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    ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

    Heartfelt thanks to the book's fairy godmothers - Brenda Bowen, Helen Perelman, and Elizabeth

    Rudnick, who gave me a shi and let me fly! "hank you to #olin Hosten, Elizabeth #lark, and

    everyone at Hyerion for believing in this book! "hanks to Richard $bate, %ate &ee, osie(reedman, and ames )regorio and %aren %enyon at *#+ for their fantastic suort!

    Hugs and kisses to the amazing s and ohnstons +om - thank you for being at every

    reading and for always being there for me. $ina, /teve, 0ico, and #hito - we are family, and we

    can boogie, too 1esecially 0icholas23. ad and +om - thank you for all your suort and for

    buying all those books. ohn, $n4i, $le5, "im, Rob, enn, 6al, and the one on the way we are

    family and we can mosh it, too2 "hanks to all the e5tended family, esecially the "orres, the

    )aisanos, the 7ngs, the *zumis, and the de la #ruzes!

    +any thanks to the &$ and 08 suort grous "ristan $shby, ennie %im, %im e+arco,

    )abriel /andoval, "om olby, "yler Rollins, ason &undy, $ndy )offe, eff &evin, Peter

    Edmonston, +ark Hidgen, #aroline /uh, oug +eehan, "had /heely, )abby /heely, +indy

    9ilson, i )ilbreth, #atherine Hong, 8umi %obayashi, Peter /luszka, Ruth Basloe, $ndrey

    /livka, $lice #armona, +ichael #asey, %aren Robinovitz, %ate Roche, ohn (o5, #arol (o5,

    %arlo Pastrovic, )abriel de )uzman, Edgar Paazian, +ichelle &enzi, +att Paco, (itz

    +angubat, "aylor Hsiao, $risa #hen, %atie avis, "ina Hay, iva )ittel, &iz #raft, $dam (ierro,

    $nna avid, +ary#lare 9illiams, $le5andra acobs, 0icole #annon, *an %ornbluth, Brent Bryan,

    0ora )ordon, +atthias %ohlemainen, uliet )ray, %aren Page, $ndrew ornenburg, /ara

    /handler, Emily "homas, ennifer :atorski, $bby +c$den, $llison ickens, ared Paul /tern,&isa +arsh, $ndrew /tone, Ben 9iddicombe, 0orah &awlor, and %atie +urhy!

    "hanks also to our little Peaod, who we will miss forever!

    "his book is dedicated to my dad, Bert de la #ruz, true blue in every sense of the word, who has

    heroes' blood in his veins!

    "his book would not e5ist without the love, suort, insight, and intelligence of my husband,

    +ike ohnston, to whom * owe everything!

    "he family was not simly the sum of the connections created by a large, e5tended set of

    relations!!! a family!!! was a name, a material and symbolic atrimony, and a form of

    stakeholding in $merica!!! ;describing a total lineage, ast, resent and future!;

    - Eric Homberger, +rs! $stor's 0ew 8ork

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    8ou can't ush it underground

    8ou can't sto it screaming out

    How did it come to this?? for thirty consecutive one-year

    terms! He and his wife Rose had fourteen children, a remarkable seven sets of twins! *n ane5traordinary turn of events, within a few years, the colony had doubled in size, with multile

    births reorted in all the surviving families!

    - (rom eath and &ife in the Plymouth #olonies, =>?@#=>C= by Professor &awrence 9inslow

    6an $len

    #atherine #arver's iary

    ?=st of 0ovember, =>?@

    "he +ayflower

    *t has been a difficult winter! "he sea does not agree with ohn, and we are always cold!

    Perhas we will find eace in this new land, although many believe we have not left danger

    behind! 7utside my window, the coastline resembles /outhamton, and for that * am grateful! *

    will always long for home, but our kind are no longer safe there! * myself do not believe the

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    rumors, but we must do as instructed! *t has always been our way! ohn and * are traveling as

    husband and wife now! 9e are lanning on marrying soon! "here are far too few of us, and

    more are needed if we are to survive! Perhas things will change! Perhas good fortune will

    shine on us, and our situation will ameliorate! "he shi has anchored! 9e have landed! $ new

    world awaits!

    - #!#!

    0E9 87R% #*"8

    "he Present

    #H$P"ER =

    "he Bank was a decreit stone building at the tail end of Houston /treet, on the last divide

    between the gritty East 6illage and the wilds of the &ower East /ide! 7nce the headAuarters of

    the venerable 6an $len investment and brokerage house, it was an imosing, sAuat resence, a

    aradigm of the beau5-arts style, with a classic si5-column fa

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    7liver affectionately swung an arm around her shoulders! ;/to worrying2 8ou worry too much!

