Privilege 3 - Perfect Mistake (17 page)

The two girls stopped in their tracks, falling silent. They glanced around the room, which was dotted with students, then exchanged a look.

"I suppose we could tell you," Tahira said, though she sounded anything but thrilled at the idea. She glanced over her shoulder at the

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theater, then waved for Ariana and Brigit to follow them. As soon as the four girls were safely inside the darkened theater, Tahira and Allison started to giggle all over again. "You guys are going to love this," Tahira said with a trace of sarcasm.

"Y know those tasks we got the other night?" Allison whispered, her eyes twinkling in the dim light coming through the windows from the

ou common room. "Well, I just completed mine."

She and Tahira slapped hands. Ariana's heart plummeted. No. This was not possible. Allison was supposed to be disqualified. She was supposed to be out of the running. And now the girl was telling her that she was one step closer to getting in?

"What was it?" Brigit asked.

Allison pulled out her slip of black paper and held it up. "Sabotage a pledge from another secret society," she said with a grin. "Y know that

ou cheat sheet Mr. Chen found this morning? Well, it wasn't mine. And as I was sitting in Jansen's office waiting for her and Chen to finish deliberating, all I could think about was who could have done it, and then I realized . . . Justina Cruz--the girl who bumped into me? She was on Team Blue and I know she's being tapped because of. . . you know . . . her mom--"

"Her mom?" Ariana interrupted.

Tahira gave Ariana a derisive look. "Yeah. Dora Cruz? Hello? What planet are you from?"

Ariana bit her tongue. Dora Cruz was a famous movie star, and apparently the fact that this Justina girl was her daughter was common knowledge at APH. To everyone other than Ariana.

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"Anyway, I told Jansen and Chen that it must have been her. That she was setting me up," Allison continued.

"And they believed you?" Ariana asked.

"They took a second look at the cheat sheet and found some differences between it and Allison's handwriting," Tahira said. "She has this weird dyslexic thing where her sixes are nines and her nines are sixes--"

"And Mr. Chen always gives me a pass on it because he knows I can't control it," Allison interrupted. "So when he saw that all the compounds on the cheat sheet were correct, he figured it out right away."

Tahira looked Ariana directly in the eye. "It was an obvious fake."

Ariana wanted to scream. She'd fixed all those compounds because she thought the girl was an idiot, not a mild dyslexic. This could not be happening. How could her plan to get rid of Allison have worked out in Allison's favor? The room started to spin. This was wrong. This was so very, very wrong.

"Maybe her task was to sabotage me?" Allison said. "Who knows? Whatever the case, they gave her a month's detention and there's no way she's getting in to whatever society wanted her. And ta--da! My task is done!"

She threw her arms over her head and danced in a circle, all proud of herself. Ariana's fingertips twitched, itching to shove her over the back row of seats. Her throat started to close over and her vision began to blur. Allison had completed her task. There were still five of them vying for four open spots. And once again, Ariana's life was at stake. All their lives. Her stomach filled with acidic dread. All that

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work had come to nothing. Nothing. And suddenly, Ariana couldn't breathe.

No. You cannot let them see how this is affecting you. Control, Ariana. Control.

In, one. . . two. . . three. . .

Out, one. . . two. . . three. . .

In, one. . . two. . . three. . .

Out, one. . . two. . . three. . .

"Come on, Allison. Let's go pop open that Taittinger Daddy sent," Tahira said, tugging on her friend's elbow. "We need to celebrate. See you later, ladies!"

She and Allison slipped out, leaving Ariana and Brigit alone. The moment they were gone, Ariana sucked in her first good breath in a long while. She leaned both hands on the back of a theater seat and took another.

"Well. That backfired," Brigit said.

"What backfired?"

Ariana's hand flew to her throat, startled. Lexa was standing in the doorway of the theater, holding it open.

"You scared me," she said.

"Sorry," Lexa replied. "So what backfired?"

"We played a prank on Allison this morning," Brigit replied, leaning back against the rear row of seats and kicking off her heels. She sighed happily as the stilettos hit the floor. "But it looks like she took the lemons and turned them into a lemon--tini."

"Wait a minute, that was you guys?" Lexa said, letting the door

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close behind her. She crossed her slim arms over her chest. "You're the ones who set up the fake cheat sheet?"

