He leaves me a with a solemn warning.
“I have to be honest with you, Ms. Price. You’re going to have a hard time getting into any college if you don’t keep stellar grades this year.” It doesn’t help, I know, that I didn’t take the SAT in the spring. I was supposed to … but like many things over the course of that last semester, it fell under the gloom cast by the holy trinity. “If you score well, I still recommend looking into community colleges. Try not to get too caught up in the rush for the Ivy Leagues. I think it’s safe to say your aspirations should be focused a little … lower.”
“Thanks for all the encouragement,” I mumble as he waves for me to go, signaling our little meeting here is finished.
I had a year to do it right and I screwed it up. Now my back is against the wall, and I’m running out of time. I have one chance to make this work at school, to succeed well enough that I can get into a good college and receive an education that will make me a marketable asset out in the real world. If I screw this last chance up, there will be no future for me.
I leave the office feeling like I’m standing on the edge of a cliff. I was so sure that I’d do it last year, and I didn’t. I got so wrapped up in Astor, Wills, and Blair, and even Victoria until we found ourselves at odds. Getting so lost in the popular scene cost me an entire academic year. At least grades-wise … I would’ve been better off not coming here at all. I can’t let that happen again.
My counselor might not have much faith in me, but I’m used to that. I’m used to doing things on my own, and this is no different. The studies have to come first. The tests have to come first. My education, my college goals, my future. All of that has to come first.
If I could just stay out of the holy trinity’s way … it would make the whole thing a lot easier.
Too bad it turns out they’re in all my classes.
Not all together, thank god … but they’re all still there, taking up the entire room the moment I spot each one in turn as they enter and find their place among the masses.
I try to focus on something, anything else … but it’s like I can’t get a break from them at all. I even check with Ms. Mason, the all-knowing and omnipotent school secretary, after lunch about possibly changing any classes around, but she can’t even change one of them. The schedule is set, and there’s nothing I can do about it. I resign myself to the fact that I am going to just have to suffer through seeing the entire group every single day from now until Christmas.
Maybe, by then, I can work something out to make my last semester here somewhat more bearable.
I think of what Dana and I talked about. They might rule the school, but it’s my school too now, and I’m not going to back off or back down. I am going to make sure that I am a solid part of the student body here, and everyone is going to find out who I am and what I am really made of. Just because they spent a year with me as Sadie doesn’t mean they know who I am. It’s time to show them who Teddy is, and make it count.
It’s like they sense the shift in me.
I haven’t even started applying to any clubs when the tormenting starts up again. It’s subtle at first; a snide remark overheard in the hallways, a missing sock from the laundry. With each passing day, it grows.
They still ignore me, but I know it’s them. Astor, Blair, Wills … even Victoria. They call the shots. And though it especially kills me each time Blair comes into a room and doesn’t even acknowledge my existence … the fact that their minions are on my tail again is a sure sign that I’m doing the right thing.
I’ll not be the invisible, forgotten girl anymore.
It’s a tough first week and I don’t know how I would ever have gotten through it without Dana, but the weekend comes at long last. Since I still haven’t decided on a club to join of my own, Dana took the initiative to sign us both up for some sort of program where we’re supposed to talk to some of the younger students about the transition up to high school. Even though they still go here to the same academy, they’re kept down the hill in a building of their own and they rarely dare venture up into our territory. The same iron rule that guides us up here has its grip on the younger students as well.
We’re up early on Saturday to set up tables with information and organize into small groups that will lead tours and talk to middle school kids about what their life in high school will be like. It’s really not all that much different. I honestly don’t get what the big deal is, but it’s something to keep my mind off everything else … and it’s nice to be around students who don’t seem to know who I am for once.
That’s why it’s especially surprising when I spot the holy trinity, along with Victoria of course, making a beeline to
wards where we’re set up on the lawn. My stomach simultaneously squeezes and sinks at the sight of them.
I know the moment they spot me too, because both Astor and Victoria look at me like I’m the devil incarnate for one flash second before they look away. Wills gives me a dark look and crosses his arms over his chest. It hurts, but nothing hurts as much as Blair, standing next to them, when he speaks up and gives me an icy glare.
“Hey Price,” he calls out to me, loud enough that anyone around us for a good distance could hear him, “I hope you’re watching what you’re telling those kids. Wouldn’t want them to end up like you, now would we?”
Dana’s mouth falls open almost as far as mine.
I can’t believe he said it. It’s bad enough that he’s been giving me dirty looks and acting like I don’t exist for the last week since he dropped me off, rather unceremoniously mind you, at the gas station in town, but this is just too much.
Astor, Wills, and Victoria all bust up laughing and Astor gives Blair a high five. Dana rushes some of her group over to my side and grabs my hand, squeezing it tightly.
“Don’t listen to them! He’s just trying to show off in front of the others. Ignore it. He’s a jerk.” Her words are meant to be encouraging, but I can see some of the students here in the group giving each other sidelong glances before taking a subtle step away from my table.
“I don’t think I could do this without you,” I tell Dana earnestly once they’ve gone on about whatever their business is here.
She smiles genuinely at me. “Well, you’re not going to have to, so don’t worry about it. We’ll get you through this.”
We break off into groups and I’m supposed to be giving mine a tour of the main building, but I’m stopped shortly after we get back up to the great hall at the top of the hill. Ms. Mason waves me over and pulls me aside, something plainly wrong on her face.
I know exactly what’s happening before she even has to say it.