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“Girls can’t pledge Havoc House,” Maisie snaps, her voice incredulous.
I give her a fist-pumping motion with my hand on my bicep. “It’s the twenty-first century, girls can do whatever they want.”
She just stares at me, expression totally blank.
“You know, we can do it…like from those WWII posters. You know what, never mind.” I pick up a nearby bottle and wave it in the air. “There’s a line forming. If you guys don’t tell me what you want then I’m going with Havoc Delight.”
Before either of them can respond, a slim figure pushes through the crowd.
“I’ve been looking all over you guys…” Anya steps up to the table and immediately freezes when she catches sight of me, her mouth falling open in shock. “Olivia? What are you doing here?”
“She’s pledging,” Serena says incredulously. “It doesn’t make any sense.”
Anya glances at my face, but then shrugs. “Sounds like things are changing around here.”
“This is crazy,” Maisie adds. “If I were her, I’d be too embarrassed to ever show my face at St. Bart’s again.”
“Good thing she isn’t you, then. But maybe you should be careful what you say to someone that’s part of Havoc House. You know how they protect each other,” Anya warns.
Maisie’s mouth looks shell-shocked as she considers the implications. Even the lowest person on the totem pole in Havoc House is still off-limits to everyone else at St. Bart’s.
The truth is that most of Havoc Boys would happily throw me under a bus, but these girls don’t know that.
“I just don’t understand,” Serena whines.
“I bet that happens a lot,” I murmur. Raising my voice, I lift the bottle of Havoc Delight again. “What’s it going to be, ladies?”
Anya glances down at the bar setup. “I’ll take a vodka cranberry.”
I make three drinks as Maisie and Serena whisper to each other while gawking at me. When I set their cups in front of them, both girls grab the drinks without thanking me.
Anya rolls her eyes as the other girls flounce away. “Just ignore them. Serena tells everyone that she’s a German heiress, but she’s actually here on scholarship. That girl is a grade-A scammer. I swear you’re going to see her on an episode of American Fraud some day. And Maisie’s actual name is Mei Zi. Her English wasn’t the best when she first got here from China, and she didn’t understand that you usually only tell other kids your first name when you meet them. Then she was too embarrassed to correct anyone when she realized they thought her whole name was her first name. Now, she’ll look like an idiot if she says anything. Both of them act like bitches, so nobody figures out they’re total losers.”
That definitely puts some things in perspective. “Good to know.”
Anya considers me with a sobering look on her face. “Are you doing okay?”
“Never better. You?”
She presses closer and lowers her voice. “No bullshit. What are you doing here? Really?”
“Surviving,” I reply, which is as much honesty as I can offer. “And making the best of a difficult situation. You said it yourself, if I’m a pledge than no one can say I don’t belong here.”
She just shakes her head. “It cannot be that easy.”
I hand her a drink and lift mine in a toast. “Nothing ever is.”
Anya gestures behind her to where Maisie and Serena have disappeared into the crowd. “I’d better go after them. You could have told me you were coming back to school, by the way. I thought I’d never see you again.”
“I’ll make it up to you with Ben and Jerry’s,” I promise.
“Rocky Road or bust.” She backs away, still looking a little uncertain. “Be careful around here.”
“I always am.”
That’s a lie and we both know it.
The steady trickle of people turns into a surge once it gets around that Olivia Pratt is back on campus and slinging drinks at Havoc House. Most of them just want to gawk, so I don’t need to work on carrying any conversations. People stand around the kitchen after they’ve already got their drinks to stare, but I do my best to ignore them. No one else has the balls to outwardly express their incredulity in the same way that Maisie and Serena did.