    "his'll be fun, * romise!;

    ;* wish ylan had waited for us,; /chuyler fretted, shivering in her long black cardigan with holes

    in each elbow! /he'd found the sweater in a +anhattan 6alley thrift store last week! *t smelled

    like decay and stale rosewater erfume, and her skinny frame was lost in its voluminous folds!

    /chuyler always looked like she was drowning in fabric! "he black sweater reached almost to

    her calves, and underneath she wore a sheer black "-shirt over a worn gray thermal undershirt.

    and under that, a long easant skirt that swet the floor! &ike a nineteenth century street urchin,

    her skirt hems were black with dirt from dragging on the sidewalks! /he was wearing her

    favorite air of black-and-white ack Purcell sneakers, the ones with the duct-taed hole on the

    right toe! Her dark wavy hair was ulled back with a beaded scarf she'd found in her

    grandmother's closet!

    /chuyler was startlingly retty, with a sweet, heart-shaed face. a erfectly uturned nose. andsoft, milky skin - but there was something almost insubstantial about her beauty! /he looked like

    a resden doll in witch's clothing! %ids at the uchesne /chool thought she dressed like a bag

    lady! *t didn't hel that she was ainfully shy and ket to herself, because then they 4ust thought

    she was stuck-u, which she wasn't! /he was 4ust Auiet!

    7liver was tall and slim, with a fair, elfin face that was framed by a shag of brilliant chestnut hair!

    He had shar cheekbones and symathetic hazel eyes! He was wearing a severe military

    greatcoat over a flannel shirt and a air of holey blue 4eans! 7f course, the flannel shirt was

    ohn 6arvatos and the 4eans from #itizens of Humanity! 7liver liked to lay the art of

    disaffected youth, but he liked shoing in /oHo even more!

    "he two of them had been best friends ever since the second grade, when /chuyler's nanny

    forgot to ack her lunch one day, and 7liver had given her half of his lettuce and mayo

    sandwich! "hey finished each other's sentences and liked to read aloud from random ages of

    *nfinite est when they were bored! Both were uchesne legacy kids who traced their ancestry

    back to the +ayflower! /chuyler counted si5 D!/! residents in her family tree alone! But even

    with their restigious edigrees, they didn't fit in at uchesne! 7liver referred museums to

    lacrosse, and /chuyler never cut her hair and wore things from consignment shos!

    ylan 9ard was a new friend - a sad-faced boy with long lashes, smoldering eyes, and a

    tarnished reutation! /uosedly, he had a ra sheet and had 4ust been srung from military

    school! His grandfather had reortedly bribed uchesne with funds for a new gym to let him

    enroll! He had immediately gravitated toward /chuyler and 7liver, recognizing their similar misfit

    status!

    /chuyler sucked in her cheeks and felt a it of an5iety forming in her stomach! "hey'd been so

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    comfortable 4ust hanging out in 7liver's room as usual, listening to music and fliing through

    the offerings on his "i6o. 7liver booting u another game of 6ice #ity on the slit screen, while

    she rifled through the ages of glossy magazines, fantasizing that she too, was lounging on a

    raft in /ardinia, dancing the flamenco in +adrid, or wandering ensively through the streets of

    Bombay!

    ;*'m not sure about this,; she said, wishing they were back in his cozy room instead of shivering

    outside on the sidewalk, waiting to see if they would ass muster at the door!

    ;on't be so negative,; 7liver chastised! *t had been his idea to leave the comfort of his room to

    brave the 0ew 8ork nightlife, and he didn't want to regret it! ;*f you think we'll get in, we'll get in!

    *t's all about confidence, trust me!; ust then, his BlackBerry beeed! He ulled it out of his

    ocket and checked the screen! ;*t's ylan! He's inside, he'll meet us by the windows on the

    second floor! 7kay

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    ;8ou should be dead,; she whisered!

    ;E5cuse me

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    member!;

    Before she could resond, 7liver materialized at her side! 9here had he come from< /chuyler

    wondered! $nd how did he kee doing that< 7liver demonstrated a keen ability to suddenly

    show u the minute you didn't want him there! ;"here you are, my dear,; he said, with a hint of

    reroach!

    /chuyler blinked! ;Hey, 7llie! o you know ack

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    "he bouncer waved their *s under an infrared machine, which didn't bee! He aused,

    frowning, and held their *s u for insection, giving the two of them a doubtful look!

    /chuyler tried to ro4ect a calm she didn't feel, her heart beating fast underneath her thin layers!

    7f course * look twenty-one! *'ve been here before! "here is absolutely nothing wrong with that

    *, she thought!

    "he bouncer slid it under the machine again! "he big man shook his head! ;"his isn't right,; he

    muttered!

