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"How artistic," Thomas says "Ladies, I applaud you"

Pen rolls her eyes

The shuttle jolts to a stop The patrol Be safe

The essay sits in his pocket, just another of the many secrets the patrolmen surely keep

I hesitate

Pen balances herself on the ladies’ room sink and pushes on theuntil it opens out She frowns "It doesn’t open very far, but we’ll be able to get through I’ll go first if you promise not to look up my skirt"

"I don’t know about this," I say

She stops pushing at the glass and stares down at me "What’s the worst that can happen?"

"We could get caught" I say

"And then what? A few de is the one letting us all go on in oblivion while ato reason She’s ," she says pertly "If I’m brutally murdered by Judas Hensley, it’ll be because you weren’t there to protect h the

I hear the swish of leaves as she lands in one of the hedges

I hoist myself onto the sink and peek outside after her "Did you die?" I ask

"Like landing in a cloud," she says, tugging a leaf fro?"

I think about Judas’s white hair in the ht and his bleary eyes and the words Pen left for him in the cavern: "Are you a h the

Pen reaches up for htly better landing And then we’re both standing outside the academy in the middle of the day, while our class a play It seeod of the sky hi happens at all

Pen and Ithe stone fence that divides the academy’s property from the university’s, and we step over a shallow river that trickles in a ravine at the base of the woods If Internment were a clock, the section with our academy would be the six and the section with the park would be the twelve; it’s a short walk

Everything about this feels wrong, but I don’t stop

"Basil is going to be hurt if he finds out I lied to hih you won’t still marry hi My chest feels tight

By the time we reach the cavern, the seams under my arms are damp with sweat and I can scarcely breathe Pen looks into the cavern

"Morgan!" she says I crouch beside her and follow her gaze

Her question has been smoothed away, and scrawled in its place: Yes

Pen has her hand over her mouth, but by the swell in her cheeks I know that she’s s

I crawl into the cavern He was here That’s all I can think He was here

"We should ask hi away his response

All I’d like to ask is why he’s lying But I don’t say that Maybe I’ll coo," I say

She turns a pebble in her hand, considering I take it away and set it in the dirt, and continue, "We’ll barely make it back before lunch is over if we leave now"

"Fine," she huffs As we make our way back to the acade, every rustled leaf It’s a game to her Our secret es

I would tell her that e’re doing is wrong, but I like that we have a secret together, like the kinds we had ere children It’s been so long since she’s shared any secrets with me

When we return to the acadeher than either of us remember, and there’s no sink out here for us to stand on Pen tries using the hedge, but that proves impossible

"Okay," she says, "if I hold my hands out, you could use them as a step and make it inside Then you can pull h the proper door," Heada says from behind us "I’s to chat about in my office"