MEGAN. REALLY, REALLY TIME TO GET TO CLASS

Megan was taking a long moment to stare forlornly at the door her once and hopefully future friends had disappeared behind when Jun Song’s voice said from behind her, “Damn, O’Sadie, when you rock the boat, you don’t just rock it, you dunk the whole damn thing like you’re trying to baptize it.”

She’d finished turning around by the time he finished, to find Jun along with an only mildly damp and coffee stained Luther, who regarded Megan with a rather disgruntled air as he said, “Or capsize it.”

“I really don’t want to talk to you two right now,” Megan said, her voice trembling with sorrow, despair, and rage. There was no way they hadn’t been fully involved. “For many reasons, the least of which is that class is about to start.”

They both went shamefaced, Luther glancing aside while Jun gave her hurt puppy-dog eyes. “Sure, Megan,” Jun said. “That’s fair. Sorry.”

“Not nearly as sorry as you ought to be,” Megan said as she walked past them.

“Megan,” Luther said behind her. “We only knew what Kay told us. Considering that you and Beth never, ever mentioned them yourselves, was it really so crazy to think it could be true?”

Megan’s jaw clenched more or less involuntarily, and to the surprise of the sensible part of her brain, she spun on a heel and regarded the two of them. “What Kay told you,” she growled, further surprising her normal self. “What, exactly, did Kay tell you about them? Nisha and Katier neglected to mention any specifics.”

Jun and Luther’s eyes had both gone, well, wider than Megan had ever actually seen them, and they were both standing very still while staring at her, which was a little weird but she attributed it to them being shocked by her anger. They’d largely only ever seen her cheerful or melancholy, which had been how she’d managed to keep herself most of middle school, as long as she didn’t think too much. Which Lauren and co had been instrumental in.

“Well?” she spat after they failed to respond for two seconds, at least.

“Weeeeeellll,” Jun said in an exaggerated, super-high pitched nasal squeak, which he thought was funny. It wasn’t right now. “I dunno! A lot of it wasn’t that detailed I guess? Like, um…”

Luther said, “She said they used to put you guys—you and Beth and Kay—down, like subtly, with claims that they were joking when you got upset, and because you were young and innocent you all fell for it. Or that they’d always try to manipulate you guys into doing what they wanted.”

Megan found herself shaking her head as Jun chimed in, “Oh! Or like, using you guys to get into cool kid’s parties that they weren't really invited to, like bugging you until you asked the hosts and because you were so popular it worked a lot. Also can we call Katie by her name? She hates when we just call her Kay.”

“No we cannot,” Luther said, forestalling Megan from spitting out something truly unacceptable. “I think she said they used to shit talk you guys behind your backs to other kids, and—”

“NO!” Megan all but shouted, finally managing to speak through the utterly overwhelming rage she found herself experiencing, worse than even the time she’d told a big kid bullying Ryan that she hoped a colony of ants set up shop in his brain.[1] Jun and Luther went saucer-eyed again, Jun literally taking a step back. “Are. You. Kidding. Me?” Megan ground out, her voice as much like tumbling boulders as the voice of a fifteen-year-old girl could be. “Those, those—!”

[1] A real nasty curse to throw at someone. Luckily curses spoken by children practically never come true, but even so Megan was very relieved when it failed to manifest before the big kid in question graduated to middle school.

Megan snapped her mouth shut, took seven deep, angry breaths through her nose while glaring at the two boys in a way that seemed to be making them gradually wilt, which they deserved. “I used to have to drag Angie and them to parties they were invited to, not get them into parties they weren’t. And you two have heard me reprimand Kay for every single one of those things, plus more besides, in the three years we’ve known each other,” she said, back to merely growling.

As soon as Megan had turned around, the two boys had started looking guilty (at least when they weren’t looking actively terrified[1]) but now that obvious guilt ticked up several notches. “I mean, sure, I guess when you put it that way,” Jun said, “But never, like, big instances of it, really? I don’t think?”

[1] Which wasn’t really justified, Megan didn’t think. She was still just a sixteen decimeter blonde firstager with thighs that stuck together when it got too hot. They were both lithe, strong Tourney boys, so this whole routine where they were acting frightened felt just a little condescending, at best.

“Sure,” Megan said, her tone withering. Jun wilted yet more. “Because she’s been much better than she was in elementary school. She really seemed to chill out and become… become nicer than she was, since becoming friends with Lauren. Shit!” Megan took another deep breath, then, as Luther opened his mouth, she shot, “And how much did she do that stuff behind my back?”

Luther’s mouth slowly closed again, while Jun opened his as if to reply, but he seemed to come up empty on words. This told her more than enough. “Puking shit,” she said, and started to turn away from them.

“Why’d you introduce her to Lauren in the first place if she’s so awful?” Jun asked, sounding rather lost. The last Megan had heard, at the beginning of summer, he’d been trying to get Kay to agree to a date for months, encouraged along by her shameless flirting. “Why were you even her friend in the first place?”

“Kay introduced me, and Beth, to Lauren, because Kay knew Nisha, because Kay’s father works directly for Nisha’s grandmother. You know, Deepti Joshi?”[1] Megan said, prompting a mouthed “Oh yeah...” from both boys. “And my father works directly for Kay’s, and has for years. Since we were little kids.”

[1] A successful Light Bearer, long retired, who after retirement went to work for Brackhaven Investments, decided it was poorly run and ethically dubious, split off with many employees to form her own company, Joshi Investments, and proved that BI was poorly run by eating their market share and then buying them, kind of ruining Kenny Brackhaven in the process. Dotes on her grandchildren, perhaps too much.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“Oh,” Jun said, looking increasingly crestfallen.

