I should have known it was too good to be true. There’s always one. Portia Carson was more your typical blond cheerleader type: flawless skin, perfectly flowing hair, clothes that my mother would never allow into her house. This girl was all raven hair and dark eyes and annoyingly beautiful features. This was going to be bad.
“Tell me her name isn’t Portia,” I whispered.
“No,” Shal said. “It’s Allison Black.”
Of course it was—the perfect name for a villain. She walked right by us, sparing just a quick glance and still wearing that evil smile. She made a comment I couldn’t hear, and the three girls beside her giggled. They sounded like cackling seagulls. I glanced at Shal and Mia. Except Mia was gone. Vanished. I frowned at Shal, who just shrugged.
“She doesn’t like confrontation,” Shal said quietly. “If Allison Black or any of the popular kids even look in our direction, she takes off. I call her Mia Mouse—she always disappears when predators approach.”
“Is she gone?” a quiet voice asked.
“Yes, you big coward,” Shal said, and Mia reappeared from the other side of the portable, looking at the ground in embarrassment.
“It’s true,” she murmured, her slender little hands fidgeting nervously in front of her. “But Shal’s afraid of her too.”
“Well, obviously,” Shal said. “She’s terrifying. But I don’t run away.”
“You’re just too slow,” Mia replied.
Shal paused. “Shut up.”
“Well if you’re too slow, I’m in trouble,” I said, watching as Allison joined a larger group of kids by the basketball court. “How come you guys aren’t popular? You’re just as pretty as those girls.”
Mia and Shal looked at each other.
“Is she patronizing us?” Shal asked.
“Probably,” Mia said. “But I like it.”
“Me too,” Shal agreed. She turned to me and smiled. “Would you like to officially join our group? There aren’t many perks. We get made fun of a lot, we sit alone at lunch, and we spend our weekends at my house listening to my mom talk about how many parties she went to when she was our age. Boys don’t really look at us, unless it’s to throw their pudding cups at our heads. That aside, we do share lunches, and Mia’s mom makes some awesome sandwiches. Anything else?”
Mia thought about that for a moment. “Not really.”
“Thanks,” Shal muttered. “So what do you say?”
They both looked at me expectantly. I grinned.
“I’d love to,” I said. “And I make some pretty good sandwiches myself.”
“Perfect,” Shal said happily. “Now, I have a whole lot of gossip to catch you up on. First things first, Allison is the queen bee, but she does have some competition. Ashley Tumwick is the main one. She’s almost as pretty, and her family is rich.”
I listened happily as Shal discussed just about everyone in the school. I didn’t really care about the gossip; I was just thrilled people were talking to me. I’d been at my new school for five minutes and accomplished more than I had in eight years at my old one. Sure, my closet was haunted and there were yellow eyes watching me from the woods. But overall, I was starting to think Riverfield was pretty awesome.
And that was before I ran into Liam R. Kelp.
There were only twenty-seven eighth graders in the entire school, so Mia and Shal were obviously in my class. Of course, so was Allison Black. She also sat right behind me, which was slightly unfortunate, but she seemed too preoccupied talking to a boy named Carl Hemwing to pay much attention to me. Well, she did snicker when I said my name in the little introduction game—probably because she was thinking of alliterative nicknames—but it was still a lot better than Portia Carson.
The desks were assigned by our teacher, Ms. Haddock, so Mia and Shal were spaced out around the room. It would have been nice to sit next to them, but I didn’t want to get caught talking anyway. That would definitely violate rule number one.
After the introductory games and outlines of the curriculum, we had recess, and then we finally came to our first subject: geography. I was excited: geography was one of my favourite subjects. I stopped by my locker to grab my notebook and hurried to get to class before it started without me. I was just reaching the classroom door, peering back to make sure I had closed my locker, when I walked into someone.
My notebook toppled to the ground, and I looked up in horror to see an equally stunned boy with thick black glasses. I recognized him from the front row. I braced myself for a mean comment. I hadn’t been watching where I was going, and I’d almost run him over. He was going to say something insulting about my size. I knew it.
“Sorry about that,” he said, flashing me a shy grin. He quickly snatched up my notebook, which I had already taken the liberty of labelling GEOGRAPHY! YAY! He read the label and then handed it to me. “I guess we’re the nerds of the class.”
“Yeah,” I murmured, taking the book. “Sorry.”
“Sweet shirt, by the way,” he said. “Laura, right?”
He stuck his hand out, and I tentatively shook it.
“Liam R. Kelp,” he said, and then paused. “Not sure why I told you my last name. Or my middle initial. Can I do that again?”
I smiled. “Laura T. Ledwick. Nice to meet you.”
“So you’re new to town, right?”
“Yeah. It’s nice.”
He shrugged. “I guess. It’s pretty quiet.” He glanced into the class and saw Ms. Haddock preparing to start. He gestured to the door. “After you,” he said, smirking.
“Thanks,” I replied, flushing and hurrying inside.
I snuck a peek at him as he sat down in the front row. He was as skinny as my left wrist, had a mop of messy almond-coloured hair, a freckled, pointy nose, and those thick black glasses. Not to mention his last name was a slimy ocean plant. But there was something about him. And the more he spoke, the more I liked him.
He answered just about
