Tarah slammed her big hand on the desk, making her gold bracelets jangle like ice cubes in a glass, and laughed. Darcy had never heard a mule bray, but she was sure it made exactly the same sound. Then  Tarah leaned close and whispered, “Girl, I don’t know a tidal pool from a fool. Ms. Reed stuck us together to mess with our heads, you hear what I’m sayin’?”

“Maybe we could switch to other partners,” Darcy said nervously.

A big smile spread slowly over Tarah’s face. “Nah, I think I’m gonna enjoy this. You’re always sittin’ here like a princess collecting your A’s. Now you gotta work with a regular person, so you better loosen up, girl!”

Darcy felt as if her teeth were glued to her tongue. She fumbled in her bag for her outline of the project. It all seemed like a horrible joke now. She and Tarah Carson standing knee-deep in the muck of a tidal pool!

“Worms live there, don’t they?” Tarah asked, twisting a big gold ring on her chubby finger.

“Yeah, I guess,” Darcy replied.

“Big green worms,” Tarah continued. “So if you get your feet stuck in the bottom of that old tidal pool, and you can’t get out, do the worms crawl up your clothes?”

Darcy ignored the remark. “I’d like for us to go there soon, you know, look around. ”

“My boyfriend, Cooper, he goes down to the ocean all the time. He can take us. He says he’s seen these fiddler crabs. They look like big spiders, and they’ll try to bite your toes off. Cooper says so,” Tarah said.

“Stop being silly,” Darcy shot back. “If you’re not even going to be serious . . . ”

“You think you’re better than me, don’t you?” Tarah suddenly growled.

“I never said—” Darcy blurted.

“You don’t have to say it, girl. It’s in your eyes. You think I’m a low-life and you’re something special. Well, I got more friends than you got fingers and toes together. You got no friends, and everybody laughs at you behind your back. Know what the word on you is? Darcy Wills give you the chills. ”

Just then, the bell rang, and Darcy was glad for the excuse to turn away from Tarah, to hide the hot tears welling in her eyes. She quickly rushed from the classroom, relieved that school was over. Darcy did not think she could bear to sit through another class just now.