Last Christmas (Private 0.60)

the dark, regal buildings that cast foreboding shadows over campus.

If Ariana was expelled, if Easton was gone and Billings was no longer a part of Ariana's life, her mother

would have nothing to be proud of anymore. Without those places, those things, those people, Ariana was

nothing. Nobody. And her mother would have nothing to live for. Ariana trembled with terror at the thought.

Finally, the footsteps moved away from the closet, and a few seconds later, the door to Ariana's room

slammed shut. Instantly, Ariana burst out of the closet. She was dying to go for the door and catch the intruder

in the hallway, but she knew she couldn't.

"Ariana, you're shaking," Thomas said, reaching for her.

"I know I'm shaking! There was someone in my room!" she hissed in response. She dove at her desk and

started checking her desk drawers. She was torn between relief and rage. No one was supposed to be in

Billings. Just how many people knew about Noelle's key? Besides, what would anybody want in her room?

"Who the hell was that?"

"A teacher, maybe? Checking all the rooms to make sure everybody's out?" Thomas sounded uncertain.

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She shook her head. "A teacher wouldn't go through my stuff. And they're all supposed to be in Drake,

anyway."

She paused in front of her desk, letting her gaze wander from her laptop to her copy of Madame Bovary, and

over the candle Daniel had brought her a few days before. Something didn't seem right. Something was

missing.

Thomas shrugged. "Who knows? As long as we don't get caught, we're okay."

"How can you be so casual about this?" she snapped, running her hands over the surface of her desk. The

thought that someone had been here, had been going through her things, made her skin crawl. "Someone

was-" A splinter slipped underneath the surface of her skin. "Shit." She winced, peering down at the drop of

blood that appeared on her fingertip. "Someone was going through my personal things, and you're acting like

it was no big deal."

"It's just ...there's nothing you can do about it, so there's no reason to get all stressed out." Thomas walked

over to window, his shoulder lightly brushing her. She felt him pull away quickly, as if he had just burned

himself. "It's not like you can go to the headmaster. We're not even supposed to be here."

Ariana ignored him, focusing for a moment on the splinter wedged in the tip of her throbbing finger. Why

couldn't she figure out what was wrong, what was different with her desk? Something had changed. Just like