I smoothed my sweaty palms over my silk romper, standing so my thighs didn’t touch.

“You look just like your mom,” Lily said, standing. When she reached her full height, the top of her head barely reached my ear—and I’m not tall. Despite the genetic fiddling that took place at my conception, my parents kept me short like my dad. But Lily might as well have been a giant the way I wanted to cower at her feet.

“Did you really debut at Ä89 a share?” Kylie asked, squinting up at me.

“Yes.” Holding my head high, I acted on a hunch that I was worthless to them if I was weak, affecting a haughty-actress vibe though my stomach was doing flip-flops. “It was no big deal.” I shrugged.

They stared at me.

Lily took a step closer, and the muscles in her shoulder twitched. My instinct was to recoil, to regain my personal space, but I held steady. “How’d you do it? You came out of nowhere,” she said. Her breath was warm on my cheek.

“Everyone knew your parents had a daughter,” Kylie said. “But no one ever talked about you. Personally, I forgot you existed.”

“I got lucky, I guess.” I wound a curl around my finger, mimicking my mother’s signature move. “My parents’ publicist leaked an ugly-duckling makeover story about me, and it caught on. Everyone loves a makeover.”

“Interesting.” Lily’s eyes flitted back and forth like I was a book she couldn’t wait to get to the end of, and I held my breath.

She studied me for a full minute until, finally, she smiled, revealing gleaming white teeth fitted together in a perfect line. “You can call me Lil. Everyone does, on account of the fact I’m so tall.” She laughed, a tinny, joyless laugh.

Inwardly, I cringed. “Nice to meet you, Lily.” Shifting my weight, I glanced at Deena, and she nodded. “Lil.”

“Deena’s told us great things. Sit with us,” Lil said, moving a slouchy leather bag off a chair. “We have room for one more.”

“Thanks.” I sank into the offered seat. Deena squeezed my arm in celebration, taking her place between me and Kylie while Lil retook her seat on Kylie’s other side.

“We have to make sure we can trust you, of course,” Kylie said, leaning forward to see past Deena. “You’ll have to pass our test.”

My heart stalled. “What kind of test?”

“I haven’t decided,” Lil said, cocking her head to the side. “But we’ll talk at lunch.”

Behind her, kids filed in, setting up their tablets and chatting. The room was equipped with VR sensors in the lights so AMPs weren’t required to see the few avatars present, but most everyone showed up in person. I’d expected them all to be A-list celebrity-avatar gorgeous and was disappointed at how average everyone was compared to Kylie and Lil.

Then he arrived—six feet of bleach-blond sun-kissed glory, complete with ocean-blue eyes—and my expectations were met. It might have been my imagination, but it seemed like a hush fell over the room when he crossed it.