Page 4 of Hidden Lies

I’d lost the thread of the conversation. “What about me?”

She laughed as she lugged in another box. “Who are you?”

Who was I? Well, at least that question was easy to answer.

“I’m nobody.”

I expected her to push it, but she just laughed. “You’re lucky, then. Though you must be somebody if you’re here at all.”

I felt a jolt at her words. I’d seen the ridiculous tuition cost in the brochure, and the school sure did like to throw around words like ‘elite’ and ‘prestigious’ in their advertising, but I hadn’t really realized what that meant. Apparently it wasn’t just obscene wealth that defined the student body here, it seemed the names meant something too.

But if everyone here was someone, who did that make me? Or my grandfather? Or his father? I knew my mom’s family had a lot of money, the bulk of which we’d never had access to, but I had no idea what either of my grandparents had actually done for a living.

“Norrraaaaaaaaa!!”

My train of thought was abruptly derailed by a deafening shriek, as a tall girl with smooth dark skin and her hair in hundreds of tiny braids with colorful ribbons woven through came barreling into the room and flung herself on top of my new roommate, sending both of them sprawling to the floor in a tangle of limbs.

“Frank, get off me,” Nora complained, but her wide grin belied her words as she wrapped her arms around the other girl.

I stepped back, wondering if I could get away with ducking out the door, but my movement drew the new girl’s attention.

“And you are?”

“I—”

Nora cut me off before I could get the words out. “Camilla, Frank, Frank, Camilla. She’s new, she’s a senior, she says she’s not related to anyone famous, and she knows not to call you Frances.” She bounced to her feet and held out a hand to help up her friend.

“New, huh?” The other girl appraised me as she accepted the hand up. “Where were you before?”

“Uh, Los Angeles. Or, actually Chicago, I guess.” I shrugged. She stared at me and I met her gaze directly. One of her dark eyebrows arched, seemingly unimpressed, and I stifled a smile, wondering what she would think if she knew just how much I didn’t care what they thought of me.

“So, what brings you here for your last year then?” she asked.

Jeez, I really was going to find that question around every corner. I opened my mouth to respond, but once again the words stuck in my throat. When I tried to force them out, all I could feel was the heat of fire on my skin and the phantom smell of smoke clogging my nostrils. I jerked my head to clear the unwanted emotion and looked away.

“Dude, she only just got here, don’t give her the third degree,” Nora cut in, and her shrewd eyes on my face told me she hadn’t missed my reaction. “C’mon, let’s get your stuff inside before Julie gets here.”

I shot Nora a grateful look. Despite the fact that the girl didn’t seem to know how to stop talking, I found that I didn’t dislike her. She wasn’t what I’d expected.

Frank kept staring at me though, ignoring her friend as Nora moved back into the hallway, and suddenly her eyes zeroed in on my hair.

“Is that purple?” Before I could react she grabbed a hank of my pale blond hair, lifting the locks to reveal the bold color underneath. “Oh, thank God,” she said, her severe expression relaxing into a smirk. “I won’t be the only one who pisses off the teachers.” She flipped my hair back over my shoulder and gave me a wink.

“You’ll do.”

3

Julie arrived twenty minutes later in a cloud of expensive perfume, designer clothes, and air-kisses, but at that point I was feeling more than a little over-peopled and escaped with the excuse that I needed to tour the campus. I could tell Nora was about to volunteer the three of them to show me around, but I slipped out the door before she had a chance to vocalize the offer.

I hadn’t actually intended to take a campus tour when I’d fled the dorm; it had just been an excuse, but once I was outside again I found my feet carrying me back down the path toward the quad. More students were arriving, the line long at the admissions table, and clusters of students reunited in the grass. A flash of bright yellow caught my eye, and I turned my head to see a tall pretty girl with red hair waving her arms at the base of a tall oak tree.

I realized she was wearing the same yellow shirt as Gary had been, and I recognized the school logo—a crest featuring a cluster of pine trees stretched out on either side of a stylized lake—stamped on the left breast pocket just as she called out, “Freshman campus tour! Leaving in five minutes.”

Eh, what the hell.

I made my way over to the group forming around the base of the oak, and the girl smiled at me. “New freshman?” Then, before I could answer, “I’m Jenny. The tour will only take about twenty minutes. Please let me know if you have any questions.”

I shrugged and nodded, and soon we were on our way, a group of about fifteen wide-eyed freshmen, a few straggling parents, and me.

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