Beautiful Disaster (Privilege 2)

"Don't pay attention to her. She had a long flight," the girl said to Ariana in a friendly way. "I'm Tahira Al Mahmood, and you must be Briana Leigh Covington."

Ariana blinked. Why did everyone seem to be expecting her?

"She calls herself Ana," Allison said in her thick accent.

"Nice. Much more manageable." Tahira stepped into the room, crossed her arms over her chest, and looked around at Maria, Brigit, and Soomie, her expression amused. "Ladies," she said by way of greeting. "Staking claim to the new girl, I see. Weren't you even going to give her a chance to choose for herself?"

"She walked up to us," Brigit protested."Brigit," Soomie scolded. Ariana could only imagine she was calling Brigit out on the immature tone of her statement.

"What do you mean, choose?" Ariana asked. She had the distinct feeling there was some kind of rivalry going on here, and she wanted to make sure she was on the right side.

Allison hugged her laptop to her chest and stood next to Tahira. Tahira opened her mouth to speak, but Soomie got there first.

"Tahira thinks everything is a competition. That's her thing," Soomie said.

14

"Please. I just like to get to know the fresh meat," Tahira said.

"Yeah, so you can chew it up and spit it out," Brigit mumbled.

"Very mature, Norway," Tahira shot back. She looked Ariana up and down. "When you get bored of the vanilla brigade over here, we're right across the way, having a lot more fun." She pointed blithely at the open door of the dorm room on the other side of the hall, where a few girls were gathered on the beds, gabbing and chatting. A huge pink diamond sparkled on the ring finger of her right hand. "You look like a smart girl. I trust you'll choose wisely."

Then she turned and walked back to her own room, followed by Allison, who silently closed the door behind them.

"Here we go, ladies!" Allison shouted out in the hall. "Pictures from my trip to Iceland!"

There were a few cheers across the way, and then silence as the door to Tahira's room closed. For a long moment, no one said a word, and Ariana's very fingertips started to itch. Should she follow Tahira or stick with her first instinct? She had to have the right friends here at APH. Needed to align herself with the group that would introduce her to the right clubs, the right people, the right future. Which of these two factions would do that for her?

"So obnoxious," Maria said finally, shaking her head as she walked over to the mirror, which hung on the wall near the door. She took her hair and twisted it, piling it atop her head. She held it there, checking herself out from every angle. "I'm surprised you didn't get into it with her," she said to Brigit.

"Get into what with who?" Ariana asked, playing catch-up.

15

"It's a long story," Brigit said as she dropped down on Allisons bed, leaning back on her elbows. Clearly she wasn't going to elaborate further, which made Ariana feel even more left out. "Guess Tahira decided to room with Zuri this year."

"Well, who wants to live with Allison?" Soomie put in. She was texting again, her fingers flying deftly over the mini keyboard. "A) The girl snores like a freight train; B) she's totally OCD about her teeth; and C) she's always getting those smelly care packages from home and letting them fester under her bed for weeks at a time."

Ariana swallowed hard as her cluelessness started to eat away at her. Everyone here already knew everyone else--and she knew no one. She had to start from scratch, figure out which girls were worth befriending and then get them to trust her. But how would she even begin deciding that when she was sure that each group would feed her lies and jaded opinions about the other? She wished she had been here to witness whatever history there was between these two groups. Wished she could have seen it unfold for herself so she could make an informed decision. It was awful, feeling like the outsider,the

girl not-in-the-know. A hot flush of anger started to creep up the back of her neck. She shouldn't have to do this. Shouldn't have to be starting over from square one like this. If it hadn't been for that bitch Reed Brennan . . . if Thomas Pearson hadn't been so taken in by her ... if it hadn't been for all that unpleasantness . . . she would be at Princeton right now instead of standing here trying to ingratiate herself to a bunch of girls two and three years younger than her. Why did all of this have to happen to her?

16

Just breathe, Ariana, she told herself.

In, one . . . two . . . three ...

Out, one . . . two . . . three ...

She had to contain herself. Cut herself some slack. Give herself some time to catch up.

"You don't want to go over there. Trust me," Soomie said, eyeing Ariana in a discerning way. Obviously she could tell that Ariana was at war with herself. "Tahira and her friends . . . they're fun, but frivolous . . . tacky. And you, I can tell, are a serious person. Serious and all class."

Ariana smiled wanly at the girl. Suddenly Soomie was full of compliments. Could it be more obvious that she was just trying to keep Ariana from defecting to the other side? That she simply wanted to win? Ariana felt the power shift slightly in her favor. Now she was the one who would be doing the evaluating. Deciding which group was most worth her time. Perhaps this was a good development.

"Thanks. So what did Allison mean when she said she wouldn't be my roommate for long?" Ariana asked, placing the unopened envelope down on her desk and feeling slightly more in control. She unzipped her small cosmetics bag and started to unpack.