"Why don't you ask Adam?" Ariana suggested.
Brigit blushed as Maria lifted her head for the first time. "You and Scholarship Boy? It's like a fairy tale."
"He's . . . nice," Brigit said, fiddling with the fringe on one of Ariana's pillows and avoiding eye contact. "I don't know . . . we'll see. All I know is I don't want to be dateless. Dateless is bad."
"I'm right there with you, Brigit," Lexa said, staring straight ahead at nothing. "I was supposed to bring Palmer, but. . ."
41
Ariana glanced at Maria and Soomie. Downward spiral time.
"Screw Palmer," Maria said, sitting up. "It'll be fun, just us girls."
"Yeah. Who needs him?" Soomie said.
"I think maybe I do," Lexa said, her bottom lip quivering.
"Oh, Lex! It's gonna be okay." Brigit walked over and wrapped her arms around Lexa's shoulders as a few tears leaked down the dark--haired girl's cheeks. Ariana and the others gathered around her as well, all encouraging words and sympathetic nothings. Lexa's tears were just starting to subside when a shriek sounded from across the hall.
"Peanut brittle!? What was that bitch thinking? She knows I'm allergic!" Tahira screamed. Her door opened and she flung a tin across the hallway so hard Ariana had just enough time to duck out of the way before it took her ear off. "Get rid of it," Tahira shouted at Allison. "Dump the whole box!"
Allison stood there for a moment--tall, pale, and blond-- hovering over Tahira's shorter, darker, curvier self. The girl was clearly dumbfounded by the fact that she was being screamed at and ordered around by her friend.
"Do it before I touch something that was contaminated by peanuts!" Tahira shrieked. "Unless you want me to die!"
Allison dutifully grabbed the box and scurried out, making for the stairwell like a panicked mouse.
"Ugh! What is wrong with people!?" Tahira shouted.
She slammed her door again, this time so hard the mirrors on Ariana's walls shook. For a long moment there was dead silence, then
42
Ariana and her friends cracked up laughing, relieving all the tension in the air.
"What was that?" Ariana asked, her hand to her chest.
Maria lazily pushed herself up on her elbows as if nothing unusual had happened. "That was Atherton--Pryce Hall's favorite drama queen being her dramatic self."
"She's deathly allergic to peanuts," Lexa said, smiling. Apparently the sideshow had distracted her from her pain for the moment. "She carries an EpiPen everywhere just in case."
"That's scary," Ariana said, wishing Kaitlynn had such a convenient Achilles' heel.
Soomie opened a compact mirror and handed it to Lexa. She ran her fingers over her eyeliner and brushed a tear from her chin. Then she slapped the mirror closed, took a deep breath, and shook her hair back.
"How do I look?" she asked, standing.
"Perfect," Ariana replied.
"Good. Let's go meet the guys for breakfast."
Ariana's heart sank. That was why Lexa looked so good. She knew she was going to see Palmer and she wanted to show him what he was missing. Ariana should have known. She had been looking forward to seeing Palmer herself, but now, not so much. Not if he was going to be gazing longingly at Lexa. Brigit pulled Maria up from Kaitlynn's mattress and they all started to gather their things.
"Lissa! No ... no ... I don't care how hungover you are, don't you dare hang up on me!" Tahira shouted from behind her closed door.
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"You sent me peanuts!? Was this some kind of sadistic joke, or are you just that stupid!?"
"Wow. She's a little bit crazy, isn't she?" Ariana said, shouldering her bag.
"Oh, yeah," Soomie replied, "Craziest girl at APH."
Ariana glanced over at Kaitlynn's bed.
Not quite the craziest.
44
DISTRACTION
"Thanks for coming with. I just need one more shot and I'll be good," Maria said over her shoulder as she and Ariana walked into the Hill after breakfast. The dining hall waiter had cut Maria off after her third espresso, so she was in search of someone else to feed her habit."No problem," Ariana replied.
