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first-year with long, dark hair.
    “What happened?” Liam’s arms were wrapped around me, and he slowly brought me up to a seated position.
    “I just lost my footing. I’m fine now.” The wet grass had soaked through my jeans, and I scrambled to stand up. I was sure everyone would be pointing and whispering about my little episode, but the party was still behind us. Thankfully Seth, Liam, and Faux-Grace were the only people who had witnessed my short trip down Lunatic Lane.
    “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea…” Liam gripped my elbow, and the warmth of his hands helped clear my head.
    “No, no. I’m fine now. Seriously.”
    Someone needs to remember.
    I was still a little light-headed, and I was 99 percent sure my left butt cheek was frozen solid, but I couldn’t leave. I’d already failed Grace so many different times in so many different ways. But this was something I could do. Something I could control. It was a small thing, but it was all I had.
    I felt a clammy hand on my forehead.
    “No fever,” Seth noted cheerfully.
    I batted his hand away. “I’m fine.” I widened my eyes and tried to give him my mom’s patented death stare, but I felt my mouth start to give in to a smile instead.
    “Next time I’m giving you the breath of life. No arguments. I’ve been looking for a good excuse to use the CPR skills I picked up at that junior baby-sitting course my mom made me take at the library.” With one enormous bite, he finished off a candy bar that had literally appeared out of thin air. “You’re sure you’re all right?” He said the words through a mouthful of Snickers, and once I got past the fact that he’d just sprayed me with chocolate-nut saliva, I realized there was genuine concern in his eyes. I melted a little more.
    In spite of his frequent offers to administer mouth-to-mouth, Seth was the closest thing I had to a best friend. Maddie was still refusing to answer any of my calls or even respond to any of my emails. Granted, she was in some kind of intense inpatient program for refusing to ingest actual food for the past year and a half, so chatting with her ex-bestie probably wasn’t at the top of her priority list. But still.
    “I’m fine. Really. The mere threat of mouth-to-mouth probably saved me from slipping into a coma.”
    “That’s what I’m here for,” Seth replied cheerfully. Liam rolled his eyes in my direction, but he was smiling. Some guys might get jealous if a scrawny redhead was constantly hitting on their girlfriend, but Liam was not one of those guys.
    The cemetery was almost completely dark now, the aged, moss-covered gravestones lit only by the flicker of an occasional flashlight. Somehow the frigid air seemed to make the rising moon burn brighter in the sky, casting an eerie glow on the faces milling around the statues. I scanned the crowd and caught sight of a girl from my English class who was pointing at me, gesturing at her hair, and then laughing with the girl standing next to her. My hand instinctively flew up to my pink ponytail and smoothed the strands self-consciously. It wasn’t easy being different at Pemberly Brown, but I’d learned from experience that it was significantly easier than trying to fit in.
    A loud yelp sounded behind me, and I turned quickly to see Beefany pounding Alistair Reynolds on his good arm. Judging by the way Alistair was massaging his shoulder, her fists lived up to her nickname.
    “You bastard!” she shrieked and struck him again, this time in the center of his chest. She knocked all the air out of him and he fell back, steadying himself on a stone bench.
    “Calm your shit. I was just having some fun.” Alistair laughed cruelly, and my back went stiff at the sound. Alistair was the leader of the Brotherhood. The fact that he was here instead of rotting in some cell in juvie was a constant reminder that I’d failed to bring Grace’s killers to justice. Everyone else thought the fire had been an accident, but I