On top of all that, her mom was sending almost daily messages badgering Emmy to work harder. Like that was even possible. She’d never worked so hard in her life. The worst part was, her mom hadn’t once mentioned her birthday. Birthdays had always been awkward. Emmy’s dad had left on her third birthday, and her mom wanted to forget everything about that day. But turning twelve was a big deal. Wasn’t it?
The morning of her birthday, Emmy met Lola in the common room.
“So, today’s the big day!” Lola said with a grin.
Emmy’s cheeks felt flushed. “How did you find out?”
“In first year, like everyone else.”
Emmy looked blankly at Lola. “Wait, what are you talking about?”
“It’s Saint Audrey’s Feast Day! We get a proper feast tonight to honor our house’s illustrious patron, Saint Audrey.”
“Audrey was a saint?” Emmy asked.
“Sure, all the houses are named after saints,” Jack said as he sauntered down the Edmund staircase. “Edmund, Felix, Withburga…they were all saints from this part of England.”
Emmy nodded. She’d wondered where the name Withburga had come from.
“Come on, I’m starving,” Lola said.
They hurried to the Hall and filled their plates with food. They had just sat down when someone cleared his throat behind them. “Morning, Jack.”
Jack didn’t turn around. “Hey, Malcolm.” He stared straight down and kept poking at the sausages on his plate.
“This is from Dad.” Malcolm handed Jack an envelope. “He asked me to give it to you when I went home last weekend.”
Jack looked up for the first time. “You went home for the weekend?”
Emmy bit her lip. Why hadn’t Jack been invited? The look on his face made her think Jack was wondering the same thing.
“I had some business to take care of…for Dad.”
Jack’s face went tight, like he was trying not to wince. “Right. Was that what you were doing when you and Dev fell off the chapter house?”
Malcolm looked around and crouched down beside Jack. “Look, I didn’t want him to come with me, okay? And it wasn’t ‘business.’ You think I’d let some kid come with me on business?”
“Then what was he doing with you?”
“I told you, it wasn’t my idea. Somebody dared me to walk along the edge, and… I don’t know, somehow he just ended up coming with me. He got freaked out and lost his balance. I grabbed him and pushed him back onto the wider part of the roof, but then I fell.”
Jack looked down at his plate of sausages. “That’s it?”
“That’s it. That’s the whole story.” Malcolm stared straight at his brother, like he was ready for a challenge.
“Fine,” Jack said.
Malcolm stood up and walked away. Emmy didn’t know what to make of him or his awkward relationship with Jack.
Classes went by slowly that day. She kept checking her phone for missed calls from her mom, but there was nothing. She just wanted to crawl into bed and wait for her birthday to be over.
After the long walk back from Latin Society, Emmy trudged up the Audrey stairs, opened the door to her room, and just about threw up.
The smell was overwhelming. Victoria was sitting on Emmy’s bed with four different nail polish bottles open on her nightstand. Her friend Arabella was sitting beside her, the dust from her nail file sprinkling over Emmy’s bedspread.
“Can’t you do that somewhere else?” Emmy said as she pulled her shirt up over her nose.
Victoria smiled sweetly. “Nope.” She carefully placed an open nail polish on Emmy’s pillow.
Emmy stared at the open bottle and shook her head. She’d had it with Victoria. “Get that stuff off my pillow.”
Victoria teetered toward Emmy, her freshly polished toes curled up and away from the fuzzy carpet. “Make me.” Her face was two inches away from Emmy’s, and she stared straight into Emmy’s eyes.
Emmy stared straight back.
Do it, she thought.
She clenched her fists.
Just this once.
She moved a little closer to Victoria. They were nose to nose.
“Get it off my bed.” Emmy gritted her teeth. “Now.”
Victoria swallowed hard and glanced at Arabella, who was sitting stock still. Emmy smirked. They hadn’t expected her to stand her ground.
“Fine,” Victoria said, her voice cracking a little. She nodded to Arabella, who picked up the nail polish, put on the cap, and tossed it and the nail file onto Victoria’s bed.
Emmy took a deep breath and picked up her economics textbook. Maybe she could get a few more chapters read before dinner. She turned toward the door, but the heavy book slipped out of her fingers…and landed right on Victoria’s toes.
Victoria shrieked and grabbed her foot, hopping and lunging toward Emmy. She flew forward and landed face-first on the floor. Emmy giggled and Victoria lunged from her hands and knees, her feet dragging on the fluffy white carpet.
“Your toes!” Arabella screeched.
A trail of pink goo streaked across the floor. Victoria screamed and flipped onto her back, legs flailing like a cockroach that couldn’t find its feet.
“It took me an hour to get my toes just right! You did that on purpose, you little witch!”
“I didn’t even do anything!”
“Oh, really? Was that an accident?” Victoria sat up and grabbed the nail polish off her bed. “Then I’m going to cause a little accident, too!” She swiped Emmy’s economics textbook, wrenched open the bottle, and slowly tipped it upside down.
“No!” Emmy yelled, but it was too late. Nail polish was dribbling down into the textbook, oozing between the pages.
“Oops!” Victoria flipped through the book, making sure each page got a generous dollop of sticky pink polish. “Had a little spill! And if you don’t want me to have an ‘accident’ with any of your other books, I’d suggest you get out of MY room!”
Emmy pressed her lips together, then felt her shoulders slump. It’s not worth it. Just go. Let her win. Again. She reached for the door handle and walked out.
“Bye-bye!” A chorus of giggles rang out, and Emmy started to run. She ran down the stairs and flew out the door, knocking over a couple of first years as she went. She ran and ran, following the trail farther into the forest.
The pines grew thicker here. Their heavy branches bowed into the trail, slapping at Emmy with sharp blue needles. She kept running. The smell of the pines started mingling with something else, something she hadn’t noticed before—salt.