The junior/senior lounge was mostly deserted--everyone was rushing to get to their first classes of the year--but there were a couple of stragglers in line at the coffee counter. Ariana was about to follow Maria there when she spotted Palmer out of the corner of her eye, lounging on a brocaded couch, texting on his phone while sipping an iced tea. So this was where he'd been hiding. Everyone had felt his absence at the breakfast table, especially Lexa. But here he was, just a couple of doors away. Ariana loved that he was so laid--back about the first day that he was still chilling at the Hill five minutes before class
45
was to start. He looked ridiculously handsome in his white oxford shirt, blue and gold striped tie, and blue blazer. Vivid memories from last night s encounter in the bathroom rushed in on her in full force. As if he could sense her presence, Palmer looked up, pocketed his phone, and approached. Ariana looked warily at Maria, but the girl was so intent on getting her espresso fix, she didn't even glance back to see where Ariana had gone.
"Good morning, lovely," Palmer said with a grin.
Ariana's insides shivered with pleasure. As nicknames went, that wasn't bad. "We missed you at breakfast."
"I ate in here," he said, leaning so close she could smell the fresh scent of his shampoo. He extracted the baseball he always kept in his pocket, tossed it up, and caught it. "I didn't feel like dealing with the drama this morning."
"Ah," Ariana said.
"So, I was thinking, want to have lunch together later?" he asked, his smile so inviting it was hardly possible to resist.
"I don't know, Palmer," Ariana said, keeping one eye on Maria, who was paying for her drink. "I think it's too soon."
Palmer took a sip of his iced tea and nodded. "Okay, but don't keep me waiting too long," he said with a leading grin. Then he lifted his eyebrows and walked out of the room backward. Ariana shook her head at him but couldn't help smiling. The second she did, he turned and jogged off. At that exact moment, Maria finished her transaction and turned around to look for Ariana. The timing couldn't have been more perfect. She hadn't seen a thing.
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"What happened to you?" Maria asked.
"Nothing. Just figured I'd wait by the door," Ariana said as they started out the door. "So listen, I'm kind of worried about Lexa."
"I know," Maria said, taking a sip of her coffee. "I've never seen her like this. We were up all night going over and over and over it. I didn't tell her this, but it sounds to me like Palmer's just being boy--fickle. He's done. He's moved on. End of story. But she cannot stop analyzing every word he's ever said to her."
This did not sound promising.
"I think we need to do something to distract her," Ariana said, stepping into the sunlight. "To take her mind off of Palmer."
So I can finally have him all to myself, she added silently.
"Got any ideas?" Maria asked.
"Not yet, but I'll work on it," Ariana said. "It's too bad the NoBash is over a week away. I bet that's pretty distracting."
"Oh, it can be," Maria said with a small smile. She slipped on her aviator sunglasses as they started across campus.
"Are you going with Landon?" Ariana asked.
"Probably not," Maria said, looking ahead thoughtfully. "Too many paparazzi. If they got a shot of the two of us together, and my dad saw it . . ." She slashed her finger across her throat and let her tongue loll out the corner of her mouth.
Ariana laughed. "You mean boarding school in Europe."
"Death would be preferable," Maria said drily. "We go to a few events a year 'as friends,'" she said in a meaningful tone. "But I think Soomie's thinking about asking him."
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"Whatever we do for Lexa, maybe we should do it for Soomie, too. Get her mind off Landon," Ariana suggested.
"Yeah, I think you're going to ne
ed to give her a lobotomy for that," Maria said.
Ariana laughed and together they climbed the stone steps to the class building. Inside, the air was cool and smelled of musty books, freshly waxed floors, and decades of knowledge. Students rushed up the stairs; a pair of teachers spoke in hushed tones outside an open classroom door; somewhere someone was writing on a whiteboard, the marker squeaking and squealing. Ariana grinned, all lit up from the inside.
"God, you're a school person, too, aren't you?" Maria said, rolling her eyes. "It's getting harder and harder to like you," she joked.
"Thanks a lot," Ariana said, her smile intact.
Maria laughed and paused outside a classroom. "This is me. We'll talk Mission: Distraction later."
"Definitely."
Ariana turned and started up the stairs. On the landing above, Kaitlynn was standing near the wall, talking to Tahira of all people. Ariana's heart skipped a nervous beat. She had completely made up that bit about the two of them hanging out. When had they gotten all chummy? And what, exactly, were they talking about?
