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"You're obviously also good at taking care of your friends," Ariana said. "You're making sure Maria eats, helping Brigit with her diet, helping Soomie with Landon, trying to save me from Tahira torture. From what I've seen, you're the best at being a friend."
Lexa blushed, clearly flattered, and dropped back down on her bed. "You're cracked," she said modestly, looking at her computer screen. "Anyone would do those things for their friends."
"No, not anyone. Believe me, I know," Ariana replied. Lexa's expression grew serious, and Ariana felt a sizzle of apprehension. She had just opened the door to questions. Questions she did not want to invite in.
"Why? Did something happen with your friends at your old school?" Lexa asked, her voice tinged with concern. "Is that why you transferred?"
Oh, did something ever happen, Ariana thought, remembering in vivid detail that night on the roof of Billings. Reed on the ground near the edge, then Noelle with that stupid lacrosse stick. Did something happen? Yeah. Total backstabbing betrayal. Not to mention the ongoing torture that was the result of having been Kaitlynn's friend.
Lexa's eyes flicked to Ariana's hands, and she realized that Maria's white cashmere blanket was balled up at her side. She released it, breathed, and smiled.
"No. I just wanted the best, and APH is the best," she said lightly. Then she added, by way of distraction. "You know, all three of those girls were practically suffocating without you here. They could not wait to see you."
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"Really?" Lexa said, pleased.
"Really."
"Thanks, Ana. That's so nice of you to say," Lexa told her.
"Just telling the truth," Ariana said, leaning back on the bed again and lifting her laptop onto her legs. "So, if Brigit is such the party planner, why did Palmer put Tahira in charge of the fund-raiser instead of her?"
She felt a twinge just saying Palmer's name to Lexa, but she was going to have to get used to it.
Lexa sighed, sitting back as well. "He had his reasons."
Ariana's skin prickled with interest. "What reasons?" ,
A blush lit Lexa's cheeks, as if she'd just been snagged saying something she hadn't meant to say. "It's hard to explain," she said quickly, tucking her hair behind her ears.
"What?" Ariana asked, trying not to sound as desperate for info as she felt.
"Nothing. It's just. . ." Lexa looked around the room, stalling for time. "They both ... they both pitched him ideas, and I think he just liked the Landon thing better," she said finally, her words tumbling together so that Ariana knew she was lying. But why? What other reasons could Palmer possibly have for choosing Tahira over Brigit, especially when Brigit was so clearly one of his girlfriend's best friends? "And honestly, it is pretty brilliant when you think about it. We're going to take in so much cash, we're going to need to hire a staff to cart it all back here."
Ariana's breath caught in her throat. Her fingers froze over her key-
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board. Suddenly, any thoughts of Palmer/Tahira/Brigit intrigue flew right out of her mind. "What do you mean?"
"Normally with these things we get all these credit card transactions and you have to pay a fee for each one, which eats into your bottom line," Lexa explained, leaning toward her screen as she continued to work. "But with this Landon thing we're going to get hundreds of girls with fists full of allowance money just salivating to throw it at their idol. We're talking bucket-loads of cash. And actual cash means no fees, which means more money for our tally. I mean, except for whoever wins the date with Landon. I figure that's going to be too expensive for any normal person to pay for out of pocket."
"Right," Ariana said. She stared at the door of the closet where Maria had taped up one of Degas's ballerina prints, but she didn't see it. All she saw was cash. Stacks and stacks of cash. All there for the taking.
"We are so going to win this challenge," Lexa said giddily, tapping away at her keyboard. "Two for two, baby! Blue and gray can kiss our butts!"
Ariana smiled, but she was barely listening. It looked like she was going to have to become a more integral member of the fund-raising committee. She had to figure out a way to steal some of the money without being caught. And the only way to do that was to be in on the plans.
Apparently she and Tahira were going to be spending more time together, a thought that made her cringe. But if it meant getting rid of Kaitlynn, it would all be worth it.
