Page 6 of Spin the Damn Bottle

I really think whoever decapitated the poor pet is also responsible for setting fire to the dorms and locking my room, because really, can there be more than one person that crazy in one school?I refuse to believe I could have incensed two psychos. The incidents have to be related.

Maybe I’m too hopeful, but condensing the issue makes me feel better. It means I only have one enemy to unmask and destroy.I'll settle for unmasking, myself. Jason's better at destruction. I plan to just sit back and watch him work.

Whatever his intentions toward me, I don’t doubt that he’ll do what he promised to the one who attacked me. Wolves don’t enjoy when another predator pisses on their territory. It’s about his pride more than my safety.

I'm on my way to my calculus class when I hear my name being called out through the halls.

"Ms. Reyes, Ms. Nadia Reyes for the headmaster immediately, thank you."

Crap.

CHAPTER FIVE

I spent a fair bit of time in Ms. Casey's office in September, but I was always the one to call the meeting—I've never been summoned to the faculty building in my two and a half years as a student here. My grades might be average, but they've never been bad enough to warrant the attention of the instructors, and I'm not one to misbehave.

What the hell could they want with me now?

It has to be about the fire. They're either going to apologize for my getting hurt on school grounds, or update me on their investigation. I would have much preferred to go right back to class, but I can't exactly blow off the headmaster.

I head out of my calculus class, just in time to catch the bus waiting at the entrance of the U. I'm relieved to make it. There are over a dozen buses coming from the dorms and admin building first thing in the morning, but far less throughout the day. It's too cold for me to walk back this time of year, and besides, I'd arrive pretty late if I did.

The driver sings off-key to a French song I've heard a thousand times,“La vie en rose.” It's one of my mother's favorites. I should find it comforting, but instead, I suddenly feel vulnerable. I'm alone with a stranger. Sure, he's an employee of this school, but no one said it was a kid who tried to kill me. Not to mention, my fellow students are all loaded. How much could it cost to bribe a driver to take a little detour by a shallow grave?

I'm getting seriously paranoid.

I listen to two verses before hooking my noise-cancelling headphones to my ears and playing something else until he drops me off in the courtyard between the dorms and the administrative building.

I don't often see the headmaster, Mr. Bone, outside of the ridiculous speeches he gives at the start of the year or whenever someone messes up badly enough for him to have to pretend to do some work. I'm sure a meeting was called after the fire, but I was hooked up to morphine in my hospital bed, safe from his tedious grandiloquence.

A tall, bald man with a mustache and long sleek hair, always in a striped suit, he seems rather intimidating from afar. When I'm ushered into his office, I see another person altogether. There's sauce at the corner of his mouth—dried mustard, I think—and he stinks of tobacco. Some things are much shinier from a distance.

"Ms. Reyes." He's standing behind an oak desk, and his beady blue eyes narrow on me as he leans forward, hands flat on either side of a computer. "Quite the trouble you've caused."

I'm downright confused. Trouble, me? I haven't even been here since the week before Thanksgiving, and before then, I'd certainly not caused any trouble. If anything, this school was happy to keep their eyes closed when shit was happeningto me,but I've never done anything reprehensible.

“We've investigated the fire. What happened was no accident, was it?” The headmaster smirks at me knowingly.

That seems obvious, but he doesn't seem like someone concerned about one of his students being targeted. He looks like a cat staring at a mouse. What is he suggesting?

“We take these matters extremely seriously, Ms. Reyes. Smoking is forbidden in any part of our establishment, let alone in the dorms.”

What the fuck? "I don't smoke."

"The investigation was clear: the fire was the result of a cigarette. You smoked with the door closed, caused extensive damage to a hundred-year-old building, and endangered the lives of countless students. I should expel you for that."

I swallow hard. Expel me? Shit. Changing schools in January would have been bad enough for my transcript, but an expulsion will destroy my future, my dreams of attending Tisch—or any decent college for that matter. I struggle to come up with a defense. I've never smoked a day in my life, but how can I prove it?

What am I even doing in his office if he planned on expelling me? I mean, it could have taken a few weeks for the investigation to determine the origin of the fire, but I suspect there's something else at play.

He said he should expel me, not that he would.

It hits me then. This is another bullying technique. The faculty has been in on Jason's game from the start. Mr. Bone intends to push things further by unjustly punishing me for a crime I didn't commit. I bet it wasn't a cigarette at all, or if it was, it certainly didn't come from my room. He just wants an excuse to lash out, in order to please a twisted kid who doesn't know what he wants.

Really, Jason?

I knew he wasn't going to take the breakup well, but this is low, even for him.

My mouth flattens into straight line and I keep silent. I opt to see how this plays out before deciding. As I wait, I realize the likelihood of my having to transfer schools is much higher than it was this morning. I'm sure Uncle Lucius won't mind arranging it if I asked.