could look up and see me here, wandering the outskirts of the village like a prize moron, standing in the passing beam of the lighthouse. Sure, I live on the village side of the line, so I’d have an excuse if it came to that. But something tells me Villicus isn’t one for excuses.
I duck behind a tree. Shielded by its thick, furry trunk, which gives softly under my fingertips, I peek down.
“But Lord Featherly promised!” the Indian man, who has a strong Scottish accent, shouts. Unmistakably new to the world of the wealthy, he wears dark-wash jeans, a Gucci-print shirt—collar flipped up—and an enormous pink-gold watch that flashes as he throws out his arms, exasperated. “He said you’d take care of me, Dr. Zin. Or are you just this old freak’s lackey?”
“Lord Featherly has been loose with his information about this school,” Dr. Zin retorts coolly, his voice low and smooth like a cocoa-dusted truffle, like a deeper version of Ben’s. “And, allow me to remind you, he was in a different position than you are when he came to us, Manish.”
“A different position?
“We are not talking about money,” Villicus interrupts. “You misunderstand the mandate of my institution.”
“I just want what you’re giving these kids,” Manish says, lowering his voice. I inch closer to hear more. “My wife and I want it for our little girl. A future. As I said, I’ll pay anything—”
“Our school starts in the ninth grade,” Dr. Zin explains. “Even if you had been invited and were not acting with such impropriety, your daughter would not qualify on age alone.”
“But her grades were exceptional. She could make a go of it as a freshman.” He looks wildly between the two powerful men. “Lord Featherly said something about special tuition. I can give you anything you want. What will it take?”
“Frankly, there’s nothing you could offer,” Dr. Zin says.
“Please,” Manish begs, dropping to his knees. He throws himself at Villicus’s feet and wraps his arms around his old brown shoes. “Please. If you are the man I’ve been told you are, you can do this.”
My eavesdropping is cut short when I hear leaves crunching behind me. My heart stops with a dull thump. My fingers claw into the tree bark. I close my eyes, and I freeze in place.
I’m sure I’ll turn around and see Teddy. If not him, then some wild animal’s about to maul me. I don’t know which worries me more.
“Man,” a girl says—and I promise, I nearly pee my pants. I suck my lips in to keep from screaming. “It’s hard to hear them when they whisper, isn’t it?”
Whipping around, I find a black-haired girl smiling at me as she lightly punts the kickstand on her bike. She tiptoes to my side, still grinning—she has braces—holds my arm, and peeks over my shoulder to spy on Villicus, Zin, and Manish.
“Oh, they look mad,” she giggles. “Who’s the rich idiot in the guido shirt? He looks almost as stupid as Villie.”
I’m too stunned to move. Questions about who this girl is set in quickly. She’s on this side of the line and she’s friendly—so she’s probably not from Cania. Not to mention that I’m sure I didn’t see her at orientation today.
“Stop staring at me. You’re missing the whole show,” she whispers, her gaze fixed on the entertainment below. “That guy’s laying it on thick. He’s actually begging!”
“You’re from the village.”
Her black eyes flick in my direction. “Yep. I guess you’d better run away from me now. And I’ll run away from you.” She chuckles quietly. “Stupid rules.”
Even still, I back away. My dad gave up way too much for me to compromise things now. As I back away, the girl turns to me. I’m taller than she is, but she’s got a toughness about her that makes her seem larger.
“Come on. Be nice—I’m nice,” she says. “Do you even know why the rules are what they are?”
I shake my head. Something about keeping things exclusive, but I don’t say that.
“Exactly. You only know what Villie tells you. I’ve lived here my whole life. I know the rules. So trust me when I say that I know they’re worth breaking. I know what I’m doing when I’m breaking them.”
“Which you are,” I say.
“Which you are, too. Or, what, did you miss that bright red line on the road back there? You had to cross it to get here, right?”
“I live on the village side of it.”
Leaning against the spot I’ve given up on the tree, she fits her fingers into the same rivets I held in the bark and glances over her shoulder at me. Her eyes twinkle, and her skin is olive-toned, which makes her teeth, behind the metal, look very white. Unlike the kids at Cania, she’s got a few blemishes, and her eyebrows are untamed.
“Oh,” she says, “you’re you. You’re the new kid. The weird one.”
“The weird one?”
“Aren’t you?”
“Aren’t you?”
Surprisingly, she beams. “I know, right? It’s not just weird. It blows.”
Manish’s voice booms out suddenly, and I sidle next to the girl to watch the events unfolding below.
“You’ll be hearing from my lawyer!” Manish hollers.
“It’s imperative,” Dr. Zin quickly cautions Manish, “that you keep this quiet.”
“Impossible! Your policies are ageist and exclusionary. If my money can’t get her in here, my money will shut this place down.”
With that, Manish grabs his jacket and storms to a speedboat at the end of the dock. As he does, Villicus flicks his eyes up to exactly where the girl and I are standing—Oh, crap! Freaked, we both stumble backward, falling out of his sight to the mossy, crunchy earth. I hear her squeal, but I don’t make a peep—because my heart’s temporarily stopped.
Hushed, we wait motionlessly and soundlessly for the voices below to go away.
“He saw me,” I finally whisper.
“He saw me for sure,” she says, clutching her chest. “But I don’t think he saw you. The tree shielded you. And I’m allowed to be here.”
“Are you sure? If he saw us together, I think I could get in serious trouble.”
“We both could,” she adds, but it’s obvious she’s enjoying the excitement of the moment. She tears her hand away from her chest and sticks it out at me. Her white ceramic watch makes a clinking noise against her diamond tennis bracelet. “I’m Molly. Molly Watso.”
“Anne Merchant.”