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SURPRISE VISIT
Using a paint-spattered hammer she had borrowed from Cornwall's housemother, Ariana drove the final nail into the bottom corner on one of the two Jackson Pollock prints she had just bought at the school store. She stepped back to admire her work, then glanced over her shoulder at Soomie, who was supposed to be defragmenting Ariana's computer. Not that it needed it, being brand-new, but Soomie had offered and Ariana had seen it as an opportunity to bond. Instead, however, she caught Soomie remaking her bed."My hospital corners not tight enough for you?" Ariana asked, half annoyed, half amused.
"It's just something I do well," Soomie replied unapologetically, whipping her hands across the top blanket to smooth any wrinkles. She turned around and tilted her head as she regarded the painting. "That works."
"Thanks. I think so too," Ariana said.
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Soomie pulled out Ariana's desk chair and opened her laptop. "So, are you totally sure about this whole tennis thing?" she asked. "Because the equestrian team is really--"
"Oh my gosh. Why is everyone so obsessed with me being on the equestrian team?" Ariana asked with a laugh, lifting another poster and holding it against the wall. She drove a nail into the top right corner and reached for another one. "Just because I beat Lexa a million years ago in one little dressage competition doesn't mean--"
"I thought it was jumper," Soomie said, whipping her head around.
The nail slipped from Ariana's fingers and bounced along the wooden floor with a faint tinkling sound. Her heart all but stopped. Was it jumper? She had gone over Briana Leigh's Triple Star mementos a thousand times and she had been sure it was dressage. Was Soomie just trying to make her slip up, or was she right? She glanced over her shoulder at the girl. Her eyes were sharp and discerning. Just one look at her and Ariana knew that Soomie was correct. Which meant that she, Ariana, had just screwed up.
Girl really was down with the details.
"It was. What did I say?" Ariana asked, hoping she wasn't visibly blushing.
"You said dressage," Soomie replied, one hand on the back of the chair. "Lexa said you didn't even compete in dressage."
Ariana's mouth was dry. Exactly how much had these people been discussing her behind her back?
"I didn't until later," Ariana clarified coolly. This was actually true. It was the reason for her mistake. If she hadn't looked at dozens of
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dressage ribbons last night the word wouldn't have even been in her head. She grabbed another nail and slammed it into the wall with slightly more vigor than necessary. "You're right, though. That year it was the jumper competition. I've been in so many I sometimes mix them up." Her skin grew warm under Soomie's gaze and she realized she was babbling, that she sounded like someone trying to cover up a lie. "Can you grab that nail I just lost?"
"Sure," Soomie said, crouching to the floor. She got up and handed Ariana the nail. "You might want to make that right corner higher. It's crooked."
"Thanks," Ariana said, even though she felt so pent-up and frustrated she wanted to drive the nail through the girl's hand. She turned the hammer around, pulled out the nail she'd just placed, and started over.
"Wow, so I guess you really burned out. I mean, if you've competed so much you can't even remember which events you won and lost," Soomie said, sitting down again.
"Exactly. That's why I'm moving on to tennis," she said, feeling relieved that the conversation had come around to a logical conclusion. "I think it'll be fun to start over."
"I guess," Soomie said. "But when I'm that good at something, I never give it up."
Ariana sighed, wishing Soomie would drop it already. Just then, Tahira walked by the open door of her room. Ariana's whole body tensed at the thought of talking to the girl, but it was better to just put the gears in motion. Besides, it would be a great way to shut Soomie up already.
"Tahira?" she called out, stepping over to the threshold.
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The Dubai princess paused with her hand on the doorknob of her own room. "Can I help you with something, Love?" she asked with a condescending glance.
Ariana's fingers tightened around the hammer's handle. Don't kill her. You cannot kill her.
"Actually, I was hoping to help you," Ariana replied, plastering on a smile. She crossed her arms over her chest, letting the hammer dangle from her fingers. "I'd like to volunteer to work the tables at the fundraiser."
Tahira, understandably, looked suspicious. She crossed her arms over her chest as well, and faced Ariana head-on. "Why? You're already doing crew. You've fulfilled your requirement."
