She sighed. “The Almanacs, Josh. The stolen Almanacs? The Jester’s prank?”
“Yeah, yeah, Alex Nguyen is a criminal mastermind,” he said. “But how does that connect…” His shoulders suddenly straightened, and he whirled around to face me.
I held my hands up in surrender. “Listen, I’m not the Jester.” I swallowed hard. “Neither is Alex.” My heart pounded. “But we helped him.”
Josh sat in shock as my mom and I ate dinner. “I don’t want to know,” he said before almost immediately changing his mind. “Actually, I want to know.”
“These fajitas are amazing, hon,” my mom commented at one point, so casually that it was clear she had zero interest in hearing about my involvement in stealing the Almanacs. In fact, she’d told me she didn’t. At least not yet. “It’s a fantastic prank,” she said while Josh delivered Tag’s culinary treasure chest, “and I’ll admit that half of me is amused—andimpressed—you played a part.” She sighed. “But it ended with you getting caught, Lil.” She shook her head. “I’m still very frustrated and disappointed, so I don’t want details.”
My eyes pooled. It felt foreign not telling her something and stranger still that she didn’t want to know.
After dinner, I dumped my backpack in my room and changed into pajamas while my mom sliced us huge hunks of the chocolate chip cheesecake Josh had begrudgingly baked us. “Just promise to practice proper portion control,” he’d said. “Don’t eat half of it in one night…”
“Should we watch the newProject Runwayepisode?” I asked on the way back downstairs. “Or are you feeling—” The words died on my lips upon entering the living room.
Because Penny Bickford was sitting on our couch, still wearing today’s elegant cream pantsuit with her legs crossed like she meant business. “Good evening, Lily,” she said.
“Good evening, Headmaster Bickford,” I replied, knowingnow wasnotthe time to call her “Penny.” Something told me she was not here in a grandmotherly capacity.
Where was my mom?
“Your mother has stepped out for a moment,” Penny said, reading my mind. “I requested that the three of us speak privately.”
“The three of us?” I asked.
“Yes.” She nodded. “I would like you to FaceTime Mr. Swell since he is currently housebound.”
My stomach sank. Oh—oh, no. Daniel had said he was working with the faculty to find the yearbooks, and because Tag and I’d been caught last night, we were Headmaster Bickford’s first lead. “Of course,” I said, trying to keep calm. “Just, um, let me grab my phone.” I pointed upstairs. “It’s in my room.”
It was really in my sweatshirt pocket, but I had to warn Tag.
“Pick up, pick up,” I muttered a minute later, back in my bedroom. He wasn’t answering. “Pick up, goddammit…”
Three tries proved not to be the charm, so I switched to my next best bet. “You’re lucky I like you, Lily,” Alex said by way of greeting. “I don’t hang up on Anthony for anyone.”
“Where’s Tag?” I asked a bit frantically. “He isn’t answering his phone.”
“Well, yeah, because he’s asleep. He’s been knocked out for like two hours.”
I glanced at my alarm clock, eyebrows then knitting together. It was almost 9:00. What had Tag done? Gone to sleep at 7:00?
“Honestly, I don’t know how you’re still standing,” Alex said. “With your disciplinary hearing first thing—”
I groaned.Holy shitballs, how was that only this morning?
It suddenly felt like weeks ago.
Alex hummed. “Mm-hmm.”
“I need you to wake Tag up,” I said, pulling myself back together. “It’s an emergency. Shake him until he speaks more than gibberish, tell him to put on a shirt, and then to please FaceTime me…”
“Hello, Taggart,” Headmaster Bickford said when I returned downstairs and joined her on the couch, close enough that we could both see Tag’s face on my phone. He wore a faded and frayed Chicago Cubs T-shirt and sat at his desk with sleep-rumpled dark hair and heavy-lidded eyes. My throat thickened, and I tried to will away the need to be with him right now—the need to bury myself in his warm chest and listen to his heartbeat while he softly kissed my forehead.
“Hello, Headmaster Bickford,” he said. “How are you?”
“Ready for a glass of wine,” she said bluntly, her headmaster façade falling away and Penny coming to life. “I’m simply going to cut to the chase so I can go home and pour myself one.” She sighed. “Did you steal the Almanacs last night?”
A puzzled expression crossed Tag’s brow. “Uh, I was with Lily,” he said. “Like I told you this morning, she and I were together. We were, um—you know, together.” He somehow summoned a blush to further evade the question.
