Her best friend smiled. “Funny! I was just thinking about it this afternoon. You walked into school like you owned it and every boy’s head snapped round so fast it probably hurt. I felt like such a dork in comparison. I’m never subjecting Lucy and Indi to clothes that don’t fit properly. You know I never grew into that school dress.”

“Oh, yeah. Karen scarred you for life, for sure.”

Libby flinched. “Sorry. That was a stupid and thoughtless thing to say.”

“Don’t be silly. Moving to Kurnai Bay and meeting you and your family was the best thing that ever happened to me.” Jess shuddered. “I don’t want to think about what my life might have been if Mom had moved somewhere else.”

Unlike Libby, Jess didn’t remember the exact moment they’d met, which was apparently just outside the school office door. She didn’t even remember which eviction notice had precipitated her mother’s fast move to the bay—over the years the many night-time departures had run together in a gut-churning blur—but she did remember her first day at Kurnai Bay High School. Thanks to her mother’s flaky choice in boyfriends and her ability to run up debts and erode goodwill wherever they lived, the school had been her eighth. She knew the drill: 1. Show no weakness—any sign of neediness was social suicide. 2. Act as if nothing bothered her—fire back smartarse comments to any loser who tried to put her down. 3. Stay aloof just enough to be mysterious—use the time to work out who was who, which group ruled and who was worth knowing. 4. Wait for the cool group to approach her.

Jess pegged Libby as an annoying goodie two-shoes within ten minutes of their first class and not worth her time. The golden-haired girl had read the novel and shot her hand up to every question the dippy English teacher asked. A total suck-up. But at lunchtime, Jess watched in disbelief as Libby not only drifted easily between groups of girls but was welcomed by them all. Jess knew groups didn’t usually operate that way. They demanded total allegiance and dropped any members who strayed. Yet Libby Hunter seemed to have amnesty and Jess couldn’t work out why. The girl wasn’t cool but then again, she wasn’t a total dork like her twin sister, Alice.

When Libby approached Jess on her second day, she didn’t know which way to jump.

“Jess! Wanna come to my place after school? We can do our homework and then hang out. It’ll be fun.”

Jess never wasted her own time doing homework—that was why first period existed. It was Libby’s link between homework and fun that decided her. “I don’t think so.”