I looked at her dumbfounded, and she looked back in shame at my laptop, where we were looking at the pictures of yesterday’s fight.

“Girl, he’s hot,” I exclaimed when we got to a picture of Nash running, his dark blond hair a little tousled from the wind.

I’d managed to get some damn good footage of the fight between Nash and Julian yesterday. And it looked like Vanderwood was the perfect place for hot footage.

“He’s an idiot,” Grace just said, shaking her head and continuing to lean over the stone slab of our seat on campus.

She was in the middle of writing a campaign speech, and so far, only she and Vivienna had registered for the March elections.

“A hot idiot,” I said to Grace, shrugging my shoulders. “We should vote for him if he’s running, Bayla. Don’t you think so?”

I knew Vivienna and Grace were looking at me like I had lost my marbles, but I didn’t care.

“Or, how about this? We vote for Emely!”

I was sure she would let her friends put her up for election. At least, that’s what the rumors were saying.

Vivienna’s jaw dropped.

“You’re joking...” Kelly remarked next to her as she reapplied her pink lipstick.

“Julian, Nash and Emely... They’re the last people I’d do anything with, if I were you,” Vivienna continued, looking up from her phone. First, she looked at me, then at Bayla, as if she wanted to tell her something else.

“I agree with her for once. These are not the people you should be spending your time with, Bayla.”

Grace looked at my best friend with a meaningful look, almost as if Nash and Julian were from some drug cartel, ready to make her pay for her complicity.

“Are they part of some gang?” I asked, remembering all those guys from Sacramento with their pocket knives and brown boxes full of smiley pills. One of the things I missed the least.

“Sort of...” Grace looked at me with hesitation. “You have to think of it like a gang dealing drugs. The Copelands are the head and the other members do what they’re asked.”

Bayla looked at Grace as if she had just exaggerated a little, so I asked, “And Julian?”

Grace looked at me, perplexed, but Vivienna spoke up.

“He’s just as much a member of that pack, precisely because his family was in it once.”

“Isn’t it a bit unfair to judge someone because of their past?”

I looked at Grace, then at Julie, and finally at the other girls.

“People like them don’t change. Trust me, we know what we’re talking about,” Amber snorted glumly.

I hadn’t had a problem with anyone here so far. But this mass of prejudice, first toward the DeLoughreys, who actually seemed to be quite aloof and probably had dirt on them, and then toward the Copelands, seemed a bit off.

When it came to Bay’s neighbor, I knew I was right, because he seemed pretty reasonable. And I didn’t know a single guy who wouldn’t have reacted with his fists if someone had said a bad word about his mother.

Bayla didn’t quite seem to agree, either, because she sat there and gave the others one of her WTF looks.

“By the way, Vivienna, let’s go to this new clothing store on the weekend. I’ve seen some really cool dresses there that I’m sure would look great on you at the party.”

Amber played with one of her dark strands and looked at Vivienna expectantly.

“Oh my god, yes! I need a costume, too!” Barbie squealed in excitement next to her.

I only needed to hear the word party and my attention was fully present. For me, parties were something like complete relaxation. A place where you could just dance, let go and forget all the shitty shit about life. There was also good music and hot men.

The last time I’d been to a party was maybe two months ago, which really annoyed me, because what were you young for?

“What party?” I asked with interest, hoping it wasn’t some kind of private thing.

All three girls looked at me immediately until Vivienna finally said, “If you want to have some fun, you should come to the biggest Halloween party in town. In two weeks.”

I automatically looked at Bay, who quickly shook her head.

“Oh, come on. When was the last time we went to a real party?”

“Definitely not enough time has passed...”

I looked at her in mock horror. “How can you let me down like this?”

“The parties in this club are not without their problems...” Julie remarked, a little concerned.

The more I heard about this party, the more I was drawn to it.

“As if there’s that much going on in this backwoods area,” I remarked with amusement.

“The parties at this club are really popular.” Grace looked at me. “But they often escalate a bit.”

“Bayla and I are from Sacramento. I think we know what a badass party is,” I laughed, pretty convinced that a little fun couldn’t hurt.

“Larissa, really... I don’t think I’m that into it.”

Typical Bayla.

I looked at Julie and Grace, but they were both shaking their heads.

“They’re wimps. If you want to experience something, come with us. You’ll have fun, I promise.”

Vivienna looked at me with her icy blue eyes. She was the only one who seemed to be in the mood, even if I didn’t like her.

“I’d love to,” I said, earning a few questioning looks from Grace and Julie and a Seriously, Larissa? look from Bay.

“Well, if you guys don’t like fun, I guess I’ll have to find other friends.”

It had been a joke, but Bayla seemed to take it a bit more seriously and looked at me with a disbelieving expression.

“Them again...” Amber sighed with a worried undertone, as if she had seen a ghost. She had her eyes fixed on the campus.