“Excuse me.” We all turn to see Mrs. Upton standing in the doorway, her hands on her daughter Cassidy’s shoulders. Mrs. Upton is wearing white jeans and a subdued but very expensive-looking top. Cassidy is wearing cutoffs, Uggs, and an obstinate expression.

“I’m so sorry to interrupt,” Mrs. Upton says. “But I received this letter under the door”—she flashes a note on Fischer Hall Director’s Office stationery—“requesting a meeting with me, and I was wondering if this would be a good time.”

“This is a great time,” Lisa says, springing up from the couch and heading into her office. Tricky darts after her. “Won’t you both come in?”

“Good,” Mrs. Upton says, giving me a smile that doesn’t go all the way up to her eyes, then flashing Sarah a What’s wrong with you? look as she and her daughter follow Lisa into her office. “I’m afraid there’s been a terrible misunderstanding, so thank you for giving us this opportunity to clear it up.”

“Oh,” I hear Lisa say as she closes the door, “there’s no misunderstanding, Mrs. Upton—”

After this, their voices are muted, but it’s still possible to hear every word they’re saying through the long grate above my desk and Sarah’s. Even Sarah is intrigued enough that she stops crying and leans over to listen.

“What?” Mrs. Upton exclaims, sounding startled after something Lisa murmurs. “Cassidy most certainly did not. Cassidy already told me everything, and it was that horrible girl Mallory. She was the one who—”

“Mrs. Upton,” Lisa interrupts calmly, “we have security cameras in the game room. Would you like me to play the tape on which your daughter is clearly shown—”

“No, I would not.”

After that, things become more muted. I grow tired of having to listen so hard and say gently to Sarah, “So, are you going to be all right?”

Sarah looks down at her lap. “I guess so. This is my first breakup. First breakups are supposed to be hard, aren’t they?”

I think about my first breakup. It had been with Jordan. Now that I’m with Cooper, my love for Jordan seems like a silly schoolgirl crush, gotten over in a day. If Cooper and I were to break up—which I can’t imagine would ever happen, unless he died—it would take years to get over, maybe a lifetime.

“Breakups are hard,” I say. “But they get a little bit easier every day, until one day you meet someone who makes you forget all about that other person, and you realize that breakup was the best thing that ever happened to you.”

“Really?” Sarah looks at me with red-rimmed eyes. “I’m finding that nearly impossible to believe right now.”

“Truly,” I assure her. “Although rocky road ice cream also helps a lot.”

Sarah sighs. “I guess I better go see if they’ve got any in the caf.”

“Here,” I say, handing her my dining card. “It’s on me.”

She hesitates as if she’s not going to take it, then changes her mind. “I’m sorry I’ve been so horrible lately,” she says as she gets up. “I guess you know why now. I knew Sebastian was thinking about doing this, but I never imagined he’d go through with it. I guess I thought if he loved me enough, that love would be stronger than his urge to go . . . but it wasn’t.”

“He could love you and still feel like he needs to do this anyway, Sarah,” I say gently. “That doesn’t mean his love for you isn’t strong. It means it’s just a different kind of love than the love he has for . . . well, this thing he has to do.”

“Yeah,” Sarah says, looking down at my dining card. “Well, it doesn’t matter. Like I said, I’m not waiting around for him.”

“I didn’t say you should. But I didn’t hear you say he broke up with you. He just texted you that he’s going. You’re the one breaking up with him over it. And if you love him, that seems kind of unfair. Maybe you guys need to talk some more about it—and not in texts.”

Sarah turns my dining card over in her hands a few times. “Okay,” she says finally. “I guess I owe him that much at least.” Then she glances at me. “When did you get so smart about this stuff?”

“Well, I am taking Psych 101,” I say modestly.

Sarah shakes her head. “No,” she says. “That doesn’t explain it. That course is just an overview,” and then she leaves.

The door to Lisa’s office opens and Mrs. Upton comes out, Cassidy dragging the heels of her Uggs behind her.

“I sincerely hope,” Mrs. Upton is saying, “that you’ll be having those boys down here, Ms. Wu, because they were as instrumental as the girls in all of this, if not more so, because they’re older—”

“I’m aware of that, Mrs. Upton,” Lisa says. “And while they’ve already been disciplined by their athletic coach, you can be certain they’ll be receiving an administrative sanction from this office as well.”

“What about Mallory?” Cassidy finally opens her mouth to demand. “She was drinking too. Isn’t anything going to happen to her?”

“Mallory will be hearing from me as well,” Lisa says. “Bridget too.”

A self-satisfied smirk spreads across Cassidy’s face . . . at least until her mother takes her arm and says, “Come on, Cass. Let’s go get breakfast. We have a lot of talking to do, young lady.”

As soon as they’re gone, Lisa collapses back onto the couch in my office with a groan. Tricky leaps onto her stomach, and Lisa lets out another groan. “Tricks, get off,” she says and shoves him to the side, where he sits, looking dejected.

“I’m never having kids,” Lisa declares.

“Really?” I ask, interested.

“Did you listen to that woman back there?” Lisa throws me an incredulous look. “She is convinced her precious Cassidy could never have done what we caught her dead to rights on tape doing. And that Cassidy—holy moly, I wanted to punch that kid in the mouth. If she wasn’t smirking, she was simpering. Don’t get me wrong, some kids are great. But enough is enough, man. Between us, Cory and I have eight brothers and sisters, and now we’re going on nineteen nieces and nephews. I’ve been changing diapers nonstop since I was ten. If I have to empty one more Diaper Genie, I’m going to puke.”