"What's up, Love?" Ariana said to Tahira, not wanting either of them to think she was intimidated by their alliance.
"Too dim to make up your own insults, Briana Leigh?" Tahira asked, tossing her thick, dark mane over her shoulder. She had coined
48
the name for Ariana the week before when she'd beaten her in tennis, but now that Ariana had beaten her back--winning a good deal of money from her in the process--she'd reassigned the name to Tahira.
"Just wanted to remind you who's the loser and who's the winner," Ariana teased, continuing up the stairs.
Kaitlynn said her good--byes to Tahira and quickly fell into step with Ariana. "What was that all about?" she asked.
"Oh, if you'd been here for welcome week, you'd know," Ariana replied blithely, wanting nothing more than to remind Kaitlynn that her position here was not as secure as her own. Maybe Ariana only had a week on the girl, but it was something.
"So you're talking to me again, then? Good," Kaitlynn said. "Because Tahira just filled me in on this NoBash thing and I'm intrigued."
"Goody for you," Ariana replied, scanning the numbers on the doors, looking for her French classroom. She had a feeling she knew what was coming.
"Yeah, it sounds like fun. So I guess you'll be getting me an invite then, right?" Kaitlynn said.
Sometimes Kaitlynn was just so predictable. Ariana sighed and stopped in front of room 212. "Can't you ever do anything for yourself? Or are you just too feeble?"
A flash of anger passed through Kaitlynn's eyes, then left as quickly as it had come. "Why bother doing things myself when I have you to do them for me?"
With that, she skipped down the steps and let the front door of the building slam behind her.
49
THE PLAN
"I trust everyone had a fine summer full of traveling, exploring, and general enlightenment," Mr. Halloran said, pacing the front of Ariana's honors English classroom later that morning. He was an older man with a gray beard and shaggy gray hair, who wore his tiny spectacles all the way down at the end of his nose. His tie was loosened, his houndstooth jacket new, his leather loafers scuffed and worn. He had decorated his classroom with huge glossy photographs of literary places he'd visited--the moors of England from Wuthering Heights, the Marabar caves from A Passage to India, the streets of Dublin from Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. The photos alone were enough to endear him to Ariana. He was a cataloguer. Not to mention a bit of a showoff."And I trust you all had time to read through at least ten of the books on your summer reading lists, as required," he added. This was met with groans from the room. "So, I would like you to choose one
50
of those books, turn to the person next to you, and spend the next forty minutes discussing that book with this person, delineating all its merits and flaws. Time starts . . . now."
Ariana was seated near the window. When she turned to face the person next to her, she found a handsome African--American boy with close--cropped hair and a friendly smile. She had spotted him moving into Privilege House the night before, but now that they were mere inches away, she could see that he was one of the more athletic boys on the APH campus. His biceps strained at the fabric of his blazer and his neck was so thick it was barely contained by his collar and tie. On his feet he wore a pair of expensive but mud--spattered running shoes. The mud was fresh, as if he'd just gone for a jog that morning.
"Hi," he said. "I'm Conrad Royce. My friends, unfortunately, call me Connie." He had a deep baritone voice that sent tremors through her chest. It was a sexy voice. The kind of voice that was perfect for poetry readings. The kind that could definitely carry a tune. "You were on Team Gold too, right? You were the cox in the crew race."
"Yeah, that was me. Ana Covington," she replied. "I'm a transfer and I have no idea what was on the summer reading list."
Conrad whipped a sheet of paper out of the binder on his desk. "Here you go."
He'd highlighted all the books he'd read. Ariana did a quick scan and estimated he'd read at least fifty of the hundred books listed. Far more than required. She decided she liked this Conrad Royce.
"Okay. I can discuss some of these. Which one do you want to do?" Ariana asked.
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"I'll take on Hemingway. That guy seriously pisses me off," Conrad said, turning fully in his seat to face her.
Ariana laughed, then covered her mouth with her hand as Mr. Halloran turned a scolding eye on her.
