The first thing Kira heard as she rounded the corner was Joy's astonished: "Wait, you're Jack Jackal?"

Kira crept down the half-empty, stopping just before the door of the computer lab where she'd heard the accusation. She didn't want to interrupt just yet, and she gnawed at her lower lip. Was she going to lose a friend that day? Neither Mara nor Joy would have written something so awful, no matter what Amber or Nina thought... they just couldn't.

"No," scoffed Mara, a nervous tremor in her voice. "As if! I mean, I wish..." There was a pregnant pause, and she immediately caved. "Alright, it's me, but I'm not allowed to write under my own name, and I have so much to say! But I didn't write this!" She sounded insistent and desperate, enough so that any suspicion Kira had of Mara's involvement with the article went up in a puff of guilty smoke. The thought shouldn't have even crossed her mind.

There was another pause, and then Mara said two words that made Kira's stomach drop:

"You did."

She crept closer to the doorframe, while Joy coughed incredulously. "Excuse me?" she asked, offended.

"You said Jack Jackal sent it in, but I know he couldn't have because I'm the one with his email account," Mara said, and as she pressed on with her accusation, Kira felt herself growing colder. "This is really mean, Joy."

It was beyond mean— it was downright cruel. Kira didn't know what had happened the year before, beyond the fact that Joy hadn't been in school, and she knew that she and Nina didn't get along because of boy trouble... but this was inexcusable.

"I know," sighed Joy, "and I'm sorry."

"And when it gets out that I'm Jack, Mr. Sweet is going to have every right to expel me!" Mara exclaimed. "Again!"

Kira peered into the classroom, just out of sight, save for the top of head and eyes, but they were too distracted to notice her presence.

"Well, I won't say anything," Joy said quietly, a question clear in her voice. "About anything..."

Mara looked at her for a second, then looked away. "Okay..." she trailed off hesitantly. "I guess I won't either." And then they smiled at each other like they'd promised not to tell Vera they'd broke a vase, not like they'd promised to cover up honest-to-god libel.

Kira pulled her head back and pressed herself against the wall between the lockers and the door. The revelation was overwhelming, to say the least, and she struggled not to cry. Could she ever look at either of them the same way again? Her best friend, the first person to truly make her feel at home at Anubis House, and her crush, the first person who'd made her heart flutter since Ben...

There was that same feeling boiling in her chest as the night when Eddie had broken the hami khafi: rage and frustration. The article hadn't even been about her, but there was something about the malicious nature of the whole thing that burned as though it had. She and Nina weren't close— hell, they barely spoke— but she was still her friend. Americans ought to stick together, hadn't they?

Maybe if Mara came clean, they could move past this. After all, she was only biting her tongue to keep her already tenuous position at the school intact; there was an element of sympathy to be had there. But Joy?

Kira screwed her eyes shut, hating the way the tears burned on her cheeks. She didn't know what to do.

—

She walked to class alone the next morning, hanging back from where Mara and Jerome chatted up ahead of her as they walked into British Lit. She'd been avoiding everyone since yesterday afternoon, unsure of what course of action to take. Still, she'd come to a point of resolve: if they didn't come clean on their own, she'd give an ultimatum.

What Kira really should do is go marching right up to Mr. Sweet and tell him exactly what she'd heard. But moral or not, she just couldn't bring herself to do it, and it being none of her business felt like a cheap, hollow excuse. It was more that she was weak.

She sat down at an empty table, and after a moment Mara sat down too, offering her a chipper greeting. Kira stayed quiet, and instead pulled out a notebook and her pencil case. Mara gave her an odd look but relented, and took out her own school supplies.

Vera popped her head in to call Nina out of class, and it was then Joy approached Fabian, keeping her head low. "Fabes?" she said, almost a whisper. "I just wanted to say sorry. Jack Jackal was out of order."

Fabian tossed his head back, clearly pissed. "Oh, yeah? Well, that's awfully big of you, Jack," he snapped, "but I don't think it's me you should be apologizing to. It's Nina."

So he knew who'd written the article already, and now it seemed so did everyone else. Kira felt Mara still beside her, and she gripped her pencil tighter.

