"I don't think so."
Everyone in the room sucked in a breath. I wasn't even sure that I still wanted to live there,
knowing they had all turned against me. But I wasn't about to give Noelle the satisfaction of seeing
me go down without a fight. Not a chance.
"Excuse me?" Noelle said incredulously, swinging around to face me.
14
"That whole 'Billings decides who lives in Billings' rule doesn't apply anymore, remember?" I said,
summoning all my courage to square off with her. "Not since Headmaster Cromwell overruled it at
the beginning of the year. I'm not going anywhere."
Noelle's eyes cut through me like tiny little knives. She didn't even have to speak for me to know
she'd already found a way around this.
"You'd like to think that, wouldn't you?" she said, looking down her nose at me. "But when I
single-handedly delivered the Crom a check for more than five million dollars to use as he pleases,
he pretty much intimated that I can do whatever I want around here."
Single-handedly? As if I hadn't worked my ass off on that fundraiser.
"And what I want is you out," she finished, her lips curving into a smirk. "Don't make it worse by
getting all pathetic and whiny about it."
My face burned like I'd been in the sun for four days straight. She was loving every minute of this.
Loved humiliating me in front of everyone. Loved seeing me suffer. I hated her so much in that
moment, I wanted to tear her hair out. And yet, I still wanted her to change her mind. Still wanted
her to put her arm around me and tell me everything was going to be fine. I still wanted her
approval. The fact that I had potentially lost it forever might have been the most devastating
realization of all.
"Come on, ladies," Noelle said to the room. "I brought back some gifties from the city."
15
Just like that, everyone was out of their seats, happily bustling for the door. They all slipped
around me as if I were a muddy puddle they were trying to avoid. I just stood there. I couldn't
have moved if I wanted to. And after what they had done to me, I wasn't about to get out of their
way. It was a small defiance, but it was all I had.
"Noelle, please don't do this," I said under my breath, stepping up to her once the room was all