IT FELT STRANGE TO BE BACK IN THE COMPUTER LAB.
Kitty looked around the windowless classroom. On the surface, it was just like old times. Margot sat in front of a computer, her fingers flying deftly over the keys. Bree had tilted her chair back and propped up her legs on a desk while she steadfastly chipped away at whatever flecks of polish still remained on her fingernails. And Olivia was late.
One by one they’d slipped away from the melee down at the gym. After Logan, Ed, and the former DGM victims had been rushed away by paramedics, the girls had each been questioned by a very confused and distraught Sergeant Callahan, called in on his day off in the wake of the shootings. And once they had been released, they had made a beeline for their old meeting place.
Footsteps hurried down the hall and Kitty whisked the door open before Olivia could knock.
“Sorry!” Olivia said, her voice breathless. “Sergeant Callahan was asking like a million questions about what we were doing in the boiler room with Logan.”
Kitty arched an eyebrow. “And what did you tell him?”
“Same as we discussed. We each got an envelope threatening to hurt someone we cared about if we didn’t show up at the gym today.”
“Do you think he bought it?”
Olivia scrunched her mouth up to the side. “Not sure. He wanted to believe our story, but I’m not sure he’s been able to wrap his head around it yet.”
“Should be pretty open and shut,” Bree said. “Since Logan confessed to everything before they rushed him to the hospital.”
“True,” Kitty said. For some inexplicable reason, Logan had insisted on speaking to the police before the EMTs loaded him into the ambulance. He’d then confessed to the murders, attacking Margot, and arson at the warehouse. He claimed to be using the DGM name to commit the crimes and even said he’d threatened Bree into a false confession, which wasn’t entirely a lie.
“Why did he take responsibility?” Olivia asked. “Why not expose us instead of protecting our connection to DGM?”
Kitty shook her head. “I have no idea.” She eyed Margot, who steadfastly stared at the computer screen. She was hacking into the hospital’s admittance database. “Any updates?”
Margot shook her head. “No.”
What was she feeling? Of all of them, she’d been through the most. Should she ask how Margot was doing? Offer to talk whenever she felt like it? Or just let her grieve in silence until she was ready to discuss?
Margot’s face was a blank slate, no hint of fear or loss. Maybe that was how she coped with her pain: she muscled it aside until it lost its sting.
She closed out of the hospital site and switched to the Menlo Park Police Department’s website. “Donté, Mika, Theo, and Peanut have all been released from custody,” she said after a few clicks of the mouse.
Olivia laughed. “What I wouldn’t give to have seen the look on Peanut’s face when they booked her into juvie.”
“But juvie’s so much fun!” Bree said with sarcastic enthusiasm. She rolled her foot in a circle, wiggling the GPS tracker. “The wardrobe, the company, the culinary delights.”
“Thank you,” Kitty said to Bree in all seriousness. “For what you did.”
Bree shrugged it off. “It was nothing.”
“No,” Olivia said. “It wasn’t.”
Bree dropped her eyes to her lap in embarrassment.
Margot abruptly spun around in her seat. “So the question is,” she said, in her usual matter-of-fact way, “does DGM stay together or not?”
Kitty blinked, caught off guard by the question. “I . . . I don’t know.”
“We did what we set out to do,” Olivia said.
“Maybe it’s time to walk away,” Bree added.
Margot arched an eyebrow. “Do you really want that?”
Again, Kitty didn’t have a ready answer. It had been bugging her for hours, the decision about what DGM should do next. Everyone at Bishop DuMaine would know that Kitty, Bree, Olivia, and Margot were in the gym when Logan and Ed were shot. Their carefully maintained camouflage of disparate lives would be obliterated.
Then again, with Bree exonerated, she could claim that Logan forced her to confess to being DGM, and no one else knew the rest of them were involved. With the new DGM cleared of any wrongdoing, and Logan unmasked as a killer trying to frame DGM for his crimes, there was an opportunity to carry on.
“No,” Kitty said at last. She smiled broadly. “As long as there is high school, there will always be mean girls and bullies who deserve a bitch slap.”
“I’ve got a list,” Bree said with a smirk.
“But . . .” Olivia clasped her hands before her. “But if we keep this up, does that mean we have to keep pretending that we’re not friends?” She looked around the circle. “Because I don’t think I’d like that.”
“Me either,” Kitty said.
“Me either either,” Bree added.
For the first time that day, Margot smiled. “Me either cubed.”
“My math is crappy,” Kitty said. “But I think that means we at least have some kind of unanimous resolution. Friends?”
The girls nodded. “Friends,” they said together.
“How about this,” Kitty suggested. “We postpone any decision on the future of DGM until we determine whether or not there’s a need for its services.”
“A hiatus,” Margot said.
Bree smiled at Olivia wickedly. “That means we take a break.”
“Duh.” Olivia rolled her eyes, then smiled right back at Bree. Kitty was pretty sure this was the first time the computer lab hadn’t witnessed any bickering from the two of them.
“And if DGM is needed,” Kitty continued, “we’ve got backup.”
The girls nodded in agreement.
“Then I guess we’ll do this for the last time,” Kitty said, pushing herself to her feet. “For now, at least.” She shot her hand forward.
“I, Kitty Wei, do solemnly swear, no secrets—ever—shall leave this square.”
“I, Margot Mejia, do solemnly swear, no secrets—ever—shall leave this square.”
“I, Olivia Hayes, do solemnly swear, no secrets—ever—shall leave this square.”
“I, Bree Deringer, do solemnly swear, no secrets—ever—shall leave this square.”
Kitty gazed at the three smiling faces beaming back at her. She had no idea what the future held for DGM, but she knew one thing for sure—their friendship would last no matter what.
“Don’t get mad,” Kitty said, fighting back tears.
“Get even!”
