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Aurelia.
    "OK, so it's the Patricians and then the Plebs ..."
    "No. Between them there are two other classes. First, the
senatorial class, who were all really ambitious and got to wear special
togas."
    "With purple stripes," added Aurelia, and Claire nodded.
They were so in earnest that Rebecca couldn't help laughing.
    "They're the Debs, see? They want to be Patricians, but they
can't make it in. So instead they laud it over everyone else. They're on all
the committees and boring stuff like that. And they're all obsessed with balls
and parties. The thing they want most is to be queen of a carnival krewe the
year they're debutantes."
    "So that's why they're Debs and not ... Sens?" Rebecca
ventured.
    "Exactly." Aurelia nodded. "And then there's the equestrian
class. They're the girls who represent the school in sports."
    "Tennis, volleyball, soccer," said Claire, sniffing.
"Though they're not very good at any of them. We always get our butts
kicked by Country Day and St. Louisa's."
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    "But the school loves them and gives them prizes and things
all the time."
    "And they wear those ugly bandages on their knees and
elbows."
    "So you call them ... ?" The complexities of all this
were overwhelming.
    "The Cavalry," Aurelia and Claire said together.
    "And then there are the Plebs, right?" Rebecca was
starting to make some sense of their "class" system.
    "They were the workers of Rome," Claire explained,
scratching her messy blonde hair ferociously until a stray bobby pin tumbled
onto the ground.
    "The mob," sang Aurelia.
    "The emperor made sure they stayed happy by arranging chariot
races and gladiator fights. In return, the Plebs did their work and stayed in
the background and didn't rebel or anything."
    "And that's what Amy and Jessica are -- Plebs?" Rebecca
tried to suppress her smile.
    "Practically everyone is," sighed Claire. "Except
us, of course."
    "What are you two?"
    "Goddesses!" grinned Aurelia.
    "Can I be a goddess as well?" Rebecca asked. She'd
played some basketball at school, but doubted that she could make it into the
Cavalry: She wasn't sure that Temple Mead even had a basketball team. The Debs
wouldn't have her, and being a Pleb didn't sound very appealing.
    "Hmmm." Claire screwed up her face. "You're from
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    somewhere else, so maybe you could be a goddess in another
religion. Or -- I know! You could be Cleopatra."
    "I don't know about that," Rebecca laughed. "She
ended up dying tragically, remember?"
    "But she was glamorous and fascinating," said Claire,
picking up her bag. "And Marc Antony gave up everything to be with
her."
    "Didn't do him much good," Rebecca said wryly, and both
Claire and Aurelia looked sad, as though Marc Antony was a personal friend of
theirs. "Humiliated in battle and then forced to kill himself."
    "So romantic, right? Oh, no -- I'm going to be late for
ballet!" Claire sped away down Third Street, and with that Rebecca's Latin
lesson came to an end.
    But during lunchtimes the rest of that first week, when Rebecca
either sat alone or managed to find a seat with Jessica and Amy -- who made
little effort to include her in any conversations -- she realized that Claire
and Aurelia might be onto something. A few members of the Cavalry stomped
around the lunchroom, wearing their elastic bandages; a tableful of Debs
conducted an overloud conversation on Who Was Wearing What to the first
debutante ball of the season. The vast majority seemed to be Plebs -- girls
like Jessica and Amy who weren't going to win too many academic prizes,
sporting accolades, or popularity contests, but were happy to cheer everyone
else on. These were the girls who filled the ranks of what was known as the
school's dance troupe, though
    40
    Rebecca quickly learned that "dancer" here meant a
majorette without a baton who marched in a dozen parades during carnival season,
accompanied -- of course -- by the St. Simeon's school band. And instead of
gladiator fights and chariot races, the Plebs looked forward to the