Falling Stars (Shooting Stars 5)

"What's that?" I asked.

"One night we've got to climb the ladder and look into those windows above us."

"It's not where Ms. Fairchild stays," Ice reminded her. "That window is in the private residence. If Madame Senetsky finds us up there peering into her apartments, we're all going to get the boot."

"Right now, I'm not so sure I would mind," Cinnamon retorted and walked off.

She almost got her wish. An hour later. Laura Fairchild came upstairs to tell us we were all to report immediately to the parlor.

"What's this about. I wonder?" Howard asked as all of us headed down the stairs..

"Maybe some of the silverware is missing," Steven quipped.

Ms. Fairchild told us to take seats and wait for Madame Senetsky. Rose looked from me to Cinnamon and Ice. She looked absolutely terrified.

Howard rose quickly when Madame Senetsky entered. Steven jumped up a moment after he had.

"Sit," she barked as if they were both dogs. They did so quickly.

Everyone was very quiet. She stood straight, firm, her cane in front of her, both hands on it.

"From time to time. I have someone under my wing who doesn't belong. When you all first arrived. I told you success in the arts consisted of sixty percent raw talent. The other forty percent really comes from character, charm, inner strength. Your teachers all agree that every one of you has the gift of talent, but alas. I am afraid that not every one of you has one or more of the other ingredients."

She paused and turned to Laura Fairchild, who practically leaped forward and handed her Rose's computer pages.

"Who left this in the dining room for my servants to find?" she demanded, holding up the familiar pages.

"What is it?" Howard asked.

"

It's that aspect of this business I despise: gossip, invasion of privacy. everything that dehumanizes us. Well?" she asked again. "Who put this in the dining room?"

Rose began to stand, confession written on her face. "I found it in my closet." Cinnamon said quickly.

"What?" Madame Serietsky replied. "Your closet?"

"Yes. I didn't know what to make of it. Someone must have left it there. I brought it down to give to Ms. Fairchild. but I forgot and left it on the floor."

"It was found next to Rose's chair," Laura Fairchild said skeptically, glaring at Rose.

"What is it?" Howard asked again.

"I passed it over to Rose, who looked at it and then put it away when the others came to the dining room," Cinnamon said, making up her lies as fast as questions could be asked. "That's why Howard keeps asking what it is," she said, looking at him. "He didn't see it. Neither did Steven. right. Steven?"

"I didn't see anything," he declared. "I don't know what this is all about."

"Well, what is it?" Howard cried.

"I'm sorry, we left it there. Who was in my room before me?" Cinnamon then asked. "Whoever that was must have forgotten it when he or she left the school."

"That's ridiculous. Those rooms are cleaned until they are spotless after each group of students leaves us," Laura said.

"Well, someone missed a spot. It was at the back of the closet. I wouldn't have found it myself if I didn't have a dress fall off the hanger."

Madame Senetsky stared at her and then panned all of us. Steven looked absolutely confused. Howard looked annoyed.

Rose shifted her eyes guiltily away, and Ice and I looked down.