“The elites?” I ask, eyebrows raised as I look between Mason and Nadia. There’s some resentment between them and the wealthier students.”

They relaxed the scholarship standards, so we have a lot more local kids in the Upper School who aren’t quite as academically inclined. “But Saint Ambrose has gotten a lot more. “Not most people, no,” Nadia says, pushing back a strand of dark, blunt-cut hair. They have a beautifully restored antique colonial house in Stafford, but I’m not sure it’s ever truly felt like home to Nadia. She was born in England and didn’t come here until she was ten, after both of her parents died in a car accident and she had to move across the Atlantic to live with her aunt and uncle. “How does it feel to be back?” she asks in her faint British accent. While Mason and Ellie catch up, I settle in beside Nadia. She was ten when we moved, and not fully aware of who she liked, but she’d always been more comfortable around Mason than any of my other friends. Mason and Ellie have always gotten along well-queer bonding, Ellie used to say whenever I’d reminisce about him in Chicago. I don’t know if tearing up is the correct technical term, but sure,” Ellie says, and they grin at each other. “Of course,” Mason says, plucking a coat off a couple of empty chairs. “Is there space for Ellie too?” I ask when we reach the row. I catch sight of Nadia beside him and push my way toward them, happy to feel included. He cups his hands around his mouth to amplify his voice above the buzzing crowd and adds, “We saved you a spot.” Mason is a head taller than most of our classmates-unreasonably tall, he used to say-with longish dark curls and a gap-toothed smile. “Brynn!” someone calls, and I turn to see Mason Rafferty standing in the second row of the auditorium seating with his hand in the air. In the following passage, students return to their elite private school after the summer only to find a new portrait of a recently deceased teacher vandalized. The following is an exclusive excerpt from Nothing More To Tell, by reigning queen of the YA mystery Karen McManus.

Nothing more to tell by karen mcmanus