Reason 27:

After everything we’d been through,
and all the trust I’d placed in him,
when the chips were on the table,
he took our game way too far.

The disciplinary committee meeting was scheduled to begin at one, but Sterling and I had no intention of letting that body convene.

The butterflies in my stomach were performing F-16-caliber maneuvers as I scarfed down my breakfast, studiously ignoring Sterling when he settled in the seat opposite me.

“Do you always eat your egg like that?” he finally asked.

His grin made me instantly wary. “Like what?”

“You cut it into eight equally sized, perfectly symmetrical pieces before you took one bite. I swear if we had a scale and calipers, we could prove they’re exactly the same.”

“Of course they are,” I said.

“The eggs didn’t get their own Rule, though. I must be a serious liability.” He paused. “But come to think of it, why didn’t they?”

“Because the number of bites changes depending on the size of the egg. And it’s a purely subjective calculation.”

“Fascinating,” he said, burying the sarcasm so deep it almost sounded sincere. “I was thinking last night about how much time we’ve spent together. And you still don’t bore me.”

I narrowed my eyes, waiting for the punch line. But it never came. It was a strange moment, sitting there with Sterling, united by a common purpose that was drawing to its conclusion, for better or worse. That afternoon, Cole and Sterling could be expelled. We were hanging together, teetering over the edge of anything.

So it seemed only natural to add my own confession to the mix, since this could very well be the last time I saw him. “You’re the first boy I’ve ever kissed. I mean, other than that misunderstanding with Parker.”

“Really? I couldn’t tell.” The wicked quirk in his smile was back. “Plus, you’re so approachable. And sweet.”

I picked up one of my perfectly measured pieces of egg and threw it at him. He snatched it out of the air, laughing. And just like that, my nerves disappeared. There was no way Headmaster Lowell or anyone else would defeat us. Just like my Rules, the two of us were invincible.

Headmaster Lowell was sitting in his office with the door open, flipping through the same stack of papers over and over again. He was trying to look important, like he figured the head of a school should. It was ridiculous that his secretary made us wait in the hard plastic chairs outside when he was obviously just wasting time.

Finally he looked up, as if he’d just realized we were there, even though we were sitting a mere five feet from his desk.

“Sterling, Harper, thank you so much for waiting. Come in, please.”

As I settled in the chair nearest his desk, I glanced at the papers strewn across its surface—brochures for golf resorts. It took every ounce of my self-control to keep from pointing out his obvious disregard for his students’ needs.

I glanced at my watch. We’d told Cole to meet us here, and he was late. We needed to stall, which wasn’t exactly an optimal start to our plan. Just as I launched into a rambling explanation of why we were here, Cole walked in—followed by our father.

That was an unexpected development, but not necessarily an unwelcome one. With my father there, the headmaster would have to take our evidence more seriously.

Dad looked from me to Sterling before his eyes narrowed.

“What’s going on?” He frowned at Sterling like he somehow knew all about the things we’d been up to behind closed bedroom doors. “Cole said you were meeting here.”

“We have something important to discuss, Dad,” I said. “This is Cole’s roommate, Sterling Lane.”

At that, Dad’s frown transformed into the confident, deal-making smile that mortified me. In his mind he was reaching out and shaking hands with Admiral Lane himself. The ability to rub elbows with kids like Sterling was the whole reason Dad had sent us off to boarding school in the first place—and he rarely let us forget it.

Sterling nodded. “Pleasure to meet you, sir.”

Somewhere along the way, I’d stopped noticing Sterling’s polished East Coast diction, the way he exuded confidence from every pore. A firm handshake and a direct, honest smile were encoded in his DNA.

Sterling Lane was the culmination of all the things my father aspired for us to achieve, but I didn’t resent him for it. I had to fight back a smile at the contrast between this version of Sterling and the boy who’d deposited a Mini Cooper in my dorm room.

“Dad, I’m glad you came early,” I said as he pulled an extra chair from the waiting room into the office. “Sterling and I could use a little support. We can prove Cole is innocent.”

“Prove definitively?” Headmaster Lowell asked.

