Chapter 3

The Court of the Mean Queens

As soon as Rose set foot in the lunchroom the next day, she saw Carrie, Lisa, and Brianna huddled at a table. Their eyes landed on Rose like vultures spotting carrion, and then Carrie said something that made all of them look to each other and giggle. Rose saw Lisa and Brianna slide their eyes toward her again. They all laughed even louder. Rose turned away and spotted Myles sitting at a table with two other boys. She decided immediately to join them after passing through the cafeteria line.

“Hi, Myles.”

“Hi, Rose. Come on, sit here with us,” Myles said as Rose put her lunch tray down. “Rose, these are my friends Anand and Joe. They’re in Mr. Beatty’s homeroom. Joe’s a champion ice-skater.”

“Junior champion.”

“Cool,” Rose said.

“And I’m a junior tiddlywinks champion.” Anand offered.

“Really?” Rose said.

“NOT!” the three boys said in unison.

“Anand’s a mathlete, and so is Myles. They’re just modest,” Joe said.

“Mathlete? Like on a team?” Rose asked.

“School team,” Anand replied.

“I . . . I’m not on any team,” Rose said. Her voice felt a little quivery. She was actually tempted to say, “I’m an orphan.” But that would be so lame.

“What do you like to do?” Myles asked.

“Uh . . . sew. Design stuff.”

“I knew it!” Joe exclaimed, and high-fived Anand. “That shirt you wore the first day of school. I bet you got it in the boys’ department at Schockman’s, and the bow tie, perfecto!”

“Schockman’s?”

“The department store downtown.”

“Naw, got it in Philadelphia. Gilford’s—boys’ department. Cooler shirts in the boys’ department.” She had sewn three other versions of the shirt and special ordered the snap buttons.

“So you’re not at Court, I see,” Anand said.

“Court?”

Anand nodded toward Carrie, Brianna, and Lisa.

“Court of the Mean Queens,” Myles said, laughing. His laugh sounded slightly more like a hiccup now than the previous bubble laugh had. “That’s what we call them.”

“Or sometimes the Trio of Doom,” Anand added.

“That’s when it goes beyond mere bullying and they cross over into their special-ops mode,” Joe said.

“Special ops. You mean they go to extremes?”

“You got it. They can be very strategic. Myles’s wheelchair batteries were stolen one time. We’re pretty sure it was them.”

“That is nasty,” Rose said, trying not to look over at the girls.

Soul thieves, that’s what they are, she thought.

“Nasty?” Anand said. “That’s an understatement.” He turned to Rose. “You mean you haven’t got your passport yet?”

“What? A passport? What are you talking about?”

“See those two girls just sitting down with them now?”

“Yeah.”

“They must have just gotten their passports.”

“I don’t understand.”