Chapter 15

“I still don’t get it,” Sophie said through a great big slurp of ice cream. “What were they doing down there? And how did we all get nosebleeds at the same time?”

Nurse John fluttered back and forth among the girls, checking vital signs and ice-cream levels. When he came to check Madeleine’s pulse, she thought it might be twice as high as it should be. Not because she’d almost been killed but because he was so good looking.

He smiled at her. “Perfect vitals.”

Madeleine had to remember to close her mouth. She wondered how much ice cream he saw in there. She tried to swallow her scoop with dignity.

Ophelia huffed. “Sophie, weren’t you paying attention? We’re the best dancers—of course the crazy hooded freaks would target us for whatever stupid ritual they had planned.”

Kayley happily took a bite of her ice cream. “Yeah. You know. The usual.”

Emma sighed. “Well, whatever that was, I’m glad it’s over. Although …”

“Although, what?” Madeleine said.

“There’s that thing about Giselle …”

Ophelia shot Emma a look and said, “We don’t need to make Madeleine paranoid. She just got here, and we want her to stay around.”

Ophelia smiled at Madeleine. The warm feeling that Madeleine had felt before spread through her again. This was what it was like to be a part of something. She smiled back. And although she was dying to hear about the whole Giselle thing, she decided she’d savor the moment now and ask later.

“But what about the nosebleeds?” Sophie said.

Ophelia slammed down her ice-cream bowl. “Sophie, don’t you listen to anything?”

Emma piped up: “Oh, come on, Ophelia. It still doesn’t make sense to me either.”

“It’s like how Nurse John explained it to Madame Puant,” Madeleine said. “Evidently, there’s some chemical in the tunnels that causes nosebleeds. Remember how tweaked out Mr. Barnes looked all the time? The place is toxic. The staff is doing a major clean down there. Then I think she’d going to cement those tunnels off.”

“I think the real question is, why were those tunnels created anyway?” Kayley asked.

No one had an answer. After a minute, Sophie said, “So, I’m sorry, but about the nosebleeds …”

Ophelia threw her head back and groaned, along with Kayley. Even Emma looked impatient.

“No, I get how we got them and what caused them,” Sophie continued. “But why did we all get them at exactly the same time?”

The room got quiet. Uneasily, Ophelia said, “Maybe the toxicity hit us all at the same time?” But even she didn’t look convinced.

Madeleine took a deep breath and decided to plunge in. These were her friends after all, and friends could say anything to each other. “Guys, I don’t want to sound crazy, but I think those hooded freaks were right. There is something off about this place. I mean, they went about everything all wrong, but … I felt it the first minute I walked up the outside steps. Dario Quincy Academy is strange. And maybe even evil. Am I the only one who feels it too?”

One by one, each of them shook their heads.

“I feel it,” Sophie said.

“Me too,” said Emma.

Kayley pointed her ice-cream spoon at her and said, “Pretty perceptive, newbie. Yeah, something’s not right.”

Ophelia’s lips were a thin line. “Yeah, Madeleine. Dario Quincy Academy is the best ballet school in the world. But something isn’t right here. Something is very wrong. And I don’t think closing up the tunnels will help, no matter what the reason they were built in the first place.”

Madeleine shivered.

At that moment, Madame Puant stepped in the room. “All right, enough ice cream. You all have ballet class in the morning, so you need some sleep.”

The clock read 2:00 A.M., and Madeleine was tired. And then she realized what Madame said.

“Wait, we get to go to class?” She looked excitedly at the other girls, who had the same looks on their faces.

“Well, it would hardly do to have our school’s star investigators banished from ballet.”

All five of them whooped. Madame looked the girls in the eye, one by one. “But if you ladies break curfew again, I won’t be so nice. This is a big house … and very unique. I would hate it if something happened to you girls.” A dark cloud passed over her expression. “Strange things can happen to people late at night. Especially in this house. Now good night, girls. See you in the morning.”

As Madame walked out the door, Madeleine began to think about her new life and her new school. She touched her necklace—on her neck where it was supposed to be, finally. She looked around at her new friends. Maybe there was something wrong at Dario Quincy. But with her family behind her and her friends in front of her and ballet all around her, Madeleine could think of no other place she’d rather be.