks. She’s not sitting. Rather, she’s hovering by the piano, watching me. I walk over to the windows and peek through the curtains. The crowd by the school gates is bigger than it was before. I wonder, how long until the news gets out?

It probably already is, I realize. It may have even been filmed live.

There’s no going back now.

I beam and turn back to face the others. “That felt incredible,” I say.

Danni visibly relaxes, though Molly still seems to think I’m having a nervous breakdown.

“You know this could go either way, right?” she asks. “There’s a chance they’ll let you stay, but the diocese…”

“You think they might not want to place a crown on a lesbian’s head?” I ask, feigning horror. “Why didn’t anyone warn me? This changes everything.”