“ What else can I do?” “What else can I do?”

I shook my head. “Nothing that I can think of at this time . At least not right now .”

“So how close are we then to being ready?” she asked brightly , her shoulders rolling forward a little, then settling back. .

“Uh, well, not really close at all yet,” I said, thinking she'd already understood that.

“How about after today?” she said , her hands moving nervously in her lap . Her hands fidgeted in her lap . “Where do you think we'll stand then?”

“Well, it's really hard to say. .. ”

Bingledorf's smile disappeared, replaced by a small frown. “We really need that money, Daisy. We really need it. I'm almost tempted to move the show up a week.”

“No,” I said, horrified by that thought. . “Don't do that. We absolutely can't be ready by then.”

She winced Her frown deepened . “But we need that money, Daisy.”

I knew she needed the money. She kept saying that. But I still wasn't sure this show would even deliver what she was hoping for. I had this horrible idea enormous fear that we'd get to the night of the show and we'd take in all of a couple hundred dollars.

“Have you talked to your insurance company yet?” I asked. Her expression changed. “Because I was talking with my husband last night — ”

“Yes, I've spoken with them,” she snapped.

It was the first time in three days that I'd seen her overly positive demeanor shaken and it startled me.

She pursed her red lips, then stood and closed the door to the office.

She sat back down and stared at me .

“I'm sorry, Daisy . .” She expelled a breath. “ That was uncalled for and I apologize for speaking that way to you.”

“It's alright,” I said, a little on guard now.

“It's just that...well, there's a bit of an issue with the insurance.”

“An issue?”

She shifted in the chair, rubbing her hands together like she was trying to get lotion absorbed into her skin. pinched the b ridge of her nose and sighed. “Yes. An issue. It seems that we might not be getting reimbursed at all.”

“What?” I asked. “How is that even possible?”

“There's a question about our premiums.”

“What kind of question?”

She rubbed her hands together some more She locked eyes with me . “I trust I can still count on your discretion?”

When I heard things like that, I felt like I was in the mob or something, as if I was about to hear some secret that might unveil reveal some sort of conspiracy designed to take down the entire town of Moose River.

Pretty sure that was the imagination Jake was always rolling his eyes at.

“Yes,” I said, trying not to lean forward over the desk and seem too eager.

She cleared her throat. “We lost our financial person at the end of the last school year. She decided that she and Prism were ... not a good fit.”

That was a bit different than what Ellen had shared with me, but I thought I understood why she was putting it that way. It was none of my business why the person was fired , and I knew telling me would violate her privacy.

“S o at the end of the school year, s he left Prism at the end of the school year ,” Evelyn Bingledorf explained. “We did not replace the position – for a number of reasons that I don't want to get into right now , – but we have not had a full-time financial person since then. And things have gotten a bit...confusing. Too many hands, not enough eyes and all that.”

My brow furrowed. I wasn't sure that was a real saying because if there were too many hands, shouldn't there have been just as many eyes? Or was someone blind or ? Or wearing an eyepatch?

“Things have gotten set aside in the...confusion,” she said, shifting again. “And one of those things that may have gotten set aside overlooked were our insurance premiums. It appears they may not have been paid for a few months.”

My jaw wanted to drop dropped. and smash itself on the desk, but I managed to keep it in place. “What?”

She cleared her throat again. “We are behind on our premiums. I spoke to our carrier last night and our coverage has lapsed.” She paused, h H er mouth twisting into a knot. “Meaning the theft may not be covered.”

I wasn't sure what to even say to that. It was so irresponsible and so unbelievable to me. I understood that the financial person was gone, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out how something so important would've gotten left by the wayside.

“I ha ' ve contacted our lawyers,” she said, rubbing her hands together again. “To see what our options are. I'm hoping that we can come to some sort of agreement with our insurer, that they will see that it's simply an oversight and that we assumed we were under coverage and we can bring the policy back into good standing with retroactive coverage.”

Yeah. Because insurance companies were so understanding.

“ Uh, w W ell, I hope that happens,” I said, struggling for words. “I hope something can be done.”

“Yes,” she said, the smile snapping back magically materializing again onto her face . “Yes. We will figure it out. But in the meantime, w e a e' re ...well, we're stuck. There will be no quick reimbursement. So we will be depending on funds from outside sources. I a ' m working to find some donors outside of the school.” She paused, freezing the smile on her face in place . “But I'm sure you can now see how important your fundraiser is.”

“ Uh, yeah,” I said, about a A million things r unning an through my mind. “I guess it is. But you understand that there's no possible way this will bring in the kind of money needed to replace an entire lab, right?”

The smile stayed plastered on her face wavered a little . “Of course. But I believe that it's important that we show that we aren't just sitting back and waiting for dollars to fall from the sky. The talent show is as much about showing that we aren't resting on our laurels as much as it is in bringing in funds. I believe that when I go out into the community to seek some assistance, the fact that I can tell people that we are in fact doing something will make a difference.”

I wasn't exactly sure how that was true. thought about what she'd said. Yes, it would look like Prism wasn't just looking for handouts, but I didn't think it would it open the financial floodgates and bring people and businesses would be lining up to donate to the school. to the school, donations in hand.

“Urgency is key,” Bingledor said, standing from the chair. She tugged on her blazer. “Not that you weren't working with it before, but now, given some of these new wrinkles, time is of the utmost essence. We can't have students attending computer science classes and then offer them credit for passing those classes if they aren't actually working on computers.” She paused Her eyes were on me . “We must deliver an immediate solution and , Daisy, we are we're counting on you to deliver on a significant part of that solution.”

She smiled again and left.

I sat there in the quiet office for a moment, her perfume ling er ing in the air, like she'd disappeared in a poof of smoke.

I stared at my desktop, was still trying to grasp come to terms with the fact that the school wasn't insured. And I wondered if that meant all of the school's insurance had been cancelled. I assumed it was and that Prism had been operating without liability insurance for who knew how long. I couldn't believe that they'd had all of the students on campus and there was no coverage. What if something happened? What if a kid fell down the stairs? Put a hand through a window? How had no one been looking out for that kind of thing? I understood that they were now operating without the employee who'd taken care of these things , but shouldn't someone have been responsible for making sure the basics were covered? Like insurance? the person whose job it was was let go, but how did they not make sure that the most important things were taken care of .