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"I’m afraid the medical staff has not cleared you for this particular exercise You will have to sit this one out, dear"

"But I don’t want to sit anything out"

"Ca yourself"

Not twenty-four hours before, I’d been fighting for my life in the woods around Joe Solomon’s cabin No one had cleared ht better of it at the last ham went on, "I believe Dr Steve has requested a ith you"

My classirl in the world as I gathered s and walked outside

"Oh, Cammie, come in Co for his shoulder, theyones, because he had gotten two of his shirt buttons in the wrong holes, spilled coffee all over his sling, and he was grinning like he was six years old and soood to see you, Caood to see you," he said over and over, each ti a different word

"Uh…how are you, Dr Steve?" I asked

"Oh, I’m fine, my dear Perfectly fine Just a scratch, you know"

I did know, but all I could hear were Zach’s words co in my ears: You could have died You could have died You could have--

"Ca me back "Well, if I didn’t know better, I’d say you just took a little trip"

"I’m sorry"

"Don’t be It’s perfectly natural for--"

"No, I don’tyou I"I’m sorry"

"You shouldn’t be sorry, Cammie," Dr Steve said "I don’t knohat I would have done if you’d been hurt" A darkness covered his face He shivered as if the thought were simply too much, and then he forced himself to smile "Now, tell me, how do you feel?"

"I’m fine"

"No, Cammie"--he shook his head slowly--"how do you feel?" And then I kneasn’t talking aboutsteadily smaller on my head He was the one who’d been shot, but Dr Steve knew that I ht have been the one seriously wounded on that hillside

"I killed a man," I said

"Yes, you did"

"He was going to stab Bex, so…I killed him"

"And how does that make you feel?"

It was an excellent question--one the Gallagher Acadeht uilty and relieved But , as it turns out, is one of the scariest feelings of all

When I finally got back to the suite that night, I was greeted by a single sentence and three scorching looks

"Where were you?"

"Why?" I asked, closing the door and dropping my books on the bed I sat down and tried to pull offover me

"It’s aluess I lost track of time I was in the library"

Bex looked at Liz "I thought you looked in the library"

Liz’s eyes ide "I did"

The three of theht ain that afternoon but hadn’t bothered to tell the that makeup exa at me "I swear"

I held up a hand, Scout’s-honor style, and Bex eased forward, slowly shaking her head "Now’s not the ti acts, okay?"

"Okay," I said,it All over the floor there were papers and charts and note cards It was exactly what I’d always iined the inside of Liz’s head to look like "What’s all this?"

"Ro answer to my question

I pointed to the line on a flip chart that just read MACEY in capital letters

Macey shrugged "I have a jet," she said, because, I guess, "free jet" is an asset that should never be undervalued

"Guys, that’s awesoht?"

"But…" Macey started, then trailed off, pointed at her name "Jet"

I wanted to tell thee the fact that the Gallagher Academy was the one place where I was safe I didn’t dare say that I was terrified that if I left our walls, the trustees ree to let me back in Even then, in the quiet stillness of our roo myself to relive the words I’d heard the trustees utter, so I just shook ain"

"Fine So you can’t go But we can" Bex pointed from herself to Liz and Macey

"What exactly are you guys going to do? Wander around the streets of Ro if anybody saw me bump my head?"

"We have a lead, Ca" She picked up the bracelet that spelled out her name "This is--"

"A trinket A souvenir It’s nothing"

"Oh, not nothing," Macey said She held her thin wrist out so that her bracelet caught the light "I saw soue"