Sterling set our manila folder of documents on the headmaster’s desk. “Exhibit one,” he said. “One Thomas Janssen, aka Gilbert James.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I watched Cole’s reaction. His hands were folded on his lap, but they tightened into fists at the sight of Gilbert’s photo.

“He’s wanted in Arkansas for an assortment of felony misdemeanors. He obtained a fake identity when he took up residency in Cedar Creek.”

“What does this have to do with anything?” Headmaster Lowell said.

“He’s been threatening Cole,” I said. “Blackmailing him.”

“Is this true?” Dad asked, putting a hand on Cole’s shoulder.

Cole nodded. He opened his mouth to say something, but I shook my head ever so slightly. The last thing we needed was Cole confessing to more than we’d care to have him admit.

My father sighed. “Dare I ask what dirt this guy had on you?”

Cole’s eyes pivoted to me. He was letting us take full control of the situation, just like I’d hoped he would.

“Gilbert associates with an illegal gambling ring. Cole was aware that high school betting was within their purview and had reason to suspect someone within Sablebrook was participating in this ring. Particularly when money mysteriously disappeared.”

“That would be troubling indeed. But we need proof of something more than a fake identity,” Headmaster Lowell said, flipping through the documentation we’d printed off the internet—the newspaper article about Gilbert’s arrest in Arkansas for illegal gambling, and a photo of the real Gilbert James’s driver’s license.

Sterling set his cell phone on the desk. “We obtained a confession.” He pressed play.

I watched a few games and realized Cole was the type of player who set the pace for the whole team. So when I saw him alone in town I waited for a chance to strike up a conversation. About lacrosse. I dabble in side bets. At first, Cole really wasn’t into it. But I’ve done this a dozen times. Found a way to hook him in, so that he owed money and was on the ropes. Then he got into a little financial trouble of his own, so I added a little heat to keep him coming back.

“Harper and I deduced that Cole was in some sort of trouble—and I mean outside of the missing money. So we did a little investigating of our own.”

“So Cole, you admit you did take the money?” Headmaster Lowell asked. “Gambling aside, that alone is grounds for expulsion.”

I hadn’t factored Headmaster Lowell’s taking such a hard line on the money. I’d thought we could dance a gambling scandal in front of him and tear the focus away.

Sterling cleared his throat, ready to defend them both, but I couldn’t take the chance that his dramatic edge would blow this.

“No,” I said. “Gilbert did.” It wasn’t altogether untrue—he simply swindled the money from Cole once Cole lifted it from the lockbox.

I could feel both Sterling and Cole staring at me, shocked. I hoped against hope that I hadn’t just taken too hard a left into utter fiction.

“Gilbert took the money to try to frame and blackmail Cole into point-shaving. But Cole went to Sterling and borrowed enough money to replace the missing cash, hence Sterling’s large withdrawal. Granted, we all took too much upon ourselves, not telling the administration what was going on—but we were all in over our heads trying to keep this gambling ring from putting Cole in concrete shoes.”

Cole’s eyes widened. Perhaps I’d gone a little far.

Sterling was watching me with an expression I’d never seen on him before—a sort of bemused irritation. I wondered what he was thinking. Most likely he was outraged that I was breaking my Rules again, lying, bending and rearranging my moral code at my own convenience. We both knew my brother had done more than a few things worthy of serious consequences. He’d gambled, stolen, and lied to cover his tracks. Sterling wasn’t one to overlook the irony of our situation.

“Well, that does raise an interesting point, doesn’t it?” Headmaster Lowell said. “How do we know Cole didn’t just make up this story after the fact to cover his actions?”

“Wait just a minute,” my father interrupted. “You heard that confession tape. Cole refused to cooperate with this point-shaving business. I’m proud of my son for standing his ground.”

“Given all the secrets swirling around this event, Cal, I’m not sure what to believe. I’d like to hear what Gilbert has to say about the matter.”

“You can’t,” Sterling said. “He left town.”

“Isn’t that convenient,” the headmaster said drily. “You’ve muddied the water considerably with these gambling issues—which, I assure you, I’ll be investigating separately. But while you’ve demonstrated Gilbert is guilty of coercing Cole, I’m afraid you’ve far from proven Cole’s and Sterling’s innocence.”

