Heavenstone 02 - Secret Whispers

can’t do that. It’s against the law.”
    “We have the right to search any room and anyone’s things,” he told her. “It’s part of the agreement your parents signed when you were admitted. If I were you, I’d move along. Mrs. Hathaway is waiting for you.”
    She looked at me with such desperation my heart actually ached for her. The security guard began to pull things out of her suitcase. When he turned to her again, she hurried out of the room.
    “If you know where she’s hidden stuff that shehas stolen, you’d better tell me,” he said. “Otherwise, you could be considered an accessory to a crime here, Miss.”
    “Tell him,” Cassie whispered. “For Daddy’s sake. Tell him!”
    “She brought these things to me once,” I said, and took the dress, shoes, and clutch out of her suitcase. I opened one of my dresser drawers and handed him the chandelier earrings.
    “What else?” he demanded. “There’s more,” he said. “I’m sure.”
    “I don’t know anything except . . .”
    “What?”
    “I think she threw a necklace down the toilet.”
    He went into the bathroom and then came out. “Don’t use it,” he said.
    I looked out the doorway into the hallway. Mr. Kasofsky was walking by with Pam Dorfman. She glanced at me with a look of satisfaction on her face. She had saved herself. It had become rats deserting a sinking ship.
    But who was I to talk? Look at what I had given the security guard. I was twisting up inside with all of my mixed feelings. They hadn’t liked me before; they’d hate me now.
    “Stop thinking about them. You don’t want to be on this ship anyway,” Cassie muttered. “Let it sink.”

Sinking Ship
    L ESS THAN AN hour later, I looked out my room window and saw the police car. I stood mesmerized by the sight of it. This was far more than just being expelled and having to face your parents. Ellie was going to be in very serious trouble now. This was no longer some silly prank her parents would eventually excuse. Moments later, the campus security guard and a patrolman escorted her out of the building with her hands behind her back in handcuffs and put her into the rear of the vehicle. I knew all of the girls were at their own windows, watching in shock. Mrs. Hathaway stood on the steps talking to another patrolman for a few minutes, and then he got into the car, and they drove Ellie off. I caught a brief glimpse of her face in the window. She looked like a little girl, really terrified. It brought tears to my eyes.
    “Stop that pity. Good riddance,” I heard Cassie whisper. “Just think of the trouble she could have gotten you in and what this might have done to Daddy.”
    “I’m not as hard as you are, Cassie,” I whispered back. “I don’t think I ever will be.”
    “Yes, you will,” she insisted. “Someday, you will be just like me.”
    Not long after the patrol car left, two taxicabs arrived. Natalie Roberts got into one, and Cara Allen got into the other. I watched them drive away as well. Then I went to my doorway and looked down the hall to see Pam talking softly with some other girls. She glanced up at me and quickly turned her back. Despite what I knew Cassie thought of this, I couldn’t help but feel even more pity for Ellie. I felt sure that the biggest disappointment had been learning that her so-called good friend had turned her in to save her own neck. But to my surprise, Pam went into her room and came out with her suitcases, too. She marched down the hallway, where the security guard waited to take one of her bags and escort her out. I followed curiously and saw her stop to talk with Mrs. Hathaway before she went out to a third cab.
    I was confused. If she was being forced to leave, too, why had she turned on Ellie?
    “She’s letting her take her exams a week after graduation,” Amanda Crowley said, as if she could read my thoughts. She had come up beside me. “If she passes everything, she graduates. That was her deal.”
    “Oh.”
    “You’re getting away with a lot, too, aren’t you?”
    “Me? Why?”
    She smirked. “She stole things for you. Everyone knows it. She told some of the girls. You’re an accessory. You should have been in that police car sittingright beside her. But not Princess Heaven-stone.” She walked away.
    “Den of vipers, ” Cassie muttered.
    When I returned to my room, I called Ethan.
    “Hey,” he said. “What’s up?”
    I described the events that occurred after he had dropped me off. He