Chapter 1

The freshman welcome gala, and my performance was the closer.

Time to head backstage. I squinted up on instinct at that huge, blazing sun.

"Myra Pruitt, touch up your sunscreen, or your makeup's going to sweat right off."

My roommate April Fox held out a sunscreen spray. I was about to take it when a line of black text appeared in front of my eyes.

【Don't take it. There's something in it.】

【Don't use it. If you do, you'll humiliate yourself in front of tens of thousands of people from the whole school.】

【Get away, now. She's going to spray it on you, and once she does, you're finished.】

My heart jolted. Humiliate myself? How was that even possible?

Seeing me hesitate, April popped the cap and aimed the nozzle at me.

I shot my hand out fast. "I'll do my touch-up myself. I'll spray it."

I looked at that perfectly ordinary bottle of sunscreen spray.

I wanted to see exactly who was going to end up humiliated.

1.

The emcee's announcement came over the speakers, and April watched me like a hawk.

Right up until I took the bottle.

"Myra, don't worry, it's the brand you always use. You won't have a reaction."

She saw me gripping the bottle, not moving.

She was clearly getting anxious.

She gathered up her dress and started to push through the crowd toward me.

"The sun's brutal in the waiting area. You have to reapply, or your makeup will be a mess by the time you go on."

"You've got the closing solo. You're representing the whole freshman class."

"And Brad's out there in the audience watching."

At the mention of Brad, her eyebrows lifted a fraction.

Brad was my boyfriend. He'd taken the SATs and gotten into this school for me.

Yet when she heard that, April got more worked up about it than I did.

When the school was collecting acts for the gala,

she'd signed me up for the solo without asking me first.

"Myra, you're closing the show. You have to show Brad and this whole freshman class how talented the star of our department really is."

"Don't worry. After you finish your dance, there'll be a surprise."

【A surprise? No, it's a nasty shock.】

【The moment you use that sunscreen spray, you'll lose it up there on stage.】

【Lose it? It's not that simple. She wants to destroy your reputation.】

Watching me refuse to make a move, April couldn't sit still.

"Myra, what are you dragging your feet for? It's almost time to go backstage."

Just as she was about to take the sunscreen and spray it on me,

someone called out to her. "April, someone's here for you. Says he's your boyfriend."

She panicked in an instant, stopped what she was doing, and hurried off toward the auditorium doors.

Boyfriend? Since when did April have a boyfriend?

I had my doubts about that.

But right now, I was more concerned with the bottle in my hand.

I'd already checked it. The packaging was fine, the batch number was normal.

Even the smell was fine.

【You won't find it that way. It only works once it's on your skin.】

【Don't just stand there. While she's gone, get rid of it. Keeping that thing near you is asking for trouble.】

I looked at the words and thought it over.

It only works once it's on the skin.

Did that mean it only affected me?

Or did it affect everyone?

What kind of effect could humiliate me in front of tens of thousands of people?

【Anyone who comes into contact with the spray will be affected.】

【Put plainly, it'll make you act like a rabid dog on that stage. No, worse than a rabid dog.】

Reading that, I started to smile.

So that was it. Then I really did have something to look forward to.

Carrying the spray, I dragged the hem of my gown as I walked to the dressing room.

I dug through my makeup bag, looking for my own sunscreen.

April had gone to a lot of trouble to make sure I'd use hers without worrying.

She'd bought the exact brand I always used.

I looked at the two identical sprays.

And at April's makeup bag on the seat to the left.

I walked straight over.

Sure enough, there was a sunscreen spray in her bag too.

Except she'd dabbed a bit of colored nail polish over the seal.

I picked up the bottle and weighed it in my hand.

I compared them carefully.

Apart from the glitter over the seal, there was no difference.

I used an alcohol wipe to rub the mark off the bottle in her bag.

Then I dabbed glitter in the same spot on the bottle in my hand.

To be safe, I locked the bottle I'd taken from her bag away in a cabinet.

Kept the key on me.

The emcee's announcement came over the speakers again.

If I remembered right,

April was one of the emcees.

She was the one announcing the last three acts.

The emcee stayed in the waiting area the whole time.

She was bound to come to the dressing room to reapply her sunscreen.

And then I'd know exactly what that spray she'd handed me really did.