“To embarrass you. Draw attention to you. Bad attention, to take away from what you did at Yosemite. Win some kind of coup. Status point.”
I thought about Charles’s note, about this being a game. “Did you know he was going to do that? Is that why you left the note?”
He sat back and shrugged. “I had a feeling he was going to try something with one of us. He probably decided he wouldn’t get enough of a reaction out of me, so he went after you.”
In the clear light of morning, I’d started to wish I’d had even more of a reaction. I wished I’d had my punch glass in hand, so I could have poured it all over him. Or I could have just, you know, punched him. “So he just wanted to make me look
bad and him look … what? Clever? Is it just because we’re from Mars?” I sighed and squished my food with the fork. If Tenzig showed up anytime soon, I might just throw the whole tray at him.
“The question is, what are you going to do about it?” Charles said.
I wanted to strangle Tenzig. Grab his head and dunk it in the punch bowl until he drowned. Drop him off the top of the building. Then I remembered … don’t let on when you think you’ve lost. Move on.
“Nothing,” I said. “I’m not going to do anything.”
The corner of Charles’s lips flickered up in the briefest of smiles.
“So. Do you think we should tell Mom that Angelyn’s dad was asking about her?” I asked.
“I’m sure she’s already aware of the Chous’ interest.”
“Really?”
“He wouldn’t have asked if he didn’t already know about her and her agenda. He was trying to find out something personal. Some kind of weakness. It’s like you said, he was fishing, he may not even have known for what.”
Ladhi came in, then Angelyn, and they both gave me worried, sidelong glances as they picked up their trays and came to sit by me, tentatively, like I might bite their heads off. And I might have, but like Charles said, I had to let it go.
“Are you okay?” Ladhi asked, wincing as if afraid of the answer.
“I’m fine,” I said, and it was true. “Angry, but fine.”
“Competition is one thing,” Angelyn said, biting. She sounded just as angry as me, which was comforting. “But people ought to be able to look good without tearing other people down. That defeats the whole purpose.”
A hush passed over the room, and I knew what it was about without even looking up. Tenzig had arrived. People were watching him, and me, waiting to see what we would do, if Tenzig would rub it in by continuing the name-calling, or by gloating some other way, and if I would try to get back at him.
What I did was turn to Angelyn and grin, saying, “I saw you dancing with Harald.”
Angelyn blushed, and Ladhi jumped in, figuring out exactly what I was trying to do, telling her how sexy they looked, and pretty soon we were giggling and carrying on enough to make Charles roll his eyes at us. But we didn’t pay any attention to Tenzig.
I heard Tenzig laugh even harder on the other side of the room, as if even that was part of the competition. I didn’t care. And I felt better.
Right up until Ethan came into the dining hall. I hadn’t even said good night to him last night, and he was one of my real friends in this place. I apparently had forgotten that. I caught his eye and waved to him to make sure he came to our table. We always sat together, of course. I just worried that he might have thought things had changed. I didn’t want them to change, not like that.
“Hi,” he said, slipping into place as the others scooted to make room.
“Hi,” I said back. Still blushing.
“So,” he said, picking at his food. I think he might even have been blushing, too, but his dark skin hid it better. “You have a good time last night?”
I shrugged. “I’ve seen better parties.”
“Yeah,” he said, chuckling. “Me, too.”
I kind of wanted to drag him off to speak privately, but I didn’t want to wait. I might forget what I wanted to say, or I might change my mind about saying it. And if these really were my friends, it didn’t matter.
I set down my fork. “Ethan, when you asked me to dance, I should have said yes. I’m sorry.”
He hesitated, like he had to think about it a minute before he smiled. But he did smile. “I’m sure you were just confused about these strange customs that you Martians aren’t used to.”