"I don't just fulfill requirements," Ariana explained. "I like to do as much as I can."
With a dubious look, Tahira shoved open the door to her room. "All right then. We'd love to have you."
"That's going to get old real fast," Ariana told her as the hall phone rang.
"No it's not!" Tahira sang with a huge grin. She slammed the door to her and Zuri's room, and Ariana pressed her lips together to keep from cursing under her breath, which Soomie would undoubtedly hear.
You're doing this for a reason, she reminded herself, tapping the hammer against the open palm of her hand. You're doing this so you can finally shed your past and move on."Ana!" Brigit shouted, leaning out of the old-school phone booth at the end of the hallway. "There's someone down at the gate for you
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and he's not on your list of approved visitors. They need to know if they should let him through."
Ariana's vision instantly prickled over with gray spots. She could not have heard that correctly. Someone at the gate for her? For Briana Leigh? Who the hell would drop by unannounced like this? Briana Leigh had very few friends and even fewer who knew she'd be attending APH. Unless it was Teo, Briana Leigh's former fiance. Ariana backed against the wall of the hallway, her knees weak. The hammer hit the plaster with a dull thud.
Oh, God, please don't let it be Teo.
"Ana? Are you okay?" Soomie said from inside her room.
"Fine. I'm fine," Ariana replied quickly.
"You should really talk to him," Brigit prompted. "The guards don't like us, so they get kind of mean when we keep them waiting. Something about us being overprivileged snobby bitches."
"Okay," Ariana heard herself say. Her voice sounded very far away. Like it was coming through the heating vent beneath her feet after traveling through five stories of pipes. "I'll be right back," she told Soomie. She slowly made her way to the phone, unable to breathe the entire way. This was it. This was how she was going to get caught.
"What's the matter?" Brigit asked, her blue eyes wide as she held out the phone. "Do you think it's an ex-boyfriend or something?"
Ariana didn't answer. Couldn't. She grabbed the phone from Brigit and held it half an inch from her ear, as if it might scald her. Her other hand clung to the hammer.
"This is Briana Leigh Covington," she said.
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"Yes, Miss Covington," a clipped male voice replied. "We have an Ashley Hudson,here to see you."
Ariana's butt hit the tiny wooden seat in the booth and pain radiated up her spine. Hudson was here? Why the hell would he be coming to see Briana Leigh? And what was he going to do when he saw her--the girl he knew as Emma Walsh--instead? This was even worse than Teo. Ariana pressed the butt of the hammer's handle against her forehead and closed her eyes, her mind racing.
This isn't happening. . . . this is not happening. ...
"Miss Covington?"
"One sec," Ariana said.
She was surprised to realize that part of her wanted to see Hudson. Was dying to, actually. A friendly face--the face of a person who actually cared about her--would be a welcome thing right then. But how was she going to explain the fact that she was even here?
"Are you okay?" Brigit asked from outside the booth. "OMG, it is an ex-boyfriend, isn't it? Is he hot? Can I meet him?"
Ariana shot Brigit a look of death. She didn't mean to, it just happened. Luckily, Brigit didn't seem to notice. She was probably too busy formulating her next battery of questions.
Questions. She was sure Hudson was going to have thousands of them. But maybe it was better to attempt to answer them now and get rid of him for good. Clearly, ignoring his texts and phone calls was not going to work.
"Fine," she said into the phone, eyeing the hammer as she spoke. "You can let him in."
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EMMA, ANA, LOVE
Ariana shoved open the front door of Cornwall Hall and paused when she saw Hudson standing there on the stone patio between the parking lot and the entrance, reading the plaque set in the stone border around a cherry tree. She had a moment--one moment before Hudson saw her--in which to take him in. His floppy blond hair, slightly floppier than the last time she'd seen him, the way he stood with his shoulders just slightly rounded, unaffected and unpretentious, the line of his perfect jaw. She didn't realize until that moment how much she'd come to care for him in those couple of weeks they'd had together. She took that one moment, savored it, then said her own, private good-bye.He didn't know it yet, but it was time to move on.
