Page 90 of An Academy for Liars

“Can you get me a license plate number?”

“Not now. He took the car.”

“Took the car where?”

“I don’t know.”

There was a long pause. “Lennon?”

“Yes?”

“Are you in any danger?”

“No.”

“When you say it fast like that, it makes me think you’re lying.”

“I think I’m telling the truth,” said Lennon.

“You think?”

Lennon heard the garage door open.

“I have to go. If you need to reach me, call this number, and if I don’t pick up or I’m not here, just hang up, okay? Don’t leave a message, and don’t call back unless I call you.”

“And if I don’t hear from you? What then?”

“Then I’m probably dead.”

“Lennon, that’s not funny—”

“We’ll talk later,” said Lennon, just as Dante entered the house. She hung up the phone and went to greet him in the foyer.

“Who was that on the phone?” he asked, looking tired.

“Carly. I figured I should give her a call, so she knows I’m alive.”

“How was she?” he asked, and Lennon couldn’t tell if he was fishing for information or just trying to make conversation.

“She’s still not particularly enthusiastic about you,” said Lennon, trying to make a joke of it. But it landed wrong, and neither of them laughed. But the mood lightened when they found their way into the kitchen, where the cake was on display.

“Happy birthday,” said Lennon, scrambling to light a match. “I know it’s lopsided and the frosting looks like shit, but I did my best.”

Dante, caught off guard at first, smiled and blew out his candle. They ate large wedges of cake for dinner at the breakfast table.

“So, what did Eileen say?”

“She apologized for the rude intrusion this morning and we were able to discuss the circumstances of your return to Drayton. The conversation was…surprisingly productive.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Dante stared down at the floor, as if in search of the answer to that question. “The school wants some assurance that they haven’t misjudged you. There is…mounting concern that your existence is a threat not just to the school and the students in it, but to reality itself.”

“Because of Ian?” she asked, a pit in her stomach. She hated that even after killing one of her own classmates, she was worrying if the offense was bad enough to result in her expulsion, as if she didn’t deserve to be expelled for what she’d done.

“Yes, but also because as of leaving the campus, you’re no longerunder the school’s jurisdiction,” said Dante. “And apparently, the chancellor isn’t entirely impressed by your progress thus far.”

“But I’ve done everything they’ve asked of me,” said Lennon, her voice cracking on those words. “I’ve been at the top of most of my classes, I’ve learned to call elevators on command—”

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