"You wrote that posting?" Amber asked, but it was less of a question and more of a challenge. "I knew it. Classy, Joy."

"So you're Jack Jackal?" Alfie queried from the back of the classroom. Kira looked expectantly at Mara, who looked past her right at Joy.

"Not exactly," Joy said after a moment.

Fabian rolled his eyes. "Oh, yeah, sure, Joy."

"It's true, I'm not Jack," she protested, as though that made the situation any better. "Listen, can we talk? Privately. I just want to explain."

"I'm not interested in your explanations, Joy," he said cooly and sat down with a decisiveness that Kira didn't think he was capable of.

Joy looked to Patricia desperately, but her best friend looked away, unable to defend her on this. Despite herself, Kira felt a stab of pity for her. But there were other things more pressing.

As they settled in, Kira leaned over to Mara and whispered as softly as she could in her ear, "Are you going to tell or shall I?"

Mara stiffened. "What do you mean?" she asked.

"Cut the shit, Jack," Kira replied lowly. "You're a good writer but a bad liar."

She deflated in her seat, casting a furtive glance around the room, but no one was paying attention to them. "Okay, fine, I'm Jack, but you know I didn't write that article, Joy did. I swear."

"I know you didn't write it, but you knew and didn't say anything," she said. "I heard you and Joy in the computer lab. Mara, that's wrong, and you know it."

Mara was about to say something in her defense when their teacher walked in. She pursed her lips and sighed. "Can we talk later?" she whispered. "I'm going with Jerome to talk to his father this afternoon, but after that?"

Kira's eyes darted between the whiteboard and her seatmate and she nodded. "Fine."

—

"Okay, let's talk," Kira said later that night in the living room, crossing her arms over her chest and trying to look like she had her shit together. She prompted Mara to sit down, which she did hurriedly.

"Kira, of course that story was horrible," Mara began immediately, "and I would have said something immediately if it wouldn't cost me my place at school. Your dad would expel me in a minute if he knew I was still writing for the website— that was his one condition! He probably wouldn't believe Joy wrote it either. He'd just blame me and be done with it." She sighed, twiddling her thumbs in her lap. "Besides, everyone knows it was Joy now... can you cut me some slack? Why should I have to go down for the shitty thing Joy did?"

"I think if you explained about who wrote the article, he'd understand," Kira said, but internally she knew Mara was right. It didn't make it less awful, though. "And you shouldn't have to, I guess, but it was collusion. You're involved in the scandal no matter how you slice it."

"Kira, I'll be expelled," Mara stressed. "For good this time. I would have said something otherwise, honest."

The American bit her lip, her heart at least a little settled. While she wasn't pleased with Mara, she could certainly empathize and even understand her. They could get past this. "I get it..."

"I'm sorry," she said quietly. "I just don't know what to do. Mr. Sweet is gonna find out sooner or later and then I'm history..."

Kira bit her lip and thought for a moment. "If... If my dad asks who Jack really is... I can take the blame," she said after some thought. "That way you can keep writing and stay at school."

Mara looked at her with wide eyes. "What if you get in trouble?"

"Why would I? I didn't write the article, and I'm not banned from writing on the website. And even if he does get mad, I don't think he'll do anything too harsh."

"What about you wanting me to take responsibility?" Mara asked. Kira shrugged.

"I know if it weren't dire you would... right?"

Mara nodded emphatically. "You know I would. But... I don't want you having to pretend. I think it's for the good of everyone that Jack Jackal goes away for a while, don't you?"

She half smiled and shook her head in agreement. "That's probably for the best. And Joy..." She trailed off, looking down at her lap.

Mara frowned. "Yeah, how are you about that? I know you're head over heels for her," she said softly.

Kira laughed through her nose and shook her head, still looking down at her hands. "Well, I can't be now, can I?" she said. "It's... Why did she have to go and do a stupid thing like that for? I mean, fuck, who does something like that? I don't care how much someone's hurt you, it's just not decent!" She sighed again. "I hate that I still like her... Like, I don't think I could ever even think of being with her now, but... I still like her, I really do."