Finally, he turned. His face registered total shock, followed quickly by pure glee. Ariana's heart shattered as he raced forward and took her up in his arms.
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"Emma! What are you doing here!?" he said into the thick blanket of her hair.
Ariana released herself from his grasp, making sure not to inhale his scent, which might physically hurt her, and looked around. No one in sight, thank goodness. No one had heard him call her "Emma."
"I transferred here over the summer," Ariana explained, sticking to the story she'd made up in the stairwell on her way down. "That's why you couldn't find me at Easton."
Hudson held both her hands in his, a bright smile lighting his handsome features. He was wearing a light blue oxford shirt, open over a faded burgundy Harvard T-shirt, and jeans that had seen better days. There was a small coffee stain on one thigh, and they were wrinkled beyond belief. Had he just driven all the way down here from Connecticut? Ariana was touched by the thought.
But no. She couldn't let herself feel. This was good-bye. Good-bye, good-bye, good-bye.
"Couldn't stay away from Briana Leigh, huh?" he joked.
Ariana smirked at the irony of the question. "Something like that."
"This is unbelievable," he said, squeezing one hand as he released the other. He tugged her toward one of the stone benches on the patio outside the dorm. "I honestly can't believe you're here! I was starting to think I'd never see you again."
If only, Ariana thought. "So ... why are you here?" she asked.Hudson laughed as he sat down in the sun. "Well, when I didn't find you at Easton I tried to think of how else I might get in touch
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with you, and Briana Leigh was the only person who came to mind. But I didn't have her number, and the last thing Teo wanted to talk, about was Briana Leigh. I couldn't get it from him, so . . ."
"You talked to Teo?" Ariana asked. "How is he?"
Not that she cared. She just wanted to make sure that he wouldn't be making any surprise visits anytime soon.
Hudson pressed his lips together as she sat next to him. "He's, um, pissed. He couldn't believe Briana Leigh actually broke up with him by mail, but. . . he's using his anger in constructive ways."
"Such as?" Ariana asked, raising her eyebrows.
"Oh , you know, he's in Ibiza, so . .. you can pretty much use your imagination."
He laughed unc
omfortably, and Ariana made a disgusted face. Maybe it was a good thing Briana Leigh never got the chance to marry the guy. She decided to change the subject.
"So you drove all the way down here. From Connecticut."
"School doesn't start until next week for me, so I figured ... what the hell?" he said, lacing his fingers through hers and holding their hands atop his thigh. "I thought I'd find out where you were, but instead I found you."
Ariana looked down at her lap. Did he have to be so damn joyful about the whole thing? It was going to make it that much harder to break his heart. And maybe that much harder to get rid of him if it came to that.
"Is this totally pathetic?" he asked.
With a deep breath, Ariana was about to answer, but at that
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moment the door to the dorm was flung open and out strolled Allison and Zuri. Ariana's words died on her tongue and her throat closed over.
If you two say anything that gives me away, I swear I will--
"What's up, Love?" Zuri said, throwing Allison into a giggle fit.
Ariana bit her tongue as they walked by without another word. She'd never embraced that nickname more. But her heart was still pounding painfully. Having Hudson here was dangerous, for both of them. She had never been more convinced that he had to go. Fast.
"What was that about?" Hudson asked, watching the girls as they disappeared around the corner.
"Just a stupid nickname," Ariana said with a wave of her hand. "They give them to all the transfers and freshmen. Like a hazing thing."
Wow. Her forked tongue was really on a roll. At that moment her cell phone let out a beep. She knew who it was, what the message would be, and chose to ignore it. It beeped again.
"You need to get that?" Hudson asked.
Ariana rolled her eyes and yanked the phone out, checking the screen. Predictably, the message was from Kaitlynn. This time it read:
Wheres the $$$ BL? tick tick tick ...
A new wave of frustration and anger and fear crashed over Ariana's shoulders. These people from her past were everywhere. Closing in.
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Choking her. Smothering her. She shoved the phone back in her bag and stood up.