Alaric ascended the stairs of the bus, pushing up the sleeves of his chunky taupe sweater. “Ridiculous,” he muttered again as he went to sit by all his—and Caterina’s—friends. “She’s a spoiled brat,” he said loudly to Lachlan. “Maybe her dad should’ve made her walk to Aspen.” All of them snickered.

Daphne Elizabeth looked decidedly uncomfortable, her cheeks pink. Jaya’s gaze traveled from Alaric’s smug face to Lachlan’s, and then at Heather, Imogen, and Rebecca. Not a single person in Caterina’s group was standing up for her. Jaya remembered what she’d said on the rooftop, at the mixer. I don’t like to rely on anyone else. I don’t trust anyone, you see. The question was, were they untrustworthy because of their natures or because Caterina kept them at a remove? To Jaya’s trained eye, Caterina’s “friendships” seemed more like business transactions. Everyone served a purpose; there was no inherent loyalty like in Grey’s group. Perhaps Caterina was this way to prevent herself from getting hurt… though, ironically, it looked like she was getting hurt now precisely because of the way she treated the people closest to her.

Jaya glanced out the window at a smoky gray Tesla SUV, its windows tinted so dark, no one could see inside. A red-haired male teacher gave a thumbs-up to the impassive driver behind the wheel, and he took off. Jaya imagined Caterina inside, alone and small, desperate to not feel anything, and felt a pang of pity for the girl.

As she turned back around, her hand automatically went to her throat—and came up empty. She realized with a lurch that she’d forgotten to fetch the necklace from her dresser when Penelope had knocked on her door.

“I’ll just be a minute,” Jaya said to the red-haired teacher as she flew down the steps and past him on her way back to the building. “I’m so terribly sorry!”

She thought she heard him mutter something like, “Is it winter break yet?” but she couldn’t be sure.

Grey

He wasn’t going. He waited as the bustle in the hallway got quieter and quieter and finally completely stopped. Then he threw on one of his many pairs of bland sweaters and pants and walked out of his room.

It was summer-level quiet in the senior wing. No one else had stayed behind. Rahul had texted him a few minutes ago, but Grey was hoping he’d forget about him in the chaos of the morning. Going on this trip wasn’t mandatory, and he’d already spoken to Dr. Waverly about staying behind last night. He hadn’t told anyone else because he hadn’t wanted to defend his decision—or worse, for anyone to feel obliged to convince him to go.