The Good Girls

Chapter One

ON SUNDAY MORNING, Jane Godmother stood outside the Auradon police station, staring morosely at the curb. Storm clouds hung low in the sky. Six squad cars were lined up in the parking lot. The other girls from film studies had all already left, either with their parents—Jane's would be there any minute now—or on their own.

As if summoned by her thoughts, her mom's sedan turned into the parking lot. Jane's stomach flipped. She'd caught a ride with Audrey here this morning, but after the cops had called her mom, they'd insisted on coming to get her. Jane couldn't imagine how her mom was reacting to the news that she'd broken into the house of a teacher who'd been killed last night—stabbed with his own kitchen knife. She, Jane Godmother, first chair cello, was a murder suspect.

The car slowed, and her mom bolted out of the passenger seat, enveloping Jane in a firm hug. Jane stiffened, surprised. "Are you okay?" Her mother said into Jane's shoulder, her voice tinged with sobs.

"I guess so," Jane said.

"I came as soon as I could. What happened? The police said you broke into a house? And there'd been a murder? What's happening to this town?"

Jane took a deep breath, saying the words she'd rehearsed for the past five minutes. "It was a big mix-up," she said slowly. "A few friends and I thought we had some information on Ben Florian's death. That's why we came to the police station. But then . . . well, then things got kind of confusing."

Her mom frowned. "Did you or did you not break into a teacher's house?"

Jane swallowed hard. She'd been dreading this part. "We thought he was home. The door was open. We had some questions for him, about Ben's death."

She lowered her eyes. Her mom had known who Ben Florian was even before he'd died—everyone did. The Florian's were wealthy and powerful, even in the influential, glamorous, perfect world of Auradon. What her mom didn't know was what Ben had meant to Jane. Not so long ago, he'd taken Jane out on a couple of dates. Wooed her, made her feel good, lit up her life. When he'd asked for a few pictures, she hadn't even flinched, posing behind her cello and snapping away.

Turns out he'd only wanted the pictures for a bet—which Jane realized when he drove by her house with his friends, laughing and throwing money at her. Can you say humiliating nightmare?

Worse, the police had found those pictures on Ben's phone, which to them was as good a motive as any for Jane to have murdered Ben. They didn't have proof of anything yet, but still, it wasn't good.

That was why Jane and the other girls had gone to Jay's house—to try to clear their own names. They knew that Ben had something on Jay—something big—and thought maybe Jay killed him to keep him quiet.

Her mother held Jane at arm's length. "You honestly thought your teacher had something to do with Ben's death? What kind of teacher was he?"

"Not a good one." Jane squirmed at the thought of Jay fooling around with quite a few of his students—the Something Big that Ben had known about. They'd discovered that when Audrey found a threatening message from Ben on Jay's phone. Oh, and Jay had hit on Audrey, too.

After they snooped through Jay's house and found hard evidence that Ben was blackmailing the teacher, they'd all gone to the police station together. But they hadn't exactly gotten the warm welcome they'd expected. Jay had died just moments after they fled the scene. Audrey's boyfriend—or maybe ex-boyfriend—had seen them leaving Jay's house and called the cops.

The mind-boggling discussion she'd just had with her friends flashed through Jane's mind. Is Jay Ben's killer? Uma had asked. Or did Ben's killer kill Jay, too—and make it look like us again? No one had an answer for that. It had all made sense when they thought Jay killed Ben, but now it was clear that everything was more complicated than they'd realized.