    7liver looked at /chuyler, his face ale! /chuyler thought she was going to faint! /he had never

    been so nervous in her life! +inutes ticked by! Peole behind them in line made imatient

    noises!

    0othing wrong with that *! #ool and confident! #ool and confident! /he visualized the bouncer

    waving them through, the two of them entering the club! &E" D/ *0! &E" D/ *0! &E" D/ *0

    D/" &E" D/ *02

    "he bouncer looked u, startled, almost as if he'd heard her! *t felt as though time had stoed!

    "hen, 4ust like that, he returned their cards and waved them forward, 4ust as /chuyler had

    ictured!

    /chuyler e5haled! /he and 7liver e5changed a restrained look of glee!

    "hey were inside!

    #H$P"ER ?

    Right ne5t door to "he Bank was a very different kind of +anhattan nightclub! *t was the kind of

    nightclub that e5isted only once every decade - at a oint in the social ne5us when the gods of

    ublicity, fashion, and celebrity converged to create a singularly sectacular environment!

    (ollowing in the hallowed tradition of mid- @s /tudio FC, late- G@s Palladium, and early- @s

    +oomba, Block =?? had entered an iconic realm that defined a movement, a lifestyle, a

    generation! $ cocktail-combo clientele of the city's most beautiful, envied, notorious, and all-

    owerful citizens had christened it their lace to be - their natural habitat, their watering hole -

    and since it was the twenty-first century, the era of suer-e5clusivity, they even aid

    astronomical membershi dues for the rivilege! $nything to kee out the hoi olloi! $nd inside

    this blessed sanctuary, at the most sought-after table, surrounded by a glittering assortment of

    underage models, ost-ubescent movie stars, and the sons and daughters of boldfaced

    names, sat the most gorgeous girl in the history of 0ew 8ork #ity +adeleine

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    /i5teen years old going on thirty-four, with a shot of Boto5 between the eyes to rove it!

    +imi was oularity ersonified! /he had the golden-girl good looks and tanned, Pilates-toned

    limbs that came with the Iueen Bee osition - but she transcended the stereotye while

    embodying the essence of it! /he had a size twenty-two waist and a size ten shoe! /he ate 4unk

    food every day and never gained an ounce! /he went to bed with all her makeu on and woke

    u with a clear, unblemished comle5ion, 4ust like her conscience!

    +imi came to Block =?? every night, and (riday was no e5cetion! /he and Bliss &lewellyn, a

    tall, rangy "e5an who'd recently transferred to uchesne, had sent the afternoon riming for

    the evening's festivities! 7r rather, Bliss had sent the afternoon sitting by the side of the bed

    making comlimentary noises while +imi tried on everything in her wardrobe! "hey'd settled on

    a se5y-but-in-an-off-beat-bohemian-way-with-stras-4ust-falling-off-the-shoulder-4ust-so-+arni

    camisole, a tiny denim Earnest /ewn miniskirt, and a sarkly Rick 7wens cashmere wra! +imi

    liked to travel with an entourage, and in Bliss she'd found a suitable comanion! /he'dbefriended Bliss solely at her father's reAuest, since /enator &lewellyn was an imortant

    colleague! $t first +imi had chafed at the directive, but she changed her mind when she realized

    Bliss's eAuine good looks comlemented and emhasized her own ethereal beauty! +imi loved

    nothing more than a suitable backdro! &eaning against the stuffed cushions, she glanced at

    Bliss arovingly!

    ;#heers,; Bliss said, clinking her glass against +imi's, as if she'd read her mind!

    ;"o us!; +imi nodded, chugging the last of her luminescent urle cocktail! *t was her fifth of the

    evening, and yet she felt as sober as when she'd ordered the first one! *t was deressing howmuch longer it took to get drunk now! $lmost as if alcohol didn't have any effect on her

    bloodstream! "he #ommittee had told her it would haen - she 4ust hadn't wanted to believe it

    back then! Esecially since she wasn't suosed to avail herself of the other, more otent

    alternative as often as she'd have liked! "he #ommittee had too many rules! $t this oint they

    were ractically running her life! /he imatiently signaled to the waitress to bring another round,

    snaing her fingers so hard it almost shattered the glass coffee table in front of her!

    9hat was the oint of going out in 0ew 8ork if you couldn't even get a little buzzed< /he

    stretched out her legs and lay them languidly across the couch, her feet resting on her twin

    brother's la! Her date, the nineteen-year-old heir to a harmaceutical fortune and a current

    investor in the nightclub, retended not to notice! $lthough it would be hard to say if he was

    even conscious, as he was currently leaning on +imi's shoulder and drooling!

