The meeting had been brief and perfunctory—Juliette had wanted to set up a joint email list for planning, and had sneered when Maddie said Oakhurst didn’t let them have Internet access—and then everybody had sat around stuffing their faces on junk food until Hailey and another driver showed up to bundle all of them into a couple of cars and drive them home. Zoey and Dylan and Maddie had been loud and giddy with their sugar high, and even Chris and Kylee had been cheerful. Only Spirit had nothing to say. Bread and circuses, Mom’s voice whispered in her mind. Bread and circuses. She hated to think that people could be bought off—or distracted—that easily from something (especially if it was really bad), but she was starting to realize the problem was actually that you didn’t know how bad something was at first. Maybe you didn’t know until it was too late. She had just enough time to dump her coat and things in her room and run to the Refectory. She got inside just before the doors closed.
