Chapter 2

I spent the whole night curled up on the narrow bed in my dorm room.

First period hadn't started when my guidance counselor pulled me out of homeroom and sent me to her office.

I pushed the door open.

Chloe was already sitting across from her.

Her shoulders hitched up and down in rhythm, a crumpled tissue in her fist, eyes swollen.

The second she saw me, she looked up with the perfect mix of fear and hurt and shrank back behind the counselor's chair.

"Clara. Come in."

Ms. Harris's voice was cold.

"Tell me what you did to Chloe yesterday."

I didn't move from the doorway.

Chloe's sobs started right on cue.

"Ms. Harris, please don't pressure her. Yesterday in the hallway she stopped me and said I was a gold-digging leech who'd stolen what belonged to her. She said she'd make sure I couldn't stay at this school. I was so scared."

Her voice was quiet.

Every word a small knife sliding under my ribs.

Ms. Harris's face darkened. She picked up the phone.

"I've already called your parents. They'll be here any minute."

The door opened not long after.

My parents walked in.

Richard's face was iron.

Eleanor went straight to Chloe, wrapping an arm around her.

Richard's voice was tight.

"Ms. Harris. What happened? Did Clara hurt Chloe again?"

Ms. Harris folded her hands on her desk.

"Based on Chloe's statement, Clara has been engaged in verbal harassment and spreading false rumors on school grounds for some time. She's even threatened Chloe with expulsion. This school has a zero-tolerance policy on bullying."

Richard's head snapped toward me.

The disappointment in his eyes was suffocating.

"How did the Sterlings produce something like you? Do you wake up every morning thinking of new ways to humiliate this family?"

I opened my mouth. Only a thin hiss came out.

I raised my hands, fingers starting the sign for "That's not—"

His palm cracked across my face.

My head snapped sideways, ears ringing, cheek burning.

I stared at him. Tears I'd been holding finally spilled.

"You have the nerve to cry?"

Richard's voice was pure disgust.

"You pull something like this and then cry? Milking the victim angle for sympathy now."

Beside him, Chloe whimpered into Eleanor's chest.

"Dad, Mom, please don't yell at Clara. I don't blame her."

Eleanor's eyes swept over me, freezing.

"You have no class. None. All you know how to do is terrorize my sweet Chloe."

The office door had cracked open. Students were peeking through the gap, whispers carrying in.

"So she really was bullying Chloe..."

"She seemed so quiet. Guess that's the type."

"I heard her own parents didn't even want her. Makes sense."

The words cut into me.

I forced a breath. I raised my hands again and signed clearly: "I didn't do it."

Ms. Harris cut me off halfway.

"Clara, could you please stop with these ridiculous antics? If you have something to say, say it. Don't put on a freak show in my office."

My fingers stopped mid-air.

So even my silent defense was just attention-seeking to them.

The door pushed open wider.

A girl stood in the doorway. Her voice came out small.

"Ms. Harris... she's not putting on a show. That's ASL."