    ;Iuit it,; Ben4amin (orce snaed, brusAuely ushing her off! "he two of them shared the same

    ale, latinum blond hair, the same creamy, translucent skin, the same hooded green eyes, and

    the same long, slender limbs! But they couldn't have been more different in temerament! +imi

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    was loAuacious and layful, while Ben4amin - nicknamed Black4ack in childhood because of his

    tantrums, and shortened to ack in adolescence - was taciturn and observant!

    +imi and ack were the only children of #harles (orce, the si5ty-year-old, steely-haired media

    magnate who owned an ustart television network, a cable news channel, a oular newsaer

    tabloid, several radio stations, and a successful ublishing emire that made rofits from

    autobiograhies of 9orld 9restling (ederation stars! His wife, the former "rinity Burden, was a

    doyenne of the 0ew 8ork society circuit, and chaired the most restigious charity committees!

    /he was instrumental in the foundation of "he #ommittee, of which ack and +imi were 4unior

    members! "he (orces lived in one of the most sought-after addresses in the city, a lu5urious,

    well-aointed townhouse that covered an entire block across from the +etroolitan +useum of

    $rt!

    ;7h c'mon,; +imi outed, immediately lacing her feet back on her brother's la! ;* need to

    stretch my legs! "hey're so sore! (eel,; she demanded, grabbing a sinewy calf and asking himto feel the muscle tense underneath! /tri #ardio was a bitch on the 4oints!

    ack frowned! ;* said Auit it,; he murmured in his serious voice, and +imi immediately retracted

    her tanned legs, tucking them beneath her butt and letting the undersoles of her four-inch $laia

    heels scrae against the white suede couch, leaving dirty scratch marks on the immaculate

    cushion!

    ;9hat's wrong with you

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    +imi shrugged! /he never bothered to follow the rules, and tended to light u wherever and

    whenever she felt like it - the gossi columns once gleefully ublished the five-figure tally of her

    smoking fines! /he watched the three of them leave, disaearing into the crush of bodies

    throwing themselves around the dance floor to obscene ra lyrics!

    ;*'m bored,; she whined, finally aying attention to the guy who had hardly left her side all

    evening! "hey had been dating for all of two weeks, an eternity on the +imi time line! ;+ake

    something haen!;

    ;9hat do you have in mind

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    #H$P"ER K

    /he didn't fit in anywhere! /he didn't know why! 9as there ever anything so ridiculous as a

    sociohobic cheerleader< )irls like her weren't suosed to have any roblems! "hey were

    suosed to be erfect! But Bliss &lewellyn didn't feel very erfect! /he felt odd and out of

    lace! /he watched as her so-called best friend, +imi (orce, needled her brother andignored her date! $ fairly tyical evening around the (orce twins - the two of them bickering

    one minute or being sookily affectionate the ne5t - esecially when they did that thing

    where they 4ust looked into each other's eyes and you could tell they were talking to each

    other without seaking! Bliss avoided +imi's gaze and tried to distract herself by laughing at

    the 4okes the actor on her right was telling her, but nothing about the evening - not even the

    fact that they'd been given the best table in the house or that the #alvin %lein model on her

    left had asked for her number - made her feel any less miserable!

    /he'd felt that way in Houston, too! "hat somehow she was not all there! But in "e5as, she

    could hide it more easily! *n "e5as, she had big curly hair and the best backfli on thesAuad! Everyone had known her since she was a ;wee chile,; and she'd always been the

    rettiest girl in her class! But then addy, who'd grown u in 0ew 8ork, moved them back to

    the city to run for the emty /enate seat and had won the election easily! Before she could

    do a rebel yell, she was living on the Der East /ide and enrolled at the uchesne /chool!

    7f course, +anhattan was nothing like Houston, and Bliss's big curly hair and backflis

    didn't mean a thing to anyone at her new school, which didn't even have a football team,

    much less mini-skirted cheerleaders! But on the other hand, she didn't e5ect to be such a

    hick! $fter all, she knew her way around a 0eiman +arcus2 /he owned the same "rue

    Religion 4eans and ames Perse "-shirts as anyone else! But somehow, she'd arrived forthe first day wearing a astel Ralh &auren sweater with a laid $nna /ui kilt 1in an effort to

    look more like the girls featured in the school catalog3, with a honking white leather #hanel

    urse on a gold chain slung over her shoulder, only to find her classmates dressed down in

    grotty fisherman sweaters and distressed corduroys! 0o one wore astel in +anhattan or

    rocked white #hanel 1in the fall at least3! Even that weirdo goth girl - /chuyler 6an $len -

    dislayed a chic that Bliss didn't know how to match!

    Bliss knew about the immy, the +anolo, the /tella! /he'd made note of +ischa Barton's

    wardrobe! But there was something about the way the 0ew 8ork girls ut it together that

    made her look like a fashion freak who'd never cracked oen a magazine! "hen there wasthe whole deal with her accent - no one could understand her at first, and when she said

    ;y'all; or ;laaahke,; they imitated her, none too kindly either!

