I had little appetite and wasn't looking forward to sitting down at breakfast with the girls, who would only be waiting to hear and see what I would do and say. Nevertheless, I changed my clothes. Just as I was about to go to the dining room Mrs. Penny arrived. One look at her face told me she knew about Abby. The fingers of her hands were locked around each other as if she were holding onto herself for dear life.
'Good morning, dear,' she said.
'What's happened, Mrs. Penny? Where's Abby?'
'Mrs. Ironwood just called to tell me that her parents will be stopping by later today to pick up her things,' she said in one gasp and sighed.
'Then she's all right? They've found her?'
'Apparently she went into the city last night and called them. Now she'll be leaving the school. She would have been expelled for going off the school grounds in the middle of the night anyway,' she added.
'Oh, she would have been expelled, Mrs. Penny, but not for running off,' I said, shaking my head, and fixing my angry gaze on our housemother. 'That wouldn't have been Mrs. Ironwood's true reason?'
Mrs. Penny lowered her eyes and shook her head sadly. 'We never had such problems,' she muttered. 'It's so troubling?' She looked up and quickly gazed around the room. 'Anyway, I know how you girls are always bunching your things together. I wanted you to separate whatever is yours from whatever is hers so that they can come and go quickly as possible. This won't be pleasant for anyone, especially for me' she added.
'I imagine not. All right. I'll take care of it,' I promised, and began sorting things out, packing Abby's things in her suitcases and boxes so it would be that much easier for her parents, the tears dripping of my cheeks as I worked.
By the time the girls had returned from breakfast, I had most everything organized and was sitting dumbly on the edge of my bed, staring at the floor. Gisselle paused in the doorway, Samantha right behind her.
'What's going on?' she demanded, looking at the packed suitcases and boxes. 'Mrs. Penny wouldn't say a word.'
I raised my head slowly, my eyes bloodshot.
'Abby's parents are coming for her things. She's leaving Greenwood. Are you satisfied now?' I demanded sharply. Samantha bit down on her lower lip and shifted her eyes away quickly.
'It's better for all concerned,' Gisselle said. 'It would have happened eventually anyway.'
'If she had to leave, she should have left because she wanted to, not because she was embarrassed by you and your followers in front of the whole student body and all those boys,' I complained.
'It's the risk someone like that takes when she tries to be one of us,' Gisselle replied, without a note of contrition in her voice. She was so self-satisfied, so confident, it made me sick to my stomach.
'I don't want to talk about it anymore,' I said and turned away from her.
'Fine with me,' she said and had Samantha wheel her away.
But early in the afternoon, just before Abby's parents arrived, Samantha came to my door alone. She had left Gisselle in the lobby with the others and come back to fetch something for her.
'What do you want?' I demanded sharply.
'Gisselle wanted me to get a record out of the box stored in Abby's closet,' she said meekly. 'She's loaning it to one of the girls from B quad.'
I turned my back as she came into the room and knelt down to search through the boxes on the closet floor. She quickly located what she wanted and started out. Then she stopped in the doorway and turned back to me.
'I'm sorry about Abby,' she said. 'I didn't expect something like this would happen.'
'Well what did you expect would happen when someone is exposed like that in front of all those people? And why? What did she ever do to you or to any of the other girls to deserve that?'
Samantha looked down.
'How did my sister find out about her?' I asked after a moment. 'Did she listen at the door to our conversations?' Samantha shook her head. 'Well, how then?'
Samantha gazed to her right first before turning back to answer.
'When she came in here to get something else of hers that Abby was keeping in her closet, she looked at her letters from her parents,' Samantha revealed. 'But please don't tell her I told you. Please,' she begged, real fear in her eyes.
'Why, what will she reveal about you?' I asked sharply. Samantha's anxiety made her eyes wide and her otherwise cherry cheeks white.
'You shouldn't have told her anything about yourself you didn't want anyone to know,' I chastised.
Samantha nodded, that piece of advice coming too late. 'Anyway,' she said. 'I'm sorry about Abby.'
I wasn't in a forgiving mood, but I saw she was sincere, so I nodded. She stood there a few more moments and then hurried away.
Shortly afterward, Abby's parents arrived.
'Mrs. Tyler,' I cried, jus ping to my feet when she and her husband appeared in the doorway. 'How's Abby?'
'She's just fine' Mrs. Tyler said, her face firm, her lips tight. 'My daughters got more grit in her than anyone else at this precious school,' she added bitterly. Abby's father shifted his eyes from me quickly.
'I must go to her, Mrs. Tyler. She must know I nothing to do with this horrible incident.'
