2: 2

I wasn't about to leave the dorm just because she'd threatened me over the phone.

After I hung up, Clive and I settled into a standoff right there in the room.

He wasn't in any hurry now. He wandered around on his own, taking his time picking through my toiletries and things.

It made my skin crawl, but there was nothing I could do.

The minutes ticked by, and finally another girl arrived. She took Clive for the boyfriend who'd carried my bags up. There was a flicker of disapproval in her eyes at a guy being in the room, but she didn't say anything, just dragged her suitcase inside.

Someone finally here—my spirits lifted a little.

But the second I started toward her to grab her arm and beg for help, she swung her suitcase up onto what had been my bed.

The air froze for a beat, and then it hit me: my housing application had already been canceled.

I didn't belong in this room at all anymore.

Seeing my bed taken only made Clive happier. He held out his hand to me.

"Come on!"

"Or don't blame me when you're sleeping on the street!"

There was a boyfriendish tenderness in his voice that turned my stomach even more.

I stayed rooted where I was, refusing to move.

I was afraid that the moment I walked out of this dorm, something far worse would be waiting for me.

More people kept trickling in until the whole room was full, and little by little they picked up on it—why was there an extra person?

Before coming, everyone had been able to look up their roommates on the housing site, so it didn't take long for them to notice the one who didn't belong.

One girl came over to me, meaning well, and said,

"Hey, are you sure you've got the right room?"

I'd already explained to plenty of people that this was my dorm, and nobody believed me.

I said it again now.

The moment the words left my mouth, the look she gave me turned strange—after all, there were only four beds, and every one of them already had someone.

Another girl spoke up.

"You don't need to drag everyone else into a fight with your boyfriend."

"Why don't you and your boyfriend take it outside? This room isn't the place for you two to work out your problems."

One person said it and the rest jumped in right after.

"Yeah, we came a long way, we need to rest."

They were convinced Clive was my boyfriend—after all, he was still holding my luggage, and he knew all kinds of things about me.

But I knew I couldn't leave now.

The way they looked at me was turning cold, and they weren't going to spare my feelings any longer. They called the dorm manager up.

Their move sent a fresh surge of hope through me.

The dorm manager was sure to save me. There was no way she'd let a man be in here and do nothing about it.

Three minutes later, the dorm manager came hurrying up, out of breath.

But the instant she saw Clive, she took him by the hand and asked when he'd gotten in.

How come she didn't see his mother anywhere?

Clive turned into a smooth, glad-handing charmer on the spot, the two of them all warmth and small talk.

My heart hammered as I watched. The dorm manager was no help either.

After a while, she finally deigned to glance at me. Making a show of it, she pulled out her phone and checked it for a moment.

"Your name isn't on this room's list!"

"Your dorm was reassigned a while ago. You're in another building now. You've got the wrong room."

"Now get moving, quit wasting time!"

Even though I already knew she couldn't be trusted, hearing her actually say it killed something in me all over again.

By then Clive was done waiting me out. He grabbed my hand.

"Come on! Everyone else wants to rest!"

"Let's head back and turn in early too!"

I still wouldn't go. I swung my hand to slap him, but before it reached Clive's face a force clamped down and caught it.

The final boss had arrived.

Kayla James had seized my wrist, her voice hard.

"The camp's barely started and you're already hitting people. Aren't you the big shot!"

3: 3

Kayla James walked in, and the loose, easy mood in the room went tight all at once.

Every girl climbed off her bed to greet her.

Kayla took in the sight, and a smile spread across her face.

She didn't come to me first. She made small talk with the girls, asking whether the dorm was comfortable, whether the trip had worn them out.

That motherly warmth won a lot of them over on the spot.

Only at the very end,

she came to stand in front of me, staring straight into my eyes, her voice pitched so low only the two of us could hear it.

"Don't push your luck. If you weren't so well-behaved, if I didn't think you could take good care of my son, you'd never set foot inside my home."

"Take my advice and do as my son says. Better yet, give my family a child, a son or a daughter, either one. Do that and I'll make sure this month goes easy for you. Otherwise I'll just have my son pick someone else, and when he throws you away, don't come blaming me."

"You know how many girls are at this camp, don't you? Not one of them is any worse than you."

Her words turned my stomach. I backed up a few steps. Was that really something a woman with a real education should be saying?

She was nothing but a feudal old busybody in a nice dress.

Done, she slid right into the same script the dorm manager had used.

"Your dorm is in the other building. Come on."

"I'll walk you over myself."

She caught my wrist, and cold shot through me, like a snake coiling around my arm.

I shook her off in one motion. I told myself, quietly and firmly, that I would stay in this dorm and not leave,

because I knew as long as I stayed here, someone would come to save me.

And the crowd outside was only getting bigger. They wouldn't dare try anything reckless.

Clive James took in the scene, and that leering look in his eyes went edged with impatience.

"Mom, hurry up and talk her into it, or it'll be too late."

He kept his voice low too, so only a handful of people could catch it.

Kayla shot her son a glare, and the message in it was plain:

You can't rush a good thing.

Being glared at by his own mother put Clive in a mood, so he turned that resentful stare back on me.

The look said it all. Tonight you're finished.

Kayla stayed perfectly serene through it,

taking half my luggage from Clive's hands. Who wouldn't look at that and praise her for caring so much about her students?

She told me to leave again, warmer now, almost affectionate.

I just stood there, blank, like a dead pig that had stopped fearing boiling water.

My refusal set the whole room off.

By now Kayla didn't need to lift a finger. The other girls took over, looking at me like I was some kind of bully.

First in line, again, was the girl who'd spoken up at the start.

"I'd heard the girls' dorm at this camp draws its share of weirdos. Now I've seen it for myself. Actually fighting someone else for a bed."

"Right? Someone comes to walk her out personally and she still won't budge. Who does she think she is?"

"So sad. Getting stuck with a student like this is just bad luck."

"If it were me, I'd have thrown her bags straight down to the ground floor. The nerve, no shame at all."

Line by line they nailed me to the pillory, and my heart hammered with rage while I cursed my own slow tongue, the way I never knew how to fire back.

That serene look on Kayla's face turned to certain victory.

She arched a brow at me.

I gripped the doorframe hard, and the panic in me rose and rose.

Why wasn't it here yet?

The voices around me pushed louder, turning to real attacks on me now.

One of them was even itching to shove me out the door.

Clive and the dorm manager saw their moment. Under the pretense of not letting me disturb everyone's rest, they moved to drag me straight out.

There was no way I could hold my own against them. Half my body was already out of the dorm,

and every mouth in the room curled into a smile.

Just then, a voice cut in.

"Let's see which one of you dares touch her."