Zuri wasn't shocked by the email.
Disappointed? Absolutely.
Hurt? Certainly.
But not shocked.
She had known it would happen the moment she met Aria Dalton that sharply pressed collar, the eyes that sliced people like glass. Zuri knew that type. Girls like that didn't keep their world locked up they patrolled it.
And Zuri?
She was a threat.
She sat in the guidance office, arms crossed, as Mrs. Hargrove explained what was happening.
"We received a flagged file from your last school," the counselor said gently, as if Zuri might break. "A teacher referral two years ago. Nothing negative, but… it's caused us some concern about patterns of behavior."
Zuri raised an eyebrow. "You're talking about the time I stood up for a classmate who was being bullied and pushed a phone out of somebody's hand who was a pervert?"
Mrs. Hargrove blinked again.
Zuri smiled. "Hysterical how people leave that out."
By lunch, the rumors were circulating. Louder this time.
"Did you hear?"
"Zuri's not as sweet as she appears to be."
"Aria warned everyone guess she was right.".
Zuri sat beneath the cherry tree again, earbuds in, sketchbook open but she couldn't focus. Her fingers cramped. Her heartbeat wouldn't even out.
She needed to scream.
Or cry.
Or fight.
But then.
He sat down.
No hello. No hesitation.
Just a gentle thud next to her.
She turned to see.
He was in a gray hoodie, charcoal-stained fingers, and a chipped guitar pick at his neck.
Kai Bennett.
She'd heard him on campus. Felt the buzz. The boy whose dad destroyed some senator's career. The boy who didn't talk much. The boy who didn't seem to care about anything or anyone.
But he was standing in front of her.
And he was looking at her.
Not like she was a headline.
Not like she was a threat.
Like she was human.
"You don't even know me," she mutters.
"I don't have to," Kai said, his voice low and even. "I saw her look at you when you arrived. Not curiosity. Fear."
Zuri stared at him.
He shrugged. "People like her? They only strike when they are cornered."
"You think I cornered her?"
"I think you arrived with a mirror she did not invite."
Zuri winced.
That… hurt.
She turned away too hastily, not sure how to reply.
He didn't push.
Didn't press.
Just sat back against the tree and pulled out a mechanical pencil from his own pocket. Started sketching something in the corner of her notebook without asking her so much as a word.
She was half-way through speaking "Hey" when she noticed.
A girl.
Eyes closed. Hair in braids. Hand on fire.
Not burning.
Glows.
Like something within her was waking up.
Zuri looked at it.
And for the first time in two days, the turmoil within her subsided, barely.
Zuri didn't know how long she stared at the drawing.
She traced the girl's glowing hand with her eyes, feeling like Kai had reached inside her chest and sketched something she hadn't even known she was carrying.
"You're good," she finally said, voice quiet.
He didn't respond right away. Just tapped the pencil lightly against the page and said, "I only draw what's already there."
Zuri lifted her head. "You sound like a fortune cookie."
He smiled. "I hear that often enough."
The bell rang, and they did not move.
The courtyard emptied around them, the tree creaking above.
"I know she sent it," Zuri said finally. "The file. The email. Everything."
Kai did not ask whom she was. He knew.
"I believe you," he said bluntly.
"That's the thing that scares me." Her voice cracked a little. "I didn't even do anything yet. Just existed."
"You did something," Kai said. "You broke her portrait. You made her feel noticed. People like Aria build their lives so that no one ever really notices them."
Zuri didn't respond for a long time, then spoke, "And what do you see?"
Kai leaned forward slightly. "You're scared. But you're not running anymore."
He wasn't wrong.
For since Zuri had spent the last two days wondering if she'd done something wrong in switching to Saint Celeste. If she was really supposed to be here. If she should have simply kept her head down.
But now?
Now she was angry.
Now she wanted the truth everything.
She went to the archive room of the library after school.
She remembered something from the counselor's error earlier a hospital name mentioned in passing while she was getting a scan of her "adoption records."
St. Jude's Memorial.
The name hit something inside her chest like a bell.
She typed it into the school system database, filtering by alumni families.
Her fingers froze on one result.
Delilah Bennett former nurse. Retired. Son: Kai Bennett.
Zuri's breath caught.
Kai's mom.
She pressed print on the file.
Whatever this was…
Whatever this thread between her and Aria really meant…
Kai was already tangled in it.
And maybe… he didn't even know.
Zuri sat on the steps behind the library, the printout clenched in her hand.
Delilah Bennett. St. Jude's Memorial.
Her mind raced in a thousand directions.
Kai's mom had worked at the same hospital where she was born.
Where they were born.
She stared down at the name again, the page crinkled from her grip. She didn't believe in coincidences not anymore.
The same fire that made her fists shake yesterday… it now burned with clarity.
But another voice snuck in.
What if he does know?
What if he's in on this too?
She didn't want to believe it was true.
But she didn't easily give her trust.
It had been broken too many times.
"Are you going to ask me, or just stand there staring at that piece of paper like it killed somebody?"
Zuri's head snapped up.
Kai sat a few feet back, arms crossed loosely, a sneer etched across his lips but his eyes, as always, were serious.
Zuri swallowed.
"How long have you known your mom works at St. Jude's?" she asked in a rough-around-the-edges tone.
"Since I was old enough to spell 'hospital.'" Why?"
She pushed the paper out.
He didn't flinch at taking it.
Read it once. Twice.
His jaw clenched by a hair's width.
"She never said a word to me," he stated. "She departed when I was ten. She said she couldn't work in places like that any longer. Said they covered up things. Moved people around like pawns on a board."
Zuri regarded him. "And you never questioned her as to what she meant by that?"
"I was a kid," he replied. "I figured she meant hospital politics."
Zuri inched closer. "What if it wasn't politics?"
"What if it was us?"
That fell between them like a bomb.
The paper fluttered away in the wind.
Kai folded it once and tucked it into his pocket.
His voice was deeper now. "You think… Aria knows everything?"
"I think she knows enough," Zuri said, "but not the important part."
He waited.
Zuri exhaled a lungful of air she hadn't even realized she was holding.
"She's not just scared of losing her image," she whispered. "She's scared of losing her place. Because if people find out we're sisters, suddenly she's not special anymore. She's not the only one. She's just… half."
Kai nodded slowly. "And so are you."
Zuri's eyes shimmered not with tears, but with purpose.
"Not for long."