    (or a moment, it looked as if Bliss would be consigned to live the rest of her academic life

    as a borderline social ariah, a home-schooled re4ect when she should have been a +ean

    )irl! "hat is, until the clouds arted - lightning struck - and a miracle occurred the fabulous

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    +imi (orce took her ersonally in hand! +imi was a 4unior, a year older! /he and her brother

    ack were like, the $ngelina olie and Brad Pitt of uchesne, a coule who were not

    suosed to be a coule, but a coule nonetheless - and the ruling one at that! +imi was

    the 7rientation leader for new students, and she'd taken one look at Bliss - the astel

    cardigan, the shiny bluchers, the awkward /cottish kilt, the Auilted #hanel bag, and had

    said, ;&ove that outfit! *t's so wrong, it's right!;

    $nd that was it!

    Bliss was suddenly in the *n-)rou, which, it turned out, was 4ust the same as the one back

    in Houston - 4ocky guys 1but starting lacrosse and crew instead of football3, uniformly retty

    girls 1but they were on the debate team and headed for the *vy &eague3 with the same

    unwritten code to kee out newcomers! Bliss knew that it was only by +imi's good graces

    that she'd managed to infiltrate the sacred stratum!

    But it wasn't the social hierarchy of high school that was bothering Bliss! *t wasn't even herblown-out-straight hair 1which she would never let +imi's stylist do to her again - she 4ust

    didn't feel right without her curls3, it was the fact that sometimes she didn't even feel like she

    knew who she was anymore! Ever since she had arrived in 0ew 8ork! /he would walk by a

    building, or that old ark by the river, and a feeling of dL4M vu, but stronger - as if it were

    embedded in her own rimal memory - would overwhelm her, and she would find herself

    shaking! 9hen she walked into their aartment on East /eventy-seventh /treet for the first

    time, she'd thought, ;*'m home,; and it wasn't because it was home !!! it was the feeling in

    her bones that she'd been there before, that she'd walked inside that same doorway before,

    that she'd danced across its marble floors in some not-so-distant ast! ;*t used to have a

    firelace,; she thought, when she saw her room! /ure enough, when she mentioned it to thereal estate agent, he'd told her it'd had a firelace in =G=, but it had been boarded u for

    safety reasons! ;Because someone died in there!;

    But the nightmares were the worst! 0ightmares that left her screaming herself awake!

    0ightmares of running, nightmares of someone taking hold of her - as if she weren't in

    control - and she would wake u, shivering and cold, the sheets drenched with her sweat!

    Her arents assured her it was normal! &ike it was a normal thing for a fifteen-year-old girl

    to wake u screaming so loudly her throat dried u and she choked on her own sit!

    But now, at Block =??, ack (orce was standing u, and Bliss stood u too e5cusing herselffrom +imi's attention! /he'd stood u on imulse, 4ust to be moving, 4ust to be doing

    something other than 4ust being a sectator to the /how "hat 9as +imi, but when she'd

    said she needed a smoke, she found she really did! $ggie #arondolet, one of the +imi

    clones, was already snaking her way outside! Bliss lost ack halfway through the crowd,

    and she flashed the stam on her right wrist to the guard, who had to let eole out and

    back inside due to the draconian smoking laws in 0ew 8ork #ity! Bliss found it ironic that

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    0ew 8orkers considered themselves so cosmoolitan when in Houston, you could smoke

    anywhere, even inside a beauty salon, while you were under the dryer. but in +anhattan,

    smokers were consigned to the margins and left to deal with the elements!

    /he ushed oen the back door and found herself in an alleyway, a small dark corner

    between two buildings! "he alley between Block =?? and "he Bank was a etri dish ofwarring cultural allegiances - on one side, reening histers in tight, e5ensive, Euroean

    clothes, tossing their bleached hair over zebra-rint 4ackets. and on the other, a scraggly

    grou of lost children in their tattered and ierced clothing but an uneasy truce e5isted

    between the two arties, an invisible line that neither grou ever crossed! $fter all, they

    were all smokers here! /he saw $ggie leaning against the wall, hanging out with a coule of

    models!

    Bliss rooted in her hooded +arc acobs car coat 1borrowed from +imi, art of the

    makeover3 for her cigarettes and taed one out! /he brought it to her lis, fumbling for the

    matches!

    $ hand e5tended from the darkness, offering a small, lit flame! (rom the other side of the

    alley! "he first time someone had braved the divide!

