The Wozniaks and Francie returned to the city three days later, after Francie and Chester had many opportunities for romantic strolls in the woods around their cabin, and even a chilly moonlight swim in the lake, when the sight of Francie in a bathing suit nearly made Chester's eyes pop out of his head. They stayed away from the rest of the young people, most particularly Holden and Nadine, and Holden and Nadine definitely stayed away from them; they got all the private, alone time they could've wished for.

"Clio, it was just like a movie," Francie said as she fell onto her bed with a whoosh, grabbing her pillow and hugging it. The woods were so pretty and green, and when we laughed, our voices carried and echoed, and once we scared some deer and they jumped right out in front of us and ran away, and they were gorgeous and soft looking, their ears looked like they were made out of velvet."

Clio smiled at her sister from her own bed. "I'm glad you had so much fun. I heard there was a little excitement, too, though, right?"

Francie looked at her sister. "Mom told you?"

Clio nodded. "How's Chester's head?"

"Not too bad of a scar, I think. The plastic surgeon did a good job." Francie sat up and put her pillow aside. "Plus he wears his hair kind of long and floppy in front, so it will pretty much be hidden, probably."

She looked at Clio and bit her lip. "Can I tell you something?"

Clio nodded and sat next to her sister expectantly.

"I liked it."

Clio continued to wait, eyebrows raised. "Liked what?" she finally asked. "Did something happen you haven't told me about?"

"I liked when he punched Holden," she said in a near whisper. "I mean, not when he hit his head and nearly put his own eye out and all that, but the rest? When he set me aside and stood up and --and--just laid him out like he did? Like I was a heroine in a Jane Austen novel and he was named Darcy or Bingley or something? Isn't that terrible? So unenlightened of me." Francie covered her face with her hands and let out a little scream.

Clio laughed and pulled her sister's hands away from her face. "It's okay, Francie-pants, I won't tell anyone. We all feel a little un-evolved from time to time, I think, it's normal." She put her arm around Francie's shoulder. She kissed her little sister on the temple. "Nice to have you home."

Francie enjoyed spending the evening with her entire family, including her father, and didn't give her social life a second thought until she went to school the next day. Half way through swim practice, she looked up as she swam into the wall to see Kendra Sweeney, a senior, standing at the top of the lane, looking out of place in her street clothes, waving to her.

"You need to get out and come with me," Kendra said to her. Francie remembered that Kendra worked in the office in the mornings before school. She looked over at Coach, who gave her the okay, so she boosted herself out and followed Kendra to the locker room.

"What's this about?" she asked Kendra as she quickly changed.

"I don't know, you just have to come with me to the office," Kendra said, but Francie thought that Kendra sounded funny, like she was probably lying and she did know what it was about, she knew exactly what it was about, she just wasn't supposed to talk about it.

When they left the locker room, Francie turned to head through the courtyard to the office, but Kendra shook her head and headed up the stairs.

"But why? That's the long way," Francie protested.

"I don't know, Dr. Alvarez told me to bring you this way," Kendra said with a shrug, and this time Francie could tell she was definitely lying, so she quickly turned and sprinted away from Kendra, running out to the courtyard before Kendra could stop her.

There were kids milling around, since school didn't start for another half hour, the usual before school crowd, but today, most of them seemed to be gathered at the south wall of the courtyard, staring at something. Francie headed over there with Kendra hot on her heels, calling after her.

"Francie, there's no point in your seeing it! Come on, please? I'm going to get in trouble!"

Francie pushed her way to the front, with most people stepping out of her way to let her through once they saw who she was. It was sort of unpleasant, the way they were looking at her, but she had to know what it was, what they were all looking at. Most of them had their phones out, and were attempting to take pictures of it, though whatever it was was obviously too big to fit in one frame.

She finally got to the front of the crowd, with Kendra right behind her, and stopped in her tracks, staring at the wall.

It had been drawn like a comic strip, with two cells, and someone had taken a long, painstaking time on it, someone with no small amount of talent. And it was huge, nearly two stories tall, taking up nearly the entire wall.

On one side, a tree trunk rose, with the greenery of an apple tree above both cells, and written among the apples were the words, "The apple doesn't fall too far from the tree, does it?" There were huge daisies growing all around the trunk of the tree, and, just in case their meaning was unclear, someone had written "daisy" in the middle of each one.

The first cell showed a voluptuous, naked girl with corkscrews of blonde hair and huge blue eyes, obviously Francie, in a provocative pose, crooking her finger at a line of faceless, anonymous men. It was a caricature-like drawing, her breasts and hips drawn huge and out of proportion, as she stood hipshot, looking somehow eager, like a slattern, like a slut.

In the second cell, she was the same girl, only this time with an obvious baby bump, finger in her mouth, and a thought bubble with the words, "Wonder whose it is?" in it, and the nameless line of guys running away in a cloud of smoke.

The words "Francie Santangelo is a slut" were splashed across the bottom of the entire thing in huge, magenta letters.

Oh. My. God.

Francie felt naked, exposed, like everyone was looking at her with no clothes on. She spun abruptly toward the planter next to her and retched, throwing up the juice she'd drunk at home before practice. The kids around her parted, giving her space, but no one stepped up to pat her back or hold her hair except Kendra.

Someone at the back of the crowd laughed.

"Come on, Francie, let's get to Dr. Alvarez' office," Kendra suggested. "Someone's on their way to take care of this right now, I promise."

