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me?
    “What? I barely even know you,” I said. “I mean, all I do know is that you used to live in my house and you used to be friends with my friends, yet somehow I’m responsible for defending you?”
    Ally paused. She looked at her feet and laughed. “You’re right.”
    I blinked. Stood up straighter. “I am?”
    “Of course you are,” she said, lifting her face. “I’ve never needed a knight in shining armor before and I don’t need one now.”
    “Okay. So can we just—”
    “And you’re right about something else,” she said.
    I paused, annoyed at being cut off. “What?”
    “We don’t know each other. And I think we should keep it that way.”
    Then she turned and strode inside, letting the door slam in my face.
    For a long moment, I couldn’t even move. Girls didn’t walk away from me. Ever. I couldn’t believe she wouldn’t let me apologize. What was she, too good for me or something? A pair of teachers approached, clutching their Starbucks coffee cups, and I turned on my heel and stormed back across the grass toward the junior/senior entrance. Fine. Whatever. Let her be a bitch about it if she wanted to. We’d pretend we’d never even met each other. It would make everything a whole lot easier, anyway.

ally
     
    The activities board was exactly as I remembered it: a huge magnetic wipe-board right outside the principal’s office, papered with sign-up sheets for the various clubs and activities synonymous with the beginning of the school year. Fall drama tryouts (Faith’s name was already scrawled across the top of the list), the Acorn (student news website), Interact Club, SADD, the Green Team, Hiking Club, and on and on. I yanked a pen from my messenger bag and scribbled my name on the Backslappers list, trying not to look at the other names jotted above it. Chloe Appleby, Shannen Moore, Faith Kirkpatrick, and a dozen other familiar Crestie names.
    I was not going to let them intimidate me out of doing what I wanted to do, and I’d loved being a backslapper my freshman year. I underlined my name, capped my pen, and turned around.
    “Um, no.”
    Faith was standing right there, completely overdressed for school in a black minidress. Walking up behind her were Shannen and Chloe. Shannen looked at the list and balked.
    “Backslappers? Really, Ally?” she said with a frown. “Wouldn’t you be more comfortable doing something with your people?”
    My face burned at what she thought was an insult. “I’ll be fine, thanks. And since when do I have people?”
    “We’re just thinking of your happiness,” Chloe said, lifting her shoulders. “Backslappers is a Crestie club.”
    “And you ,” Faith said, scrunching her nose, “are no longer a Crestie.”
    “They’re right,” Shannen said with a faux-sympathetic sigh. “Backslappers could get . . . awkward for you.”
    “There’s no rule that only people who live on the crest can join Backslappers,” I said, hoping they didn’t notice that my knees were shaking.
    “There doesn’t have to be a rule. We don’t want you there,” Faith said bitchily. I was starting to wonder if she ever said anything unbitchily anymore. Didn’t she remember that I was the one who had taken her under my wing? If it wasn’t for me, she wouldn’t even be friends with Shannen and Chloe, yet now she was the one trying harder than any of them to make sure I was left out. The irony was painful.
    “Whatever. I’m bored with this conversation,” Shannen said, putting her hands on Faith’s slim shoulders and steering her away. “Let’s leave the Norm alone.”
    I bristled at her use of the nickname. That was going to get old fast. As they walked away, Chloe shot me a look that I couldn’t read in all my annoyance, embarrassment, and general sadness. I followed them at a safe distance into the caf.
    All day I had suspected that people were watching me and whispering behind my back, and the cafeteria confirmed it. It was hard to explain away the