Cipher

“And?”

“That’s it. She’s pretty, but nothing else.”

“Yeah, the girl’s about as deep as the lyrics to a Kesha song.”

He laughed again, the corners of his eyes crinkling with his smile. “Sounds about right.”

Troy used to have shoulder-length hair that he constantly bleached. Since it was naturally dark, the process turned it orange instead of blond. But over the summer he’d sheared off most of it, returning it to its natural, almost-black color. He’d also filled out, going from tall and scrawny to tall with lean muscles tanned by all his hours in the sun. All the girls at school had noticed the transformation. The new look did suit him—of course, Summer had always thought he was cute.

“I didn’t really think you two would hit it off,” Summer said, leaning back on her hands and digging her fingers into the still-warm sand. “But she begged me to set you up with her.”

Troy twisted the leather bracelets on his wrist, the thumb ring he always wore glinting as it caught the last rays of the day. “Lexi and I were actually on our date when you called. I didn’t even see you’d called until really late last night. I figured if it’d been important, you would’ve left a message.” His eyes met hers as though he was asking a question more than making a statement.

Telling Troy that Cody left her stranded would only make him mad, and there was no point now that things had been mostly resolved. Working to sound casual, she swiped a hand through the air. “It was nothing. Just checking on your date, that kind of thing.”

“Summer?”

She glanced back at where the voice had come from. Cody came up behind her, face all twisted up in annoyance. “Hey. What are you doing all the way over here?”

“Just watching the waves with Mister Bond,” she said.

Cody extended his hand. “Let’s go hang out over by the rest of the guys.” Summer grabbed his hand and let him pull her to her feet. He wrapped his arm around her waist, looked at Troy, and gave him a tight nod. “Troy.”

Summer had asked Cody to be nice to her friend, but the way he regarded Troy barely bordered on civil. Of course, the look Troy was giving Cody, eyes narrowed, lips pressed tightly together, wasn’t much better.

Troy stood and brushed the sand off of his pants. “I’ll see you around, Sunshine.” His gaze lingered on her for a moment, then he turned and headed in the other direction.

* * *

Lexi and Kendall were talking handbags, something Summer couldn’t care less about. She glanced around, searching for Cody, when a group huddled together a few yards back caught her eye.

I should go over there. The thought had come out of nowhere. She lowered her eyebrows. What am I going to do? Stroll right up and introduce myself? It wasn’t like her at all, yet that was exactly what she felt like she should do. She continued to stare, a strange tug in her chest, wondering why she suddenly had the overwhelming impulse to meet them. Troy approached the tight circle of bodies and called out something she couldn’t make out—probably a hi, accompanied by whatever nicknames he’d given them.

“What do you think, Summer?” Kendall asked, putting her hand on Summer’s shoulder. “White or tan?”

Summer tore her attention from the group and looked at Kendall. She wasn’t sure if Kendall was still talking handbags or if they’d moved on to something else. “Tan,” Summer said, hoping she hadn’t just disagreed with Kendall.

“Are you sure? The white one is really in this season.” Kendall shoved her phone under Summer’s nose, and she caught sight of two Coach handbags on the screen.

“I think both are good, so whatever you think.”

Kendall gave a pleased nod, then turned back to the other girls, saying she was “Totally going to order it.”

As if her eyes couldn’t help themselves, they were drawn back to the group she’d been watching. Another tug in her chest. Frantic energy buzzed through her limbs, as if they were telling her to go over already. “Who’re they?” she asked Lexi, tilting her head to indicate who she was asking about.

Lexi glanced over her shoulder and wrinkled up her forehead. “Them? They’re the Reject Group.”

Summer thought of Troy’s assessment of Lexi—pretty and nothing else. The girl could do a splits jump like nobody’s business, but apparently nice had slipped the list. Summer liked to think of herself as nice. While she hadn’t gone out of her way to be mean to anyone, she supposed that lately, she hadn’t been all that nice either. “Do you know names? Anything else about them?”

“Um, the twins are in my math class.” Lexi flung out her hands. “Huge nerds. They even skipped a grade because they’re so super smart. The other guy is some weird kid who films everything, and I think the girl’s name is Ashley something. She was in my lit class last semester.”

“Ashlyn Moore?” Cold filled Summer as she said the name. With all her own drama, she’d pushed that problem back. Maybe even pretended it didn’t exist. After all, she had so much weird in her life, she simply couldn’t handle another issue.

“I think so.” Lexi narrowed her eyes. “You need a tutor or something?”

I’ve got to go meet her. With Troy there, at least I’ll have an in. Maybe that Gabriella lady had been some crazy hallucination and nothing more, but all her instincts screamed at her to go. Just as Summer started in their direction, Kendall cut in front of her, erasing her view of the—as Lexi had so nicely put it—Reject Group.

“So, I thought of a new move. We go…” Kendall started a series of arm movements, “and jump, two, three, four. Add these arm movements…” She performed another eight count. “Then the round starts in five, six, seven, eight.” She ended her demonstration and raised her eyebrows. “What do you think? It’s genius, isn’t it? And it fixes the gap we had in our routine.”

“It’s totally genius,” Lexi said. “And then we can add the kick line afterwards.”

“Yeah,” Summer said. “I think that’ll work. I’ll talk with you more about it in a second.”

Kendall frowned, sticking out her lower lip. “You’ve been distracted all night.”

“I know. I just have to go say hi to someone real fast, and then I’ll come back and we can talk dance moves, handbags—whatever you want.” Summer stepped around Kendall, determined to go meet Ashlyn.

But the spot where the group had been a moment ago was now empty.

All the energy flowing through her faded, and confusion filled her. Time slowed to a crawl, and it felt as if the earth had fallen off its axis, nothing quite making sense anymore.

Cody walked up, put his arm around her, and kissed her cheek. “Come on, baby. Let’s go sit by the fire.”

“But I…” Summer glanced around once more before giving in. How could they all disappear so fast? Was she seeing things now? No, Troy was there. Lexi saw them, too. She allowed Cody to lead her away. A sick feeling settled in the pit of her stomach, growing worse with every step she took away.

Jack thrust a bottle in Summer’s face when she and Cody neared the circle of remaining people. “Beer?”

Summer waved it away. “No thanks.”

Jack extended it to Cody.

“Yeah, I’ll take one,” Cody said, wrapping his hand around it. “I’m going to need it since Summer wants me to be celibate forever.”

Summer pulled away from him, mouth hanging open. “I can’t believe you said that.”

“It was just a joke. You know, like the jokes you’re always telling? Besides, Kendall tells Jack everything anyway, so it’s not like it’s news to him.”

All she could for a moment do was stare. When did things get like this? I never used to take this kind of crap. This whole night kept showing her how passive she’d become. How she’d simply started fitting in and going with the flow, even if it headed a way she didn’t especially want to go.

“You made me the brunt of the joke,” she said through gritted teeth. “Am I just supposed to hang on your arm, bat my eyes, and tell you how amazing you are, even though you’re being an ass to me?”

“It was supposed to be funny. I don’t know why you’re getting all moody.” Cody reached for her, and she