Ally paused, turned around, and faced the table. Dozens of unsympathetic faces stared back at her.

“No, thank you . . . all of you, really, for a lovely evening,” she said pointedly.

And then she was gone.

ally

After spending the night listening to my mother crying into her pillow, the last thing I was up for on Monday morning was a full day of school. But if she was going to rally and go, I was going to rally and go. I just hoped none of those Crestie bitches said a word to me in the hall. Otherwise, there was going to be blood.

“I can’t believe it,” I ranted to David and Annie as we walked down the main hallway. “I can’t believe I ever cared about being their friend again. Clearly everyone on the crest is pure evil.”

“I don’t know. Gray’s pretty cool,” David said, shedding his jacket. “And Quinn seemed nice at dinner that night—”

Annie and I turned, and we both gave him a look that could have stopped a charging bull in its tracks. He lifted his hands in surrender.

“Sorry. You’re right. Pure evil.”

“Thank you.”

Not that I didn’t think Gray was cool. Especially after he’d been so chivalrous at the Applebys’ party, going against the Crestie pack and getting my mom out of there after she was attacked. I just didn’t feel like being contradicted in all my fury.

We kept walking. “All I know is, after the obnoxious presentation their moms put on last night, I never want to be friends with them again.”

At that moment, we came around the corner and stopped, bumping into each other one by one like an overdone comedy routine. Shannen, Chloe, and Faith were all standing right next to my locker.

“Uh-oh. This is not going to be pretty,” Annie said under her breath. She whipped out her camera phone and hit record.

“Unbelievable,” I said through my teeth.

I shouldered Shannen out of the way and spun the lock on my locker door. Annie and David hung back on the other side of the hallway, Annie moving back and forth as she tried to get the best angle on Shannen’s face.

“Well, good morning to you, too,” Shannen said.

I ignored her. My shoulder muscles were so coiled that if they sprang apart they’d take out the entire hallway full of students like a whip.

“Ally, we wanted to say we’re sorry about last night,” Chloe said.

From the corner of my eye I saw Jake, Hammond, and the Idiot Twins enter the hallway. Jake paused at his locker a few doors down, but I could tell he was listening in. The other guys gathered around the girls.

“Yeah. That’s not even going to come close to cutting it,” I said, jamming up on the locker handle and letting the door slam open against the wall.

“Oh, that’s fair,” Faith said sarcastically, shifting her weight from one tiny hip to the other.

I laughed and whirled on her. “I’m not being fair? Were you even there? All my mom wanted to do was please you people, and she got torn to shreds.”

“Well, if you don’t want us to hold what your dad did against you, then you can’t hold what happened last night against us,” Faith said, arching her eyebrows. “We didn’t do anything.”

My spirits fell slightly. Okay. She had a point there. Except—

“Right. So, what was that little parting comment you made on my way out?”

Faith blushed and looked away.

“She’s sorry for that. Right, Faith?” Chloe said, staring her down.

“Yeah. Sorry. It was a knee-jerk thing,” she replied, not looking me in the eye.

“Look, after last night we all got together and talked about it, and we realized you’re right,” Chloe said, tossing her perfectly coiffed hair over her shoulder. “Your dad was the one who messed up. Not you.”

I automatically glanced at Hammond. He cleared his throat and looked away. Little did Chloe know that I had messed up too. Big time.

“So listen, we’re having our annual going away party next Sunday night,” Shannen said. “We’re all going to meet at the new pool annex at nine o’clock. You in?”

“We’re breaking into the pool?” Trevor said excitedly.

“Skinny-dipping! Sweet!” Todd added.

They slapped hands over their heads.

I couldn’t contain the rush of excitement, even as I hated myself for having it. They were actually inviting me to something. One of our old traditions. Every year we all went away for a few days over Christmas, and every year we said good-bye to each other by throwing a private party in some forbidden location. Of course, I wasn’t hopping a flight out of Newark this year, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t go to the going away party.

Annie trained her camera phone on me. Right. Hadn’t I just sworn to her and David that I never wanted to be friends with these people again? But that was before this. Before they’d blindsided me with a white flag. Jake quietly closed the door of his locker and wandered over, standing behind Shannen’s left shoulder. I didn’t dare look at him, but I could feel the warmth of his gaze all over my skin.

“It’ll be just like old times,” Chloe said with a smile.

My heart fluttered. Just like old times. They were offering a truce. A real one. Wouldn’t it be kind of jerky to throw it back in their faces?

“So? What do you say, Ally?” Shannen asked.

I glanced at the camera apologetically. “Okay. I’m in.”

“Cool,” Shannen said with a smile. “We’ll see you there.”

After the Cresties had walked away and Annie, David, and I were left alone, none of us said anything for a solid minute. With Jake gone, I finally started to cool down—to think clearly again.

“Come on, you guys, it’s just one party,” I said.

David pushed himself away from the wall. “Yeah. A party with evil.”

“But you heard what they said, right?” I asked, tugging a few books out of my locker.

“Got it all on film,” Annie said, pocketing her phone.

“And it sounded real, right? They really felt bad.”

David and Annie looked at each other. “Sure. If you trust the face of evil,” Annie said.

“You can’t play both sides, Ally,” David said. “You can’t be both a Crestie and a Norm.”

A tingle of apprehension went through my chest. “Why not?”

“Because . . . it’s just wrong,” David said, lifting both shoulders. “Like, on a primordial level.”

“He’s right. Your head might actually, literally explode from the pressure,” Annie said. She looked at David. “We are so going to lose her.”

I sighed and slammed my locker door. “Okay, Melodrama Girl. You’re not going to lose me. It’s just one party.”

David took my hand and looked into my eyes, his expression all mock-serious. “Just promise me you’ll come back.”

He was kidding around, but a hard stone of guilt formed in my gut. Because one of the reasons I had said yes, one of the reasons I was already looking forward to this, was that Jake was going to be there.

“I promise,” I said. “I’ll come back.”

jake

I paused my Xbox and glanced at my watch. It was nine fifteen. The going away party started at nine. Was Ally there yet? Were they actually being nice to her? My whole body itched, and I leaned back against my bed, my legs splayed out on the floor. I wanted to get the hell out of here, but I couldn’t leave. Not yet. Because I was grounded. I hadn’t talked to my mother since Sunday night dinner. By Tuesday my parents had decided that I couldn’t go out with my friends until I started acting like a grown-up. As if that was how they were acting.

“Jake, aren’t you supposed to be taking a practice test?” my mother asked, appearing in my doorway. She was all dressed up in a fancy black dress, diamonds dangling from her ears.

I felt hot all over. Just like I did every time I was forced to ignore her.

My father joined her. “Jake. Your mother is talking to you.”