Mae was up and outside before the last echoes of the organ had completely faded. She didn’t necessarily mind Sunday church services, the singing was nice, and some of the stories with their fire and brimstone weren’t half bad. It was the flowery dresses her mother insisted she wear that she couldn’t stand, and she was eager to get back home and into a comfortable t-shirt and jeans.

Shielding her eyes from the rising sun, Mae hurried down the wide front steps. The rest of the congregation would soon come streaming out the double doors behind her. She needed to find a quiet, out-of-the-way place to wait for her parents. Raised in the south, her mother and father wielded an aggressive form of hospitality that tended to startle the more reserved northerners. Even so, their enthusiasm remained undaunted. For the next half hour, Mr. and Mrs. Chase would be busy glad-handing and chatting over coffee and donuts to anyone who would listen. Mae intended to make herself scarce until it was time to go.

It wasn’t that the residents of Giles Hollow hadn’t been welcoming. Since their move, a never-ending stream of neighbors had been dropping by their house with baked goods. While Mae was happy to see her parents making friends, sometimes she needed a break. Strangers tended to stare upon seeing her with her family for the first time. She’d watch their confused looks slowly brighten as they solved a very obvious puzzle. Then they’d shake her hand with a sympathetic expression, all the while wondering what tragedy of her birth had led to her adoption. She knew people meant well, but it had already been a busy morning, and her supply of polite smiles was near exhaustion.

Stepping around the back of the church, Mae stopped short.

Thomas, the new kid from school with the silly hair, was standing in a wedge of shade cast by the building’s towering steeple, and he wasn’t alone. Dressed in a crisp white button-up blouse and a long black skirt, Lester’s red-headed math teacher looked every inch the stern disciplinarian, even outside of school. The two of them were deep in conversation, and neither noticed Mae’s approach.

“Don’t be in such a hurry,” Mrs. Q was saying. “You’ve only just arrived. Give it time.”

“I don’t remember asking for your advice,” replied Thomas brusquely. “And I don’t need your help. I can handle this on my own.”

“No one is suggesting you can’t,” said Mrs. Q. “Just that your efforts might benefit from a certain amount of finesse.”

“That’s a bit rich, coming from you,” Thomas said.

Mae knew she should go, that eavesdropping wasn’t polite, but she’d never heard a student talk to a teacher this way. Was Mrs. Q giving the new kid tips on making friends and fitting in? If so, Mae thought he was probably right to question the source of the advice. Still, Mrs. Q was a formidable woman, and Thomas acted as though they were equals. Even more surprising, the typically gruff teacher hadn’t batted an eye.

A wave of distant voices came from the front of the church, and Mae glanced behind her as the familiar sound of her mother’s laughter rose above the others. Then, turning back around, she let out a small shriek.

“Can I help you with something, Ms. Chase?” Mrs. Q asked.

She and Thomas had stopped talking and were both staring at her.

“Um — no, thanks,” Mae said, wondering why she suddenly felt as if she’d done something wrong. “I’m just waiting for my ride.”

“In that case,” said Mrs. Q, “I doubt very much that they’ll find you back here.”

More than one student at Giles Hollow Elementary had withered under the woman’s infamous piercing glare, confessing to things they’d had no part in simply to escape it. With the teacher’s full attention trained on her, Mae could understand why.

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“And where are your two companions today?” Mrs. Q asked, looking past Mae as though Lester and Amanda might be hiding behind her.

“Oh, I don’t think they normally attend —”

“The three of you have become quite inseparable lately,” continued Mrs. Q.

“I suppose, but —”

“I do hope your newfound social life isn’t interfering with your academics.”

“I enjoy cakes a great deal,” Mae said flatly, her participation in the conversation apparently unnecessary.

“It’s important that you stay vigilant,” Mrs. Q plowed on, unabated. “Given what happened at your last school.”

“Excuse me?” Mae said, feeling her cheeks go warm. She bristled at the thought of their pink hue betraying her frustration. Trying to get a word in edgewise under Mrs. Q’s questioning was like being a boxer fending off blows with your back against the ropes.

“Now, now,” Mrs. Q said, her tone slipping effortlessly from accusatory to patronizing. “I meant no offense. Only that someone with such a troubled history of, shall we say, being prone to folly needs to be mindful of distractions.”

Mae blinked. The phrase prone to folly had slipped in past her guard and caught her square on the chin. She opened her mouth to reply, but nothing came out. Dumbfounded, she glanced at Thomas, but he was busy prodding his hair into an even more ridiculous shape, seemingly oblivious.

Mrs. Q, her verbal assault done, stood staring at Mae as though she were a fish flopping around on dry land, gasping for air.

Unsure which would begin to flow first, the tears welling up in her eyes, or the string of curse words forming in the back of her throat, Mae spun to leave. The old man standing behind her must have been sturdier than he looked because he somehow remained upright as she crashed into him, bounced off, and fell to the ground.

“Oh, my,” the man said, looking down at where she lay. “Pardon me.”

Mae got quickly to her feet.

“Sorry,” she said, brushing grass clippings from her dress. She could feel her face grow even redder with embarrassment. “I didn’t see you there.”

“Think nothing of it,” the man said. “Entirely my fault. It serves me right for sneaking up on people. I don’t believe we’ve had the pleasure. Ben Titus,” he said, pointing to the name tag on his gray uniform. “And you must be Maeko Chase. Lester’s told me all about you. Any friend of his is a friend of mine.”

Ben Titus gave an elaborate bow and doffed an invisible hat. As he leaned closer, he asked in a soft voice only Mae could hear, “Are you alright?”

Mae saw his eyes glance behind her to Thomas and Mrs. Q and got the impression he wasn’t asking about her fall. How long had he been standing there, and what had he heard?

“I’m fine,” she whispered back. “Thanks.”

“Well, then,” Ben said, more loudly, “you best be on your way. I think I saw your parents looking for you out front.” He gave her a wink and a pat on the shoulder, then briskly walked towards Mrs. Q. “Annie Quince! Just the person I was looking for!”

Mae was halfway to the front of the church when she heard someone call out.

“Hey! Wait up!”

She didn’t stop but slowed enough for Thomas to fall into step beside her.

“I know we haven’t really met,” he said, “but you’re friends with Amanda, right?”

“If not, Mrs. Q just wasted her time berating the wrong student,” Mae said, still slightly shaky.

“Oh, don’t mind her,” said Thomas. He flashed a lopsided grin. His teeth were perfect, if perhaps a bit too white. “You know how teachers are, always feeling like they can tell you what to do even if you’re not in school. So, about Amanda. I hate to be so painfully blunt, but does she have a boyfriend?”

Mae stopped walking.

“Seriously?” she said. “No, she doesn’t have a boyfriend. She’s twelve.”

“Is that too young for a boyfriend?”

If he were anyone else, Mae would have assumed he was joking. But as he stood in front of her with his coiffed hair, fancy clothes, and blank expression, she felt sure he was being sincere.

“Not that long ago,” Thomas said, his accent making him sound like the narrator of an educational film, “most women were married by the time they were teenagers.”

“And it was once believed redheads turned into vampires after death,” said Mae.

“Pardon?”

“Oh. I’m sorry,” Mae said in mock confusion. “I thought we were sharing ideas from the past that now seem absolutely ridiculous. Anyway, I think I hear my mom calling.”

She stepped around Thomas and picked up her pace.

“Would you tell Amanda I was asking after her?” Thomas shouted as she neared the front of the church.

“Sure!” Mae yelled back. “Right after I pick out a dress for the cotillion!” Then, mumbling to herself added, “And people think I’m weird.”