Two things happened the next day at school. First, Amethyst thoroughly fucked up her math test since she hadn't studied. Second, when she sat down during lunch, her friends were all on their phones, facial expressions varying from disgust to shock to sadness. She saw Payton and Eliza sharing a concerned look and Hayden dragging a hand through their short black curls and dropping their phone when she sat down and asked: "What's wrong?"

Three phone screens turned in her direction, Austin said: "A new update," and Hannah shouted: "That fucking asshole!"

As always, it almost physically hurt to lie to her friends and pretending not to know, but it was part of the treaty of her and Hope. She scanned the page swiftly, almost hearing the hateful words in her head. She chucked in a breath, pretending to be shocked.

"What the fuck?" she said. "Is it true? Do they know who was the victim?"

Charity sighed.

"It's always true. And no, no one knows. If it's only one girl."

Amethyst looked around the circle of stunned faces, genuinely speechless. And relieved, that Katie wasn't exposed.

"This is bad," she then said.

"Can't be worse," Payton commented softly. The whole table fell silent again. She felt like she needed to change the subject, but she couldn't come up with anything. So they all ate in silence, each one of them swallowed in disgust and anger. Amethyst looked at Hope, a few tables over, talking with some guy, and saw her smiling. Widely. The boy, too, had his phone in his hand and shook his head at is. Hope's smile turned pitiful, and she nodded. She said something, and at the shape of her mouth, Amy could make out the word 'horrible'. She struggled to avert her gaze, and surprised herself by saying: 'How do they know it? The writers, or writer?'

The whole table looked in her direction. At first, no one answered. She didn't know why she even asked. Because she wanted to know if they suspected anything? Because she wanted to talk about it all, even in a way where she technically didn't say anything?

"How do they even know anything?" Hannah said, still simmering with rage. "How do they know all of these details?"

"I told literally no one about our situation at home, except for you guys," Charity surprised them all by saying. "And I really don't think any of you would be capable of doing such things."

No, they wouldn't. But they would not do anything when they saw it happen before their eyes. Amethyst struggled to keep her face blank, but luckily no one paid any attention to her when Hannah continued to rage by saying: "It's not as if they have spyware everywhere. That would just be pathetic. I mean, the whole thing is pathetic."

It was, really. But it also frightened everyone in the school.

"They really know things they aren't supposed to know," Hayden commented softly, visibly still upset. "Sometimes it's like if they can read thoughts, or something."

Amethyst forced herself to nod along with her friends. At that exact moment she remembered that she had Johnson next period, same with Austin. She hadn't even noticed the subject had changed until she nudged him under the table and he looked up in the middle of his sentence.

"Huh?" he said. Amethyst bit her lip, and she knew he could see the worry on her face.

"We have him next period." She meant for it to come out softly, reaching only the boy sitting across from her, but the whole table turned in her direction.

"Oh, shit," said Austin. "You think he read it yet?"

Amethyst shook her head.

"No idea. But if it's really true... I think he won't be able to hide that stuff."

Austin scowled, his blonde hair falling before his light eyes.

"Wow. Now I'm even less excited. He will be in a disastrous mood."

And he was. Amy made sure to arrive early so she and Austin could sit in the back, observing everything. Johnson was late, the first sign something was wrong, and when he finally barged in, a dead silence fell over the classroom. His hawk's gaze scanned the classroom. He was fiddling nervously, and the fact that he didn't seem at all surprised was information enough to know he had read it. Amethyst found herself looking out for signs that would tell her the rumors were true, even though she knew they were.

"Good afternoon, class," he said finally, placing his bag on the teacher's desk with much more force than was necessary. The class mumbled something inaudible. That, at least, was normal, but Johnson didn't ask them to speak up like he always did. He just looked them over once more and the asked if they had done the reading. Shit.

Amethyst shrank back against the wall. She had completely forgotten with all this bullshit. When she almost had disappeared under her desk, she saw Austin shooting her an amused glance from the corner of his eye. She frowned back at him. Not doing the homework combined with the post wasn't going to be a good combination. And she was right. The second question he asked the abnormal silent class was directed at her, and she felt her face going red. At the exact same moment, two girls, also at the back, started giggling. Johnson's gaze snapped in their direction, and their guilty silence told the whole story. He located the piece of paper still in the hands of one of the two, and the grin of a girl a few rows before them, still half turned backward.

"Give it to me," he said, and when the girl tried to hide it, repeated, "Give it here!"

The silence deepened. The girl seemed like she was about to cry when she handed the piece of paper over.

"Ew. Such a creep. Not a surprise he did all that stuff," he read out loud. Amy found herself not daring to breath. Johnson crumpled the note in his fist and turned to the girl who had written it. A vein bulged in his neck.

"Who's that about, Cass?" he asked calmly. Dangerously calm.

"No one," she hurried to say.

"No one," he repeated, sarcasm dripping off his tone. "Right. No more lies now, young lady. I won't allow such disrespect towards whoever this is directed at."

As if he didn't know. Amy and Austin exchanged a glance, she looking desperate, he scared. Cass didn't answer, but the girl sitting next to her did. At the moment she opened her mouth, Amethyst knew it was going to go wrong. Diana couldn't keep her opinions for herself, and everyone knew it. Everyone seemed to sense something was going to happen.

Diana leaned forward.

"'Bout you, of course," she said. "Did you read it? The post?"

She didn't seem scared at all. She knew she was talking for the whole class, but that didn't make Johnson snap any less.

"That dumb article? Do you bitches really believe that?" His voice wasn't calm anymore. At that moment, Amy was enormously happy she was sitting so far back. All attention was guided back from her.

"It's never been wrong before, has it?" Diana shot back, sounding smug. Red spots joined the throbbing vein in his neck.

"You dumb fucking whore," he spat at her. "You think you can get away with anything. These lies will not be tolerated. Just as this behavior."

The Asiatic girl paled, and the whole class started muttering angrily. At that moment Amy knew what she had to do to make sure Johnson was sent away forever. Frightened, but also confident, she sat up. He wasn't just an abuser, he also seemed to have some anger issues.

"You seem very defensive, sir," she called out. Faces turned her direction, and she hoped people were going to assume she was just standing up for Diana and not suspect her of anything to do with the post. She also wasn't known as someone very shy, so she could get away with it. She felt Austin place a warning hand on her thigh, but she shrugged it off. Johnson's gaze had pinned her down in the exact same way it had done with Diana. She took a deep breath and continued.

"You seem to know about the blog. Then why didn't you try something earlier against it?"

It didn't make sense, she knew that – who wouldn't be angry if something like that was posted about them on a well-known blog – but she only meant to make him angry. And he was.

"By the way, I'm not surprised either," she added, which was a huge risk, but made him break.

"Enough," he sputtered, speechless with anger. "Both of you, to the principal's office!"

They obeyed, and Amethyst shot a worried-looking Austin a reassuring look. Hauling her backpack over one shoulder, she walked over to the front of the class, where Diana already was holding open the door for her.