“She was getting better,” Megan said, some of her anger dying at the expression on Jun’s face, at the memories of times when Kay was cool and fun to hang out with, which were frequent, if never constant. That fading anger left behind sorrow in its wake. “She was slow to learn, sometimes, but she did. I thought.

“Now I wonder if she just got better at hiding it all,” Megan finished, and started to turn again.

“Megan,” Jun said, pain in his voice now. “It was all lies? Everything she told us about them?”

“There’s nothing they ever did that could justify exile, not even close,” Megan said as she finished turning. “Ryan could be condescending and obnoxious sometimes, but that was the worst. If they were exiled on Kay’s word, if she convinced Lauren and Nisha that it was justified, then she puking lied to do it.”

There was a moment of silence and then Jun said, “Shit.”

Megan walked away.[1] She would have liked to think of it as “stalked” but suspected that was a word that simply didn’t go with her body type. Time was running out—she needed to get to class, so she headed north toward the Performance building, where the regular gym and the Tourney gym and the various theater, choir, band, and orchestra classes were all held.

[1] As soon as she got fully out of earshot, Luther said, “What the shit was that?”

Jun shook his head, seeming thoroughly rocked. Or dunked. Or capsized. “I don’t know. It was weird, and it sucked. We should get to class. And never ever make her mad ever again.”

Luther nodded in agreement, staring at Megan apprehensively as she walked away.

There weren’t too many people left outside at this point. As she walked, Megan was dimly aware of passing by two older boys who were approaching on another walk, but paid them no more mind than she would any student she didn’t know. They turned onto the same walkway she was on, a couple of dozen feet behind her. Then she heard one say, “Wow. Look at all that hair!”

The other replied, “Hair schmair! Check out that ass!”

Megan stopped. She reflected that she really ought to ignore them—they were strangers, she needed to get to class, she had quite enough on her mind. But Megan’s patience and temper were utterly shot. She spun on a heel and started walking toward the boys, who both said, “Uh oh,” as she turned, and then both went briefly slack jawed as she marched toward them.

“Now you’ve done it,” said one, with bland brown hair and a bland brown face, to his companion, still not keeping his voice low enough to escape Megan’s hearing, and letting her know he was the one more interested in hair than ass. “Bet she’s a freshman.”

“No way,” the other, mildly handsome with bleached blond hair and the darker complexion of the two, whose voice matched the ass-appreciator. “She’s way too—”

“Absolutely a freshman,” Megan said, loudly, from four meters away, and finished marching up to glare at Blond Boy. “And you’re obviously a senior, so as such, every single syllable of that sentence was even more inappropriate than it otherwise might be.”

“It was four syllables,” Blondy said plaintively.

“You moron,” Blandy said, with an air of one used to not being listened to.

“Yes, four syllables that basically everyone in Fredonia would consider to be rude to say out loud about someone in public,” Megan snarled. “Even about someone it would be acceptable for you to think about like that in the first place.”

“Yes,” Blondy said, in a small, despondent voice.

“But I’m not, now am I?” Megan asked tartly.

“No,” Blondy replied, voice even smaller. “I just didn’t think a girl your age would, um…”

“Have an ass this fat?” Megan asked, tarter.

“That’s not how I’d describe—” Blondy snapped his mouth shut as Megan’s face twisted. “Sorry!”

“You should consider, as a senior,” Megan said through her teeth, “The fact that about half the girls you’ll see around this year are too puking young for you.”

“Oh,” Blondy said. “Yeah. I guess you’re right.” This seemed a genuine revelation.

“You idiot,” Blandy said.

“And you should consider trying to be a boor only in private,” Megan said, then turned on a heel again and “stalked” away, as best she could.[1]4

[1] The two seniors stood, shell-shocked, until she disappeared through the doors ahead of them. Finally, Blandy said, “Well, that was terrible. Do you think she’s Artemis reincarnate?”

“I’ve made a terrible mistake,” said Blondy, voice hollow.

Blandy replied, “I’d say so. Your usual lack of filter got you called out by a freshman on the first day of bloody school, and it was somehow one of the most frightening experiences of my life.”

“I mean… sure, that was… weirdly frightening,” Blondy said. “But she was also the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen!”

Blandy seemed stunned for a long moment, then he said, “You dumb shit.”

His companion turned, bunching his fists, teeth baring. “Don’t call me a shit!”

“Okay, you absolute donkey!” Blandy said. “Your response to being yelled at by an underage Fury is to get moon-eyed? You are impossible! Your father would be ashamed if he knew about you mouthing off like that about strangers in public, and you know it!” Blondy winced and bowed his head. Blandy added, “Let alone a girl so much younger than you. I swear, you’re going to end up in Vegas if you don’t get your shit together.”

“Vegas doesn’t seem so bad,” Blondy muttered. “At least a man can be himself there.”

“You’d get your organs harvested your first night in Vegas, if you’re lucky,” Blandy said scathingly. “I don’t know why I hang out with you.” Then the bell rang and they were late for their first classes of the year, too.

She met no other obstacles on her way to class, which was just as well. Also just as well she knew where the choir room was already; she realized there was no one at all in sight as she entered the atrium and she broke into a trot toward the stairs up to the music floors. She rushed, as much as her legs could rush, up the stairs and down the hall, and was just pushing into the choir room when the bells rang

BRONG

BRONG

BRONG

BRONG

BABONG

for the beginning of class.