“Watch.” I ignore the pets and smile at the younger girl sitting next to me. I ask her name and what does she do at home on a Sunday? Church and then a visit to Grandma? “Lovely. Me too.” That’s a lie, but no harm done. Mother hasn’t been to church since she got pregnant with me, but Nuttie, my small lunch companion, doesn’t know that. Lottie copies me, and soon we know who lives with their mother and father, who loves English and hates math, and who likes ice cream. Everybody, it turns out.

“We got the sack,” Beatrice blurts out during a lull in the conversation.

“All of us,” Ramona says.

“What happened?” I drop my voice low. The pretties are close enough to hear and it’s better to keep any conversation we have about them private. I don’t want to give Delia and the others ammunition to use against the pets later.

“We took the leaves and the stick to the dorm, and Natalie tried to make a fire,” Beatrice says in a loud whisper. “She tried and tried, and it was funny to see her cheeks puffed out, so we laughed. I mean, you’d have laughed, too, but Natalie didn’t like it. We each got a smack, and then Natalie told us to leave and don’t come back, and it’s a shame, because we had it good and then we spoiled it.”

Oh, Natalie. Of course she was the one who tried to make fire with a stick. Just like I guessed she would when I sent the pets back to the pretties with the fire-making kit. Natalie’s under the impression that being popular also makes her clever, which she is not.

“Natalie’s not the boss,” I say. “Wait a day or two and pretend that nothing has changed. They’ll take you back.”

There’s a limited amount of smart little girls to choose from, and Ramona and her friends are already trained. They’ll be fine.

Beatrice leans across the table with bright eyes. More news. Any pet worth their salt has the latest gossip memorized and ready to spill.

“Guess what?” she whispers. “Sandi Cardoza found her necklace. It was hidden in her underwear drawer all along. She put it there before the fire and then forgot about it.”

Of course . . . The mistake makes perfect sense. Drama is the glue that holds Delia and her circle together. Stolen pets and missing necklaces and envious lower-class students scheming against them out of pure spite and envy: those outside threats are what keep the group together. They live to be offended and, not so long ago, so did I.

“Well . . .” Lottie gnaws her chicken bone and sucks out the marrow, the way Mother does when Father is in Johannesburg and too far away to witness her country ways. “At least I got my undies back.”