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I nodded. "No worries there. You and I will sit down together sometime soon, once finals are done, and come up with some protocols - starting with nothing at the school. Though I guess it won't really matter except for Abbie."

"You say that like Abbie's still going to be a student next year," Isa replied. "You can't do the kinds of things she's admitted to doing and not get expelled, at the bare minimum. If Shipman really is some pathetic incel like you made him out to be-"

"All I said was that he was awfully ready to mistrust the Sterns," I protested.

"-then I'd be surprised if they didn't land in real trouble. They're two eighteen-year-old white girls, so, system being what it is, they might get off with warnings. Still..." She sat up, brushed some dust off of the thin sheen of sweat along the side of her breast. "Hard to say. Most likely scenario, I'd say, the two never go back to school, maybe finish their GEDs while serving time in house arrest."

"Oh sure, because I'm the ass