“Despite your destructive behavior, you’re not in trouble, Hazel. We’re here to help you.” She leaned across her desk, her grey eyes swirling with something that might’ve passed for concern if I didn’t know she resurrected students in her Frankenstein lab. “Is there anything you want to tell me? Anything weighing on your mind?”
Just the fact that you’re going to feed me to a cosmic deity and then reanimate my body in your heinous lab and trap me in this school for the rest of my life so that your precious Eldritch Club can control the world. I guess you might say I’m a little preoccupied.
“Thanks for your concern,” I said through gritted teeth. “But I’m fine. Can I go now?”
“Not just yet.” Ms. West shuffled the papers in her hands and laid them down in front of her. “Your behavior ever since you arrived at this school has been erratic and disruptive, and it’s only getting worse.”
“Mybehavior—”
“You have been implicated in some serious incidents of bullying and blaming other students for your cruel actions. You broke into my office, and your interactions with other students are starting to cause alarm.”
“What bullying incidents? You mean how I’ve been thevictimof bullying by your beloved class president?”
“Miss Haynes tells me that several students had their toiletries spiked with chemicals that made their hair fall out and damaged their skin. We searched your room and found empty bottles from the products in question. What a nasty, dangerous thing to do! If they’d got those chemicals in their eyes, you might’ve caused permanent damage.”
“I only did it because Courtney poured tar all over my hair,” I shot back. “I was nearly sick from the fumes and I had to cut off all my hair. Personally, I think she got off lightly. Why isn’t she being hauled in here for all the bullyingshe’sdone?”
“Because you’re not telling the truth,” Ms. West said. “You’re trying to cast blame on an innocent student in another attempt to torment her. The first week you arrived on campus I took you to Old Waldron. She cut off your filthy dreadlocks. They were a health risk for the student body – we couldn’t have a lice outbreak.”
“That’s not what happened!Courtneyand Trey broke into my room and put tar in my hair.”
“Do you mean Trey, your boyfriend?”
“He’s not my boyfriend. And Courtney filled my locker with rotting meat and—”
“Stop,” Ms. West snapped. “I’ve heard enough of your baseless accusations. I don’t need to remind you thatyouwere the one reprimanded for throwing meat around in the halls. You even admitted that you put that meat in yourownlocker so you could deliver it to Courtney’s dorm.”
I snapped my mouth shut as a cold unease settled in my chest. This whole conversation felt like deja vu.This is a lot like my dream. But why? What does that mean?
“After some careful consideration, I decided to speak with some of your classmates and get the full picture of what’s been going on with you. What they’ve told me is concerning.” Ms. West shifted a paper to the top of the stack. “According to Ms. Fairchild, you have called them insulting names like ‘rich bitch’ and spread rumors about them to turn their friends and boyfriends against them.”
“Tillie is another bully who has been torturing the scholarship students since we arrived—”
“Tillie Fairchild and Courtney Haynes are two of your class leaders. They’ve proven themselves trustworthy and responsible. Miss Haynes has also become close with Loretta Putnam, so I know you’re not speaking truthfully. Why would Courtney pay for a room in the dorms for a girl she was bullying?”
“Because… because she’s brainwashed Loretta. It’s probably something to do with sacrificing her to your demon god and then bringing her back to life.”
The words flew out of my mouth before I could stop them. To my surprise, the god let me speak them. Either the stranger in the room knew all about the agreement or the spell that stopped my tongue had lifted.
Ms. West didn’t react how I expected. She looked down at the file on her desk and sighed. Then she turned to the teachers and the strange man. “See? This is what I’m talking about.”
My fingers started to tingle as rage bubbled inside me. I stared down at that paper under her hands, my picture pinned to the front. A file about me, just like the one Ayaz had kept in Parris’ book.
I hocked a wad of spit right in the center of it.
Ms. West didn’t flinch. She picked up the paper, folded it in half, and slid it into her trash can.
That was when I knew I was in deep fucking shit.
“You’ve made wild claims about things at this school,” she said, her voice all concerned and soothing. “Human sacrifices, rats in the walls, a cosmic god living under the gym, students raised from the dead to torment their classmates. You have quite the imagination.”
I folded my arms and glared at her.What are you playing at?
“These wild stories have us concerned. We love our students to exercise innovation and imagination, but when you start to blur the world between fantasy and reality, you become a danger to yourself and others.” Ms. West reached across her desk with taloned fingers, like she wanted to hold my hand or some shit. I folded my arms across my chest and shoved my hands under my elbows. “Quinn Delacorte brought you to the infirmary after he found you passed out with a bottle of floor polish in your hand. After emptying your stomach of the poison, you claimed it was Courtney who forced you to drink it.”
“I never went to the infirmary!” I said. “And shedidforce it down my throat. And down Greg Lambert’s throat, too. Ask him if you don’t believe me.”
She turned a page on another file. “I’ve already spoken to Mr. Lambert. He was at rehearsal for the school production at the time of this alleged attack, as was Ms. Haynes and her friends.”
