Heavenstone 02 - Secret Whispers

said. “It’s the end of the year. We’re entitled to some fun.”
    I turned and started away.
    “You better not squeal on us, Semantha!” Ellie shouted after me.
    I had no intention of doing that, even though I was fuming. After I marched out of the dorm, I kept walking. Ethan’s reaction to my deep secret and now this wild party in my dorm room were too much. I felt like walking back to Kentucky. I didn’t realize I was crying, too, until I heard someone call my name and turned to see Mrs. Hathaway standing with Mr. Kasofsky, our history teacher. They were talking by his car. I had wandered all the way to the main building.
    Oh no, I thought as Mrs. Hathaway started toward me. I looked back at the dormitory.
    “What’s wrong, Semantha?”
    “Nothing,” I said, wiping my cheeks quickly.
    “Why are you crying?”
    “I’m not. Something got into my eye,” I said.
    She stood there looking at me. “Didn’t you sign out earlier?”
    “Yes, ma’am.”
    She looked at Mr. Kasofsky and then back at the dormitory. “Is something going on that I should know about back there?” she asked.
    “No,” I said, too vehemently.
    She tightened her lips and walked back to Mr. Kasofsky. My heart began thumping. They got into his car and drove toward the dorms. They’re surely going to blame me, I thought. I started back slowly. By the time I arrived, Mrs. Hathaway and Mr. Kasofsky had obviously been to Ellie’s and my room. The hallway was dead quiet. I heard Mrs. Hingle’s office door open and Ellie and Natalie Roberts came out, both, as my father might say, looking like death warmed over. I could see the other girls were still in the office.
    “I didn’t tell her anything,” I told them.
    “Right,” Natalie said. “She just happened to come rushing back here after you left.”
    “How could you do this to us?” Ellie asked me.
    “I didn’t. She saw me walking and saw I was crying. I didn’t even know I was crying, but . . .”
    “You’re such a phony,” Ellie said. “I bet you made up that whole story about your mother and your sister. That whole candle thing in the bathroom was probably some kind of voodoo ceremony or something. Youpretended to be such a wallflower, but you managed to steal away my boyfriend. Now you put on this act for Mrs. Hathaway and got us all expelled just before our graduation. We had to sit in there while she called our parents to tell them. Congratulations.”
    They started away.
    “None of that is true!” I screamed after them. They didn’t pause or turn around.
    I backed up and sat on the small sofa in the lobby. I was too frightened to return to our room. Minutes later, the other girls, looking just as devastated as Ellie and Natalie, emerged from Mrs. Hingle’s office. They glanced at me and continued down the hallway.
    Mrs. Hathaway came to the open office doorway and looked out at me.
    “Come in here, Semantha,” she said.
    As soon as I entered, she closed the door. Mr. Kasofsky was sitting on the settee, looking just as upset as she did.
    “Sit,” Mrs. Hathaway ordered, nodding at one of the chairs. “I’m happy you didn’t participate in their debauchery,” she began.
    “They think I turned them in,” I muttered.
    “So what? They’re certainly not good friends of yours. They said some nasty things about you in here,” she revealed. I looked at Mr. Kasofsky, who nodded. “I don’t imagine you’ll ever have anything to do with any of them again, either.”
    “But the rest of the student body . . .”
    “Are you running for president of the student council or something?”
    “No, but . . . they’ll blame me!” I cried.
    “They have only themselves to blame for what’s happened. However, I don’t imagine they’ll make things pleasant for you until they leave. I have arranged for taxicabs to pick them up in less than an hour. I’d like you to go to the library and wait there until I call for you. I can’t imagine you’d want to return to that room while Ellie Patton is still here, and I want it fumigated anyway. It reeks of marijuana. They are lucky I didn’t call the police. That has been my standard procedure for such behavior. I’m calling your father, and I want you to be present while I speak with him.”
    “Why? I didn’t do anything.”
    “Whenever a student has any significant changes in her living or schooling here, we inform the parents immediately.”
    She picked up the phone and called my father. I sat and