On Monday morning, I came to school an hour early to put in some extra practice on my violin. I had been crouched over the trunk of my white Civic, retrieving my violin case and backpack, when I felt a light tap on my shoulder. I glanced over. Standing right next to me was my least favorite redhead from second hour.

What the heck was she doing here at six o' clock in the morning?

"Good morning, Cate," Lily greeted me with a small smile. "I hope I didn't startle you."

"Uh, not at all. Can I help you with something?"

"Actually, yes."

"Oh?"

"I know this may seem a tad forward of me, but..."

"What?" I asked suspiciously.

Out of nowhere, her lower lip jutted out as it began to tremble. Waterworks threatened to spill over from her eyes. "I-I was hoping, um... that we could talk? You know, about Zachary? I'm not sure if you heard, but we broke up. I don't want to put you in an awkward position, but I couldn't help noticing that you're pretty good friends with him. I'm just... having a really hard time understanding why he called it quits since things were going so well for us."

I strained my mouth into what I hoped looked like an understanding smile.

Lily's tears seemed so real that I kind of felt like an asshole for doubting her, but was this bitch being serious right now?

She had to be trolling me!

"Sure, we can talk," I said with some reluctance, "but Zac was only my partner for the AP History project. Nothing more. To be honest, I don't think I'm the best person to talk to about your ex."

"Oh, bless your heart," Lily gushed sweetly even as her eyes turned to steel. "Even a blind man could see that Zachary was head over heels in lust for you! I doubt he would've ever bothered with me if you hadn't been such an uppity bitch about spreading your legs for him."

Nevermind, guess I wasn't being an asshole. In caustic tones, I said, "Excuse me?"

With a straight face, Lily murmured, "You've been a bad girl, Cate, and bad girls need to be punished."

I laughed uneasily. "How am I supposed to take you seriously when you say shit like that?"

Instantly, her mouth spread into a beatific smile. "Let me spell it out for you, sugar. I know you're the reason Zachary decided to end our relationship. You owe me. Big time."

I tilted my head to observe her more closely. For weeks, I had been wracking my brain for a way to lure Lily's wolf out of her sheep's clothing, but the bitch had saved me the trouble by pouncing out all by herself.

Lifting a cynical eyebrow, I admonished, "How old are you? Five? Are you expecting someone to kiss your boo-boo and make it all better?"

Lily took a few steps towards me. Her face came a little too close for comfort. Every freckle across the bridge of her nose was suddenly very visible. There was a surly, almost feral, smirk on her lips when she whispered against my cheek, "Actually, a kiss might make it all better."

Before I could react, Lily shoved her mouth against mine and landed a big wet one on my lips. I shrieked and immediately scurried backwards to get away. "What the fuck, you crazy bitch! Don't you ever touch me again!"

Lily started laughing. No, cackling. She started cackling like a madwoman as though she had just heard the world's funniest joke. "Oh, man, Cate! You really need to see your face right now. You look so shocked. It's fucking adorable. Bet you didn't see that one coming, did you?"

My eyes blazed like hellfire. "It was you, wasn't it? You were parked outside my house that night. You sent me all those crazy texts."

Lily pouted like a child. "I was so disappointed when you wouldn't let me come inside and play. We could be such good friends, you know."

Damn, Zac had been right. This chick was fucking bonkers!

Feeling extremely out of my comfort zone, I tried to keep my cool. I kept replaying what Zac had told me about what Lily did to Tariq. Lily and I were the only ones in the parking lot at the moment, and the lack of witnesses around us was making me nervous as fuck.

I couldn't get mad at her as though she was a reasonable human being. I was afraid of how she might react if I upset her. What I needed to do was deescalate the situation and get my ass on campus where there would be more eyeballs and warm bodies to shield me from Lily's craziness. Then, I could figure out how to ditch her.

I forced my face to relax into the same placid expression that I usually reserved for my dad.

"You wanna be friends, Lily?" I offered lightly. "We can be friends. Why don't we walk to class together?"

Giggling, she grabbed a hold of my arm and yanked me away from the parking lot. "Oh, we're gonna be the best of friends! Fuck that asshole Zachary! You're the only one that I want now, Cate!"

As we headed towards campus together, outwardly, all I could do was smile and nod politely at Lily's sudden and disturbing fascination with me. On the inside, however, I was sweating bullets.

Dear God, what the hell had I gotten myself into?

***

I stepped out of my AP Chem classroom at the end of first hour and nearly tripped when I saw Lily standing in the hallway. Waiting for me.

Was the girl stalking me?

She wore a face-wide grin on her face and waved vigorously. I waved back with much less enthusiasm. I had little choice but to walk with her again since we were headed to the same place for second hour.

When Lily and I entered Mr. Tilton's classroom, I was surprised to find Zac already sitting at our desk. He was early. There were still two minutes before the bell. His mouth broke into a smile the moment he saw me enter but quickly deepened into a frown once he noticed the clingy redhead plastered at my side.