    ;"hanks,; Bliss said, leaning forward and inhaling, the cigarette glowing red at its ti! /he

    looked u, e5haled, and through the smoke recognized the guy who'd offered it! ylan

    9ard! $ transfer - 4ust like her - to the sohomore class from somewhere out of town! 7ne

    of the odd-ones-out at /teford-like uchesne, where everyone had known everyone since

    nursery school and ballroom dancing lessons! ylan looked handsome and dangerous in

    his customary beat-u black leather motorcycle 4acket over a dirty "-shirt and stained 4eans!*t was rumored he'd been e5elled from a succession of re schools! His eyes glittered in

    the darkness! He flicked his :io closed, and she noticed his shy smile! "here was

    something about him - something sad and broken and aealing !!! He looked e5actly the

    way she felt, and he walked over to her side!

    ;Hey,; he said!

    ;*'m Bliss,; she said!

    ;7f course you are!; He nodded!

    #H$P"ER C

    "he uchesne /chool was housed in the former (lood mansion on +adison $venue and

    0inety-first /treet, on re-school row, across from alton and ne5t to /acred Heart! *t was

    the former home of Rose Elizabeth (lood, widow of #atain $rmstrong (lood, who had

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    founded the (lood 7il #omany! Rose's three daughters were educated by +arguerite

    uchesne, a Belgian governess, and when all three were lost during the unfortunate sinking

    of the // Endeavor during an $tlantic crossing, a heartbroken Rose returned to the +idwest

    and beAueathed her home to +ademoiselle uchesne to found her dream institution!

    &ittle had been done to transform the home into a school among the rereAuisites of thebehest was that all the original finishes and furniture were to be carefully maintained, which

    made entering the building akin to walking backward in time! $ life-size ohn /inger /argent

    ortrait of the three (lood heiresses still hung above the marble staircase, welcoming

    visitors into the magnificent double-height entryway! $ BaroAue crystal chandelier hung in

    the glass-windowed ballroom that overlooked #entral Park, and #hesterfield ottomans and

    antiAue reading desks were arranged in the foyer! "he shiny brass sconces were now wired

    for electricity, and the creaky Pullman elevator still worked 1although only faculty were

    allowed to use it3! "he attic, a charming garret room, was transformed into an art center,

    comlete with a rinting ress and a lithograh machine, and the downstairs drawing rooms

    housed a fully eAuied theater, gym, and cafeteria! +etal lockers now lined the fleur-de-liswallaered hallways, and the uer bedrooms housed the humanities classrooms!

    )enerations of students swore that the ghost of +rs! uchesne haunted the third landing!

    Photograhs of each graduating class lined the hallway to the library! /ince "he uchesne

    /chool was formerly an all-girls institution, the first class of =G> showed a grou of si5

    dour-faced maidens in white ball gowns, their names gracefully etched in calligrahy! $s the

    years rogressed, the daguerreotyes of nineteenth-century debutantes gave way to the

    black-and-white hotograhs of bouffant-haired swans of the =F@s, to the cheerful addition

    of long-haired gentlemen in the mid- >@s, when uchesne finally went coed, leading to

    bright color hotograhs of winsome young women and handsome young men from thecurrent cro!

    Because, really, not much changed! "he girls still graduated in white tea dresses from /aks

    and white gloves from Bergdorf's, and were resented with garlands of twined ivy on their

    heads as well as the reAuisite bouAuet of red roses along with their dilomas, while the

    boys wore roer morning suits, comlete with earl-tied ins on their gray ascots!

    "he gray tartan uniforms were long gone, but at uchesne, bad news still arrived in the

    form of a canceled first-eriod class, followed by an announcement made over rustling

    static on the antiAuated sound system ;Emergency chael meeting! $ll students asked toreort to the chael at once!;

    /chuyler met 7liver in the hallway outside +usic Hum! "hey hadn't seen each other since

    (riday night! 0either of them had broached the sub4ect of encountering ack (orce outside

    "he Bank, which was highly unusual, since the two of them dissected every social situation

    they e5erienced down to the minute detail! "here was a studied coolness in 7liver's tone

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    when he saw /chuyler that morning! But /chuyler was oblivious to his aloofness - she ran

    u to him immediately and linked her arm in his!

    ;9hat's going on

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    side!

    ;9hat's going on

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    "he worst thing that could ever haen to a student at uchesne would be a broken leg

    skiing in $sen or a ainful sunburn from /t! Barth's over sring break! /o the fact that

    $ggie #arondolet had died - in the city no less 4ust shy of her si5teenth birthday, was almost

    unfathomable!

    $ggie #arondolet< /chuyler felt a twinge of sadness, but she didn't know $ggie, who hadbeen one of the tall, inched-looking blond girls who surrounded +imi (orce, like courtiers

    around their Aueen!