“And I’m afraid, Headmaster, you’ve got that backward,” my father said, clearing his throat. “According to my lawyer and the United States federal government, these boys are innocent until proven guilty. You’re the one who needs to produce evidence of their guilt, not the other way around.”

“That might be true in a court of law, Cal,” Headmaster Lowell said, straightening in his chair but still failing to look headmasterly. “But this is a school, and my powers are considerably broader. Cole sat in this office and didn’t say one word about what was going on. How do I know this isn’t just an excuse to cover up your crimes after the fact?”

The situation was slipping out of control. I looked at Cole, then at Sterling, and back to Cole. Sterling was perfectly poised; he had expulsion down to an art form.

But Cole was ashen, like his life was flashing before his eyes. Sure, he’d never starve. He could always work for Dad. But I knew he wanted more than that—he wanted a life of his own. And I’d make sure he got it, whatever it took. I could outsmart Headmaster Lowell and bring a definitive end to this debacle, all before second period.

“Headmaster, I have something to say.” My voice cracked, lending credibility to my lie. I sounded legitimately terrified. “I know you want to get to the bottom of this—know the absolute truth. I want to tell it to you, but first, I need to know that you’ll overlook lesser transgressions that might have occurred that night. Things that fall within the purview of the five least significant school rules. If I tell you the truth about this horrible crime, it will unearth another, very minor transgression done for the greater good of the school.”

Sterling fidgeted in his seat, visibly irritated that I was deviating from our plan, but really, I had no choice.

“Well, I can’t promise anything until I understand what happened.”

“It was a violation of one of the rules cited in section four of the student handbook. I can’t be any more specific than that while trying to protect the not-so-innocent.”

I was shocked when the headmaster reached for a copy of the student handbook. As headmaster, he should have its rules committed to memory.

“Let’s see, section four.” He thumbed through the book, then wasted forty-five seconds perusing the passage in question.

“I think I can swing this, Harper. Nothing here is all that serious. What did you want to say?”

“I know Cole and Sterling were in their room the night the money went missing because I was there, too. Cole and Sterling were there all night.”

The room went deathly silent, and I held my chin up, defying them to challenge my story.

It was against school rules to be out of my dorm at night, and against a second school rule that I was in the boys’ dorm. I hoped it would be my saving grace that Cole was my brother.

“Why?” my father asked. He wasn’t mad, just mystified.

I’d reached a crossroads in my story. Should I lie and tell him I needed Cole’s support—like I did when we were little when I had a nightmare and would curl up and sleep on Cole’s floor? Or should I embrace this crazy mess with Sterling Lane and blend enough fact with fiction to confound everyone?

“Sterling and I fought a lot when we first met, but then things changed.” My face was burning. I couldn’t look at him. “Sterling and I have had kind of a thing going on. In secret.”

Sterling reached over and twined his fingers through mine. The back of his hand was resting on my thigh. Even in front of the headmaster and most of my family, his touch made every nerve ending in my body fire all at once. He cleared his throat. “It’s true. But I’d say these days it’s something pretty serious?”

I could feel Sterling looking at me for confirmation, but I couldn’t do it—couldn’t look at his face and see the mischief dancing in his brown eyes.

Cole’s eyes were so wide you could have projected an IMAX film onto the whites. I hoped to God he’d just keep his mouth shut. And he did.

“Harper Eloise Campbell.” My father sounded more shocked than anything. He was shocked someone would want me, and that that someone would be the gorgeous and disgusting boy sitting next to me.

Sterling cradled my hand like it was a tiny, fragile bird. I was grateful and furious at how masterfully he took this charade to the next level. Once again, we were in the headmaster’s office explaining our relationship. I could barely sort through my feelings myself, yet here I was, poised to defend them to my red-faced father.

Headmaster Lowell shook his head. “I know there’s been some sort of situation with you two,” he said, clearing his throat. “But this is unexpected. Normally, I’m not sure I’d take a student’s word so seriously. But you, Harper, have always been disturbingly honest—often far transcending the realm of what the listener appreciates hearing.”

