Or so he thought. On the night after the last day of classes, prior to a day set aside solely for studying, he got a call from the MacKenzie dorm parent. "We're having a problem here, Noah," she said. "I think you ought to come over."

"What kind of problem?"

"Arguments. I'm hearing Julie Engel's name, but not much else."

Julie was temporarily out of the picture. Her father had decided to keep her in New York through Christmas. If she had made a decision about the baby, no one knew what it was. Nor did anyone know if she would return to Tucker.

"I'll be right there," Noah said. After phoning Paige with the news, he grabbed his parka and ran through the snow-crusted darkness to MacKenzie.

The group in the lounge was sexually mixed, talking loudly, and oblivious of his arrival.

They were sitting in a jumble, squeezed together on chairs, each other's laps, and the floor, as if in a show of solidarity. At first glance he saw sophomores, juniors, and seniors. At second glance he saw Sara. She was standing alone, with her arms wrapped around herself, and looked as though she had been crying. It was all he could do not to rush to her side.

"But that's not our job," one of the girls was arguing. "It's the cops' job."

"The whole point is to learn the truth before they have to come in,"

Sara cried. "No one wants them involved."

"Certainly not the Board of Trustees," came the counterargument, "and certainly not your father. He'd probably be happy if Julie stays in New York forever, like she was never a student here. But she's been here longer than he has, and longer than you have, Sara. You don't have any right to blab. It's none of your business."

"But it's the right thing to do."

"Ratting on friends?"

"He's not a friend if he's letting Dr. Grace take the blame for something he didn't do."

Noah's heart was straining at the seams, torn in two directions at once. He couldn't have been more unhappy to find Sara in this positionor more proud. Lest he be accused of eavesdropping and thereby make the situation worse, he cleared his throat and came forward.

ill thought you'd all be studying. I take it there's more on your mind than exams."

All heads flew his way.

"It's Sara's fault. She won't let it go."

Noah might have identified the voice, but he didn't bother. He didn't care who was speaking. What he cared about was the content and the fact that such a large grouphe guessed there were twenty-five kids in the loungehad seen fit to join in.

"Besides, it's over," someone else said.

"Julie had an abortion."

Noah had figured she would. "Unfortunately," he said, "just because the baby's gone doesn't mean the case is over. The rape charge against Dr. Grace still stands. As far as the scuttlebutt goes, he's the one who made her pregnant." He looked into a sea of stony faces. "We know that she's been involved with three guys here at school." He saw two of them in the group. "I have to tell you, it's a disappointment to me that none of them has come forward. Is each one positive that he didn't father the child7" "I didn't," Scott Dunby said, looking at his friends defensively. "We went in town together a few times but we didn't fool around."

"It doesn't matter who did it," came a disgruntled female voice.

ilt sure does," Noah returned. "Dr. Grace is being raked over the coals. His practice is already suffering." He saw Paige driving up to the dorm. "In my book, that's not fair."

Someone snickered. "He has a lawyer. He'll survive."

"Are you going to pay those hefty legal fees for him, Hans?" Noah asked the boy who had snickered. "How would you feel if one of the girls in this room in front of her parents and mewrongly accused you of rape?" Hans reddened, looked at his friends, snickered again. "How would you feel," Noah went on, "if you knew that if you were convicted, you could go to jail for years?"

"That wouldn't happen. I'm just a kid."

"Well, Dr. Grace isn't. So just imagine yourself in his shoes.

Imagine that he goes to court and is convicted. Imagine his sitting in a jail cell, with his life spoiled, for something he didn't do."

"He could be tried and acquitted."

"Okay. Imagine that. Imagine he goes to trial, is found not guilty, and then tries to pick up his life. Except that half of his patients have gone to other doctors, and even though he's been found not guilty, there are still those people who always wonder. And then there's the matter of the thousands of dollars that he owes his lawyer. All because he was innocent."

"Maybe he really did it," someone said, "so he deserves to suffer."

Ulnnocent until proven guilty," Noah advised as Paige came through the door. He felt better when she reached his side. "Besides, it isn't only Dr. Grace. He shares a practice with three other doctors."

"It figures you'd stick up for your squeeze," someone said amid murmurs of assent.

"That has nothing to do with this," Noah countered. "This has to do with whoever was involved with Julie."

"You're making us feel like the bad guys."

"I'm sorry if that's what I've done, but the situation is urgent.

You'll all be leaving for two weeks of vacation soon, and those two weeks are critical r This should be settled before the holidays." r 'Do you want us to lie just to get Dr. Grace off the "No. I want the truth. If you don't know the truth, r don't say anything at all." "That's what we've been doing, and you won't let r "Because I think some of you know more than you're letting on." He pushed at his glasses.

"I've said this before, but I really do see myself as a teacher of values. That's what so much of this fall has been about, and it's why I'm so disappointed now. Those of you who did the Katahdin climb experienced a raw, gut-deep honesty when we crossed Knife Edge. Those of you who've done community service have seen the less fortunate firsthand and known the decency of helping. Those of you who've worked on the house with me have built something from nothing. There's no deceit when you're hammering nails or laying shingles, only hard work and the satisfaction of a job well done."

He paused "So what's happening here?" He looked bewilderediy at the faces before him.

"Where's the raw honesty? Where's the decency?

Where's the satisfaction?"

There was silence.

"You've all come so far. Why not come even farther?"

You're trying to get someone in trouble."

"He s trying to get someone out of trouble," Sara "By getting one of us in trouble."

"But if Dr. Grace didn't do it," she pleaded The group dissolved into murmurs. Noah caught fragments, things like "on their side" and "not one of us," and he burned.

"She very definitely is one of you," he said.

"If she wasn't, she would have already told me everything you all are hiding."

"I'm going to tell you anyway," Sara declared, looking more furious than he'd ever seen her. Her eyes were flooded, but the rest of her features were hard as steel. "If they want to say I'm not one of them, that's fine, because if this is what they think is right, I don't want to be one of them." She turned to Noah. "It was Ron Jordan."

There was a rustle of voices, then a random, "How do you know?"