“Hey,” he says. “We’re just about to get started.”
“Awesome,” I say, because I don’t know what else to say.
“I need some motivation to win,” Estaine says. “How about, if I win, you hang out with me tonight. At the docks.”
“Okay. Sure.”
He grins, and then runs back towards his teammates.
I turn to walk towards the stands and see Teagan smiling at me.
“What?” I ask.
“You totally have a crush on him,” she says.
“I do not,” I say, but I’m pretty sure my face is red. “Honestly, he’s kind of cute.”
Estaine looks like he stepped out of an Abercrombie ad. Even now, when he’s a little sweaty from playing football and his hair is slightly messed up, he’s adorable. Or, maybe it’s his soft grey eyes that I like. There is no denying that the boy is gorgeous.
“He is cute,” Teagan says. “Like, the second cutest boy in the school.”
“And who is the first cutest?” I ask.
She grins. “You’ll have to figure it out on your own.”
“Right,” I say. “So who is the cutest girl?”
“Me, of course,” she says, completely in a joking tone.
But she’s probably right.
Teagan is beautiful. Charlie would love her.
I open my mouth to tell her I want her to meet my stepbrother, then I close it again. Phoenix Underwood doesn’t have any siblings. Phoenix Black does. But Phoenix Black doesn’t exist anymore.
7pm.
Start over.
The dining hall is nice, as is the food, surprisingly. Even at my old private school in Malibu, the food was just... meh. But here, there are a ton of food options to choose from; but as soon as I see the sushi bar, my mind is made up on what I want.
“This school is awesome,” I tell Teagan, as we walk to a table.
I’m so glad she is letting me sit with her. I can’t imagine trying to find a place to sit if I was alone.
“It’s definitely got its perks,” she says. “But we don’t get sushi every day. Just every Friday.”
Still, it’s awesome.
Teagan got pizza. The pizza looks good, but Charlie and I had pizza all the time at home. It was our Friday night tradition. Order a pizza and hang out. We’d either watch a movie, or play some pool. In the summer, we’d swim in the pool. I miss those times with my brother, and wonder what he’s going to be doing tonight, now that I’m here.
Teagan sits down at a table with Estaine and the other two boys I met at orientation. Jason and Ian, I think.
“Hot new girl,” Jason, or Thor, says to me as we sit down. “Hi.”
I ignore him.
“Hey, Phoenix,” Estaine says.
“Hi,” I say to him.
“You talk to him but ignore me?” Jason says, putting a hand over his heart. “That hurts. And here I thought you were going to be my bae.”
I hate the word bae. It’s supposed to be a term of endearment, but it’s so overused.
“I’d rather not be anybody’s bae,” I say.
Jason grins. “Too bad. I already decided that you’re my bae. You and I are gonna be tight.”
I groan.
Uh.
Why?
“Don’t worry. You’ll grow to tolerate him, like the rest of us,” Ian says.
Somehow, I doubt that.
“Where are Emma and Bryce?” Estaine asks Teagan.
“They’re coming to school tomorrow morning,” she answers. “Bryce has some kind of family thing going on, and Emma is going with him.”
“Man, I was hoping they decided to stay broken up,” Jason says.
“Why would you want that?” I ask. “That’s mean.”
“The two of them constantly fight,” Teagan says. “Bryce treats Emma like crap, and she just puts up with it. I don’t understand it, but she says she loves him. They’ve been dating since freshman year.”
“They take their fighting to a whole new level,” Ian says.
“Why would they want to be together, then?” I ask.
Nobody has an answer.
I can’t imagine dating somebody I always fight with. I’ve never had a boyfriend, but if I did, and we couldn’t get along, I definitely wouldn’t stay with the guy. That’s just miserable. I’d rather be single.
Plus, I’m happy being single. If I had a boyfriend now, I’d have to constantly lie to him about who I am, and that is not a good way to start a relationship. I think I’d like to be just friends with a guy before I dated him, anyway.
“I wish my school in Malibu had sushi on Fridays,” I say, taking a bite of my tuna salmon. It’s good sushi.
“It’s cool you lived in Malibu,” Jason says. “Did you go to school with any celebrities?”
“A few,” I answer. “A lot of them are stuck up though, and generally don’t show up at school half the time. But the worst were children or siblings of celebrities. Everybody was big on name-dropping there.”
“They’re bad about that here, too,” Estaine says.
“He can say that because his dad is the governor of Massachusetts,” Teagan says.
And this is the part of the conversation when I would tell them that my dad is a member of congress. Not to brag, but because I am proud of his accomplishment. But I can’t do that.
“What do your parents do?” Jason asks me.
“They died when I was a baby,” I answer, so wishing I could tell them the truth.