CHAPTER EIGHT"Where are we going?" I try again, as Alice walks briskly across the brown, frosted lawn.
"The bonfire," she says.
The bonfire. It must be the same one Gregory invited me to.
My stomach drops at the thought. Earlier, going to a bonfire seemed the perfect idea. I needed to get friendly with the in-crowd at Hawthorn if I stood any chance at surviving here.
Now I wonder if that whole goal is pointless. I wasn't selected for a tier. Doesn't that make me some kind of outcast? A pariah?
I study Alice as we walk. Despite also not being selected, she doesn't seem worried about walking into the lion's den.
"Are there other students who weren't selected?" I ask.
"Not that I know of. No one who's here now."
Wonderful. So that makes us even weirder.
We walk around the sid