"It was Ana's idea," Brigit said helpfully. "We thought we'd have a little fun with her. Y know, since she was such a beyotch to Ana when they

ou were living together."

"You're kidding," Lexa said flatly, giving Ariana a scolding look.

"What's the big deal?" Ariana asked. "We were just messing around."

She had thought that, of all people, Lexa would be pleased. She was the one who was apparently so obsessed with getting "Briana Leigh" to loosen up and be like her old self. The one who most likely had decided that Ariana's task should be to make a "spectacle" of herself.

"Just messing around? This is serious stuff! She could have gotten thrown out of school." Lexa's eyes narrowed.

Ariana's face burned. Had she been right all along? Was it a bad thing to try to sabotage another potential member of Stone and Grave? But no. It wasn't possible--Soomie and Maria had practically told her to do it. Unless they were trying to sabotage her. Did they actually want to keep her out? That couldn't be. They were her friends.

Suddenly, Ariana's head hurt from trying to figure out what it all meant, what everyone's motivations were. But one thing was for certain: Lexa did not get to be her moral center. The girl had no idea the sacrifices Ariana was currently making to preserve their friendship and spare her feelings. And to keep everyone on this campus safe.

"She would have ended up at some other good school," Ariana said, lifting a hand. "It's not that big a deal."

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Lexa sighed and shook her head. "Whatever. I'm glad it backfired," she said. "Y two totally stepped over the line." She turned around and flung

ou open the door. "I'll see you upstairs."

As the door closed behind her, Brigit gave Ariana a chagrined look. "Wow. She was pissed."

"I don't get it," Ariana said. "I thought she wanted me to loosen up."

Brigit shrugged. "I guess in Lexa's world there's loosening up in a good way and loosening up in a bad way."

Ariana gripped her forearm tightly in her fingers. She couldn't believe Lexa was mad at her. All she was trying to do was protect her. Protect Brigit, Maria, Soomie, Tahira, and Allison too. There was a psychopath out there just waiting to prey on one of them, and Ariana was the only person who could stop her. Every single fiber of her being was focused on trying to stop her.

But she had failed. And now there was no telling what Kaitlynn might do. Whom she might hurt. Because of Ariana's mistakes, someone--most likely someone she cared about--was going to die.

"Ana?" Brigit said, looking worriedly at Ariana's arm. "Are you okay?"

Ariana released her grip. There were four perfectly straight white lines where her fingers had been. The rest of her arm was red from the pressure.

"I have to go," she said, whipping the door open. "I have to get out of here."

It wasn't until she was out in the open air and halfway down the hill that she let the tears flow. 180

FAILURES

Ariana was aware of a sharp pain in her leg before she was even aware that she was awake. She swatted at it as she lifted her head and opened her groggy eyes. Her hand hit something hard and she sat up straight. Her heart stopped. She was looking right into the menacing eyes of Kaitlynn Nottingham, and Kaitlynn was holding a steak knife. Red liquid dripped from the tip.

Ariana gasped. A puddle of blood had pooled on her sheet, flowing from a small gash across her shin. Suddenly, she was wide awake. She jumped to her feet, knocking Kaitlynn backward with all her might, gritting her teeth to keep from screaming out in rage and pain. Kaitlynn reared backward and tried to grab a desk chair for balance but crashed to the floor on her ass anyway. The knife skittered across the hardwood and came to rest under Ariana's bed.

"What the hell are you doing?" Ariana whisper--shouted. She stood over Kaitlynn, her cut stinging, unable to take even a second to check

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the severity of the wound. She couldn't turn her back on Kaitlynn. Couldn't let her defenses down for even a second. The psycho had finally crossed a line.

Kaitlynn scrambled to her feet and got right in Ariana's face. "That's your brilliant plan? Get Allison caught cheating! What do you think this is, some kind of Disney Channel special?"

"I was trying to get the job done without anyone getting hurt," Ariana replied through her teeth. "See, Kaitlynn, when people get hurt or murdered it kind of draws attention to the situation. And that's the last thing either of us wants."

"Y ou're an idiot," Kaitlynn said, pacing over to her bed. "All you've done is wasted your time and mine. Now I have to figure out a way to off the competition and I only have a few days to do it."

Ariana wanted to scream. She wanted to scream so badly she felt as if her throat, her brain, and her heart were all going to explode.

