Instead, I’m gonna have to walk through clouds of Axe body spray and guys loudly calling one another “Asswipe” on the way to my room, where I’ll change while double-checking about twelve times to make sure the door is locked.

New start, yaaaaay.

Chapter Three

I NEVER GOT OUT THAT MUCH in Greentree, but on the rare occasion I did go somewhere more interesting than Craig’s basement, FaceTiming with Claire for outfit consultation was a must. If Sierra was feeling charitable, she’d toss something at me that would look a thousand times better than what I was already planning to wear; if she wasn’t, she’d just make a comment that made it clear I needed to change.

This is all to say that despite my desperately wanting to look cute and approachable and like someone you’d want to know beyond “Oh, that’s the Rumson Girl,” I have never been very skilled at getting myself ready for social things.

Too bad the icebreaker dinner is not optional.

I’d planned to wear a lilac dress that I’d bought for Claire’s family’s Easter dinner last year, but looking at it now, it’s too fancy. And my blue top isn’t nice enough. And I’ll be too hot in my red sweater. And the last time I wore this star-patterned shirt, Sierra approached me very seriously to ask when I was making her an aunt, because it made me look about six months along.

For a minute, I wish I could just dress like everyone else in my dorm—throw on a pair of jeans and a polo and be done with it. And technically, I could, but that would not yield the look I was going for. Finally, I dig up a black-and-white polka-dot top I feel decent about, and just pray that Sierra was being genuine when she told me it looked cute with my red belt and black jeans, even if it was “in a Minnie Mouse kind of way.”

I slip into my black Converse and spend a solid fifteen minutes trying to make my hair cooperate before I finally give up and head out into the late-summer night, only the slightest of chills in the air.

Since the Beast isn’t big enough to house all the students at once, the icebreaker is at the Student Center, which is thankfully an impossible building to miss. I figure if I show my face for five minutes, claim my name tag, and choke down a sandwich, I’ll have fulfilled whatever obligation I have to attend.