by Melissa Grey
Wood’s smile was equal parts pleased and enigmatic. “This isn’t a one-man operation. There are plenty of people who want to see this system burn. They helped.”
“And let me guess: You’re not gonna tell us who those people are,” Javi said.
“Let’s just say they’re the ones you least expect. People you don’t take much notice of. Even people who seem to enjoy the status quo.”
“That’s nice and vague,” said Tamsin.
“Sometimes, the less you know, the better. At least for now. It helps maintain the security of the operation. If one channel goes down, there are others.”
“I don’t like the way that sounds,” Bex said with a frown.
“Is it weird,” Javi asked, “that I kind of do?”
“Yes,” Noah said, but he was still smiling.
“I just have one more question.” It was a question that had been plaguing Bex since the very first day of school that semester, when the first message had been left in a messy scrawl at the entrance to Maplethorpe Academy. “Why jesters?”
Mirth danced in Wood’s eyes. “Jesters made fools of kings and their kingdoms. They spoke truth to the power. And they got away with it, in part because they were underestimated—after all, who would take them seriously? But also because deep down, even the most powerful among their targets knew that their jabs and japes rung true. And there’s another reason, one more arcane than that.”
He looked to Tamsin then, expectation written across his face.
“The fool,” she said. “Another term for a jester. Also the first card in the Major Arcana of most tarot decks.” She smiled, appreciating the circuitous nature of the sentiment. Where one cycle ended, another began. “It’s the start of something new. A journey. An adventure.”
Wood pushed himself away from the table to stand before them. “It’s dangerous, what we’re proposing. Change won’t come easy and it won’t come cheap. But I think you all know that it must come. The way we live now … it’s not right. And I don’t think I’m mistaken in believing that you all feel the same.”
One by one, they nodded. Bex and Chase and Tamsin and Hana and Noah and Javi. They had come this far together and they would go farther still. The night was young, and so were they.
“Good. I was hoping you’d say that.” A genuine smile spread across Headmaster Wood’s face, full of a dash of pride and a heap of mischief. “Welcome to the revolution.”
Every book is its own beast, with its own unique quirks and foibles. Rated was no different. It wasn’t a book I would have imagined myself writing years ago, but I’m glad I did. But it never would have gotten off the ground without the help of a few lovely and indispensable individuals.
Catherine Drayton: Thank you for having faith in me when my own started to waver. You’re the best agent I could have asked for. Seriously.
David Levithan: Thank you for welcoming me to the Scholastic family. I distinctly remember how transformative an experience it was to find Boy Meets Boy in my high school’s library, and I’m still (and will always be) a little in awe of you.
Zack Clark: Thank you for helping me slap this book into shape. It was a weird, wonderful journey, and I was glad to have you with me on it.
Virginia Boecker: Thank you for listening to me moan and complain about every little thing while I was writing this book. I’d be lost without you.
Amanda, Idil, and Laura: The distance between us may be great (or small), but knowing that there were at least three people in the universe who wanted to read whatever nonsense I wrote was sometimes the only thing that kept me going.
And last but never ever least, my readers: Thank you for sharing a little slice of your time in this vast, unknowable universe with me. There are no words to describe how much that means to any writer, so I won’t even try.
Melissa Grey is the author of The Girl at Midnight trilogy and Rated. She currently works as a freelance writer and lives in New York City.
Copyright © 2019 by Melissa Grey
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920. SCHOLASTIC, SCHOLASTIC PRESS, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available
First edition, September 2019
Jacket art © 2019 by Mike Heath
Jacket design by Christopher Stengel
e-ISBN 978-1-338-28358-7
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.
