That was the only class I had with Leaf. After that was Contemporary American Issues, followed by Health, which was hysterical, because one of the lines on the syllabus was absolutely about safe sex, STDs and pregnancy. That was going to get awkward as hell fast, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to subject myself to being an in-class demonstration-slash-moral tale. I made a mental note to bring it up to Mrs. Wong as soon as possible.

Three classes down and it was lunchtime, which was good, because the starving Hoover factor was in effect. I could and would eat anything, except eggs because they were still gross to me, and I loaded up my tray with a turkey sandwich, Tater Tots, a side salad, an apple, milk and cookies. The chips were a little overboard but I had no regrets. I was living my best life.

I was sitting by myself as new kids were relegated to do until someone took pity on them when Leaf called my name.

“Seeeeeeerendipity. Come here!”

Big voice filling a big room. One of the teachers whirled around and barked at him to sit down, but Leaf ignored her, standing up to wave me over. “Come here.”

It was nice to not have to be off on Newbie-School-Kid Island by myself, so I picked up my tray and crossed the room. Leaf sat with two girls, one tall, reed-thin, with short red hair and gray eyes. She had freckles all over, a Fraggle Rock T-shirt beneath her plaid button-down and dime-sized red plug earrings in her ears.

The T-shirt was an insta-win with me for obvious reasons.

The other girl was shorter and rounder, more apple-shaped than I was, her hair done up in artful curls, her makeup and particularly her eyeliner perfectly applied. She wore a red-and-white-floral dress with a white shrug over top. Her hair was dyed black, but she pulled it off well, and her lips were fire-engine red. She had pretty light brown eyes with lashes for days, and a pair of black cat-eye glasses.

She was also, apparently, involved with the tall skinny redhead. Because the redhead pulled her in for a quick kiss on the top of her head, both of their eyes skirting over to the lunch monitor because I’m guessing that was an illicit cafeteria move.

Leaf motioned me to the bench across from him and grinned.

“Serendipity Rodriguez, meet my friends, Morgan and Erin.”

“Hey. Trans-queer girl,” Morgan said in greeting, eyeballing me warily. “So if that’s not your deal—”

“Biracial, possibly bisexual but I’m not totally sure yet, girl-with-baggage,” I said in return. “So if that’s not your deal...”

It must have satisfied Morgan as she sat up straighter in her seat and dropped a smile. “I like to get it out there so I don’t waste time on assholes.”

“Fair,” I said. “I have a pretty strict asshole-free policy myself.”