But I’m kidding myself if I don’t admit that I want Lennon to like me. To think I’m normal.

So I smile.

“Oh, right… I guess I forgot my schedule for a moment.”

Lennon smiles, but there’s a brief sharpness to her eyes—like a lightning strike against a lavender sky—that tells me she doesn’t really believe me.

I turn with her and head toward Kline. We walk for a few moments in silence. The air between us feels strained. Maybe it’s because I have words at the back of my throat, eager to come out, eager to explain my behavior.

But then Lennon speaks, and I realize it’s because she’s been holding back.

“You’ll never believe what’s on Roundtable today.”

I swallow the words once and for all. They slither down my throat, sour and sharp. I’d almost forgotten about Roundtable.

“What?”

“Nothing about you,” she assures me.

Just then, a girl walks toward us along the buckled sidewalk. Her head is down, her blond hair curtains her face, and her books are pressed against her chest, fingers as white as snow. Students move out of her way but turn to stare as she passes—Lennon and I included. I hear whispers all around—whore and slut, words I hate.

“What’s happening?” Because it looks an awful lot like public shaming.

“Remember when I told you something way bigger would overshadow your weirdness in art?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, Lily Martin left her phone in English yesterday. Someone read her texts and discovered she’s been sexting a guy from Rayon High School. It’s all over Roundtable, with pictures.”

“So?”

“So?” Lennon looks at me, astonished. “She was sexting someone from Rayon High School!”

“Don’t you think seventy-five percent of the student body has sexted? Just because Lily got caught doesn’t mean she should be ridiculed.”

“Oh, you have it all wrong,” Lennon explains. “It’s not that she was sexting, it’s who.”

“You mean to say it is a crime that she looked outside Nacoma Knight Academy for a love interest?”

Lennon shrugs. “Something like that.”

I hate this place already. It’s only a matter of time before Roundtable gets their hands on me beyond just being the new girl…and, well, I haven’t decided what exactly I’ll do when that happens.