Snow is falling again, the tiny flakes that look like diamonds, that land in your hair and immediately melt, if you’ve forgotten your hat again. Katherine pulls my mittens out of my pocket for me, and we crunch across the salted paths, the sky gray and hanging just inches above our heads. Nevaeh has hooked her arm through Taylor’s, and all of us are feeling a loud kind of quiet, our hearts humming. Wishing we could be optimistic. Knowing we should be realistic, at the very least. Hope feels good, but that’s why it hurts so much when you lose it.

Ms. Flores seems surprised that we’re smiling when we arrive at the office. She’s probably also surprised when we take off our coats and are fully clothed underneath.

Butterflies are in hot pursuit of one another in my stomach when I see the dean isn’t in the conference room yet. I manage a smile at Ellory, who nods at me.

I wonder if he’ll be angry about everything we’ve set in motion—about the protests and the exposing of the conversation we had about my photo. The pushback against this whole ridiculous charge. When your opponent gets angry at you, it seems to me like you’re on the right track.

When he walks in, the look on his face makes me think, Oh yes, we are indeed on the right track.

He asks us to stand. The members of the honor board remain seated.

“I don’t need to tell you what grave mistakes you three have made,” the dean says. And then he pauses, for an interminable moment. He’s angry, yes, but now I also see that he’s tired. “However, we have taken your words into account.”

I hold my breath.

He looks at each of us in turn. “After a great deal of discussion,” he says, “the immoral-conduct charge has been dropped. Until the end of the year, each of you will be on probation. And Saturday detention for the duration.”

It’s a lot. It’s the rest of our school year. But they’re safe. Katherine’s and Nevaeh’s acceptances are safe. I collapse back into my chair and put my forehead on the table. They’re safe, and they’re going to Tisch and Juilliard, and they’re going to launch their careers, and that is the most important thing. They risked it all for me, and we are safe and that’s what matters.