Chapter 22

There were five properties: one by the river, one downtown, and three detached houses outside the city.

Elise looked through the floor plans. Two of the houses had three stories. Even the other properties were over twenty-two hundred square feet.

Her adoptive parents had spent their lives being careful with money. Having some to spare wouldn't persuade them to rent a big place. She would already have to come up with a reason they should move into one of hers; if it was too large, they would refuse to live there at all.

“Julian, these are all too big.”

He frowned. Then, remembering how things had been in their previous life, he realized what he had overlooked.

“Would you like me to replace one with a smaller place?”

“No, you don't need to!” She shook her head quickly.

An inheritance and five properties were quite enough for one night. Asking him to exchange a house would make her seem dissatisfied, as though she were trying to bargain for something better.

Julian understood. “Then you'll have to buy yourself a smaller one sometime,” he said, sounding a little regretful.

After a moment, Elise stood. “Thank you, Julian.” She meant it.

His eyes softened, a smile in them. “You don't have to thank me. It was yours to begin with.”

Something occurred to him. He bent a little closer to her.

“Besides, now you don't have to worry even if your grades aren't very good.”

“Why?”

He recalled something he had read online, his smile growing. “Bad grades aren't the end of the world, Ellie. You've still got a family fortune.”

Elise looked up, puzzled.

Was he saying her grades were bad?

She had done a practice paper for junior-year math that very evening. The only points she had lost were on the last extended problem.

Had he misunderstood something about her?

She left his study feeling dazed. By breakfast the next morning, the feeling still hadn't quite worn off.

The sight of her neatly packed schoolbag finally brought her back to earth.

Today was the first day of school. She was starting her junior year.

She had collected her uniform when she checked in at Northbridge High. Even the uniforms at this academically strong school were different from the ones at her old school: loose shirts and long pants had been the summer uniform there. Here, she had a white shirt patterned with a pale gray check and a skirt that reached her knees.

Dressed and ready, she went downstairs. Julian had made the unusual effort to get up early and was already eating breakfast.

“Where's Vivian?” she asked, looking around.

Daniel stood behind Julian's chair. He inclined his head. “Miss Vivian left for school first thing this morning.”

Elise had hardly seen her since her hair had been sent away for the DNA test. Apparently, she had been staying in her room all this time.

She couldn't quite understand it. Wasn't finding your birth parents a good thing? Why did Vivian resist it so fiercely?

They would be going to the same school. A few days ago, Elise had even learned she had been assigned to Vivian's homeroom. Still, she understood why Vivian hadn't waited for her.

Vivian had never liked her.

Julian frowned slightly. “When will the test results be back, Daniel?”

“Probably Friday.” Daniel considered it. “Three days from now.”

Julian nodded. Testing took time. There was nothing to be done about that.

Half an hour later, Ethan was driving Elise to school.

She looked at Julian in the front passenger seat, then at Adrian beside her in the back.

“Adrian, aren't you busy at the moment?”

In her previous life, his work as a singer had kept him constantly on the move, rushing from one event to another all over the country.

He was still sleepy. On a day off, he generally stayed in bed until ten. He had made an exception because it was her first day at school.

He rubbed his face. “It's quiet right now. Besides, it's your first day. Of course I'm coming with you.”

Then his eyes darkened, something dangerous entering his expression.

He had work scheduled, all right. He had turned it down.

In his previous life, his record company had shown him exactly what its loyalty was worth. When he was in trouble, its executives had taken advantage of him and forced him into a punishing long-term contract.

Now that he knew what they were really like, he intended to leave the company. He had already begun preparing to end his contract.

Julian was listening from the front. Thinking through the situations his sister might encounter at school, he began giving her advice, one thing at a time.

“Remember, Ellie, if your new classmates are kind to you, be kind to them.”

Another possibility crossed his mind, and his gaze chilled. “But if someone doesn't like you, you don't owe them any special consideration.”

“I know.” Elise nodded obediently.

She knew he was worried about her, but she couldn't help feeling a little helpless. This was hardly her first time in high school. She understood these things.

For once, Adrian agreed with Julian.

“If anyone bullies you, make sure you tell us.” The corner of his mouth lifted in a cold smile. “I'll make sure they understand who they shouldn't have messed with.”

The conversation had somehow acquired the tension of a confrontation. Elise hurried to change the subject.

“School's starting. Why isn't Miles back yet?”

Miles also went to Northbridge High. He was a year and a half older than her, but they were in the same grade, both starting their junior year. Now that term had begun, where was he?

