Page 71 of Devil in Disguise

Annabelle said, “You got a C minus? Seriously? Wow. Did you cry?” And they were off. They climbed out after a while and went and sat in the sauna as Dyma talked about her tests and her neighbors and her roommates and how Owen had showed up in the midst of the worst of it, all of it tumbling out in a stream, and Annabelle laughed and got mad and hugged her when they got to the part where Cassandra pushed her into the soup.

“I can’tbelieveshe did that!” Annabelle said. “What a witch with a b!” Which made Dyma laugh even harder.

“People who don’t live in North Dakota,” she finally got out, “just say ‘bitch.’”

“People who live in Portland,” Annabelle said,“onlysay ‘bitch.’ You should hear how they talk.Man.It’s like …” She waved an arm. “Thefootballteam! Except that Harlan and Owen don’t even talk like that! A truck stop! If they said that stuff in Bismarck, their parents would kick them all the way intoMinnesota.”

“Really?” Dyma asked. “The stellar-scores school has smutty students?”

“I see what you did there,” Annabelle said. “Allowance for alliteration.”

“Ooh,” Dyma said. “I sense AP English! So are they, like … I’d say I can’t even imagine, given that I went to high school in Wild Horse, which was the exact opposite, but I have these roommates, if I didn’t mention. The kids can’t be actuallyroughthere. They’re too rich. So whatarethey like?”

Annabelle started doing some leg stretches on her towel—like Harlan, she could never sit still for long—and said, “They’re pretty cliquey, I guess you’d say, so you sort of have to find a group. Maybe they have to be, because the school’s twice as big as mine, and I thoughtminewas big. Two thousand kids at this one, though.”

“Wow,” Dyma said. “Kinda makes the six hundred at mine look …”

“Tiny.”

“See, I would’ve liked that,” Dyma said. “Being anonymous beats being notorious.”

“I thought so,” Annabelle said, “with Dad and all, but sometimes it’s just anonymous. I mean, I sit with some of the volleyball team at lunch, but it’s kind of hard to get to know people. People were nicer at first, too. That’s the bad part. I can’t figure out what happened. I must have done something, but what?”

“Did they know about Harlan?”

“Well, yeah. It’s kind of hard for them not to, since we have the same last name, and I look like him a little.”

“No, you don’t. You look like him alot.Meaning you’re pretty much magnificent. I think that’s the word.”

“Dyke,” Annabelle said.

“What?”

“That’s what some of them call me, I found out. Just because I wouldn’t go out with Keenan Murray!”

“Ah,” Dyma said. “I sense the threads of the mystery beginning to unravel. Who’s Keenan Murray?”

“Quarterback. Captain of the football team. You know those guys.” Annabelle was stretching her hamstrings in an aggressive fashion now. “That think they’re God’s gift. Or just gods. And Iknew,”she burst out, “that at least half of the reason he wanted to go out with me was Harlan. Like—he’d be my boyfriend, and I’d bring him home and introduce him, and Harlan would sprinkle some pixie dust or something, and somehowKeenanwould be starting at Nebraska next year.”

“Stanford,” Dyma said. “The rich roommates inform me that it’s Stanford, if it’s a football schoolanda prestige school. But you said no.”

“He kept saying that I really liked him, but I just was too shy to admit it. He keptbuggingme about it, in this really creepy way. So I finally said, ‘No, I actually really can’tstandyou, but I’m toopoliteto admit it. Also, Harlan can’t help you, because you’re not that good. Your arm sucks, and you can’t show play-action to save yourlife.’Unfortunately, I said it in front of everybody in the cafeteria. Meaning in front of the football team.”

“Ooh,” Dyma said.

“Yeah. Some people laughed, though. I mean, not just in that guys-ragging-on-each-other way, but in a yay-for-you way.”

“Who?” Dyma asked. “Who laughed?”

“One girl from Crew, and this girl who’s in my AP Physics class. Sage. She’s not athletic at all, though. Kind of goth, if that’s the word. Where she wears black and has a pierced nostril? And a guy from my English class. He’s nice and really cute, but he’s shorter than me.”

“You know who your new friends are?” Dyma asked. “The ones who laughed. In a yay-for-you way, I mean. I kinda like the one with the pierced nostril already, and I don’t even know her.”

“ButIdon’t knowthem, either!” Annabelle said. “That’s the problem.”

“OK, look,” Dyma said. “First, I’m about to get heatstroke. I’m going to jump in the shower, and then let’s go inside. After that, I’ll tell you all my secret techniques.”

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