“Well that’s okay, we don’t have to go to the party, we could just hang out instead,” Sammy suggests hopefully.

“That’s sweet of you, but you should go to the party, meet people, make friends, find a guy and hook up. Don’t waste your time on me, I’ll only drag you down.” Picking up my still mostly full tray I stand up and leave, keeping my coffee, but dumping my food in the trash before walking out of the cafeteria, never once glancing at the kind girl who wanted to be my friend.

Wandering for a few minutes, I end up in the quad where the orientation is being held. The lawn is perfectly cut, the meandering paths clean and full of students. Finding a tree, I sit down at its base, resting my back up against the trunk and slide in my AirPods, watching the world go by as the dulcet tones of Adele fill my ears. I know I’m a walking cliché—wounded girl listening to angsty love songs alone after having just walked away from the chance of a new friendship—but honestly I don’t care. Maybe I am actually a loner with all the emo angst, all I know is that I’d rather be alone, it’s safer that way. There’s no one to lose if there’s no one there in the first place.

Orientation is boring, the excited energy that seems to bounce around the congregated kids slides off me like water off a waxed car. All of the happiness I’d found after my run has faded and I’m ready to go back to Collinswood and sleep for the rest of the day. Classes officially start tomorrow and I join the line to collect my schedule, wondering why in this day and age they can’t just email it to me.

“Name?” the guy at the desk asks.

“Starling Kennedy.”

His fingers move across the keys. “Starling Lockwood?”

“Nope Kennedy, the surname is a screwup in the offices, they keep changing it to Kennedy and it changes right back to Lockwood,” I say, hating that I’m having to explain I’m not a Lockwood again. Evan is an asshole for doing this. Maybe the first time it was amusing to him, and hurtful to me, now it’s just annoying.

“I’ll have to call student liaison services to double-check, we don’t want you attending the wrong classes he says with a sigh.”

“Go ahead, speak to Brenda, she’s the one who’s changed it the twice it’s happened already,” I say, rubbing at my temples with my fingers.

Desk guy pulls his cell out and proceeds to have the same conversation with Brenda that the registration and ID people did.

“Starling.”

Spinning around at the sound of my name, my mouth falls open when I find Courtney standing behind me, flanked on either side by two beautiful preppy-looking girls. All three of them have matching sneering smiles plastered across their faces.

“What the hell are you doing at Kingsacre?”

The hostility in her voice surprises me. I mean, I wasn’t expecting a hug, but I’ve literally never done anything but be a good friend to Courtney. She’s the one who abandoned me, not the other way around.