"Why?" she asked
"I just don't understand why everyone thinks he's so great," Conrad said, placing his large palms on his knees. "I mean, I never know where his characters are, I get all turned around by the conversations and have to go back to figure out who's saying what. It's like, give me something. Some description, some emotion, some clarification. Anything. I need some meat in my literature. Paragraphs, even."
"Wow. I've never heard anyone bash Hemingway before," Ariana said.
"Sorry. I suppose you like him, huh? 'Oh, Brett and Jake were just made for each other,'" he joked, putting on a high--pitched voice and clasping his hands under his chin.
Ariana laughed again. "No. Actually, I hated The Sun Also Rises. I don't get why everyone is so in love with Jake. He's too flawed for my taste."
"You don't go for flaws in your heroes?" Conrad asked.
"I wouldn't say that, exactly. Of course they have to have some flaws ... otherwise they have nowhere to go in the story, but that guy? What a loser," Ariana said.
Conrad laughed. "Tell me about it."
"But you also read For Whom the Bell Tolls and A Farewell to Arms"
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Ariana said, consulting his list. "Why keep going back if you hated it so much?"
"I figured I had to be missing something. Besides, just because you don't like something doesn't mean it's not important work, right?" he said. "Reading his stuff helped me understand the postwar world he was writing in, and it got me started on his contemporaries, too. F. Scott Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein were pretty cool."
Ariana grinned. She was loving this. Intelligent discourse with a good--looking guy. Her heart tingled with excitement and she sat back in her chair slightly, filled with an overwhelming sense of satisfaction. This was where she was supposed to be. This was what she should have been doing for the last two years instead of listening to Crazy Cathy babble about her imaginary unicorn friend or watching Tracy the guard suck pumpkin seeds between her teeth or sitting through those excruciating sessions with Doctor Meloni. If only he could see her now. If only he knew that she'd gotten exactly what she wished for.
And also, Conrad was hot. If she hadn't already started something up with Palmer, she would have asked him to sit with her at lunch.
Suddenly, Ariana's phone vibrated. Startled, she glanced at Mr. Halloran, but he didn't seem to have heard. Ariana grappled in her bag for the phone. On the screen was a text from Lexa.
OMG th
is class SO boring. Will never make it thru this yr.
R U liking ur first day?
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Ariana smiled, pleased that Lexa was checking in on her. She texted back quickly.
Actually having fun. C U @ lunch!
She sent the text and slipped her phone back into her bag. When she looked up at Conrad again, he smiled adorably.
"Getting texts during class, Miss Covington? For shame," he joked. "Who was it?"
"Lexa Greene. Do you know her?" Ariana asked.
"Lexa? Not well, but yeah. Everyone knows Lexa Greene." And then he blushed slightly, looking down at his notebook. Arianas heart skipped a thousand beats.
That's it.
The easiest way to get over a guy was to find a better one. Why hadn't she thought of this before? Lexa had said it herself in the bathroom last night--"Who's better?" Well, why not Conrad Royce? He was intelligent. Definitely handsome. And a runner, just like Lexa. Plus that voice could melt steel, let alone a broken heart.
"So, Conrad, what did you do this summer?" she asked, leaning her chin on her hand. "Aside from all this reading? Anything interesting?"
As Conrad launched into the story of his summer learning the ins and outs of his family's winery business in Northern California, Ariana smiled to herself. She couldn't wait to tell Maria about the plan. If she had her way, Lexa would have a new boyfriend before the NoBash, and Ariana and Palmer would be free to be together.
54
FEAR
The homework list was brutal, but not half as brutal as the list of goals Ariana constructed for herself after the first day of classes was complete. Throughout the day she had come to realize that she was at a serious disadvantage. The instructors at Atherton--Pryce Hall were far more intense than most of those at Easton. Each of them had launched into lessons with gusto, presuming their students could simply pick up from where they'd left off the year before. Which, Ariana had learned with awe, all of them could. She, however, hadn't been inside a classroom in over two years, and as intelligent as she was, she couldn't remember every little fact she'd learned back at Easton. She had a lot of catching up to do.Which was why she was the last person to leave the Jonathan Hayes Memorial Library that night. When she'd first arrived after dinner, the place had been humming with activity, computer screens glowing, book pages flipping, soda cans popping open. By the time she left--