“Hey, um,” I start, feeling my heart flutter strangely in my chest as I meet his blue eyes. “I'm just teasing. I think it's cool you have your grandma's aprons, and … you know, cooking naked is quirky. Just … don't leave any pubes in the sink.” Ranger picks up a set of metal measuring cups and throws them at me.

I manage to make it out of the room just in time to avoid being pegged with them.

“You're just now telling me about this?” Dad says, looking between the two notes before he lifts his blue gaze up to my face. He's clearly furious; his hands are white-knuckled on the paper.

“The first time, I …” Thought I was going back to California to stay. Didn't think it was important, okay? “Thought it was a joke. But—”

“This is ridiculous,” Dad murmurs, sighing and turning to drop the notes on the counter. “You're moving back in here. I don't know why I ever let you move back to the dorms.”

“I don't want to live here!” I snap, and there's this unspoken with you that I think we both hear. I'm panting now, and Dad's just staring at me like he doesn't know who I am anymore. Things have been rough between us since Mom went away. I mean, I love the guy and all, but sometimes he just pisses me off. Pretty sure the feeling's mutual. “I want to stay in the dorms.”

“First, you come up with this story about a man with a knife, and now these.” Dad points to the notes. “Either you're telling the truth in which case, I'm not putting my only daughter in danger. Or else you're lying because you think I'll send you back to your aunt—which is not happening, by the way.”

“The last place in the world I want to be is California,” I snap, curling up the edge of my lip in disgust. “And I'm not lying. I almost didn't tell you about what was going because I didn't want to get bullied into living here with you. I'm seventeen; I need my own space.”

“We need to have an assembly,” Dad mumbles, more to himself than to me. He's barely looking at me anymore, switching into teacher mode. He's been like that my whole life, a teacher, an administrator, a counselor for troubled kids. Sometimes I just wish he'd be my father for all of two seconds. “We'll announce the girls' program, and—”

“No!” I snap, and Dad pauses, turning to look at me like I've lost my mind. And now I remember why I didn't want to tell my own dad about a guy with a freaking knife. Because of this BS. “This is my choice to make. I'm not going to be your guinea pig, so you can look good to all the rich assholes on the school board.”

“This is for your own safety, Charlotte. If we let the student body know you're here, then—”

“No.” I'm staring him dead in the face, my glasses slipping down my nose, my curly hair flopping into my eyes. “I'm not going to open myself up to scrutiny like that. You're a guy, you don't understand. Being the only girl in an entire academy full of teenage dudes is not something I'm interested in. Besides, you're full of shit.” Dad's bushy brows go up, and his face starts to turn that funny purple-red color. “You told me you had no idea there was ever another female student here. But Jenica Woodruff did let the school board use her for their experiment, and look what happened: she ended up hanging from a noose in the woods.”

“Where did you get that information from?” Dad bites out, but I'm not backing down. If I can stand up to Ranger Woodruff in his pink and white apron, I sure as hell can face up to Archie. “That's confidential, and it's been sealed by the courts.”

“Well, I know all about it. I know Jenica didn’t commit suicide, that she was murdered—”

“That's nonsense,” Dad snaps, but I'm not done yet.

“And I know that she lived in the girls’ dorm, that she moved in just two days before—”

“I've had enough,” Archie says, picking up his phone. “I'm calling Nathan, and you're being escorted back to the dormitory. If that's where you want to stay, fine, but don't think I won't have eyes on you at all times.”

“You're seriously going to ignore everything I've just said?” I scoff with a shake of my head. “I'm not waiting around for Nathan. No way.”

“Don't you dare walk out that door, young lady!” Dad calls out, but it's too late. I'm already turning and running out the door and down the path. I pause to catch my breath at the first bend in the path, still in view of the house but not yet in the woods.

“You need an escort?” Spencer asks, sitting on the same bench that I found him on the day I left for California. He watches me impassively with turquoise eyes, but I nod. Pretty sure Spencer is just a pot dealing jerk. He sells drugs in the woods, sure, and he may or may not be a tad obsessed with his new gay crush on me, but I don't think he's the guy in the hoodie with the knife.

“Thanks.” He stands up, and we start down the hill toward the boys' dorm, past the main building. “You're not going to try to shove your tongue down my throat, huh?”

Spencer scoffs, and gets out a cigarette, acting like he's not at all concerned about getting caught. Maybe he isn't? He is the sergeant-at-arms for the illustrious Student Council. That, and I know for a fact his mom is on the school board. She's some super rich copyright lawyer in D.C. or something.

“You feel this attraction between us, don't lie.” He looks down at me and wrinkles his nose. It turns that pretty, wolfish face of his into a caricature. Like, he literally looks horrified at the sight of me, standing there in a baggy uniform with huge glasses, no makeup, and floppy, tangled hair. Heh. He should see me all dolled-up. This bitch cleans up good. “For the life of me, I don't understand. You're the shortest, skinniest, most pathetic guy I've ever seen. At least that atrocious fake tan of yours is fading …” I gape at him and touch the sides of my face. I worked hard for that tan … “Your glasses, that hair … but really, worst of all is your attitude problem. You walk around like you think you're better than everyone else.”

My jaw drops open.

“In an academy of super rich assholes, I'm the problem?! I'm the one who walks around like I'm better than everyone else?!”

“Yeah, actually, you do.” Spencer and I pause outside the front door of the boys' dorm as he finishes his cigarette. His turquoise eyes are locked on me, and I feel like a butterfly, pinned in place and squirming. “You came into this school wanting to not fit in. That was your choice, man.”

“I …” I purse my lips shut and look away. He's a total ass-fuck, but he's maybe just a little bit right. He doesn't understand though, not really. I look up and meet his eyes, dark with confusion as he looks me over with a squinched face.

“I've never been attracted to anyone like you,” he repeats, shoving his silver hair off his forehead. “I'm usually into … well, girls.”

Laughter bubbles past my lips, but I don't know what else there is to say.

“I have to go,” I tell him, moving away and heading into the building.

Nathan, the security guard, is just now jogging down the path, but I'm up the stairs and locked in my room before he can even catch up.