“She stopped by the dorm yesterday to give the dresses back again. I didn’t tell you because I knew you’d want to return them.”

“I do,” I said adamantly.

Jill sighed. “Come on, let’s just keep them. They’re so pretty. And you know she’ll just bring them back anyway.”

“We’ll deal with that later. Tell me about the scarf.”

“It’s no big deal. She was trying to pitch me on this scarf collection—”

“Yeah, yeah, she told me too. How she could make it so no one recognized you.” I shook my head, feeling a surprising amount of anger. Was nothing under my control anymore? “I can’t believe she went behind my back! Please tell me you didn’t sneak off with her to do a photo shoot.”

“No, no,” said Jill quickly. “Of course not. But you don’t think… I mean, you don’t think there’s any way she could pull it off? Hide me?”

I tried to keep my tone gentle. After all, I was mad at Lia, not Jill. “Maybe. Maybe not. You know we can’t take the chance.”

Jill nodded, face sad. “Yeah.”

I left feeling annoyed and was so distracted that I nearly ran into Trey. When he didn’t respond to my greeting, I realized he was even more distracted than I was. There was a haunted look in his eyes, and he seemed exhausted.

“You okay?” I asked.

He managed a weak smile. “Yeah, yeah. Just feeling the pressure of everything. Nothing I can’t handle. What about you? Don’t they usually have to throw you out of this place? Or did you finally get tired of being here for eight hours?”

“I just needed one book,” I said. “And I was actually only here ten minutes. I was out most of the night.”

The smile fell, replaced by a frown. “Out with Brayden?”

“That’s tomorrow. I had, um, family stuff tonight.”

The frown deepened. “You go out a lot, Melbourne. You have a lot of friends outside school.”

“Not that many,” I said. “I’m not living a party lifestyle, if that’s what you’re getting at.”

“Yeah, well. Be careful. I’ve heard about some scary stuff going on out there.”

I remembered him being concerned for Jill too. I usually kept up on all the local news and had heard nothing alarming recently. “What, is there a crime ring in Palm Springs I should know about?”

“Just be careful,” he said.

We started to part ways, and then I called to him, “Trey? I know it’s your own business, but whatever’s going on… if you want to talk, I’m here.” It was a huge concession for me, seeing as I wasn’t always the most socially adept person.

Trey gave me a wistful smile. “Noted.”

I was kind of reeling as I went back to my dorm. Adrian, Jill, Trey. I suppose if you counted Eddie and Angeline getting along, everyone in my life was behaving weirdly. All part of the job, I thought.

As soon as I was back in my room, I called Donna Stanton with the Alchemists. I never could be sure what time zone she was in, so I wasn’t too concerned about the late hour. She answered right away and didn’t sound tired, which I took as a good sign. She hadn’t responded to my e-mail about the Warriors, and I was anxious for news. They posed too big a threat to us to be ignored.