Solana spritzed herself with perfume and collected her purse. It was one of the few times I saw her, and it being the evening, she was headed somewhere again. She looked how her perfume smelled—rosy and sweet—and wore a pink and white flannel with black shorts. They went great with her tan skin and the blonde ends on her dark hair.

She rearranged the pins on her desk before leaving her bedroom.

“You can have one of my cookies on the counter,” she said.

I nodded and she left out the front door.

On my way to the kitchen, I saw the pins she organized in her room, glimmering under the blue wall lights she hung up. There were twelve of them, all different colors with a different Zodiac sign on each. I only knew that because I saw them sitting in a Ziploc bag on the counter when we were still moving in.

I wish I had something that made my room stand out like that—lights, a fake plant, a poster.

I took a shower before meeting with Leiah for dinner. Of course, my scrunchy snapped as I went to tie up my box braids, so I spent five minutes hunting for another one.

The dining hall was packed as usual.

We sat near a wall, away from the lights hanging above. I got a salad and french fries. Leiah wasn’t having it, today. She surfed through her phone, being only an inch from her face.

“Tired?” I asked.

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“We already have quizzes due tomorrow for Biology,” she groaned. “There’s like six of them.”

“You enrolled in it. What happened to taking Painting instead?”

“Tryna get all these stupid classes out the way first. Should’ve did this last year.”

“It’s not that hard. I’ll do some of them. I still have the study guide things.”

I finished my bland. Leiah stood up.

“I’m getting some fries. You want some?” she asked.

“Sure,” I lied.

Back in the kitchen (buffet?) Leiah grabbed a plate to pile her fries on. In the section next to them were some mozzarella sticks. They smelled heavenly, but I resisted.

“Let’s get something from the pottery sale, tomorrow,” I blurted out to distract myself. “They set it back up.”

“Oh cool!” Leiah stuffed a few fries in her mouth. “I’m gonna get something for Emily. Or… aw man. I have Lab.”

“When does that end?”

“3:15.”

“Oh yeah. The sale ends at three.”

“I’ll get her something else, like a bracelet or something.”