    ;8ou okay

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    But Bliss didn't even acknowledge that she'd heard him! /chuyler thought that was odd!

    How did ylan know Bliss &lewellyn< "he "e5an girl was ractically +imi's best friend! $nd

    +imi desised ylan 9ard! /chuyler had heard her calling him a

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    grief with a halting voice! /he dabbed her eyes without smudging her eyeliner! /he recalled

    fondly how $ggie had lent her her favorite Rock and Reublic 4eans once! $nd never even

    asked for them back2 0ow that was a true friend!

    $fter #hael, +imi and ack were ulled aside by one of the runners, a scholarshi kid who

    served as an errand boy for the Headmistress's office! ;"he Head wants to see you guys,; they

    were told!

    *nside the lush-careted office, the Head of /chools told them they could take the whole day

    off - no need to wait till noon! "he #ommittee understood how close they were to $ugusta! +imi

    was elated! Even more secial treatment2 But ack shook his head and e5lained that if it was

    all right with everyone, he was going to attend his second-eriod class!

    7utside the administration corridor, the vast careted hallways were emty! Everyone else was

    in class! "hey were ractically alone! +imi reached out and smoothed her brother's collar,tracing her fingers on his sunburned neck! He flinched at her touch!

    ;9hat's gotten into you lately

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    ack smiled a wry smile! ;"hat's not ossible! "hat would be like hating myself! $nd *'m not a

    masochist!;

    /he shrugged her shoulders in slow motion, turning away and biting her li!

    He ulled her in for a hug, ressing his body against hers! "hey were the same height - their

    eyes at the same level! *t was like looking into a mirror! ;Be good,; he said!

    ;9ho are you and what have you done with my brother

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    by their arents, the Elders, the 9ardens, everybody! 9hat haened to $ggie 4ust wasn't

    ossible! "hat much they all agreed on! +imi walked toward an oen window, steed into the

    sunlight, and gloried in the way it tickled her skin! 0othing could hurt them!

    ;"hey've called a conclave! "he letters went out today!;

    ;$lready< But they haven't even begun to change yet,; +imi rotested! ;*sn't that against the

    rules

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    ;o you want to share some memories of her

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    sunbathing in the cortile, owering sAuash returns in the lower court gyms, or hoovering

    brownies at the bake sale 1like all oular uchesne girls, $ggie had a love affair with food that

    was out of roortion to her suer-skinny aearance3 - into a trivial matter, a steing-stone to

    talk about everyone else's neuroses!

    "he door oened, and everyone looked u to see a red-faced ack (orce enter the room! He

    assed his late form to +r! 7rion, who waved it away! ;/it down, ack!;

    ack walked urosefully across the room to the only remaining emty seat in the classroom -

    ne5t to /chuyler! He looked tired, and a little rumled in his creased olo with the shirttails

    hanging out and baggy wool ants! $ slight electric charge went through /chuyler's body, a

    rickly and not unleasant sensation! 9hat had changed< /he'd sat ne5t to him before, and he

    was always invisible to her, until now! He didn't meet her eye, and she was too frightened and

    self-conscious to look at him! *t was odd to think they were both there that evening! /o close to

    where $ggie had died!

    But now another +imi discile was rattling about her hamster, who'd starved to death when

    they went on vacation! ;* 4ust loved Bobo so much,; she sobbed into a handkerchief as the rest

    of the class voiced their symathy! "ales of the demise of a similarly beloved lizard, canary, and

    rabbit were ne5t on deck!

    /chuyler rolled her eyes and doodled in the margins of her notebook! *t was her way of zoning

    out from the world! 9hen she couldn't take it anymore - her soiled classmates' navel-gazing

    rants, endless math lectures, the yawn-inducing roerties of single-cell division - she retreated

    into en and aer! /he'd always loved to draw! $nime girls and saucer-eyed boys! ragons!)hosts! /hoes! /he was absentmindedly sketching ack's rofile when a hand reached out and

    scrawled a note on to of her age!

    /he looked u, startled, instinctively covering her drawing!

    ack (orce nodded somberly at her, taing on her notebook with a encil, directing her gaze to

    the words he'd written!

    $ggie didn't die of an overdose! $ggie was murdered!

    #H$P"ER

    $ gleaming Rolls-Royce /ilver /hadow was waiting in front of the uchesne gates when

    Bliss emerged! /he felt slightly embarrassed, like she always did when she saw the car!

    /he saw her half sister, ordan, who was eleven and in the si5th grade, waiting for her!

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    "hey had let the lower form out early too, even though they hardly knew $ggie!

    "he door to the Rolls oened, and a air of long legs steed out of the car! Bliss's

    stemother, the former Bobi$nne /heherd, wearing a tight ink velour tracksuit with the

    zier ulled down to reveal her amle bosom, and high-heeled )ucci clogs, began looking

    frantically around the clustered students!

