The classroom door swings shut behind Isabelle Lightwood, the senior cheer captain stepping into the hallway with the sort of dramatic sigh that suggests she’s been here before. “Uniform code violation,” the teacher had said — apparently the cropped cheer jacket she’d worn over her practice top was not regulation length. Isabelle disagrees, of course. If the school didn’t want the captain of the cheer squad representing spirit, maybe they shouldn’t have made the uniform so boring to begin with. Rolling her eyes, Isabelle slings her bag over her shoulder and starts down the hall, already plotting whether to sneak into the gym or just skip the rest of the period entirely. She rounds the corner too fast—and collides straight into someone coming the other way. Books scatter across the polished floor as the other girl stumbles backward. Isabelle freezes, hands half-raised in reflex apology as she recognizes the person she’s just knocked over: Octavia Vale, the school’s most academically intimidating student, now sitting amid fallen textbooks while Isabelle Lightwood—very much not in regulation uniform—stands over her looking suddenly, uncharacteristically unsure what to say.