“So who hates you, then?” Sophie asked, her expression skeptical.

“Well, did you write the list?” Nessa mimicked Sophie’s hip-out stance. “Because you sure seem to hate her!”

Sophie rolled her eyes. “No, I’m serious. Who hates you?”

“I don’t know.” Eve pictured each unknown number that had texted her and tried to match a face with the numbers and messages.

“Weird.” Sophie sighed. “Well, maybe you’re just a random name, and the whole point was to get at me. Lots of people hate me.”

Was that pride Eve detected in her voice?

Nessa laughed. “Oh yeah, says the most popular girl in school.”

“Um, excuse me? Don’t you know that ‘most popular’ and ‘most hated’ go together?”

She wasn’t wrong, Eve realized. Weren’t she and Nessa always looking down on Sophie and Brody and their friends? Didn’t everyone assume they were snobby and fake?

“Yeah, I mean, think about Brody Dixon,” Nessa said, echoing Eve’s thoughts. “He’s literally the last person I want to do this show with.” Nessa took a sharp inhale. “Wait.” She gasped again, and her hands fluttered in the air like she was trying to grasp onto something. “Wait, that’s it!”

“Oh my God.” Sophie put her hand over her mouth.

“Of course!” Nessa laughed. She walked up to Sophie, stopping inches apart from her. “Duh!”

“Of course.” Sophie smacked the top of the piano. “Of course!” she repeated.

“What?” Eve hurried after Nessa. “You think it’s Brody?”

“Who else would it be?” Nessa brought out her phone and pulled up the list, the light of the screen creating a glow around her.

“Do you think it’s him alone or with his friends?” Sophie leaned in toward Nessa, ignoring Eve.

“Who knows?” Nessa answered. “But you know he put them up to it even if it was his goons. Let’s check the list. I bet all the girls not in the top fifty are people Brody made fun of at some point. Like me. This is the kind of list a straight-up bully makes. A jerk. A jerk who never really gets in trouble for anything he does.”

Brody had made fun of Nessa in elementary school, Eve remembered. But not in a long time. Right?

“Wait.” Sophie lifted a hand as if to stop the proceedings. “Wait, wait, wait, wait. Why would he do this to me, though?” She broke away from them to go pace by the chairs. “He asked me over to his house twice! I mean, I can show you!” She waved the phone at them. “He was basically acting like we went out. I’m sure you two know that.”

Eve hadn’t heard that at all, actually.

“So why would he put me as number two? It’s not like I did anything! I just—” Sophie stopped midsentence and froze.

A moment of silence passed between them.

“Is she okay?” Nessa whispered to Eve.

“Oh,” Sophie said in a softer voice, her eyes elsewhere, toward the piano pedals and then to the ceiling. A light shake of the head and then: “Never mind.”