Tam stepped closer. Not threateningly, but close enough to speak quietly so no one else could hear. “Everyone else here feels bad for you, but I don’t. I’m the only one who’ll tell you the truth, which is that we’re all sick and tired of you waking us up every night, shrieking like a maniac.”

I wobbled as though a pebble caught in my bloodstream had forced its way through the valves of my heart.

“You were in an accident,” she said. “So what? Get over it and let the rest of us sleep.”

“All right,” I said. “Great advice, Tam, thanks for the words of wisdom.”

She leaned against the wall. “I’m serious. Things were peaceful until you came. Now every night’s a horror movie.”

“Okay,” I said, rinsing out my toothbrush.

“Look at me, Margot,” she said.

I looked at her. Her eyes were flat and dull, but they weren’t stupid. And there was a glint of self-satisfaction in them that told me she was carrying out a rather pleasant errand. Had the others nominated her to tell me all this?

Probably.

“You should go,” she said.

“Cool,” I said, letting my attention drift away.

It was the first hit I’d scored on her. She tried again, less certain. “I mean it. You should go somewhere else.”

“Tam,” I said sharply, turning on her. “I’d love to. But where would I go?”

I heard something in my voice then—something dangerous and biting, like the strike of a snake.

Again, she wavered. “I don’t care,” she said. “Talk to Ms. O’Neil. She’ll figure something out. I’m sure you’ll be fine. You’re the luckiest person I know.”

Then she stormed away before I could reply.

I went back to my room at the far end of the hall. One thing that made them all angry was that I was the only girl with my own room. My roommate went to live with her grandmother two days after I arrived, and by then everybody knew I screamed all night, so they didn’t want to share with me. In that regard, Tam was right. I was lucky. She’d lived here for going on two years, and by all rights the single should have been hers. But Ms. O’Neil refused to switch us, because no one who roomed with me would get any sleep.