THE TRUST-FUND CHARITY GAME

[The charity game's over already — why hasn't the male lead come clean to that hick girl?] I was on my way to find Julius with the ribs I'd brought for him when the comments appeared out of nowhere.

Julius had selective mutism back when he started funding me. To pay him back, I'd been pouring everything I had into his treatment.

Now the comments were telling me it had all been a charity game, and that Julius's "mutism" didn't exist at all. [He just went quiet to spite the female lead, and she actually thinks he's mute.

She coos at him every day like a preschool teacher.] [Respect to the male lead for keeping a straight face through it.] Looking at those words, I stopped outside the lounge door.

Chapter 1 I froze for a second. Then I turned around and fed one of the campus strays the ribs I'd brought for Julius. Dogs are better. Dogs don't play games with you.

But when I actually thought about it, it wasn't a big deal. Poor kids like us at an elite private school like this were always going to be entertainment for the trustfund boys.

The only part that shamed me was what I'd done to get Julius to talk.

I'd taken the advice of strangers online and used some provocative words, following him around calling him baby.

I hoped it wouldn't end up as dinnertable gossip between him and the female lead. The dog finished the ribs, and I stood up to go.

Julius and the others were coming out of the lounge right then. The moment one of his friends saw me, the corner of his mouth went up.

Like he was waiting for Julius to come clean with me. But Julius didn't say anything. He signed at me the way he always did. "Why did you feed the ribs to a dog?

I thought you brought them for me." I was about to answer when Rush, next to him, took a call. "What? He's asking if I'll let him off?" "Are you kidding me?

He crosses me and expects to live?" He drew a finger across his throat in the air. "Take him out, obviously!" The accusation I'd been about to make took a turn on its way out, and I forced up a sweet smile. "I spilled them by accident.

If you want some, I'll have my family make more." Yeah. I chickened out. I didn't dare turn on them.

Around here, if you crossed the trustfund boys, getting expelled was the outcome you'd be grateful for. And I couldn't survive even the lightest one.

The comments flooded my vision. [This hick girl is so calculating. She dumped them on a stray herself and she's standing there saying she spilled them.] [Lying to OUR male lead?

The absolute nerve on this one!!] [Just wait, the female lead transfers in tomorrow.

I want to see the look on her face when she finds out the male lead was never mute!] Julius signed: "Don't.

Going home takes you too long." Then he took out his phone and sent me two thousand dollars. Two days' worth of allowance. I didn't know whether I should take it.

The charity game was over, after all. We walked back to the academic building together. Our classrooms weren't on the same floor.

Whenever we split up, I used to lean in close to his ear and say, quietly: "Baby, wait for me after school, okay?

We'll walk back together." Today my lips opened and closed and the word wouldn't come out. I said only the second half of it, then ran to my classroom.

Kelsey, in my class, was in the same position I was. She was the charity case Rush had picked. She came right over when she saw me walk in. "The charity game's over.

What's your plan?" I didn't get what she meant. "Plan? What plan am I supposed to have?" "Finding your next sugar daddy." She sat down on my desk, grinning.

Chapter 2 "Once you've lived on a thousand dollars a day, who can walk away from that?" "Don't tell anyone, but I told Rush how I felt last night." She made a gesture across her chest. "I had my top down to here and he told me to get lost." Kelsey was pretty and her grades were good, and at the rate Rush handed money out, she'd cleared at least sixty thousand dollars these past two months. "What about you?

Did you try to keep Julius?" I shook my head and pushed her off my desk. She kept after me anyway. "You really didn't try?" "Not that it would've worked.

I heard Julius's one that got away is transferring in from overseas any day now." "We were only ever a bit of fun to them." Her eyes landed on the speech therapy notebook on my desk, and something flickered in them. "One more rumor going around.

Don't get mad." "I heard Julius can talk.

Somebody heard him on the phone in the hallway." "Why do you think he'd fake being mute just to mess with you?" All her chatter was making my head spin.

I pushed her back toward her own seat.

Then I dug my phone out of my bag and found a pile of messages from Julius. [Did you go back to your town and see the guy your family picked for you?] [What's his family worth?

What kind of house? What does he drive?] [Also, why didn't you call me baby before you left?] [System notice: You have a payment you haven't accepted.] [??

Is it that hard to answer?] I scrolled past all of it and asked him, carefully: [Is the charity game over?] It was a long time before his reply came. [You want it over?] [Fine.

Sure.] It was drizzling when school let out. I thought about it and waited for Julius outside the academic building anyway. He took his time coming out.

The crowd thinned, and the rain got heavier. Finally that unhurried figure appeared at the foot of the stairs. I was about to go over.

A girl in a white dress came flying out of a Maybach parked to one side and ran through the rain toward Julius. "Julius! Look at me picking you up in weather like this.

Pretty good of me, right?" "It's been forever. Did you miss me?" Her voice was bright, a shaft of sunlight cutting into all that gray drizzle.

Julius's eyes moved from my face to hers. She got up close and shook his arm, eyes crinkling, clearly at ease with him.

He ruffled her wet hair, and right in front of me, frowning, he spoke. "Posy. It's pouring and you're in a skirt that short.

You think you're indestructible?" My heart stalled for a beat when I heard his voice. So the comments had been telling the truth. Julius didn't have selective mutism. He could talk.

I put up my umbrella and left by myself. It wasn't like I liked Julius. So why did something in my chest go sour? The rain came down harder until I could barely make out the path.

But the comments in front of me were perfectly clear. [AAAAH the male lead and the female lead are finally feeding us, so sweet, I'm eating it UP] [Reunited after years, a secret crush coming true, evenly matched — THIS is the ship I'm here for.

