creak. She dropped her floral Betsey Johnson messenger bag next to her, spilling some of her
books and notebooks halfway out. "What we really have to do is get you back into Billings."
"I second that," Sabine said, raising her hand. "But how?"
"Well, I was thinking," Constance said, sitting forward. She pulled her long, red braid over her
shoulder and toyed with the piecey end. "You know how everyone who's trying to get into Billings
is giving us gifts? Well, Reed, why don't you give Noelle something? Like a peace offering."
"Yes. It would be like telling her you want to start over from scratch," Sabine agreed, her green
eyes excited.
"I don't know, you guys," I said, perching on the edge of my chair. "Wouldn't that seem kind of
pathetic? And, you know, desperate?"
Constance's face fell into a pout. "I think it would be sweet."
73
"Maybe," I said, trying to bolster her. Looking at that face made me feel as if I'd just kicked a
puppy. "I'll think about it."
"Good," Constance said. "Because I really think Noelle would respond to something like that."
Yeah. With a marathon laughing fit.
"We should put these up," Sabine suggested, reaching over for the posters. As she opened the
tube and started unrolling the prints, I glanced at Constance's things and saw a copy of last week's
Easton Chronicle sticking out of her bag. Instantly I thought of Marc and his odd comment earlier.
"Hey, Constance. You knew Marc last year, right?" I asked casually.
"Yeah. We met at the paper. Why?" Constance asked. She sat forward and turned the toes of her
D&G sneakers together.
"Did he and Cheyenne ever hang out?" I asked.
"Not really," she said with a thoughtful frown. "But he did do a piece on her."
"He wrote a story about her?" I asked. That was unexpected.
"Yeah. Remember how we used to do that thing where we profiled a different student each week
on page two?" Constance said. "I always thought it was kind of lame, so I cut it this year. But Marc
wrote the one on Cheyenne."
"Huh. Interesting," I said.
That sort of explained why Marc knew about Cheyenne's love life last year. Although I didn't see