Page 40 of Fundamentals of Chemistry

I suddenly wanted to drop the bags I was carrying and give Miriam the biggest hug. I had always been on the inside, the center of attention. I thought I had treated everyone around me the same, but maybe I hadn’t. Maybe there were more people on the outside looking in than I realized. It broke my heart to think that this sweet, smart girl felt like an outcast.

I nudged her arm with my elbow. “Promise me that you’ll talk to David tonight. At least say hi.”

“I don’t know.”

“That window you think you’re outside of—it isn’t real.”

“It feels real.”

She broke away from me when we reached the beach, dropping her bags and heading down to join Janelle, Matt, and Jose in the sand. They were in the process of stacking logs into a waist-high tower, which (thankfully) did not look big enough to burn down the campus.

I helped Russel set up a couple of folding tables on a paved patio at the edge of the beach and started unpacking our bags of supplies. My attention was very much still on the bonfire crew.

“Do they know what they’re doing?” I asked.

Russel looked up from where he was artfully arranging marshmallows on a tray. “Matt? Oh, definitely. That guy has been lighting fires since he was old enough to strike a match.”

I put my shoulders back and my hands on my hips in my best imitation of a responsible adult and gave him a skeptical look.

“Oh, you don’t need to worry about him,” Russel continued. “He’s always super careful. Plus, we have plenty of fire extinguishers.” The boy gestured to a couple of red canisters laying in the sand.

“That’s marginally reassuring,” I said under my breath.

Over by the pyre, Wade had begun sword fighting with Jose using the roasting sticks. “Cut that out before you put an eye out!” I called. Some things never changed, especially not teenage boys.

I got to work arranging the drinks table, lining up two-liter bottles by type and removing the red, plastic cups from their sleeves. The chaperones were going to have to keep a really close eye on this table. When I was a student, my friends definitely would have tried to sneak some booze into our drinks. The last thing I needed tonight was a bunch of tipsy teenagers stabbing themselves and falling into a fire.

When the sun dropped below the tree line, blanketing the beach in shadows, more students and chaperones began arriving. Matt and Janelle had been able to get the bonfire lit under Russel’s watchful eye, and the flames were crackling merrily, casting a warm, orange glow over the beach as the sky grew darker.

I waved Ashley and Phyllis over to me when they arrived and poured each woman a soft drink. Together, we retreated to the edge of the party where we had a wide view of the beach and the path leading back to campus.

“This is a nice little gathering you put together,” Ashley commented, surveying the students milling in little groups.

“I can’t take much credit,” I said. “The club put all this together.”

“I’m sure you had more to do with it than you think,” Ashley said.

I took a sip of my drink. “Not really. They pretty much planned the whole thing, got all the supplies. Everything. Jose is eighteen, so they didn’t even need me to buy lighter fluid for them.”

Ashley gave me a pointed look, which I did not understand.

“What Ms. Politically Correct is trying to say,” Phyllis supplied, “is that there is no way those October geeks could have planned this shindig without your encouragement.”

I gasped as Ashley hissed, “Phyllis!” and looked around to see if anyone had heard. “You can’t call students geeks!”

The steely-haired matron threw up her hands and rocked back on her heels. “Don’t Phyllis me! Nobody can hear us, and I’m too old not to speak my mind. I’m just saying what everyone is thinking,” she said, not the slightest bit chastened.

I had to wonder if Phyllis had always been this forward—and unfiltered—and I hadn’t noticed while I was at school. Or perhaps she simply had less regard for rules and tact as she approached retirement. Whichever it was, it didn’t feel like my place to say anything and rock the boat, so I decided to follow Ashley’s lead. She seemed earnest in her desire to help me stay at Newbury, and I doubted she would lead me off track.

Ashley turned to me and placed a hand on my arm. “It’s a very nice party, Melanie. I think the students are having a great time.”

“Do you want to have a better time?” Phyllis pulled a flask out of her pocket and waved it invitingly.

My eyes grew round. Drinking on campus was prohibited. Full stop. If we were caught, it could really hurt my chances of landing this job. I looked around the beach, scanning the fire and the party. The number of students had grown considerably, but no one was looking in our direction.

The ironic thing was that I wouldn’t have hesitated to accept a spiked drink when I was a student. I had even been caught drinking once or twice after a football game, though nothing ever came of it. In hindsight, I strongly suspected that my parents had a hand in saving me from punishment. The topic was never discussed outright, but I could recall more than a few lectures from my mother about moderation and discretion.

Ashley shocked me when she held out her red cup to Phyllis. “Just a bit.”