For the first time in her life, Mary Hadden was completely speechless.

Her chest hurt. She couldn't breathe. It felt as though her entire world was just crumbling down before her eyes, as the entirety of the Barnum Prep student body turned around in one fell swoop to stare at her through the glass walls of her own personal skybox.

She couldn't take her eyes off of the picture. She was glued to it, her eyes filling with tears and her mind going blank. It was Neil. Neil. She was still so in love with him.

Her mind jumped back to the last time she had seen him, at his graduation party, three days before the accident. He had pulled her aside, into one of the hundreds of rooms in the Conrad estate, and shut the door behind them.

            "So when are you going to tell him?" Neil asked, his eyes searching Mary's desperately. "When are you going to tell Parker about us?"

"I swear I will. I just don't have a good time, with soccer tryouts and him going for captain—"

"He can manage, Mary." Neil replied, taking her hands in his. "I told you, I want to be with you for real. We've been doing this secret thing for far too long, and I hate making you cheat on someone."

"That's my choice." Mary replied, "The Nottinghams are family friends, and it would kill my parents to have me dating...someone else."

Neil raised his eyebrows.

"Someone like me?"

Mary shook her head fervently.

"No, of course that isn't what I meant. But think of everyone that this would affect...Jordan, my parents, yours, Parker, the school..."

"I'm done with that school now. I don't care."

"But I still need to secure my position as Erin Green's replacement on the social ladder." Mary snapped, "And I don't appreciate you not taking that seriously."

"If you knew Erin Green like I know her, you'd know it's not a hard position to fill." Neil rolled his eyes, "And don't worry about Jordan. I know she's my little sister, but she won't care about this. She hates Parker just as much as the next sane person."

"That's my boyfriend you're talking about, Neil."

"Who you don't love." Neil shot back quickly, and Mary was silent. He was right. She hadn't felt anything for Parker since her and Neil first started seeing each other over two years ago. Her relationship with him was a front, and both of them knew it. She knew that Parker hit on other girls and had most likely cheated multiple times. But Mary had been in a whole second relationship for two years now, and it wasn't fair to Neil to keep seeing Parker.

"Alright." Mary nodded. "I don't love him, so I'll try to figure something out. Do not do anything until I come up with a plan, am I understood?"

Neil smirked slightly, the corners of his mouth turning upwards in a smile that he knew made Mary melt.

"Yes, ma'am." He whispered, pulling her towards him. "What do you say we lock the door and pretend there isn't a party going on outside?"

Mary shook her head, stepping backwards.

"People will start to wonder where you are and come looking. The last thing we need is another Kaden Marcum situation on our hands."

That was the last thing Mary had ever said to Neil. And now she was staring at the two of them on a screen in front of the entire school. And as she remembered back to that graduation party, as she remembered that conversation, she remembered the name.

Marcum.

Lindsey had a secret she was keeping from the rest of the group. And this seemed too terribly dire to be a coincidence.

Mary jumped out of her seat and turned around, her eyes scanning those of her friends and boyfriend before landing on Jordan's.

Her best friend was staring at her with an expression Mary hoped never to see again. The horror, the anguish, the betrayal. Mary felt as though her entire world was crumbling just at the fault of Jordan's eyes. She shook her head and tears became visible, one falling slowly down her cheek as she opened her mouth to say one word.

"Why?"

Mary shook her head in response and choked out a terrible reply before running out of the skybox.

"I'm so sorry, Jordan."

She ran out and down the stairs of the student section, Parker's enraged voice echoing after her as she went.

"Jordan? What about me? What about your boyfriend?"

But Mary kept running, her anguish turning to rage as she left the stadium and heard Madison Walsh continuing with the honorees. All that was left was Victoria Marcum, and who even cared about that disaster of a family.

Mary ran until she saw two figures walking away from the stadium, through the trees that led back to the school's main campus. She ran right in front of them and stopped dead in her tracks.

"Holy crap, Mary." Roland muttered as he and Lindsey stopped walking abruptly. "What's wrong with you?"

"What's wrong with me?" Mary repeated, her voice at a decibel she had never heard come out of herself before. "What's wrong with your little girlfriend here?" She turned to Lindsey, who looked white as a sheet. "You really thought you could get away with this? This was your secret, right? You and your entire deadbeat family were trying to get rich off of my relationship with Neil, and now you've finally done it. You told everyone. You told—"

"Whoa, hold up." Lindsey shook her head, "I'll admit, that was what the stalker gave me, and that is what I wanted to talk to you about. But I...what do you mean, told everyone?"

"The display! The tribute to our siblings during halftime, the pictures on the screen. You rigged the PowerPoint and put my picture with Neil up there!"

"I did not." Lindsey shook her head firmly, "Believe what you want about me and my 'deadbeat family', but I didn't do anything to a PowerPoint. I was trying to tell you about the picture so that you knew about the stalker's leverage over you. I wasn't trying to do anything to hurt you, although you don't seem to have the same respect for me."

Mary felt herself calming down a bit and turned to Roland for reassurance.

"She didn't touch the PowerPoint?"

"I've been with her all day." Roland replied, "She hasn't gone near a computer, let alone the student council's crappy projector."

Mary shook her head, her heart rate slowing as she tried to make sense of the situation.

"Was it your brother?" She asked Lindsey.

"Which one?"

"Kaden." Mary replied, "He found out about us a while back and was blackmailing Neil for the longest time to keep it a secret."

Lindsey shook her head.

"As far as I know, Kade left town soon after the accident to be with his girlfriend in New York. I didn't even know he was blackmailing Neil."

Mary shook her head, cheers from the field indicating that the second half of the game was back in full swing behind them.

"Then who? We're done with the stalker, so—"

"But that doesn't necessarily mean that the stalker's done with us." Roland interrupted, "I mean, that's the only other person who could have that picture, right? And we all know this person seems pretty good at getting into places they aren't welcome in."

"I don't know, it all seems so sudden." Lindsey didn't seem convinced, "They left us alone for a few days, why come out now?"

But they were stopped from further discussion by the loudspeaker from the field turning on noisily as the kid narrating the game caught their attention.

"Barnum Prep number 73, Michael Hadden, is down."

Mary stood up straighter and turned back in the direction of the field, her eyebrows raised expectantly. Michael went down a lot during games; but he was usually back up within seconds.

They waited a few moments before the announcer spoke again.

"Barnum Prep number 73, Michael Hadden, is down—"

Mary rolled her eyes.

"We already knew that, moron."

"—and is unresponsive."

A/N: Oooooooh uh-oh. Also, question: how long should this book be? I'm probably making it a series so like I'm not sure how long to make the individual books. Thoughts?

-Katherine