Zac and I arrived more than ten minutes late to AP History due to our slight detour. His hair and school uniform were still quite damp despite my best efforts to dry him off. It was the first time in my life that I had ever been this late to class, but, for some reason, I wasn't freaking out about it. My mind was too preoccupied with other things.

On the way, we had also made another pitstop at a certain redhead's locker. Lily's locker.

As we entered the room, every pair of student eyes latched onto us. Zac and I weren't holding hands, but the fact that we showed up together was impossible to ignore. Curiosity hummed in the air. I searched the room for Lily. Shrewd green eyes met mine. I could feel her glare digging into me even while a smile rested on her lips.

Mr. Tilton sighed. "Zac. Cate. How nice of you two to join us. That will be a detention as usual, Mr. Mazur."

Zac sighed in resignation. "See you this afternoon, Mr. T."

"Cate, would you like to explain to me why you are late?"

Zac jumped to my rescue and quickly fabricated an excuse, "Don't blame Cate, Mr. Tilton, I'm more than happy to serve that detention with you. You see, sir, I accidentally spilled water over myself, and she just happened to walk by. I was being an idiot and tried to get her wet, too. I'm the reason why she's late."

Mr. Tilton's gray eyes drifted from Zac to me. "Cate? Is that true?"

"Of course," I confirmed, nodding as convincingly as possible. After the shit Zac just pulled with Trick moments ago, I didn't feel too bad about letting him take the fall. "I don't know what got into Zac. He can be so immature sometimes!"

Zac coughed loudly in protest.

I ignored him.

Mr. Tilton frowned. "I'm disappointed in both of you. Especially you, Cate. You've always maintained such a stellar record."

I hung my head in exaggerated remorse. "I know, Mr. Tilton, it won't happen again."

"I'm sure it won't. Nevertheless, I'll see you in detention this afternoon, too, Cate," Mr. Tilton admonished harshly. The forcefulness in his tone surprised me. Even when I had been at my bitchiest, the man never raised his voice at me before until this very moment.

He continued, "Go to your seats and, please, try not to cause any more disruptions in my class."

"Yes, sir," both Zac and I responded in unison.

As we sat down, Zac glanced over to me and whispered, "Sorry about that, baby. I tried."

"It's fine," I sighed. "Everything is so fucked up already. I don't even have the bandwidth to bitch about a detention anymore."

Zac's eyes shone with concern. "Hey. I'm right here. We'll get through this shit together."

I smiled back at him weakly. "I know."

The hour seemed to drag forever even though the lesson Mr. Tilton prepared was quite interesting. Our class was starting a new unit about the Vietnam War, and we were reviewing different perspectives relating to the conflicts leading up to this crisis from American and Vietnamese viewpoints. In the middle of class, I quickly checked my phone. Still no response from Nat or Amari. My cheeks blew out a puff of disappointment.

When second hour finally ended, Zac and I gathered up our things and slowly headed out the door. I wasn't surprised when I noticed Lily trailing right behind us. She stopped us in the hallway.

Twirling a lock of auburn hair between her fingers, she purred, "My, my. Isn't this just a vision of perfection? Caterina Donati. Bitch of Ashton Wellesley. And Zachary Mazur. Fuckboy extraordinaire. Bless your hearts. You two totally deserve each other."

Zac said, "Fuck off, Lily."

He tried to pull me away, but I kept my feet planted on the ground. The flow of bodies around us slowed to a standstill as students paused to point and stare.

"Give me a minute, baby," I told him. "I want to talk to her about something."

Zac cast me a withering look, but he held up his hands in surrender. "Fine, whatever."

Pretending to be completely at ease, I plastered a smile across my face for Lily's sake. "I heard through the grapevine that you've been telling lies and spreading rumors about me. Apologize, bitch. Then, I'll tell you how to clean up this fucking mess you created."

Lily pouted. "I don't think so. There's nothing to apologize for. Everything I've been telling people is the truth. It came straight from your sister's mouth."

"Bea hates my guts, and she's a fucking liar," I explained patiently. "She's just using you to get back at me."

"I trust Bea," Lily returned coldly, "but I don't trust you at all. Not after you betrayed me for Zachary."

"Do you have proof?" I asked. "At this point, it's your word against mine. Do you really want to take on a speech and debate captain and a Model United Nations president in an argument?"

"It doesn't matter if I have proof or not," Lily replied smugly. "Argue away. Defend your good name and your honor, sweetie. But the damage is already done. You might be able to convince a few people to stand by you, but, no matter how hard you try, you'll never win back the ones who have been resenting you for years. They have been dying for an opportunity to take you down. Your so-called friends love the idea that your own father sees you as a nobody. Dispensable and insignificant. Without daddy's money and connections, you have no future at this school. No future in our world. You have nothing to offer us, Cate."

Zac's brown eyes darted between us. I could tell he was struggling not to intervene.

I released a bark of laughter at Lily. "Girl, you need to learn how to mind your own business. If I'm not worried about where I stand with my dad, then why should anyone else care? Like I said before, you owe me a huge apology, and I want it to be be a publicly humiliating one."

"Um, how about 'no?'" Lily responded cheekily. "Pretty certain I'm the one with the upper hand here."

"If that's what you really think, then you're delusional," I exclaimed loudly. Loud enough for everyone around us to hear. Then, I winked at her. "There must be a lot of fun conversations going on inside that head of yours. "

"Excuse me?" Lily scoffed.

Zac added, "You heard her, Lily. I wonder, how do you sleep at night with all those lies you keep telling yourself?"

"Come on, baby, let's go! This bitch is crazy," I looped my arm through Zac's arm.

We started walking away. Once Lily was out of earshot, Zac asked me quietly, "Do you think she's gonna buy it?"

"Let's hope so," I whispered back. Uncertainty clouded my mind. I was no longer as confident as I had once been in myself or my abilities.

Zac was referring to the note we had written right before second hour. He dictated the details from his memories, and I disguised my handwriting by scribbling with my left hand instead of my dominant right one. The note was addressed to Lily from her dearly departed ex-boyfriend, Tariq. We had slipped it into her locker through a small crack on the way to class.

I had accomplished everything I set out to do for the time being. I wanted to make a scene in front of other students. A scene that would highlight my cool, collected composure while raising questions about Lily's mental stability. I wanted the school to know that Zac and I were together. Another mark against Lily. She had now become the jealous ex-girlfriend. Too jealous to think clearly.

All that was left to do was to continually terrorize Lily with Tariq's ghostly presence. No matter how fucked up her conscience was at this point, I wanted to believe that there was some tiny part inside of her that felt guilty about pushing Tariq over the edge. Whether or not she believed the notes were really from her dead ex-boyfriend was beside the point.

I wanted her to suspect me. I wanted her to suspect Zac. I simply needed to plant a seed of unease and unrest in her mind, and let her paranoia do the rest. The more she came after us, the more we could write off her accusations as part of the jealous ex-girlfriend narrative. I wanted Lily to unleash her crazy for everyone to see. It would clear the way for me to discredit every ounce of credibility in the stories she was spreading about my relationship with my dad.

The world I lived in was an ugly one. I didn't like to play dirty, I didn't want to act like a villain, but Lily had backed me into a corner, and, now, everything I was about to do to this bitch felt like a necessary evil.