Francie nodded, wiping her mouth on her sleeve, and they left. The crowd of students parted, as though no one wanted to touch her.

As they were leaving, she passed two security guards and three custodians, who had huge rolls of paper and tape.

Thank the baby Jesus, Francie thought.

"I thought I told you to bring her the other way?" Dr. Alvarez began as soon as they entered her office.

"It wasn't her fault, it really wasn't," Francie said before Kendra could say anything. "I knew there was something she didn't want me to see, and I made her go that way."

Dr. Alvarez stared at Francie. "Yes, you are a stubborn one, aren't you?"

Francie nodded and opened her mouth to say something, but all that came out was a sob.

Kendra stood helplessly next to her and put a soothing hand on her back.

"Thank you for bringing her, Kendra."

Kendra turned to go.

"Oh, please find Chester Wozniak?" Dr. Alvarez looked to Francie for confirmation that she wanted him there.

Francie nodded.

"And then go and wait for Mr. and Ms. Santangelo at the front of the school, please. I believe they'll be dropping off the rest of their children in about fifteen minutes. When you find them, bring them here, also, okay, Kendra? And thank you."

She handed Francie a tissue and gestured to the chair.

"Well, let me say first of all how sorry I am that this has happened to you, sweet girl," Dr. Alvarez began. "I can't imagine how terrible it must feel to see something so appalling and I want you to know that it's being covered up as we speak."

Francie nodded. "I saw the custodians and security walking over as we were leaving. Thank you." She wiped her nose.

There was a knock on the door and Chester entered. He went straight to Francie. "Oh god, Francie, I'm so sorry. Are you okay?" He pulled a chair closer so he could hold her hand.

"I'll survive. I mean, I guess it's just freedom of expression, right?" She smiled wanly. "It's libelous, but it was very well-done shit, that's for sure." She looked at Dr. Alvarez. "Pardon my language," she said.

Dr. Alvarez waved her words away.

"Did you see it?" Francie asked Chester.

"I saw part of it. I saw enough," he said grimly. He kissed her hand. He looked at the principal. "Why is this happening to her?" he asked helplessly. "I can't believe anyone in this school cares this much about our love life, Doctor."

Dr. Alvarez shook her head. "I don't think it's just that anymore." She looked at Francie. "Did you notice--"

The door opened and Pete and Daisy entered. They, too, went straight to their daughter, asking if she was okay. Then they turned to Dr. Alvarez.

"What happened? We heard there was graffiti? Something insulting to our daughter?"

Dr. Alvarez turned on her computer and turned it around so Francie's parents could see. "This is not going to be pleasant, I want to warn you," she said. "We filmed it for evidence. We're calling the police, obviously."

Pete and Daisy looked on in horrified silence as the camera panned from one end of the wall to the other, then slowly back again.

"Oh my god," Daisy murmured, hands at her mouth. She sat on Francie's other side and put an arm around her daughter.

"This is completely unacceptable," Pete began. "We pay so much money for our children to attend this school, and one of the reasons is that they'll be safe, protected from this kind of hatred, this kind of garbage--

"Dad, this isn't the school's fault," Francie interrupted. "You can't blame them for this."

"Aren't there cameras or something so you can see who did this?" Daisy asked. "I mean, this school is supposed to have excellent security, right? And obviously something this involved must've taken hours, days to complete."

"We turned the cameras off during the break," the principal explained. "We've never had a problem with vandalism before. The school is locked up very tightly, and no one's ever been able to get in."

"So what's being done?" Pete asked.

"Well, it's being covered with paper for now--"

"Why can't it just be painted over? What's to stop some horrible students from simply ripping the paper off?" Pete demanded.

"We can't do anything permanent until the police and their forensics team have examined the paint," Dr. Alvarez explained. "This is being treated as a criminal matter," she assured them. "And as I was saying when you entered, I don't think this is just about your daughter, Mr. and Ms. Santangelo. Did you notice the words on the tree, and the flowers?"

They shook their heads.

"I know it's distasteful, but look again, please." She ran the video once more, and Pete and Daisy watched, paying close attention to where she pointed.

"I think, Daisy, that this somehow involves you in some way, not just Francie," Dr. Alvarez went on."

Daisy swallowed and sighed, leaning back into Pete's arm.

"At any rate, we'll know more after the police have done their preliminary investigation. For now, I think Francie should go home with you, agreed?"

Pete and Daisy nodded.

"What? I've missed so much school, though," Francie objected. "I can't keep letting this asshole run me off of campus, Dr. A. Pardon my language," she said again.

"You really want to stay today?" her principal asked in surprise. "You don't mind? It's going to be tough."

"I'm tough," Francie said with spirit. "Nothing this bozo's said is true, and all the important people know that, you know?"

Chester smiled and kissed Francie's hand again.

Pete looked at his daughter with concern. "Mimma, are you sure you wouldn't just rather come home today? I hardly got to see you at all, we could just have a quiet day at home, let things settle down at school, hmm?"

Francie shook her head determinedly. "No. I'm tired of getting kicked around. And what if Lottie, Brina and Finn hear something? I need to be here if they have questions you know?" She smiled at her parents. "I'll have Veronica and Tyler, and Chester, too, right?" She looked at her boyfriend.

He nodded. "For sure," he said to her parents.

"You heard the young lady," Dr. Alvarez said with authority. "She wants to stay, she stays." She gave Francie a stern look. "If you have any trouble, you come to me immediately, though, you understand?"

"I understand."