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That was the understatement of the century. In all the daydreams I’d concocted during Chemistry or Algebra, I’d never thought I would actually end up hanging out with Brooke Summer. None of those daydreams had come close to the reality of her, either. When she smiled at me, or laughed when we were talking about something inconsequential, it felt like things clicked into place. I knew who I was now, a hundred times more than I had when we left Seattle. I couldn’t believe it had only been four days. So much had happened already.

I sat back up and started pulling pine needles out of my hair.

‘Do you ever do anything with your hair?’ Brooke asked.

‘I hate it,’ I said immediately.

‘Why?’

‘It’s just … fragile and gross and horrible. I have to wash it every day otherwise it gets really greasy, and because I wash it every day it gets super frizzy.’

‘You could cut it.’

‘So I could look more like a twelve-year-old boy? No, thank you, Brooke.’

‘What if you didn’t look like a twelve-year-old boy, though?’ Brooke asked. ‘You need to cut it really straight at the bottom, and shorter, so it doesn’t get so tangled.’

‘You sound like you know what you’re talking about,’ I muttered.

‘I cut my own hair all the time. And Kendall’s and Madison’s.’

Kendall and Madison were the other popular girls at St. Catherine’s, like Brooke. Madison was in my Chemistry class and was okay, but Kendall could be a bitch, especially when the others weren’t around to keep her in line. I’d always wondered why the three of them were friends. They’d seemed to go everywhere together for a few years, though recently I’d seen Brooke with other people more often.

‘Why?’ I asked.

‘Why did we cut each other’s hair?’

‘Yeah.’

‘I started doing it a few years ago, mostly just putting box dye on my friends’ hair and styling them in updos, you know, for homecoming or whatever.’

I’d never gone to homecoming or anywhatever, because I’d never owned a nice-enough dress or had anyone to go with, and I didn’t want to stand around looking awkward while my classmates danced. I’d seen photos, though, so I knew what she was talking about.

‘I can’t do fancy cuts,’ Brooke said. ‘Only simple things, trimming bangs, you know.’

I nodded like this was normal. Maybe it was.

‘So,’ she said decisively, ‘do you want me to?’

‘Oh, I don’t know, Brooke. We probably shouldn’t be wasting money on things like hair dye.’ I never spent money on myself like that. Especially not on my appearance.

‘Don’t worry about that.’ She waved away my concerns. ‘I want … I don’t know. I want to help give you a lift.’

I laughed. ‘Like your car?’

‘Exactly! Let me boost you up and fix you.’

I wasn’t sure how easy that would be, but the idea was tempting. More than a little tempting.

‘Okay,’ I said.

‘Great. I’m going to go to the supermarket. Do you want to wait here?’

My knee-jerk reaction was to say no. I didn’t want Brooke to abandon me. I didn’t want to be left on my own in a strange town where I didn’t know anyone.

Brooke rolled her eyes, clearly reading my thoughts. ‘I’ll be, like, twenty minutes, tops. I don’t want to interrupt your moment.’

‘Okay.’ I lurched to my feet. ‘I’ll grab my bag.’