Heather’s first morning back at Brightwood, she broke two rules before the first bell.

Rule one: she drove her own car through the front gate instead of parking in the students’ lot like she was supposed to. Rule two: she was still wearing her cheer warm-ups—a tiny crop top and shorts that showed off the three days’ worth of sun she’d picked up at the regional finals—when she walked into the dining hall and downed a glass of orange juice like it owed her money.

“Ladies,” she announced to her friends, spreading her arms. “I have returned. You may all weep with joy now.”

Dana, her roommate, threw a muffin at her. “Three days. Three days of peace, Heather. Do you know how good my skincare routine was?”

“Three days of winning a trophy,” Heather corrected, sliding into the seat beside her. “Which is more than your skincare routine will ever achieve, you are aware.”

The table laughed. That was the thing about Heather—she drew noise to her like a magnet. Ponytail swinging, green eyes bright, with that strip of bare, sun-warmed skin between the hem of her crop top and the waistband of her shorts, she looked like the kind of girl who had never once had a bad Tuesday.

“Alright, catch me up,” she said, reaching across to steal a forkful off Lexi’s plate. “What’d I miss? Please tell me Dr. Hale hasn’t replaced the dining hall smoothie machine again. I will riot.”

“Worse,” Dana said, with her mouth full. “We got a new teacher.”

Heather paused, fork hovering. “What kind of new teacher?”

“The male kind.” Lexi wiggled her eyebrows. “And he’s actually—” she fanned herself with a napkin, “—not a gross one, for once.”

“He’s like twenty-seven,” Dana said. “Physics. Smart. Kind of hot in that tragic, tweedy way.”

Heather rolled her eyes and went back to stealing her food. “Great. Another man to orbit the building and pretend he’s not looking at our butts. Thrilling. I’m going to cry.”

“That’s the thing, though,” Lexi said, leaning in, suddenly serious. “He doesn’t look. That’s what everyone says. He helps everyone. Wednesday he stayed after class for two hours helping Nadia with her astrophysics coursework, and it wasn’t even his class’s topic.”

“And he fixed June’s laptop,” Dana added. “And Maggie’s car. And when …