All she knew was that he had started talking about escaping the heat as soon as summer vacation began. He and his friends had gotten together, and someone had suggested that if they wanted somewhere cool, they might as well go to the coldest place they could think of.

So they had gone to Antarctica.

The weather had caused trouble there. Signals kept cutting out, and flights had been suspended for a while.

Julian's brow tightened. Miles and that pack of friends spent all their time together dreaming up one outrageous idea after another. In his last message, Miles had said he would come home once flights resumed.

“They still haven't resumed,” Julian said flatly.

“Won't he miss his classes?” Elise frowned. “He'll fall behind everyone else.”

Adrian had an elbow propped against the window. He turned toward her with a scoff.

“With his grades, he's worried about falling behind?” He put more emphasis on the next question. “Is there anywhere further down for him to go?”

Elise thought of Miles's current grades and quietly closed her mouth.

He had a reputation at school for fighting and throwing his weight around. Studying scarcely entered into it. Turning in blank tests, or simply failing to show up for them, was nothing unusual for him.

Whether school had started probably didn't matter to him at all.

Even after they reached the gates, Julian and Adrian had plenty more advice. It was some time before Elise finally got out of the car.

Northbridge High's classroom buildings looked new and distinctly modern, quite unlike the ones at her old school.

She recalled Julian's instruction to find her new homeroom adviser first. Once she found the right building, she headed upstairs toward the teachers' office on the third floor.

Classes were about to begin. Students hurried past, too busy getting where they needed to be to notice her.

The bell rang. Everyone on the stairs seemed to pause for an instant, then react at once.

“We're going to be late!”

They charged upward.

Elise quietly stepped back out of the way, letting several students rush past.

A girl with an ear-length bob had just struggled up to the landing. She was about to stop and catch her breath when the bell sent a look of alarm across her face. She started up the next flight.

She was too winded. Her foot slipped, and she pitched forward toward the steps.

Elise reached out with both hands and caught her arm, holding her firmly enough to stop the fall.

The girl looked up. “Thank...”

Then she saw Elise's face and went still.

Elise blinked. The girl had stopped speaking and was staring at her.

“What's wrong?”

The girl stared for several more seconds, her eyes widening.

She looked familiar. Where had she seen her before? She couldn't remember.

But she was so pretty.

It wasn't only her clear, fair skin. She had a small face like a model's, deep-set eyes and long lashes that curled naturally. Her nose was small and finely shaped, her lips full, the corners of her mouth lifting just a little. Every feature seemed perfectly made.

She looked like a fairy-tale girl.

Mom, it was the first day of school, and she'd already met someone who belonged in a fairy tale!

And that girl was looking back at her now, studying her with earnest curiosity.

Her face went hot.

She abruptly pulled her arm free. Without even finishing her thanks, she bolted upstairs.

How embarrassing!

Elise stared after her, baffled.

A little later, she put the encounter out of her mind and continued to the third floor. After checking that she had found the right office, she knocked.

Several teachers inside looked over.

“Good morning.” She dipped her head politely. “Is Ms. Parker here?”

She knew her new homeroom adviser's surname, but she hadn't met her yet.

A woman on the right side of the office stood. She had a ponytail and glasses. At the sight of Elise, she raised her eyebrows, then waved her over.

Ms. Parker looked to be in her thirties. Her manner was easygoing, but she wasted no time, putting a whole stack of textbooks into Elise's arms.

“These are your books for the semester. I'll give them to you now and save you a trip to the school office.”

The stack wobbled in Elise's arms. She steadied it and nodded. “Thank you, Ms. Parker.”

Ms. Parker began going through the school rules with her.

“No smoking, no makeup. If you're caught, you get a mark on your record. Actually, I doubt you'll have any trouble with those. I won't waste your time going on about them.”

Elise didn't quite know what to say to that.

The girl was watching her with such wide, attentive eyes that Ms. Parker sighed.

Why had they put this child in her group?

A transfer student's old grades weren't a direct basis for placement here. Without Northbridge's own assessment results, they could only put newcomers in whichever group had room.

Her science cohort ranked second in the grade on the school's assessments. The teachers at Elise's old school had had fewer resources, and its average scores were well below Northbridge's. As for Elise herself, she had been somewhere in the middle at that school.

The placement assessment was coming up soon. Before long, the girl would probably be reassigned to a lower group, and someone else would be teaching her.

Any one of the students in Ms. Parker's group would have been a top student at an ordinary high school. Putting Elise among them now might do real damage to her confidence.