"That's gonna take some time," Mara advised. "Don't beat yourself up about that. Joy's not a bad person, she just did a bad thing. It's perfectly fine to still like someone after that, but also not want to be with them." The unspoken 'It was never going to happen anyway' hung in the air.

"You're right," relented Kira, and she shook herself out. "Forget it. Besides, it's not about me anyway. I'm a big girl, I can figure out some stupid crush."

Mara laughed slightly, then quieted. "Friends?" she asked hopefully.

There was a beat of silence before Kira nodded. "Friends," she agreed.

—

"And then she tackled me to the floor," Eddie recounted, pacing around the kitchen, while his sister folded her laundry in the next room over. He'd just come home from his library date with Patricia, and what Kira had expected to be a quick, cute little status report about an indoor picnic had quickly turned into one of the most bizarre stories she'd heard in a while.

Kira snorted, tucking the t-shirt into her laundry basket. "What weird thing did she blame it on for this one?" she asked.

"Low ceilings," he explained with a bewildered chuckle. "Then she said she was flossing."

"And you really kept your blindfold on the whole time? Eddie, I didn't know you had the patience. Even I don't think I'd have kept it on, especially if she bodied me onto concrete."

"It was a trust exercise!" he protested. "I didn't want her to think I didn't trust her!"

Kira raised an eyebrow. "Well, do you?" she asked, shutting the drier door and carrying her laundry into the kitchen.

"Trust her? Of course, I do..." Eddie trailed off, a faraway sappy look in his eye that simultaneously warmed Kira's heart and made her want to gag. "But the whole thing was weird, right?"

"Oh, yes, most definitely."

Eddie laughed, drumming his fingers on the counter; Kira started out into the hall when he stopped her. "Hey, did you read that new Jack article? About fathers and sons?"

She paused. "Yeah," she said slowly. "What about it?"

"It was good, right? I mean, say what you will about Joy's Nina-bashing, but she did a good job with this latest one." He paused, looking her up and down. "Did you say anything to Joy about me and dad?"

Kira shook her head, knowing if the article really was about Eddie and their father, it hadn't come from Joy. "Not really, no. Why? Do you think it was about you two?"

Eddie shrugged. "I dunno," he said. "If it isn't, then it's relatable enough, I guess."

She bobbed her head awkwardly. "Right, yeah. Well, this laundry isn't gonna fold itself! Catch ya later, dickhead!"

"What did I even do this time for the nickname?" Eddie called after her, but he was laughing.

—

The school day flew by as per usual, and it seemed like everything was slowly going back to normal after Nina-gate. Apparently, though, fate had other ideas.

"You know, I thought I was sneaky," said Jerome when he entered the classroom, followed close behind by Eddie, "but you are something else."

Joy looked up from her notebook and blinked at him. "What?"

"Listen up, everybody!" Eddie shouted. "We have an announcement to make."

"We thought you should all know that there are two Jack Jackals," Jerome said, and Kira looked over at Mara who was staring at the boys with wide eyes. She couldn't see Joy's face, but her body was slowly hunching over. "The real one, who writes a sharp, insightful blog about stuff that matters."

"And the one who criticizes her classmates, and takes credit for a blog she didn't write," finished Eddie. "Do you wanna tell them the truth, Joy, or shall I?"

Joy said nothing, but her shoulders trembled slightly.

"What did you even do?" Jerome asked. "Blackmail Mara into keeping quiet?"

Mara immediately shook her head no, but Joy was already whirling around in her seat. "I never blackmailed you," Joy said with tears in her eyes.

"No, no, it's true," Mara agreed. "She didn't."

"I was trying to help you," she insisted, scanning the faces of her classmates desperately. When they all turned away, Joy squeezed her eyes shut and made a speedy exit.

There was dead silence in the room for a moment, so quiet Victor probably could have heard his precious pin drop. Then, Jerome snapped his fingers. "Oh, and Sweetie has lifted the ban on you, Mara! You're free to write under your own name!" He gestured between himself and Eddie. "All part of the service."

"Guess you didn't need to pretend to be Jack after all," Mara whispered, but as happy as she sounded, her eyes lingered on the door in concern.

Kira only noticed because she was looking that way too.