    Bliss wished, not for the first time, that her stemother would let her take a cab or walk

    home like every other kid at uchesne! "he Rolls, the uicy, the eleven-carat diamond, it

    was all so "e5as! Bliss had learned, from her two months in +anhattan, that it was all about

    stealth wealth! "he richest kids in class wore 7ld 0avy and were on strict allowances! *f

    they needed a car, their arents made sure it was a sleek and unobtrusive black "own #ar!

    Even +imi took cabs! (lashy dislays of status and affluence were looked down uon! 7f

    course, these were also the same kids who wore re-stained 4eans and unraveling sweaters

    from recious /oHo boutiAues that charged in the five figures! *t was all right to look oor,

    but actually being oor was comletely ine5cusable!

    $t first, everyone at school thought Bliss was a scholarshi kid, with her fake-looking

    #hanel bag and her too-shiny shoes! But the aearance of the /ilver /hadow Rolls every

    afternoon soon ut an end to that rumor! "he &lewellyns were loaded, all right, but in a

    vulgar, cartoonish, laughable fashion, which was almost as bad as having no money, but not

    Auite!

    ;arlings2; Bobi$nne trilled, her voice carrying down the block! ;* was so worried2; /he

    gathered her daughter and her stedaughter in her skinny arms, ressing her owdered

    cheek against theirs! /he smelled like calcified erfume - sweet and chalky! Bliss's realmother had died when she was born, and her father never talked about her! Bliss had no

    memory of her mother! 9hen she was three, her father had married Bobi$nne, and they'd

    had ordan soon after!

    ;/to it, Bobi$nne,; Bliss comlained! ;9e're fine! 9e're not the ones who were killed!;

    %illed! 0ow, why had she said that< $ggie's death was an accident! $ drug overdose! But

    the word had come out naturally, without her even thinking about it! 9hy?@

    Plymouth, +assachusetts

    "oday +yles /tandish took a team down the coast to Roanoke, to bring medicine, food and

    sulies to the settlement there! *t is a fortnight's sail, so they will be gone a good while! *

    was heartsick to see ohn go off with the men! /o far, we have been safe, but who knows

    for how long! 0o one dares say! "he children grow Auickly and are a delight to all! "here

    has been an abundance of twin births! "he $llertons recently had trilets! /usannah 9hite,whose husband, 9illiam, also 4ourneyed to Roanoke, came to visit! 9e agreed it is a fertile

    season! 9e have been blessed!

    - #!#!

    #H$P"ER ==

    /chuyler was still thinking about what ack had said after $ggie's funeral when she arrived

    at r! Pat's all-white office in a chrome-and-glass (ifth $venue tower later that afternoon!

    He'd asked her why she had ignored his note, and she'd e5lained she had simly

    dismissed it as a rank! ;8ou think $ggie's death is funny

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    dermatologist, a famous one! "he office was more like the inside of a +iami hotel - the

    /hore #lub or the elano - than a normal waiting room! *t was all white, white flokati rugs,

    white tile walls, white lacAuer tables, white leather couches, white fiberglass Eames

    loungers! $arently r! Pat was the r! Pat, the one who all the socialites and fashion

    designers and celebrities credited with their fabulous comle5ions! /everal signed and

    framed hotograhs from models and actresses hung on the walls!

    /chuyler ushed ack out of her mind and began fliing through the glossy magazine

    articles e5tolling the doctor's virtues, when the door from the inner office oened and +imi

    (orce walked out!

    ;9hat are you doing here

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    /chuyler nodded! ;/ometimes!;

    ;&ike you can't remember where you are or where you've been

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    allowed to haen! /he loved the clean lines of the beauty counters, the ale wood fi5tures,

    the glass cases dislaying tiny, e5Auisite and e5orbitantly riced 4ewelry, the small selection

    of *talian handbags, everything so clean and modern and erfect!

    *t was a great antidote to everything that had haened - because of course, $ggie was still

    dead! "hat's what scared her the most! Her death meant there was something "he#ommittee was keeing from them! "hat there was something they didn't know, or

    something "he 9ardens weren't telling them! /he didn't want to Auestion them, but it was

    maddening when her father wasn't forthcoming with any answers!

    $nd that 6an $len girl - the one with the sooky grandmother - showing u at r! Pat's office

    like that! "here was something about that girl she didn't like, and not 4ust because ack

    seemed to be interested in her! $ wave of revulsion had washed over her when she saw the

    two of them together, and she wanted to e5orcise the remaining ill feeling that had made her

    feel like vomiting! /he wished her brother would Auit hanging around scraggly sohomores

    like /chuyler 6an $len! 9hat was wrong with him