fashion where you're from? I think you're so brave for
wearing orange. I don't know anyone who can get away with
looking skinny in orange...but apparently you're willing to
take the risk, right?”
“Technically, it's coral,” I said, through gritted teeth.
“Oh, coral?” Haven put a finger on her necklace – a
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gorgeous coral choker. “I can see that. Of course, I wouldn't
have imagined that you'd want to wear it, with your skin
tone. Green and orange, you know. But good on you for
trying!”
I decided not to take the bait. “Thank you!” I said.
“Your necklace is so beautiful. I love the color of coral – it
really reminds me of the ocean. Swimming off the east coast
of Angel Island...”
“You like to swim?” This appeared to change things,
and Haven's false saccharine sweetness shifted rapidly to
dispassionate professional interest. “Would you say you
swim at a JV level? A varsity level? Have you ever been in
Archipelago?” All honeyed tones were gone as she looked
me up and down, evidently assessing the various muscles it
took to make a good butterfly stroke.
“Haven's the captain of the girl’s swim team,” one of
the girls said. “You should try out!”
“We're really serious about our swimmers here,”
another chimed in. “Like – really serious. But ever since
three of our best girls graduated...”
Haven looked slightly sour as Varun disentangled
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himself from her arm and took my hand. “Come on,
Mackenzy,” he said. “We've got to get through half of South
Campus before class starts.”
Haven's lips were now in a full pout. “But we've just
started getting to know her,” she crooned softly. “This
mysterious Mackenzy Evers – we have so much to learn.”
Varun led me away. “Just ask her to sit with you at
lunch!” He patted me on the shoulder. “I'm sure Mackenzy
would love to get to know you girls a bit better too!”
“Oh, sure,” I said. But while my voice was definitely
tinged with sarcasm, Varun's evidently wasn't. It was clear, I
thought, that poor Varun hadn't the foggiest idea of the
gauntlet Haven had thrown down in the form of her false
politeness. He probably thought she was being genuinely
friendly.
Boys, I thought grimly. Angel Island or Aeros – they
were the same everywhere. They were uniformly blind to the
subtle machinations that went on among groups of teenage
girls.
And it looked like Varun in particular was blind to
Haven's nastiness. I thought once more of her arms around
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his shoulder and my heart sank. It was too early to even think
about dating, I told myself – I wasn't about to get my hopes
up on anybody. Still, I couldn't help but feel a slight twinge
of disappointed.
“Your girlfriend seems nice,” I said, trying to conceal
my real feelings.
“My girlfriend?” Varun let out a big belly laugh.
“Haven? No – gross!” He stopped himself. “I mean – not
gross-gross but...we grew up together! I've known her since
I was picking my nose and she was cutting the hair off Barbie
dolls.” He sighed. “That's the problem with a place like
Aeros. We've all grown up together, pretty much everyone's
already awkwardly dated everyone else by the time we
finished junior high. It's a pretty incestuous kind of place.
Especially with our parents being...” He sighed. “My uncle's
not like that, of course, but a lot of parents want to make sure
we don't mix with – you know, outsiders.”
“Public school kids?”
“I wouldn't put it that way, but...”
“But?”
“But...yeah. Some of the families here can be really
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exclusive when it comes to who's in or who's out. Which
makes for a pretty awkward dating scene here at Aeros.
When you've practiced your first kiss on someone during
Spin-the-Bottle and accidentally gotten your braces stuck
together, it's pretty hard to think of them as legitimate dating
material.” He sighed. “Haven and I...well, let's just say she's
a lot happier once she got that retainer removed.” He patted
me on the shoulder. “Be prepared to be treated like fresh
meat for a while,” he said. “You're probably the only girl
most of these guys haven't known through the girls-have-
cooties phase.”
“I'll keep that in mind.”
“So, new girl,” we had by now ended up at the gym,
where a group of uniformed students were already running
laps around the perimeter. “What do you think of the
hallowed halls of Aeros Academy so far?”
“It's...definitely different from my old school,” I
admitted. “We didn't have a plush school lounge with a
cappuccino machine during recess – that's for starters. We
had a couple of ratty old couches on loan from the theater
department and a water fountain that always served rusty
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water...plus, I didn't
