The next morning came too soon. I pulled into the school parking lot to find teachers directing students to go directly to the gymnasium rather than to class. The sign pleading for Jade to “come home soon” had been partially ripped down, like someone had been stopped in the middle of the removal or had thought better of it. Even more flowers were piled around it, along with teddy bears. The police must have discovered Jade’s body. Of course the news had spread across town like wildfire. I wondered if Delilah had told them what I’d said or if they had figured it out on their own.

Gran had very obviously wanted to ask me more questions about Jade’s death this morning, but I had refused. I still felt a strangeness about myself from the day before, like I wasn’t quite all there. What’s done is done. Jade was gone, and that was it. There was nothing I could have done then, and nothing I could do now.

Girls were crying, mascara tracks marking faces every direction I looked, even those who’d been eaten up with jealousy when Jade was alive. I drove around them, parked, and followed the line of students snaking into the gym.

It was the first time I had been in there outside of gym class for a long time. Needless to say, I avoided pep rallies and basketball games. The place always smelled of mildew, sweat, and defeat. Today it was buzzing with whispers and muffled sobs as the students quietly took their seats. I climbed to the top of the visitors’ side and sat back against the cool, concrete-block wall painted with a giant constipated-looking Florida panther: our school mascot.

Lake Mariah High School had almost seven hundred students from around the entire county, but the gym seemed at least half empty with everyone clustered together on the lower bleachers. Jade’s closest friends were huddled in a weeping mass toward the center of the home side. Delilah was the most vocal, practically wailing. There were no mascara tracks on her pale and shiny face. It was probably the first time she had set foot outside of her home without any makeup since the seventh grade. Usually I was the only girl in school without any war paint. I almost felt sorry for her, as if she were stripped bare and I was seeing her core, the lost girl on the inside.

Even Shelley was putting on a show nearby. Considering what I knew about her and how she had really felt about Jade—an all-consuming jealousy darkly tinged with hate—her misery was obviously a show put on for the rest of the world. I doubted if anyone was buying her performance. She dripped venom, and most people had been stung by it at one time or another. But Shelley wasn’t the only one around with wicked secrets. The town was full of them. All places were. I’d learned that lesson before I’d moved here.

Principal James entered the gym and walked to the center of the court. He cleared his throat and tapped the microphone, sending a small boom echoing off the walls. “Good morning, students,” he said and then stopped. He wiped at his forehead with the back of his hand. “As you all have heard by now, we’ve had some tragic news. Before anything else, why don’t we have a moment of silence for our fellow student, Jade Price.” He bowed his head, and the gym quieted until all you could hear were Delilah’s shaking sobs.

I don’t pray, but I closed my eyes for a minute. I tried to picture Jade as I was used to seeing her, laughing and smiling.

Principal James cleared his throat again and explained, with a lot of pauses and forehead wiping, that we were all welcome to attend free counseling sessions. In fact, he encouraged us to do so. There would also be a funeral service for Jade in a few days. She was to be buried in the local Lake Mariah cemetery, and everyone was invited to pay his or her respects. There would be classes the rest of the week, but attendance would not be taken, given the circumstances. (It was already Thursday, anyway.) His shoulders sagged. By the end of his speech, he looked wrung out and half the size he’d seemed when he walked into the gym.

“Please don’t worry if you see some police around as they investigate,” he concluded. “I trust that you will all be cooperative.”

That caught my attention. What if Delilah had told the police what I’d told her? Would they want to question me? The chances of that going well were slim. It would likely be a total disaster. I needed to find out from Delilah what, if anything, she had told them.

Mrs. Elmore, the senior English teacher, came out and took the microphone from him.

“Everyone, go on to class. Sign-up sheets for counseling will be on the wall by the cafeteria.” She put an arm around Principal James’s shoulders and pulled him away. He was obviously crying. That was when I remembered: he was related to Jade somehow. An uncle twice removed maybe? In a town as small as ours, there was a good chance you were related to someone else, except to me. Gran and Granddad had moved here when I came to live with them during middle school, after Mom said I couldn’t stay with her and Dad had chosen his new wife over me. My grandparents had come to Florida to retire in Tarpon Springs, but when it became obvious having less people around would be far easier on me, we had moved here to the middle of nowhere.

I waited until the gym was almost empty before getting up. My dress caught on the corner of the last bleacher seat and yanked me back. I heard the thin cotton rip, and I swore under my breath at it. Hopefully it was mendable. If money was tight enough for Granddad to risk Gran’s wrath over gambling, I didn’t want to have to ask her to go out shopping, even if most of the dresses she bought me were from Goodwill. I didn’t want them to use our windfall for something as mundane as clothing.

I unhooked myself from the bench and turned this way and that trying to figure out where the tear was. As I looked back over my shoulder, I caught a glimpse of Will Raffles standing in the open door of the gym.

For a moment, I thought he was staring at me and I felt the heat rise in my cheeks, but it seemed more like he was looking off into space, lost in his own world. I watched as some of the last stragglers walked toward his exit. They stopped when they saw him, ducked their heads, and turned to go out another door instead. He didn’t seem to notice.

It was odd. Will had always been the golden boy. He hadn’t needed Jade to boost his popularity, like Alex. He moved through the school like a panther or like a lion in the middle of his pride. He was universally admired without exception: the boys wanting to be him, the girls wanting to be with him. Even the teachers extolled his virtues in both public and private. Ms. Timmons, the American history teacher, had a very unhealthy crush on him. Someone had teasingly asked her whom she liked. Not that she would ever admit it out loud. She was as prim and proper as they came, at least on the outside.

I would have expected the group of girls to comfort him in his loss instead of avoiding him, but maybe they didn’t want to intrude. As far as I knew, he and Jade had still been going out, Alex notwithstanding.

Then his jaw clenched. His steel grey eyes found mine for only a second, but it felt like much longer. I couldn’t move. He turned and shoved through the door, slamming it behind him with a loud clank. My blush rose again in full bloom.

I stood there, willing my heartbeat to slow. What was I, some kind of silly girl unable to control herself in the presence of loss? I was no stranger to it, after all. I let out a bark of a laugh and went back to my dress, finding the rip along the waistband. Luckily it was a small one and definitely fixable once I got home. I shifted my backpack to cover the hole and left the gym through the same door Will had. Less than half a minute had passed, but he was long gone.