Lennon doesn’t offer an explanation. Instead, she holds up a handful of ribbons—blue, white, silver—and offers to add them to my hair. I let her, since all I did this morning was throw my hair into a ball on top of my head.

“Did someone say something about me on Roundtable?” I ask as she works on my hair, gritting my teeth when she pulls too hard.

“Not that I saw this morning.”

I can’t tell if Lennon is being intentionally vague or if she’s oblivious to how uncomfortable this is, because she’s never been the source of whispering before.

“How long does this usually last?”

“What?”

“This,” I say, waving my hand. “People talking about you?”

“Oh, well…in your case, it’ll probably last until Shy stops paying attention to you.”

“What are you talking about?”

Lennon stops fussing with the ribbons and tilts her face to see me. “Anora. Come on.”

I blush. My body is a traitor. Truth be told, I don’t want Shy to stop paying attention to me. I like him, and I like the attention. And I can’t help but wonder what he might have said if those dumb dogs hadn’t scared him off the other night.

But I just won’t act on anything.

That way, I can’t make the same mistakes I made in New York.

“Has Shy…ever shown interest in anyone?”

“If you mean has he ever dated anyone, there have only been rumors.”

“About him and Natalie?”

“And Lily Martin and Leah Thompson and Regan Carmichael…”

“You can stop any time.”

“Sorry.”

Lennon finally finishes tying ribbons in my hair, and I turn to face her.

“Speaking of Lily…I invited her to hang out with us after school.”

“Oh.” Lennon sounds surprised, suddenly occupied by her fingernails. “And she said yes?”

“Yeah. Is that a problem?”

“Lily and I don’t really get along,” she admits.

“Why?”

She contemplates her answer before meeting my gaze. “You could say…we’re on different sides.”

“What does that mean?”

“I don’t think you’d understand.”

I admire her for her honesty and cringe at what she says next.

“Just like you don’t think I’d understand whatever is going on with you.”

I manage a shaky laugh, and it’s my turn to look away. “There’s not much to understand.” But when I look at Lennon again, something makes me think she can see right through me. I decide to change the subject. “I can meet you at the field tonight if you think that’ll make things less awkward.”

“No, bring Lily! It’ll be fun, even if she’s not my biggest fan.”

“That makes it sound like she’s the one with the problem.”

Lennon shrugs. “It’s not her fault, really. It’s ingrained in her. It’s ingrained in all of them.”

“All of them?”