This was something she could use to her advantage.
"How do you know it was Lexa?" she asked.
272
"Who else could it have been?" Palmer asked, palms to the sky. "You were there. It was her idea."
Ariana had to play this perfectly. She had to say what a friend would say in this moment.
"Well, if she did it . . . she did it for you," Ariana said. "For the team."
"Yeah, but I told her not to," Palmer fumed, blotches of anger coloring his cheeks. "She knows that cheaters make me sick. She knows that. How could she do this?"
"Palmer. Calm down," Ariana said in a soothing voice.
"I can't," he said, looking off toward the quad and the party. "We can't do this. I have to tell Headmaster Jansen, and gold has to forfeit their win."
"What? No!" Ariana breathed. "You can't do that."
"Why not? I don't see any other choice," Palmer replied.
"Just wait. Think about this for a second," Ariana said, her mind reeling. She could not lose Privilege House now. Not after all the ups and downs of the last week. Not after everything she'd risked. "If you ... if you tell the headmaster, Lexa's going to get in trouble. She'll be humiliated in front of the entire school. She might even get expelled."
"Well, she should have thought about that before she did something this stupid," he spat.
Wow. This guy was really serious about his values. Apparently they meant more to him than his girlfriend, a thought that made Ariana's heart flutter with hope.
273
"Okay, but what about the rest of the team?" Ariana said. "They'll be so disappointed. Everyone worked their butts off. And we should have won the fund-raiser. We would have if some idiot hadn't made off with half the money."
Palmer glanced at her. For the first time she saw something shift in his eyes. He was considering this. He was listening to her.
"True," he said finally.
"And if we'd won the fund-raiser, we would have won the whole thing," Ariana continued. "So technically, we should be in Privilege House. Should the whole team be punished because one person cheated?"
Palmer dropped his head forward and pinched the top of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. "You may have a point."
Ariana smiled to herself. She was so good at this. So good for him. Feeling emboldened by her day of successes, she stepped forward and placed her hand on his forearm. He lifted his head and gazed at her fingers.
"Besides," she said, sliding her fingers down his wrist and into his hand, pulling his arm down straight as she did. "If you report this, we won't get to live in the same dorm."
They were holding hands now, the two of them alone in the oncoming darkness. And Palmer made no move to change this. He slowly moved his gaze from their entwined fingers, up Ariana's torso and neck and chin and nose, until he was staring into her eyes. The surge of attraction between them was so strong at that moment, Ariana was certain he felt it too.
274
"This goes against everything I believe in," he said softly.
"Sometimes you have to sacrifice yourself . . . sacrifice your beliefs ... for the greater good," she said. It was a lesson she'd learned time and again over the past few years. The lesson that had gotten her to this place.
Palmer let out a sigh. "Come on," he said wearily, squeezing her hand. "Let's go party."
275
PERFECT
"So when do we move into Privilege House?" Ariana asked Landon. She was standing with him and Adam near the snack table, watching as the rest of the student body mingled and danced. Lexa, Maria, and Soomie had gone off to the bathroom together fifteen minutes ago, and Palmer had spent most of the night with a group of guys from the crew team, avoiding both her and Lexa. She hadn't seen Brigit all night and wondered if she was off in the gym, working on the diet plan."Tonight," Landon said, tossing up a piece of popcorn and catching it in his mouth.