The Secret Place

The narrative shifts into the past. In early November, Holly, Selena, Becca, and Julia visit their favorite cypress glade and chat together. When Julia receives a text message, she instantly snaps her phone shut. The girls ask her who texted her, and Julia reveals that Marcus (a Colm’s boy) just sent her a picture of his penis. They are all shocked, but Julia is not surprised. When she kissed James in the lot behind the Court, he tried to fondle her, but she pushed him away. At this, he shoved her into the fence and put his hand back up her shirt, telling her that she had a reputation and that he knew she really wanted him. She kneed him in the crotch, angering him. 

Now, she is fully aware that he would never tell his friends about this struggle; instead, he has likely spread a nasty rumor labeling her a “slut.” Julia shares the story of James’s assault with her friends, and they are all horrified to hear it. They make a pact to avoid any romantic entanglements with boys until they go to college.

Antoinette and Stephen call Becca in for her interview. She is much more anxious than the previous four girls, and Stephen can tell that she lies frequently out of fear, but he cannot yet ascertain what she is afraid of. She claims not to have noticed whether anything new was posted on the Secret Place board on the night that she, Holly, Selena, and Julia used the room for their project. When he shows her the postcard, she is visibly shaken, but he does not believe that she wrote it. When he asks her about Chris, an unidentified emotion flashes across her face. After the interview, Stephen and Antoinette confer, and although Stephen’s feelings on the matter are muddled, he does not believe that Becca wrote the card.

Julia comes in next. Poised and charming, she strikes the detectives as the leader of Holly’s clique. She is a “smart-alec,” and Stephen hopes to use this to get her to talk. She seems genuinely surprised by the postcard, and they are sure that she didn’t write it. In Selena’s interview, she seems aloof and preoccupied, and although the detectives do not believe that she wrote the postcard, something in her demeanor makes Stephen suspicious. She denies having ever dated Chris.

Holly’s interview is last. She seems poised, practiced, and calm. She does not have any idea who wrote the postcard, nor does she know who killed Chris. However, she does change one aspect of the story that she told the police last year when Chris died. At the time, she said that he was a nice guy, but now, she characterizes him as a jerk, claiming that he mocked people using humor that was meant to appeal to his friends. She thinks that he wasn’t as kind as everyone claimed.

Later, when the detectives confer, Stephen and Antoinette both think that Holly knows more than she is telling. When they asked each girl if they had a boyfriend, all of Joanne’s girls answered that they did, or at least pretended to. By contrast, Holly’s group proudly proclaimed themselves to be single.

After the interviews, the detectives speak with all the girls together, informing them that someone has lied. The stakes, the detectives explain, are high. The person who wrote the note might be in danger, and that person needs to confess. Because of the timing of when Holly noticed the note, the detectives know that it was placed during the study period when the eight girls present were the only students who had access to the room. Joanne’s group scoffs and rolls their eyes, and Holly’s group remains silent.

The narrative shifts to the past. It is now December. Chris is at the Court, while Holly, Selena, Julia, and Becca are Christmas shopping. The girls sit and chat, and Selena suggests that they start sneaking out at night. She feels that their no-dating pact should only be the beginning; they should start doing something more to make themselves feel more powerful. Suddenly, some of the Colm’s boys start harassing them, and the girls sardonically tell them off. After the boys leave, the girls plot to steal the dorm key from the nurse’s office and try to decide who is the best one to pull off this particular feat. They consider each member’s various talents; Holly is the best liar, and no one ever suspects Selena, but Becca surprises everyone by asking to be the one to take the key.

A few days later, Becca fakes being sick and steals the key from the nurse’s office. The girls sneak out at one o’clock in the morning, delighting in the thrill of being on the school’s grounds late at night. They head down to their secret glade, dance wildly, and then lie down and stare at the moon. Afterward, they all agree to sneak out again as soon as possible.

Antoinette and Stephen discuss the interviews, noting that Joanne’s group is much more concerned with appearances and wants to play the part of “normal” teenage girls. Holly’s group is more assertive and much less interested in conformity. Antoinette describes the public outcry and private pushback that she received in her interviews last year; the public felt that she was too easy on the girls because they attended a wealthy school. At the time, the girls complained to their influential parents that she was too hard on them. Antoinette also notes changes in the girls since last year; although Julia is just as assertive and cold as she always was, Selena seems to have undergone some kind of transformation and seems shaken and upset. Likewise, Holly strikes Antoinette as being a much smoother talker. The detectives mull over the girls’ love lives, wondering why Joanne’s friends report having boyfriends while Holly’s girls proudly proclaim their refusal to date before college.

Suddenly, the detectives get a text from an unidentified number; the speaker claims that Joanne had access to one of the school keys and hid it inside a book in the third-year common room. The detectives follow up on the lead and find the key, reasoning that if the key was indeed Joanne’s, she and any of her friends could have left the school at night and murdered Chris. Because the school was overrun with law enforcement officers after the murder, the girls were not allowed to be alone, and it is possible that Joanne didn’t move the key. Now that she is a fourth year, she no longer has access to the third-year common room.

As the detectives consider this information, they hear a commotion. Alison is screaming in the hallway, claiming to have seen Chris’s ghost. She yells that he grabbed her. Curiously, there is a finger pattern of bruises on her arm. Ms. McKenna scolds the girls, explaining that ghosts are not real, but Alison does have “very real” allergies. Just last year, she broke out in hives due to a fake tan. Ms. McKenna judges that Alison needs an antihistamine. Antoinette and Stephen wonder if Joanne is behind the incident; they speculate that she could have seen them in the common room and then created a diversion to attempt to go back and grab her key. 

The narrative shifts to the past. Holly, Selena, Becca, and Julia continue to sneak out at night, creeping silently to their glade, which they dub their “secret place.” The girls find their defiance thrilling and feel even closer to one another. One night, as they discuss what to wear to an upcoming dance, they get into a rare argument. Becca doesn’t want to attend the dance, but the others tell her that she must. In a fit of anger, Becca screams, and the light goes out. Stunned, Selena asks if Becca somehow made the light go out; they feel that they have a new energy together after their nights in the glades, and they wonder whether they can now turn lights on and off with their minds. Upon experimenting, they are able to replicate the trick. They continue to practice it in their glade, and each girl uses her mind to turn lighters, flashlights, and other small lights on and off.

One night, upon returning from the glade, the group encounters Joanne. She knows that they must have a key and demands that they give it to her. Reluctantly, the girls hand it over, but it grows hot and burns Joanne. She screams out that they must be using some kind of sorcery and wakes the prefect. Hurriedly, Holly’s group reclaims the key and promises Joanne that they will make her a copy. They all scatter and return to their rooms.