The whispers started the next morning.

I noticed them at breakfast. Students who'd normally greet me looking away. Conversations that stopped when I passed. The kind of careful avoidance that meant rumors were spreading.

"Something's changed," I said to Celeste, who was eating across from me with determined focus on her food.

"People are nervous about the hearing." She didn't meet my eyes. "It's making everyone paranoid."

"That's not it." I set down my fork. "What are they ...