The hick girl saw it with her own eyes, so maybe now she'll give up?] [Other than that face of hers, the hick girl doesn't come close to our baby girl.

Smoked in every other category.] That night I lay in my dorm bed with my screen still open on Julius's chat. From the next bed, Kelsey shrieked. "Inside info.

They've already picked the girls for round two of the charity game." Chapter 3 "Let me see this round's lucky list." "Oh my God!" "Daisy, how are you on this list again?" I climbed out of bed and leaned in to look at her screen.

I let out a small, helpless laugh. "Maybe they're not done playing with me yet." "What's that supposed to mean?" "I heard Julius talk today." Kelsey's mouth rounded into an O. "You mean you met Julius's one that got away?" "How is she?

Is she pretty? What's she like? How far off am I from a rich girl like that?" None of it was anything I cared about. I lay back down and pulled the blanket over my head.

Kelsey kept going. "But why only three girls this time?

Which one of the trustfund boys quit?" After going back and forth about it, I opened my phone and tapped accept on Julius's transfer. I'd made my peace with it.

A thousand dollars a day to be somebody's dancing monkey. So what? Kelsey's inside info was good.

The next day my phone got exactly the same message as last time. [Come to the trustfund boys' private lounge during lunch break.] While we waited outside the lounge, the other two girls whispered back and forth, frantic. "All I know is the money's a lot.

But do we have to, you know, do things with them?" "Probably not? The trustfund boys can get any woman they want.

Why would they want poor kids like us?" "Yeah, that's fair." "Hey, Daisy," they said. "You were here last time.

Can you tell us what they usually want you to do?" I thought about it. Julius hadn't really asked me to do anything.

If anything, I was the one who'd pushed to pay him back, running therapy sessions for him, teasing him with things I had no business saying.

While we were talking, the trustfund boys arrived. Julius was in front, and bouncing along beside him was the girl from yesterday, Posy.

She was in uniform now, the hem taken up on purpose, which made her legs look long and perfect. Julius paused a moment when he saw me, then his expression went back to normal.

The lounge was huge. Besides the common area it had four suites, one private territory for each of them. Once they'd gone in, we got texts telling us which room to go to.

Last time I was Room 1. This time it was Room 2. Everyone walked in nervous and keyed up. I pushed open the door to Room 2. The person I saw wasn't Julius. It was Rush.

My expression got away from me, and he caught it. "Surprised it's me?" "Were you still hoping to stay with Julius?" The corner of his mouth curled. "Too bad.

Posy's back, so he's done playing boring little games with us." I kept my head down and didn't make a sound.

He reached over and pinched my cheek, forcing my face up to look at him. "Let me tell you something. I started the charity game for you.

I just lost the pick to Julius last round and didn't get you." "Honestly, I was relieved when he took you. He's not greedy about girls.

He's the only one who'd spend that kind of money and want nothing back, who'd have the patience to sit through your little therapy sessions.

If it had been either of the other two, you'd have been picked clean by now." Hearing that, the fear in me kept getting bigger. I really had thought too well of the trustfund boys.

This game wasn't as simple as I'd assumed. My voice shook a little. "So you picked me this time.

What do you want me to do?" Chapter 4 Right then, someone knocked at the lounge door. Julius's voice came through it. "Coburn." "Open the door." They sent me out.

Whatever Julius said to Rush in Room 2, I didn't hear it. The other girls were all in their rooms. I had the common area to myself.

There was still time, so I crouched at the coffee table and started working math problems. A faint scent of citrus drifted closer. I looked up into Posy's exquisite face.

Her lashes were thick as fans, her skin porcelain. She looked like a doll. She studied my face and blinked those big eyes. "Daisy, your skin is so dry.

Don't you get facials?" Embarrassment spread through me. For a poor student, a word like facial belonged to somebody else's life. "No.

No, I don't." She laughed softly and took hold of my hand. "Your hands are so rough too." "I'll take you for a facial sometime.

My treat." I pulled my hand back. "No — no, that's all right." Maybe it was my own insecurity, but as warm as she sounded, something about it didn't sit right. "All right?" "If you want to land Rush or Julius, how do you expect to manage without any of this?" I got to my feet, alarmed, trying to explain. "You've got the wrong idea.

That's not what I want." "You don't want it, but you're already in their line of sight." "I heard you're in both rounds of the charity game.

You must be quite the charmer." I didn't know how to explain, so I only shook my head. She leaned in beside my ear, her voice light. "I can play wingwoman for you and Rush.

But Julius has been mine since we were children. You understand me?" Comments came scrolling past my eyes. [The female lead is such a badass!

Total deadpan and the hick girl's about to pass out.] [Our baby girl is too nice, playing wingwoman for the hick girl.

Real talk, that girl could grovel at those trustfund boys' feet and still not deserve one of them.] [She's the one who got ideas she had no business having.

She really thought she could want the male lead?] When I came back to myself, Julius and Rush were standing in front of me.

Rush raised an eyebrow at me. "Julius insists I'm forcing you. Says there's no way you'd want to be with me." "So say it yourself.

Which of us do you pick?" I looked up at Julius through a film of tears. He was watching me too, but those nightblack eyes gave me nothing.

I couldn't tell whether he was helping me or playing with me like the rest of them. Past him, Posy tilted her head and smiled at me. It felt like a warning.

The pressure got bad enough that I started picking at my hands without meaning to. Trying to let the sting tell me this was only a dream. But all of it was real.

I'd been dragged into this game, and I wanted out, and I wasn't even entitled to say no. Kelsey had told me Rush had a terrible temper and held grudges.

Making him angry would be a problem. After a long while, Rush ran out of patience. He clicked his tongue. "Is it that hard to decide?

You're actually weighing your options?" I closed my eyes and made my decision. "I