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Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Piper Marshall changed. It wasn't necessarily a bad change. It just was—change.

Before: everything about her seemed bright, right down to her smile.

After: everything seemed dark.

Piper Marshall was one of those girls you couldn't forget.

"You must be Mattie," she had said, stepping closer to Mattie. "I'm Piper."

"Piper Marshall?" I had squeaked. "You—you're different!"

She had smiled a wry smile. "Yeah. It's refreshing."

"I would hardly call black refreshing," I had muttered, still in shock. Piper was one of those perfect people—perfect hair, perfect eyes, perfect smile. She was nice to everyone. No one ever said a bad word about her.

"Each to their own," she had replied, placing her hand on my upper arm, as if she were making sure I wouldn't run away.

"Oh?" My voice had been an octave higher than usual, betraying my nervousness. What had happened to Piper? What had changed her so drastically?

"I didn't think anyone came this way…" Piper trailed off before blinking rapidly. "I wanted to say good-bye before leaving, but I didn't want to see anyone."

Still stunned, all I could do was gape. Good-bye? What did she need to say good-bye for?

"What are you talking about?" I asked, baffled.

"I'm leaving Roosevelt," she announced. Even though I knew—somewhere, deep down—that she had been alluding to it, to hear Piper Marshall announce it, I felt an uncomfortable twisting in my stomach.

"Why? You…you're so perfect. You have it all!" I protested.

Piper stared back at me, just as confused as I was before taking a deep breath. "I'll tell you a secret," Piper said gently. She leaned closer into me and placed her lips near my ear.

"I'm just good at faking it," she whispered. Her breath tickled my ear. I flinched away as if she had just breathed fire onto me.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean what I said. I'm good at faking it, is all. No one could tell how unhappy I was."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I'm leaving."

"Oh."

Piper smiled, this time her smile a bit tight. "Lots of things happen. People never guess. And those who did, well, they tried to ignore it."

"Who did it?" The words tumbled out before I could stop it.

"People who were willing to use secrets against me."

A chill ran down my spine when I heard this. My penpal knew loads of secrets about me… What did I even know about them? I glanced down at the letter, still clutched tightly in my hand. It was getting wrinkled from the way my hand curled into a fist.

"Principal Mann started the Penpal Project," I commented.

"I know. My parents were the ones who complained," she said softly, her eyes widening ever so slightly. She nodded at the letter in my hand. "Is that from your penpal?"

"Yeah."

Conflicting emotions flitted across Piper's face—confusion, worry, anxiousness, and other things that went too fast for me to analyze.