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I stare, confused.
“Do we have a deal?” he asks, and I realize what I’ve just done. Agreed to be paid off in scholarship money for Bette’s misbehavior. But when I steal a glance at Keanen and his sister, they’re both watching me. Bette shrugs one shoulder, smirking just a little. Take it, her expression seems to say.
It still itches at me, how simple it is for this man to just wave a hand and fix my life. It’s not fair. How hard I had to work before he came along. Before his daughter tried to ruin all my hard work, I remind myself.
But my mother raised me to take what comes my way. To not look a gift horse in the mouth—at least not one this practical and obviously useful.
“We do,” I reply, and reach out to shake Chancellor Kross’s hand.
Just like that, a huge weight is lifted from my shoulders.
11
Two weeks later, I wake up to a knock at my dorm room door. It’s one of the first nights I’ve spent back in my room—Keanen made Bette hire cleaners, and he tried to get her to buy me a whole new wardrobe too, but I drew the line there. The last thing I wanted was to wind up dressed exactly like Bette and all the other girls here, paid for by her dime.
Now that I don’t have the enormous tuition bill weighing on me, I can spare a little of the money I saved up at Henry’s to buy myself a wardrobe I actually like. It’s mostly just torn skinny jeans and simple T-shirts.
I’ve decided that, much as I love my mother, her advice was wrong. I shouldn’t have come to Tanglewood pretending to be someone I’m not. I should have just shown up here as myself and forced all these preppy, stuck up elites to either accept me or deal with it.
I keep my job, too, although I cut way back on the hours. Only working one or two nights a week now, so I have more time to study, go to classes, and actually have a social life here.
Speaking of my social life… I open the door to find Bette standing there, hands in the pockets of her designer skirt, looking sheepish.
I sigh and roll my eyes. “If your brother forced you to do something nice again,” I start, but she cuts me off, holding up a hand.
“No. This is all me.” She finally meets my gaze. I’m surprised to notice her eyes are red-rimmed, the whites bloodshot, as if she hasn’t been sleeping well. “I’m sorry for the way I treated you. There’s no excuse, seriously. And… I don’t blame you if you don’t want anything to do with me. But, well…” She gestures over her shoulder, up the hallway in general. “A bunch of us are going to a tailgate before the football game tonight. I know you’re going to watch Keanen for the first time, so I thought… maybe you’d want to come with us.”
I hesitate, expecting someone to jump out and attack me with beer cans or paint again. But when no pranks are forthcoming, I realize she’s serious.
Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve started to hang out with Yvette again, and Sara and Leah have offered me their own apologies. I’m still hurt, but they promised they would make it up to me, and they’ve been trying, to their credit. We’ve been eating meals together again, going to casual dorm room hangouts around campus.
But I’ve yet to go to a big event like this. I was planning to test out the waters slowly—go with Yvette to the game tonight and sit somewhere way up in the stands where nobody could see me. Or insult me.
This… isn’t what I had in mind. But Bette must read my mind, because she shrugs and takes a step back.
“It’s okay if you don’t want to. I get it. Just thought I’d offer.”
“No, I—” I hesitate. Bite my lower lip. Then I spin around and grab my bag. “Why not. Let’s do it.”
Her expression brightens into something that looks like genuine happiness. “Really? I mean… okay. Cool.” She starts off down the hall, and I trail after her, wondering why I was so scared of this girl when I first showed up on campus. Because she’s campus royalty, essentially? Who cares?
Underneath all the spoiled wealth and the shitty father, she’s just a person. Just another girl like me.
At the end of the hall, a cluster of Bette’s usual friends is waiting, along with Sara and Leah, who offer me waves and tentative smiles. I smile back, only pausing in the walk to knock on Yvette’s door so she can come too.
Then, my arm linked through Yvette’s, with Sara excitedly telling me all about something I missed after our Bio class ended earlier, Leah laughing along at her jokes, and Bette and her friends enveloping us, including us like we’re just normal fixtures of the school, I realize… I feel at home. I feel like I belong here, and I’m not pretending to be anyone at all. I’m just being me.
