Welcome to Bridgeport Academy, an elite boarding school in New York where glamorous rich kids don't let rules get in the way of a good time.
[ Based on the It Girl series by Cecily Von Ziegesar ]
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"Wait up!" Kae spotted Alex leaving the library that night, her sleek black hair bouncing as she descended the steps. There was a definite spring to her step—her high-heeled lace-up oxfords practically skipped across the sidewalk. She swung around to face Kae and smiled.
"Hey." Alex flicked a lock of hair out of her eyes.
"It's nice to see you smiling."
Alex giggled. "I know I shouldn't be this happy, but I can't help it. It's just...poetic justice, you know. Even if Jas is going to kill me." The thought of sharing a room with Jasmine now made her feel almost physically ill. Hard to believe that last year they were giving each other manicures and gushing about their most recent crushes. "I haven't seen her since the news broke."
They giggled as they walked back to the dorm. Inside, the door to Waverly 303 was wide open, with music blaring from the Robyn's docking station.
"Great," muttered Alex under her breath as she and Kae drew near. "They're having a party."
"Hey, Rob," Alex greeted as she walked through the doorway.
"Hello." Robyn nodded, pulling on her pajamas. Strands of her weave stood straight up from the static. She flopped down on her unmade bed.
"Sounds like you're in a good mood," Alex said, dropping her Prada shopping tote to the floor carelessly. Robyn didn't respond. She slid the hair band she kept on her wrist around a ponytail and fiddled with the volume on her phone. The music switched to a moody SZA song.
"I love this song," Kae offered. Robyn looked up, her green eyes focused and cold, and clicked off the music. Suddenly the silence in the room was deafening. Whoa.
"Well, look who it is," a new voice said, and all three of the girls turned their heads to see Jasmine, in her cotton bathrobe, playing with the cap of a bottle of water. "Robyn and I wanted to talk to you both about something. We just wanted to tell you both that you can't be in Café Society anymore."
Kae's reddened face turned even redder. She glanced at Alex. Why was Jasmine doing this? It seemed like an open declaration of war.
Alex's eyebrows scrunched together threateningly. "Oh, yeah?" She picked up her field hockey stick as if she were preparing to whack Jasmine's head with it. "Is this because of Michael?"
Jasmine leaned her head against the door frame. "Michael?" she asked casually. She pretended to think about it. "Actually, yes, I'm kind of annoyed you got him fired just when we were starting to get close."
"How can you even say that with a straight face?" Alex demanded. "Who do you think you are?"
"I wouldn't be asking that question if I were you." Jasmine strode across the room and dropped the water bottle onto her bedside table before looking back at Alex. "I know who I am. Do you?"
Kae, who had been following the rapid exchange with horror, felt completely lost. What was Jasmine hinting at? Whatever it was, it shocked Alex into silence pretty quickly.
Alex turned her back on Jasmine and when she turned back around, her face was more composed and her lips were steady. "I know I'm not a hoe." She returned Jasmine's nasty smile. "That's something."
"You should think about who you hang out with, then," Robyn spoke up for the first time since Jasmine's arrival. She was staring straight at Kae, and her fury suddenly made a lot more sense. Jasmine must have seen her with Chris in New York yesterday.
For a millisecond, Kae thought maybe she could make things better by promising not to see him anymore. Maybe things could go back to the way they were the first night at the pizza parlor. She wanted desperately to get that feeling back—that feeling of belonging, of getting drunk with the cool girls, of having them like her. But the second passed. Who was she kidding? She'd never wanted to be with a boy so badly in her entire life as she wanted to be with Chris. She wouldn't trade him for all the Jasmine Sanders and Robyn Fentys in the world.
Alex was about to come to Kae's defense when Kae surprised herself by doing it on her own. "I know why you're angry with me," she said softly. "And I'm sorry. I didn't mean for it to happen, but I should have been honest from the beginning."
Robyn had none of Jasmine's abilities to control her anger elegantly. Instead, her normally picture-perfect skin became red and blotchy and her left eyelid started to twitch. She looked unbalanced. "You're a lying ass bitch," she snarled.
"Don't you realize what a hypocrite you're being?" Alex railed at Robyn. "You're mad at Kae for getting together with Chris after you guys broke up while she"—Alex gestured toward Jasmine with the curved end of her stick—"started chasing down Michael while I was still with him?" She glared at Jasmine. "That's so...shitty."
"Honey." Jasmine gave Alex a pitying look. "You were never with him."
"Fuck you!" Alex whirled back to Robyn. "And fuck you too. You can have your stupid, self-absorbed Cafe Society and your stupid, fucked up games." Alex shook her head. "I have better things to do." With that, she stalked out of the room, leaving silence in her wake.
Kae glanced at Robyn. Jasmine was an enormous bitch, but she still felt like she owed Robyn something. She'd lied to her, after all. "I'm sorry," she repeated. "Maybe one day you'll forgive me?"
