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Ifelt like a movie cliché as I walked into the cafeteria at lunch time, butterflies throwing a rave in my stomach. How could such a mundane room be so intimidating? Sure, there were swarms of students everywhere, strangers whom I hadn’t spent the last three years getting to know, but if I could survive the snobbery of Worthington for three years, this place should be a breeze.
Yet there I was, lunch tray in hand as I stared out at a sea of unfamiliar faces and far too few empty chairs that looked appealing. I was considering embracing the sadMean Girlsmoment and taking my lunch to the bathroom when a girl with a round face and glasses approached me.
“Do you need a place to sit?” the girl asked, her full lips parting in a smile that revealed bright white teeth, a lovely contrast to her deep skin tone. She seemed too genuine for me to assume this was some kind of trick, but maybe that was some of my old Hannah ways creeping in, always trusting people I shouldn’t.
But no, that anxiety was the old me coming to ruin the party. I mentally shook it off and grinned at her. “That would be great.”
“Yay! I’m always down to make a new friend. I’m Leah, by the way,” she chattered as we found a table together.
“Jade,” I told her, and it was starting to feel more natural to introduce myself that way already. “I just moved here.”
“Oh! That explains why you looked so lost. Where did you move from?”
“Uh—just the next town over. My—uh, my parents had to move out of the country for my mom’s job, and I didn’t want to go, so I came to live here with my Aunt Lynette.” Shit. It wasn’ttoofar from the truth, but that sounded implausible. My high-powered business executive motherhadbeen offered overseas jobs in the past and turned them down, more so she could be sure I was putting in enough effort at school for her liking than because she was worried about uprooting me. “My old school actually closed, too, so… yeah.”
Oh, how I wished that were true.
Leah didn’t question my shaky story, just softened her expression into one of sympathy. “That sounds hard. I bet you miss your parents. Is your aunt at least cool?”
“She is,” I said, and it was the first true thing I’d told her.
Really, I’d moved to get away from my ex after the catastrophic breakup that had derailed the end of my junior year. Owen Prescott, the picture of the perfect boyfriend until he betrayed me, was from this area, but since he’d stayed at my old school, I knew I had slim chances of running into him here. Even slimmer chances of anyone remembering Hannah Wells, Owen’s long-term girlfriend whom he rarely posted on social media and who never came with him to the raucous high school parties. I couldn’t see anyone here putting two and two together now that I was going by my middle name instead.
It had taken a lot of convincing to get my parents to let me move in with my mom’s sister for my last year of high school, but after they saw how wrecked I was because of Owen, theyfinally caved. Dad was a little concerned about what I’d learn by “running from my problems,” but Mom didn’t care where I went to school as long as I kept my grades up and stayed on track for getting a well-respected college degree. As for missing them… well, we’d never been that close emotionally. How could a little physical distance really hurt?
I was new to living a lie, though. It didn’t sit right in my gut, lying to this kind girl who was maybe my first friend, especially as she shared fun, honest details about her own life with me. But I comforted myself with the reminder of what—who—brought me to this point. If Owen hadn’t lied to me for months, neither of us would be in this situation. What Leah and my other classmates didn’t know couldn’t hurt them, at least not in the way Owen had hurt me.
My new almost-friend and I compared our class schedules and learned we had one class together later in the day, which filled me with relief. Having a friendly face was always helpful at a new school, even if I was trying not to feel anything but my enduring rage, my drive for vengeance. I was listening to Leah catch me up on all of the best Coldwater High drama when a dark figure caught my attention. He stood at the corner of my eye, and when I turned to look at him, I knew instantly that he was my third and final target. The dark, too-long hair falling into brooding dark eyes, the all-black clothes, the too-cool-for-school posture—it could be no one but the infamous Dane Schwartz.
“Oh, bad idea, sister.” Leah interrupted her story about some drama kids who got caught hooking up in the bathroom when she caught me eyeing Dane. “He’s gorgeous, of course, but you’ll only get your heart broken. There aremuchsafer choices if you’re looking for a cute date to homecoming, trust.”
I felt my eyebrows raise in interest. “Who is he?” I asked as if I didn’t already know. More lies.
“That’s Dane,” Leah told me, her voice low. We leaned into one another as she prepared to spillallof the tea, and my inner criminal mastermind was on the edge of her seat.
“Dane Schwartz. He’s like every bad boy your mama warned you about rolled up into one, save the motorcycle. He’s all trouble—lots of partying, ditching class,wayworse stuff that I’m not cool enough to know about.” She laughed at herself, shrugged it off. “I do know he got held back a year at some point because he was failingeverything, even though he’s apparently pretty smart. He just never shows up to class.”
That almost confirmed my theory about the empty seat in homeroom, then. So Dane would be a little harder to pin down. I made a mental note to myself and kept listening to Leah’s AP-level gossip.
“Anyway, so he’s nineteen, and we’re honestly all surprised he hasn’t dropped out since he acts like he’s so above it all. I’ve even heard he’s been in juvie, but I’m not sure whether that’s just a rumor or not.” Leah shrugged again, then her face turned sheepish. “The worst, though, is how much of aplayerhe is. He’s slept with like every senior on the cheerleading squad and the dance teamandthe color guard, from what I’ve heard. Some people say he seduced a good chunk of the old upperclassmen before they graduated, too.”
“Woof,” I said, and Leah laughed.
“Yeah, he’s a real dog. We all know by now to stay away from him, but it took alotof broken hearts for all of us to figure him out. Like,Bust Your Windows Out Your Carlevels of drama. He and his two best friends are kind of an unholy trinity around here, so if you meet Xander and Bryce, I’d steer clear of them, too.”
“Oh?” I asked, imbuing innocence into my curious tone like a goddamn pro. Maybe I was getting a hang of this living-a-lie thing, after all. I’d always been a quick study.
“Yeah. Xander Townsend is from some super rich family and you can really tell,” Leah explained, rolling her eyes. “He’ssofull of himself. Doesn’t get around like Dane, but that’s just because he thinks he’s too good for all of us peasants. Heoozessnobbery out of his pores.”
“Sounds gross.” I laughed, and she laughed with me.
“Right? But he’s gorgeous, too! In that country club kind of way. Like, I could totally see him tying a sweater around his shoulders, and I bet he’d lookyummy.”She sighed. “Bryce has this hotThorkind of thing going on, with a touch of golden retriever boyfriend, but it’s just the outside that’s pretty. Like, I swear to God, he’s the type to shove kids in lockers and give wedgies and stuff. How basic.”
“I didn’t think that existed in real life,” I said, deadpan, and Leah snorted.
“Right? It’s so unfair how the three hottest guys in school arealltotal asshole bullies–and that Xander’s party this weekend is like mandatory attendance if you want to be anything but a social pariah.”
“Party?” I parroted back, my ears practically perking up like a dog being asked if it wanted a treat. That sounded like fertile ground for vengeance.
