“Did you know he was kicked out of his last two schools?” Victoria asked.
“Says who?”
“Says his official school record.”
Emmy stopped laughing. “What, are you snooping into people’s personal files now?”
Victoria shrugged. “If someone that cute shows up, you don’t think I’m going to do a little research?”
Emmy rolled her eyes, but her chest felt tight. Had Sam really been kicked out of two different schools?
“And they weren’t even independent schools,” Victoria said. “He was at state schools.” She said “state” like it was a slug that had squelched through her garden.
“There’s nothing wrong with not going to a private school,” Emmy said. Now her jaw was tight, too.
“Maybe,” Victoria said, “maybe not…but can you imagine what he must have done to get chucked out of them? If they kicked out students based on the rules at our kind of schools, theirs would be empty.”
Our kind of schools. She meant schools for rich kids. “There are plenty of people here on scholarship, you know. And by the way, being rich doesn’t make you better than everyone else.”
“Don’t pretend you live in some shack in America,” Victoria sneered. “I know what your mother does for a living.”
Emmy didn’t say anything. Her mom did make a lot of money. She knew how lucky she was and that her mom’s money didn’t make her better than anyone else.
“Anyway, it had to be pretty serious, don’t you think?” Victoria said.
“Are you done?” Emmy glared at Victoria.
She got up and smiled sweetly. “Just trying to be helpful.”
Emmy shook her head and stuffed her binder into her bag. She could pretty much guarantee that Victoria would never genuinely try to help her. She was probably just messing with Emmy like usual.
But what if she wasn’t? What if she was actually telling the truth? Had Sam really been kicked out of two different schools? He seemed like such a nice guy…
Emmy threw her bag over her shoulder and stomped upstairs. Victoria was probably lying. Probably.
* * *
Emmy placed the last gift certificate on the long table at the front of the Hall where the silent auction was set up and ran through the office into the student conference room. She’d forgotten pens, which would make it a lot harder for people to bid for items. Before she could enter her access code, Sam burst out of the room.
“Got the pens,” he said. “I printed off some extra auction sheets, just in case some of them get filled up.”
“Good idea.”
They raced back to the Hall together, shimmying past parents who had arrived early for the charity supper. They squeezed through the oak doors to find Lola running straight toward them.
“Have either of you seen Brynn?” she said.
Emmy looked at Sam, who shook his head. “No, why?”
“Because he’s supposed to take all the money from people who haven’t paid for their tickets yet,” she exploded. “And the money for the silent auction, and any other donations that come in. He’s the bloody treasurer. He needs to be here!”
“Um, Lola?” said a little voice behind them.
Oliver was standing there with a metal box in his hands.
“What?” Lola yelled.
Emmy elbowed her. Oliver looked like he might melt into a puddle of nerves.
Lola took a deep breath. “Sorry, Oli. What do you need?”
“Um, Brynn told me he wasn’t feeling very well, and he needs you to do all the money stuff tonight.”
Lola’s scream echoed off every stone in the giant hall.
“Somebody else has to do it,” Lola said. “I’ve got to keep this whole circus running.”
“Sam and I need to stay at the silent auction all night,” Emmy said.
Lola looked around. “Where’s Jack?”
“He and I are hosting, remember?” Oliver said in a quivering voice. “We have to show people how to find their seats and—”
“Fine.” Lola grabbed the box. “This was his plan the whole time. Make sure I get stuck with the hardest job when I already have a million things to do tonight.”
“It is for a good cause, you know,” Emmy said quietly. She hoped Lola hadn’t forgotten why they were doing this. The White Stone Gate Society helped a lot of people, and these kinds of events made a big difference for them.
Lola’s face softened. “I know.” She rolled her shoulders back and marched toward the door. “Let’s make some money.”
Emmy and Sam took their places by the silent auction table. They were supposed to answer any questions people had…and make sure no one slipped a gift certificate into their pocket. People started browsing the table and bidding almost right away.
Sam wiggled his eyebrows at Emmy. “Looks like we are going to have a good night.”
Emmy felt a familiar rush of heat in her ears. She knew he was talking about the silent auction making good money, but spending the entire evening with Sam felt like a good night to her.
Somebody tapped Emmy on the shoulder. “Well, what do you have to say for yourself?”
Emmy whirled around and her jaw dropped. Lucy was staring at her, looking so sour it was like she’d swallowed a lemon.
“Um, sorry, what?” Emmy had no idea that Lucy was even coming to the supper.
“I haven’t heard a word from you since you got on the train. How am I supposed to look after you if you’re completely ignoring me?”
Now it was Emmy’s turn to stare. She’d gotten the definite impression that Lucy had no interest in looking after her. She figured Lucy had pretty much forgotten about her the moment she’d gotten on the train.
“Um…”
“Spit it out, love. I haven’t got all night.”
“Sorry, I didn’t know you wanted me to keep in touch,” she mumbled.
“Listen, a little birdie told me you’re a much bigger troublemaker than I thought.”
Emmy didn’t know what to say. She’d never been called a troublemaker in her life.
“We’ve been getting questions about you from some people at the Thackery Club. It’s causing real trouble for us.”
“How would people there even know who I am?”
“Apparently some of them have kids here.”