Instantly, guilt twisted at my heart. I hadn't called my father in days.
“Why? So he can make me feel guilty without even trying?”
“I got news for you. I've been taking psych. Apparently we get to feel guilty for the rest of our lives. Might as well get used to it.”
I sighed. “Fine. I'll call him.”
“He misses you. So does Mom, in her own sick and twisted way,” Scott said.
Suddenly all I wanted to do was get off the phone. But he'd
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done his job. He'd reminded me full force of why I was here--of who I was running away from.
“Whatever. Go back to sleep,” I told him, getting up. “I'll talk to you later.”
“Later,” he said.
And the line went dead.
I sighed and turned my steps toward class, ignoring the murmurs that followed my path. Better get used to those, too. Better get used to a lot of things.
47
MEAN GIRLS
“So, what are you wearing to the Legacy this year?”
I paused on my way out of the campus bookstore, clutching the box of pens I had just purchased. It seemed that when the entire campus wasn't talking about me it was talking about the Legacy. Maybe it wouldn't be too hard to find out about it on my own. “I don't know. I was thinking the black Chanel.” Sitting on a bench just a few feet away were two girls I recognized from Bradwell--two glossy-?haired, skinny chicks whose cell phones were permanently attached to their ears. Even as they spoke, one of them held her phone to her ear, the mouthpiece away from her mouth, while the other one texted on her own sleek number. I dropped to the ground and pretended to tie my shoe.
“Didn't you wear that to, like, your mother's wedding last year?” the blonder girl asked the less blond girl. “Yeah. So?”
“So? You were photographed!” Blonder said. “You cannot wear a dress in which you were already photographed to the Legacy. It is just not done.”
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Less Blond nodded thoughtfully. “You're right. What was I thinking?”
Then Blonder's slate eyes fell on me. “Uh, excuse me? Do we amuse?”
“Sorry,” I replied, standing. “What exactly is the Legacy?”
The two girls exchanged an incredulous look. “No place we'll ever see you,” Less Blond said, dialing her phone. “Even if you are in Billings.”
“Dana! You're so bad!” Blonder said, shoving Less Blond's arm.
My face turned pink. “What the hell does that mean?”
“It means,” Less Blond said, “don't act like just because Billings took you in you're somehow better than the rest of us. We all know where you came from, scholarship girl.”
“Don't worry, somebody might take pity on you and bring you to the Legacy. You know, since your boyfriend's all MIA.”
I swallowed back the huge lump that had formed in my throat. Would it be wrong to actually beat these girls down? I'd never actually gotten into a fist fight before, but with all the psychotic emotions roiling around inside my chest, they had picked the wrong time to mess with me. The thought of jumping Less Blond actually crossed my incoherent mind. I could even hear the exact pitch of her surprised screech, see her cell phone flying into the air and cracking on the stone path. It was not an unamusing visual.
I stood up straight, not entirely sure what I was going to do. They both looked up at me. I could tell Blonder was about to say
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