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Elena hurried toward Robert E Lee, feeling as if she’d been away fro from her distant childhood, barely remembered But she knew that today there would be its consequences to face

Last night she’d had to face Aunt Judith Her aunt had been terribly upset when neighbors had told her about the murder, and even more upset that no one seemed to knohere Elena was By the ti, she had been frantic orry

Elena hadn’t been able to explain She could only say that she’d been with Stefan, and that she knew he had been accused, and that she kneas innocent All the rest, everything else that had happened, she had had to keep to herself Even if Aunt Judith had believed it, she would never have understood

And thisElena had slept in, and now she was late The streets were deserted except for her, as she hurried on toward the school Overhead,, the sky was gray and a as rising She desperately wanted to see Stefan All night, while she’d been sleeping so heavily, she’d had nightmares about him

One dream had been especially real In it she saw Stefan’s pale face and his angry, accusing eyes He held up a book to her and said, "How could you, Elena? How could you?" Then he dropped the book at her feet and walked away She called after hi until he disappeared in darkness When she looked down at the book, she saas bound in dark blue velvet Her diary

A quiver of anger went through her as she thought again of how her diary had been stolen But what did the dream mean? What was in her diary to make Stefan look like that?

She didn’t know All she kneas that she needed to see hi away fro separated froh school into the nearly e, because she knew that Stefan’s first class was Latin If she could just see hiht

But he wasn’t in class Through the littlein the door, she saw his empty seat Matt was there, and the expression on his faceat Stefan’s desk with a look of sick apprehension

Elena turned away from the door mechanically Like an autoonometry classroom As she opened the door, she saw every face turn toward her, and she slipped hastily into the empty desk beside Meredith

Ms Halpern stopped the lesson for a moment and looked at her, then continued When the teacher had turned back to the blackboard, Elena looked at Meredith

Meredith reached over to take her hand "Are you all right?" she whispered

"I don’t know," said Elena stupidly She felt as if the very air around her was sht all around her Meredith’s fingers felt dry and hot "Meredith, do you knohat’s happened to Stefan?"

"You meanyou don’t know?" Meredith’s dark eyes widened, and Elena felt the weight grow evendeep, deep under water without a pressure suit