Headmaster Lowell stared at me like he’d see through my skin to the lies etched into my soul. Only the steady pressure of Sterling’s fingers against mine kept my whole body from shaking like an earthquake at what a horrible liar I was.

“The combined weight of this evidence—an alibi plus a confession…” Headmaster Lowell steepled his fingers in front of him and leaned back in his chair. I was sure he practiced this pose in the mirror along with the feigned professorial throat-clearing. “I’m canceling the meeting this afternoon. It seems to me that Cole had his heart in the right place and fell into a few bad decisions.”

It was eerie how when presented with a pile of erroneous information, Headmaster Lowell somehow managed to arrive at the same conclusion I had. It only took about a zillion falsehoods to get him there.

“He wasn’t the only one.” Dad was glaring at Sterling. “I don’t care who your father is. Harper has never stepped one toe out of line, and suddenly she’s sneaking into your dorm.” He leaned forward in his chair. “I know your story and your type, Sterling. Harper, you are forbidden from associating with him—Headmaster, I want Cole switched to a more suitable rooming situation.”

My head started to spin. I’d hoped and prayed for this a few weeks ago, but now that it was finally coming true, it was a disaster.

“Really, sir,” Sterling said. “It’s not like it sounds.” He flashed his Rulebreaking grin, and I braced myself for impact. “But in my former life it probably would have been.”

“Dammit, Sterling.” I buried my face in my hands, unable to look at a single person in that room. I could picture too perfectly Cole’s wide-eyed shock, my father’s purple-faced outrage.

“I thought you’d appreciate honesty, sir. Because if I were you, my first thought would be ‘why should I believe him, the kid who’s been expelled so many times his grandmother loses track of where to send holiday cards?’ But I’ve changed. Harper changed me. I’ve earned her trust, and I’ll do whatever it takes to earn yours.”

My father’s eyes narrowed. “I’d say we’re pretty far past that possibility.”

“Believe me, I understand. I have a sister I’d do anything to protect. And Cole is the same way. Do you really think he’d let his roommate harm his sister?”

Dad crossed his arms and shook his head. I couldn’t believe it—Sterling was actually softening him.

“I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life, but now, finally, I’m doing something right. This isn’t exactly how I imagined this going down, but I’ve got some pretty serious feelings for Harper. And I’m not willing to let her go.” He squeezed my hand—either for show or as an actual act of solidarity. Because I’d been diligently studying my cuticles the entire time he spoke.

The room got so quiet I wondered if Sterling had given the rest of them simultaneous heart attacks.

I had to look up and face the consequences.

“It’s really not a big deal, Dad,” I said, careful to avoid looking at Sterling. “Nothing that I wouldn’t have told you about when I got the chance. I was in their room that night just talking. Cole was there, too. It got late and I knew I’d get in even bigger trouble if I got caught wandering around the school at night, so Cole gave me his bed and slept on the floor.”

My father leaned back in his chair. “I’m not through with you.” He pointed at Sterling. “We’ll have a little chat when we’re done here.” The red splotches on his face started to disband. “Harper and Cole, I’m extremely disappointed in you both.”

Cole nodded without lifting his eyes from my face. He was staring at me in utter disbelief, like I’d just flown down from Mars for the weekend. My father’s face held the same sentiment. Headmaster Lowell narrowed his eyes when he looked at me, as if trying to imagine what Sterling could see in Harper the Hag.

But no one in that room was as stunned as me. Sterling Lane had carried our little farce far past the limits of sanity. He’d have to endure a lecture from my father and awkward questions from my brother, all for a situation that could easily have been remedied by my tidy little lie.

He’d said his feelings were serious—that he wasn’t going to let me go. Did he mean it? He couldn’t. Was it all part of the game, designed to torment me while casting a smoke screen wide enough to hide the truth forever? My gaze cut to Sterling and the way he leaned back in his chair, poised and in command, while I felt like my internal organs were on display.

Whatever Sterling was up to, however this moment fit into his master plan, I would find a way to face it and still live up to my own standards.