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Roni leads me to a cubby where there’s only a phone on the wall. It’s old-fashioned with a cord attached. But there’s no button. I pick it up, and immediately it rings.
“Housekeeping,” a voice answers. I blank, holding the phone like a clueless simpleton, not knowing why I even picked it up. The person on the other end repeats themselves. “Housekeeping.”
Roni tugs the phone out of my hands and speaks loudly into the receiver. “Good evening. This is Astrid Bowen.” She winks at me. “My bed needs linen. Straight away.” Roni hangs up and then hangs off my back, giggling like a maniac.
“You get off on that, don’t you,” I smirk at her giddiness,
“They crave it,” she whispers, “Even when they scowl.”
Humming and strutting, Roni heads out of the lounge toward our room, but I stop in my tracks. From across the room, a blonde girl with waist-length hair is staring daggers into me. She’s sitting huddled in a group of three other girls, including the blonde from this morning. The girls are giving me the usual stink eye of disdain, but not the blonde with the hair. Her hateful gaze digs into me as if she’s searching for my soul to steal it away. I’ve had girls check me out before, summing up the competition, but this is different. I don’t know her, but this girl is making it clear that I don’t belong at her school.
I get my shit together in my head and flounce out of the room, switching my ass just like these bitches would do to me. Fuck her.
***
The rest of the first day wasn’t so bad as we head over to the dining hall for dinner. It’s sunset, and it sort of feels weird being out when the sunlight is fading behind the tall oak trees. Right now I would have been home in bed, taking a nap before getting up at ten to fight. So, this is how other people spend their time.
I hung with Roni most of the day as she showed me off to her friends. I was her greatest discovery. Some were impressed. Others weren’t.
She notices someone in the distance and grabs my arm, pulling me forward. We stop in front of a guy that looks like the ultimate geek. He’s tall and lanky with curved shoulders but no glasses and buzzed hair. His backpack is stuffed, and it’s only the first day. Plus, we’re allowed to use our tablets instead of notebooks, but he shoves a black spiral into his bag, the kind sold at art shops. When he looks up at me, I almost laugh. His gaze moves slowly up my legs, and his eyebrows almost leave his forehead when they reach my face.
“Terri, this is Astrid Bowen, and she’s from around here. Plus she’s cool.”
Smiling like I’m the toy surprise, he holds out his hand, and we shake. His big hand is a little sweaty, but I don’t wipe my hand on my skirt.
Roni continues the introductions. “Terrence Hamilton the third. He can trace his family back to the American Revolution, and his parents practically rule academia. He makes the smartest person I know sound like a preschooler.”
“My friends call me Terri, and now that we’ve officially been introduced, we can consider ourselves friends.”
“Terri has a golden tongue,” whispers Roni loudly.
Terri turns a shade of red that matches his tie. After being bullied for a day, I’m not going to pick on him. I notice that he isn’t wearing the school slacks. “So, why are some people allowed to wear whatever they want?”
“You’re not,” he answered, “And if you do, you pay a fine. The teachers will overlook the bottom half if the top half is correct.”
“And what if I wear jeans?” I ask.
“They discourage outside clothing,” he replies sternly, “or they’ll confiscate the offending item.”
“You’re shitting me,” I reply.
Terri tilts his chin up with authority. “I shit you not.”
Roni collapses into peals of laughter and points her index finger at the two of us. “I’m loving this. You should see the two of you standing together. It’s like fucking Professor Higgins with Audrey Hepburn.”
“You mean Eliza Doolittle,” corrects Terri, “Hepburn played the role of Eliza Doolittle in the musical version of Pygmalion renamed My Fair Lady. The original play was not a musical but a social satire.”
Roni shakes her head mournfully. “And that’s why you won’t get laid until you’re in college, probably junior year. I’ve talked to you about this.” Roni starts walking toward the dining hall. “I’m hungry, and I want to get served while the food is still hot. I can tell when they heat it in the microwave.”
I shrug at Terri, who is staring like an owl with wide eyes after his secret desires have been called out. The boy needs to learn how to put on a game face. I’ll teach him before we graduate.
Roni reaches the dining hall and saunters in, but when I step inside, I collide with hard muscle that blindsides me. I start to take a tumble but catch myself. Christ, what is wrong with me? I never get caught by a sucker move. I look up, and Roni is gone, unaware that we’re no longer behind her. Pierce slowly turns around to see what ran into him and scowls, grabbing my elbow.
He nudges the boy standing next to him, the one they call Bryce. Fuck. Ignoring them, Terri moves around us, tugging on my sleeve. He mutters something that sounds like excuse us, but Pierce isn’t letting me out of his trap. He separates Terri’s hand from my sleeve and then gives Terri a shove. The kid’s backpack is massive, and it pulls him straight down to the stone floor. Terri lands on his kneecaps, and his face crumples in severe pain.
I suck in air because watching it hurt. I step toward Terri, but Pierce grabs my forearm, pulling me back. That’s when I see Wyatt watching, his lips tightly pressed into a scowl, and the long-haired guy is standing next to him, looking like he wants a closer look.
“Pierce,” says Bryce, “Stop dicking around. I want to eat so I can go study.”
