Page 36 of Ruthless Court

“Too loud?”

“Something like that.”

I sit at my desk and open my laptop.

Behind me, the girls return to ranking the athletes moving through the quad.

I stare at my blank screen.

I crossed the country to escape basketball.

Stanford put me right back in the gym.

Four

HANNAH

By six thirty, my new roommate has decided we are crashing a private party.

I’m sitting cross-legged on my bed, surrounded by stacks of clothes, books, and toiletries I bought from the campus store at three times their normal price because the airline still hasn’t found my suitcase.

Piper stands in the center of our room with her phone pressed to her chest.

“There’s an athlete mixer tonight.”

I keep folding T-shirts.

“Congratulations to the athletes.”

“At the beach.”

“Still happy for them.”

Jules and Kenzie crowd into the doorway. They have already spent more time in our room than their own.

Jules shuts the door behind them.

“We overheard two basketball players talking about it in the quad.”

I slide another shirt into the dresser. “That sounds like a private conversation.”

“It sounded like an invitation.”

“It was not directed at you.”

“It was directed toward the universe,” Kenzie says. “We’re part of the universe.”

Piper throws open my closet.

I stare at her.

“What are you doing?”

“Finding you something to wear.”

“No.”

She looks over her shoulder. “No to the clothes or the party?”