New Girl in Town

Chapter 18

The ride out to the party takes a while. The headlights cut through the falling dark as the two-lane road winds up into the hills, where the trees thicken and the houses grow farther and farther apart.

"Are you sure you know where we're going?" Irene asks Kai for the third time.

"Stop asking me that!" he says. "I'm trying to concentrate on driving. If I hit a deer, it's your fault."

"It's called the boonies for a reason, Irene," Rosie reminds her from the passenger seat.

"This is taking forever," Irene complains, slumping in her seat. She arches her back to look at Jennie and me in the back seat. "I don't know why you thought this was a good idea."

"Rosie made it sound cool," Jennie says. "And you wanted to do something together."

"I wanted to hang," Irene says. "I didn't want to drive out into the middle of nowhere to get eaten by a bear."

"At this point, the bear would be doing us a favor," Kai mutters.

"Hey!" Irene says, her eyes widening. "That's mean!"

"Oh my God, Irene, calm down," Jisoo says from next to her, pulling off her headphones. "You're acting like you've never left town in your life. We're not camping. It's a barn party."

"Turn around before you get carsick," Jennie says, twirling her hand at Irene, who rolls her eyes and slumps back into her seat, facing ahead.

"I don't know why we couldn't have just hung out at my place," Irene pouts. "Like normal." She shoots me a sideways glance that's pure venom. Like this was my idea.

I shift in my seat, trying not to let it get to me. She doesn't want me here. The look both girls gave each other when they saw I was with Jennie made me think she hadn't told anyone but Rosie that I was coming. Or maybe she hadn't told any of them, and Rosie was just nicer and better about covering. She at least smiled when she saw me. Kai just tried to pull on the pigtails that Jennie had styled my hair into.

"Maybe normal isn't good enough anymore," Jennie shoots back. "Honestly, you act like you just want to do the same boring stuff over and over. We're going to be done with school before you know it. Do you want to be some has-been, stuck in this stupid town, like Wendy Son?"

"Oh my God, take that back!" Irene says, horrified. "You know I hate her!"

Jennie laughs. "That snapped you out of it, didn't it?"

"You're an asshole," Irene tells her. "And I'm not weird for not wanting to go out into the middle of nowhere to get drunk."

"Lee and his friends are cool," Rosie says from the front seat. I'm starting to think she has only one mood: chill. You kind of have to be, with this group.

"Lee and his friends grow weed," Jisoo mutters.

"Chu..." Rosie's voice changes as she says it, and I suddenly am rethinking putting her in the chill category.

"It's not like it's a secret," Jisoo says.

"You can still have some fucking discretion," Rosie reminds her. "Be cool at this party. I'm the one it falls on."

"I'm not gonna ruin your rep with your grower friends," Jisoo scoffs. "God, what do you take me for, Roro? I've known you since I was five."

"Did you know about this?" I ask Jennie in an undertone.

She shrugs. "It's not a big deal. Just be cool."

"As long as we're not, like, walking into a barn full of weed," I say.