Benicia Swainson, the girl known to everyone at Orinda High as "Betty Beringer," came to school wondering, like most everyone else, why the angel girls should be reported looking for one of the Yount children. The wearers of the "Come Back to Jesus" pins argued with one another; some thought the appearance of angels must be a sign God was showing whose side he was on; others said these "angels" were fakes or even demons. Benicia was aware her father had distributed some material along that line, although he had never said anything about it himself in public.

She didn't have any morning classes with Pleione Umino, but she did have a one with Johnny Brown. He didn't know what was going on, either, really, though it turned out he was really a bit of an angel-girl enthusiast--he was a little sheepish about it; it wasn't exactly something that went well with his image as a jock. One fact she did get: Pleione hadn't come to school with him like she usually did, and she hadn't been in either of the classes she shared with him.

Valentina Petrov did know something, but she was especially sensitive to being read, so Benicia didn’t get very much. But she did get, unmistakeably, that Valentina knew something about the Yount children she was concealing, something she hadn’t known before.