Chapter 1 - The Tray
"Smile, Emma. Everyone's watching."
Olivia Harper slammed the lunch tray upward before Emma Brooks understood what she meant.
Mashed potatoes struck Emma's cheek. Tomato sauce soaked her gray sweater. A carton of apple juice burst against her collar. The metal tray rang across the floor, and the cafeteria went dead quiet.
Emma was seventeen. She had survived her mother's funeral and three school transfers. None had prepared her for two hundred raised phones.
Olivia tilted her perfect blonde head. "Oops. I thought you were the trash can."
Her friends laughed, too loudly and a second too late.
Emma wiped sauce from her eyelashes. She wanted to run. Instead she bent to pick up a fork so nobody would step on it.
"You can say something," Olivia taunted.
"I can," Emma answered. "I'm deciding whether you're worth it."
A few students gasped. Olivia's smile hardened. She reached for Emma's shoulder, but the cafeteria doors opened before she made contact.
Principal Merritt entered with three visitors in dark coats. The tallest man stopped when he saw Emma. Silver touched his temples.
"Emma?"
Every student recognized Grant Brooks from the bronze plaque outside the new science building. His foundation paid for scholarships, after-school meals, and the renovation that had kept Easton High open. The man on the plaque was standing beside the principal with his mouth slightly open.
"Dad," Emma said, barely audible.
Olivia's face changed. So did the principal's.
Grant didn't look at Olivia. He took off his coat and offered it to his daughter. "Are you hurt?"
"Not where you can see," Emma whispered.
She accepted the coat but stopped him when he reached for his phone. "Please. Don't make this about your money."
He nodded, then looked at the untouched food scattered beneath her shoes. "All right. Tell me what you need."
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"First," Emma said, "ask why our school has been charging kids for lunches your foundation already paid for."
And across the room, Olivia's father, who had come in behind the visitors, went very still.
