Free Dead Beautiful by Yvonne Woon Page B

were probably just upset.”
    I sighed. “I guess.” Even though everything she said made sense, I didn’t believe it.
    “But if Dante’s is hiding something, maybe you can get it out of him,” she said, wrapping an elastic around the bottom of my braid. “I think he likes you.”
    “He said three words to me, then told me I was in his seat. That hardly counts as liking.”
    “Okay, but you have to admit that he’s gorgeous. Aren’t you at least curious?”
    I was, but not just because he was unreasonably good-looking. There was something about the way he’d looked at me that made me feel more alive than I’d felt since before my parents had died. Even though our interaction was brief, I couldn’t get it out of my head. Why did he talk to me but not to anyone else? It seemed too coincidental that he had found Benjamin dead in the forest from a heart attack, just like I had found my parents. Yes, there was no proof he knew anything. He could have left his friends for any number of reasons. But what if there was more to it?
    I was about to respond when someone knocked on the other side of the wall above Eleanor’s bed. A mischievous smile spread across her face. She climbed onto her bed and knocked back three times, waited, and then knocked once more.
    Tiptoeing next to the door, she pressed her ear against it to make sure no one was outside. “I’m going next door. Do you want to come?”
    “What’s next door?”
    “Just the girls,” she said, putting on her slippers. “Genevieve’s going to be there, and I want to hear all the dirt on the Board of Monitors.”
    “Is there dirt? I thought they were model students or something.”
    “Oh come on, everyone has some terrible secret buried away.” Raising an eyebrow, she teased, “Not just Dante.”
    “Isn’t your brother on the Board of Monitors? Why don’t you just ask him?”
    She shook her head. “That’s the only thing he won’t tell me about. Obviously he doesn’t understand reverse psychology. Keeping it a secret only makes me want to know more.”
    The invitation was tempting, but I was still trying to process all the things she’d told me about Benjamin Gallow. “Maybe some other night. I’m exhausted.”
    Eleanor shrugged. “Suit yourself.”
    She pulled on a sweater and slipped into the hall, where Rebecca and Bonnie were huddled outside. “Sweet dreams, Renée,” she said, and closed the door.
    Unsure of what to do with myself, I picked up our dorm phone and dialed Annie’s number. Her mom answered.
    “Hel... Hello?” my voice cracked. Even though I had only been gone for two days, it felt like ages. I had taken for granted what it was like to talk to someone familiar, and all at once my emotions about losing my parents and being ripped away from my friends and my life in California came bubbling to the surface.
    “Renée, is that you?” Margerie’s voice echoed from a world that I had almost forgotten.
    I swallowed. “Yes,” I said in a small voice. “Is Annie there?”
    “Oh honey, she’s out right now. Can I have her call you back?”
    “Sure,” I said, trying to hide my disappointment.
    “Is everything all right?” she asked, after I had given her my dorm phone number.
    “Yeah, it’s great,” I forced out. “Everything here is great.”
    There was a long silence on the other end, as if Margerie were weighing whether or not she believed me. “Okay. Well, call us if you need anything. And I’ll make sure to tell Annie you called.”
    “Thanks,” I said, and hung up.
    I thought of all the places Annie could have been—the marina, the coffee shop, Lauren’s house—all the places I used to go to, but would never see again. To take my mind off it, I rolled over and picked up the Gottfried Code of Discipline and opened to the table of contents. It had dozens of sections: Dress Code, Curfew, School Boundaries, Leisure Activities, Room and Board, and Attica Falls, among others. I flipped to the chapter on the