Lily kept giving Zac the evil eye as she hovered around me, squealing and squawking, and essentially refusing to release me from her clutches. I wasn't able to shake her until the bell rang. Shortly after taking attendance, Mr. Tilton turned off the lights and turned on the projector. We were going to finish watching a documentary about the events leading up to the Cold War. The volume was on full blast. Old black and white footage of the Berlin Wall and Eisenhower and Khrushchev flickered across the screen.

As I sat next to Zac, I tried not to let my anxiety show. Although, my hands were clenched into tight little balls on my lap. He reached over in the dark and placed a large, warm hand over my white-knuckled fists. Zac squeezed my hand comfortingly and asked below his breath, "Is everything okay? Why is Lily following you around like a shadow?"

Hesitantly, I whispered back, "She... ambushed me this morning. In the parking lot. It's been like this ever since."

"Shit." A worried crease appeared between his brow. Then, he murmured, "Don't worry, Cate. I can sort this out. I'll talk to her after class. Tell her to leave you alone."

"No, wait. You shouldn't approach her. I'm pretty sure Lily wants to castrate you right now."

Tightening his hold possessively on my hand, Zac scowled. "I'm not worried about me. I'm worried about you. I don't want her hanging around you at all! Let me deal with Lily. You just focus on staying as far away from that bitch as possible."

"Don't do anything rash. I feel like there's probably a safer way to handle this situation."

Annoyed by my lackluster response, Zac prompted impatiently, "What are you planning to do?"

I paused to think. I hadn't expected the girl to get so attached to me all of sudden. After our encounter in the parking lot this morning, I didn't want to risk triggering another one of her frenetic mood swings. Plus, I needed to give my sister some time to work her magic on the crazy girl.

Zac hadn't seen eye to eye with me at all when I told him about my plan to move the charity ball to Lily's house, but I knew an opportunity to enter her house under such crowded, chaotic circumstances was too good to pass up. Zac might actually be able to get in and out of Mr. Sinclair's study without rousing any suspicion.

Eventually, I decided the best course of action was no action. It would be best to keep Lily in a state of complacency. As long as Lily didn't view Bea or me as a threat, she wouldn't feel the need to fight back, and our plan might be able to proceed with her none the wiser.

"I'm not going to do anything. For now."

He gaped at me. "Why are you letting her walk all over you? That girl's not gonna leave you alone unless we do something about it!"

When I didn't answer right away, Zac's look of alarm turned to suspicion. He snatched his hand back. I felt strangely bereft without his touch.

In a low voice, he demanded, "Is there something I need to know, Cate? What have you done?"

Guilt flashed across my face. I swallowed. "I know you told me not to get involved in the car yesterday, but..."

"But what?" he prompted.

"I may have asked my sister to do it, anyway."

Zac's mouth flattened into a tight, straight line. His nostrils flared with anger. "Un-fucking-believable! That's what you are."

Frowning slightly, I pressed a finger to my lips. "Shh! Keep your voice down. Mr. Tilton's looking at us."

Lowering his voice, Zac hissed furiously, "Why couldn't you leave it alone? Oh, wait, I know! It's because you have some sort of goddamn superiority complex! I swear, I don't know why I like you sometimes! You're so fucking stubborn and obnoxious about things that you don't even fully understand."

I winced. "Please don't be upset, Zac. I did it for you. And your dad."

"Like hell you did!"

Tentatively, I asked, "On a scale of one to ten, how pissed are you right now?"

He growled at me, "Let's just say you'll be coming over to my place tonight."

I gave him a puzzled look. "Why?"

"We'll head out around 4:30. Or whenever I'm done presenting to Tilton."

I was planning to meet with Dev to get a head start on studying for our Latin final. I objected, "Uh, I don't think that's gonna—"

"Don't try to weasle your way out of this, Cate."

"But I have a meeting—"

"Reschedule it. Cancel it. I don't fucking care."

I grunted in frustration. "Argh! Why are you being so difficult? If you're mad at me, we can hash it out at lunch. Or after you present to Tilton. There's no need to drive all the way to your place!"

"I disagree."

The intensity behind his gaze made me waver. "B-but... I'm so swamped this week! I can't afford to mess with my schedule."

With a threatening smile, rage and relish shone from his amber eyes. Zac drawled, "Fuck your schedule. You wanna know how upset I feel right now? I'm at a ten, okay? Clearly, you have a complete inability to respect boundaries—boundaries put in place, by the way, to keep you away from psychos like Lily—so I think somebody's gonna be doing some serious groveling tonight."

"Groveling?" I echoed in disbelief.

"Do you know why I'm offering to take you to my place? It's out of respect for you. I figured you wouldn't want other people around to see Caterina Donati, the Bitch of Ashton Wellesley, begging for forgiveness on her fucking knees."