“Tomorrow,” Polly said. “Her family just got back from a European trip today and she’s flying in from Sacramento tomorrow morning.”
“So you’ve been braving all the Freshman activities without a wingman? That must be tough.”
“It hasn’t been so bad,” Polly said. “I’m usually pretty shy but I’ve been trying to put myself out there more than I did in high school.”
“That’s cool,” Hannah said, seeing a perfect opportunity. “It’s a fresh start so you can be whoever you want here. What kind of stuff have you done so far?”
“I’m planning to go to the Involvement Fair this afternoon,” Polly said. “But so far, I’ve only been to the English Department welcome event—that’s my major.”
"I saw that on your profile that the committee gave me. And it looks like you won some prestigious scholarship. Congrats!"
“Thanks,” she said softly.
“You do anything else cool?”
“I went to a fraternity party on Saturday night.”
“Oh, how was that?” Hannah asked.
Polly’s face went slack. “I discovered that it’s not my scene.”
“Sorry to hear it wasn’t a hit,” Hannah said. “I’m not a huge fan of Greek life myself. Which fraternity was it?”
“I think it was called Omega Sigma?”
“I’ve been there,” Hannah said, not ready to go in for the kill yet. “There are some nice guys but also a few that are—less so.”
Polly nodded without responding.
“Judging by your expression, it seems like you met more of the latter,” Hannah prodded.
“Let’s just say I won’t be going back.”
Hannah figured that there wasn’t going to be a riper moment to throw Polly off and get a genuine sense of her and whether she might have written that note.
“Probably a good call,” she said. “After all, Jennings Casterly was pretty drunk that night. He’s probably completely forgotten you. But if you show up again, it might jog his memory and make him start asking questions.”
She stopped talking and stared at Polly.
“What?” the freshman asked tensely, before halfheartedly adding. “Who’s that?”
She was a terrible liar. Her cheeks had turned crimson and her fingers were fidgeting. Though she had no proof, Hannah was certain that she had found the letter’s author.
“You remember him,” she said, her hand creeping behind her back and brushing against the taser handle. “He’s the boil on the flesh of humanity who treated you like a serf.”
Polly popped up from her bed. Hannah stiffened and gripped the taser. But rather than advancing on her, Polly moved away, toward the tiny window at the far end of the small room. She looked like a mouse trapped in a tiny cage.
“You’re not with any welcome committee,” she said, her voice quavering. “Are you really some campus cop or something?”
“No,” Hannah said. “I do actually go to school here. But I also sometimes help out other students with problems they don’t feel comfortable taking to the cops. That includes scummy frat guys who don’t want full-fledged investigations into what might make someone so mad that they’d write a note threatening to ‘lance’ him.”
“Oh god,” Polly muttered, slumping against the far wall.
“I’m going to be straight with you, Polly,” she said. “It’s clear that you wrote the note. Even before I saw your reaction here, the language in that thing screamed ‘English major.’ And earlier this morning, I went through the fraternity’s footage of the party on Saturday night. I saw your interaction with Jennings. Even without audio, it was clear that it wasn’t a moment you’ll always treasure. That’s why I’m here.”
“Why?” Polly demanded, her tone forceful for the first time. “So you can hand me over to the cops for making some dumb idle threat?”
“No,” Hannah said, only realizing her real purpose for being here as she said the words out loud, “I’m here to see if you reallyarea threat or just a young girl who was so hurt at how she was treated that she lashed out at the asshole responsible. So which is it?”
