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class. All of you.”
    Parker gasped now. “You’re letting her win?”
    “No.” Kate turned her back to me, but I heard the warning in her tone. “It’s not time.”
    “But—”
    “Go, Parker. I won’t say it again.”
    All three did nothing to hide their disgust with Kate as they left. Parker glowered at me for a full five seconds before she was dragged away by Natalie, the only one who hadn’t said a word. My gaze lingered on her and wondered what she was like. Parker and Jasmine seemed to be the hotheads of the group. They reacted the quickest, but Kate must’ve been their leader for a reason.
    Kate rounded back to me. She took a deep breath and shook her head. “You’re not what I expected, Strattan.”
    Tate snorted behind her. “You haven’t even scratched the surface, Kate.”
    Kate glanced at her. “And you have?”
    “I know that Mason Kade wouldn’t be in love with her if she were simple.”
    “Maybe.”
    Heather burst out then, “Go away. All of you.”
    “I was trying to help.” Tate frowned as Kate followed after her friends.
    “You’re not.”
    For a second, the two former best friends stared at each for a second before Tate’s shoulders dropped. Her head lowered an inch and she lifted one shoulder in a halfhearted motion. “Fine.” She was swallowed up by the crowd that remained behind her. They were all still watching and as I scanned them, a sense of déjà vu came over me. It was like my last semester at my old school, but I didn’t know these people. I hadn’t gone to school with them since kindergarten. I didn’t know the embarrassing stories from middle school or all the cliques.
    This wasn’t my school. This was foreign territory to me. That should’ve staggered me, but it didn’t. I had endured Analise. I could endure this.
    Heather fell back against her locker with a groan. “I didn’t expect that.”
    “I did.” I actually expected more.
    She eyed me up and down. “I thought maybe they’d steal your clothes during gym class or something. Maybe write the word ‘whore’ on your locker.”
    I grinned at her. “And on that note, I need to go to the office to get my combination. When I registered they didn’t have that for me.”
    Heather tried to smile, but the corners of her lips went down instead of up. She glanced in the direction Tate had gone. “Why do you think she did that?”
    Because she wants to be friends again. I didn’t say that, though. I said instead, “What boyfriend were they talking about?”
    Pain flared over her face. “Channing.”
    “I’m sorry.”
    She lifted a shoulder and shrugged halfheartedly. She looked away. “Doesn’t matter. We’ve been broken up for a year anyway …”
    “It couldn’t have been anyone else?”
    Heather looked down now. “No. I’ve only been with him, and we were dating when Tate was my friend. It makes sense now …”
    Score one for Kate.
    “I’m sorry,” I said again, but I knew it wouldn’t help.
    Kate won this round. She hurt my friend.

 
     
     
    The first bell went off when I reached the office. The final bell went off when I was given my locker combination. I would officially be late to my first class, on my first day. Wonderful. When I asked where Coach Grath’s office was, the secretary informed me that he’d be gone all week. That dilemma was resolved. So with that new information, I headed back out and started my day as a new student.
    When I got to my class, the teacher didn’t care that I was late. A worksheet was handed to me right away and the rest of the class went fast as I began working on it. There were no Tommy P.’s in there, but there were in the rest of my classes. Jasmine and Natalie were in my second period. Kate was in my third and Parker rounded out the fourth. My mornings were going to be glorious, but the one silver lining was that my locker was still clean when I headed to lunch. No ‘whore’ or ‘slut’ decorated it. Yet.
    There was no sight of Mason or