"Didn't you hear a word I just said?" she hissed. "We cannot have a murder on campus, Kaitlynn. If anyone dies, we all get interviewed. And if you and I get interviewed, they are going to realize the truth about us."

Kaitlynn looked off toward the door. "It's just going to be so hard deciding who has to go," she said, as if she were talking about figuring out which coat to wear. "Although technically, it should be you," she added, gesturing at Ariana. "You're obviously a waste of space."

Groaning in desperation, Ariana grabbed the nearest thing she could find to stanch the bleeding on her leg, which just happened to

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be Kaitlynn's white APH hoodie. She held it over her cut and winced against the pain. Sitting down on her own bed, she held her breath and counted to ten.

"You said I had until Saturday night, remember?" Ariana spoke slowly.

Kaitlynn glanced up. "Yeah. So?"

"So, be patient. I'll take care of it. I still have five days," Ariana said. She carefully removed the sweatshirt. It stuck to the wound for a moment, then peeled away, leaving a trail of sharp pain. Ariana gritted her teeth as she looked over the wound. It was ugly but not too deep. It didn't look as if she would need stitches.

"You'll take care of it," Kaitlynn said dubiously.

"Y I said I would, and I will," Ariana replied, though she had absolutely no idea how. All she knew was that she had to protect her friends and

es. herself, whatever the cost.

"Fine. If you say so," Kaitlynn said with a shrug. Then she lay back on her bed and pulled the covers over her, as if nothing more had happened than a quick midnight chat between friends. "Good night, Ariana. Oh, and you owe me a sweatshirt."

Then she turned on her side, her back facing Ariana, and promptly fell asleep.

For a long few minutes, Ariana sat there, listening to Kaitlynn breathe, marveling over the depths of the girl's psychosis, holding the sweatshirt to her leg. Then, ever so carefully, she crouched to her knees, leaned down, and extracted the bloody steak knife from under her bed. It was one of the knives they used at the dining hall. Ariana

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wondered when Kaitlynn had stolen it, and whether there were any more like it hidden in their room.

Slowly, she stood up, gripping the handle of the knife in her sweaty, blood--caked palm. She imagined herself driving the blade into Kaitlynn's back. The look of confusion and pain and reproach in Kaitlynn's terrified eyes.

Ariana breathed in and out, matching the cadence of her breath to Kaitlynn's, clutching the knife--her salvation--in her grip. And then, finally, the moment passed. She knew she couldn't do it, even though it would be so very satisfying. So very justified. If she murdered Kaitlynn in their shared dorm room, she would be back at the Brenda T. by tomorrow night. It couldn't be. And that frustrated her more than any of the failures she had endured over the last few days.

Sooner or later, Kaitlynn would get hers. The universe had a way of working these things out. Ariana simply hoped she would be there when justice was served. That she would have some part, even the smallest part, in making it happen.

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THE BULL DO ZER

Tuesday afternoon after classes, Ariana was walking across campus toward the tennis courts when she spotted Palmer coming out of the library. Her breath caught in her throat at the mere sight of him. Her first instinct was to avoid him. Lexa hadn't asked Conrad to the NoBash yet, so the two were not officially together. But Ariana had suffered a rough night. She deserved a bit of a flirt. Besides, Lexa's holier--than--thou act had seriously pissed her off.

He spotted her before she reached him and his eyes traveled up and down her practice uniform appreciatively, taking in the navy blue APH polo and white miniskirt. But then, of course, he frowned at the large bandage around her leg.

"Hey," he said, pausing in front of her. He took a quick look around, and, finding the coast apparently clear, lifted her hand to kiss it. "What happened to your leg?"

"Midnight snack accident," Ariana replied, lifting a shoulder. "Never take the stairs when half--asleep."

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"Sound advice," Palmer said, removing his baseball from his bag and tossing it up in front of him. "Can I walk you to practice?"

"Sure," Ariana replied with a smile.

As they strolled south toward the playing fields on the outskirts of campus, Ariana took a deep, soothing breath and let it out. Autumn was finally coming. She could taste it in the air. It was the first crisp, clear day of the season and the leaves on the trees of the APH campus were finally beginning to turn. She was walking along a cobblestone path with the guy of her dreams. For the briefest of moments, she allowed herself a break. Allowed herself to enjoy what she had--to appreciate how far she'd come.