Abandon - Meg Cabot [54]
But so far the only fun thing about going to Island Queen was watching my cousin and Kayla fight.
“Well,” Kayla was saying to Alex, “it’s not like she’s Little Miss Innocent.”
“Kayla,” Alex said, an edge to his voice.
“What?” she demanded. “It’s true, isn’t it? Everyone’s talking about it. It’s on Google if you put her name in there.”
“Kayla,” Alex said. “Drop it.”
She shot him another indignant look. “It’s all going to come out in group this week anyway, Alex, so she might as well just admit it now.”
“Uh,” I said. “What are we talking about?”
“You,” Kayla said. “Did you, or did you not, kill a teacher at your last school?” Alex buried his face in his hands.
“Wow,” I said. “Really? Not.”
Kayla looked disappointed. “Oh. Everyone says you killed him.”
“Well,” I said, “I didn’t.”
“But you hurt him real bad,” Kayla said. “Right?”
Before I could reply, one of the girls who’d been giving me dirty looks in the auditorium — I recognized her by her incredibly straight hair — walked by.
“Oh, my God,” she said, stopping and coming over to me. “Wait. You’re Pierce Oliviera, right?”
I had never seen this girl before in my life except when she’d snubbed me, then had an apparent change of heart, back in the auditorium.
But she came over with a smile as big as if we were long-lost BFFs.
“Uh,” I said. “Yes?”
“Oh, my God,” she cried again. She actually gave a little jump into the air. “I’ve been wanting to meet you! I’m Farah. Farah Endicott? Seth Rector’s girlfriend. Seth told me he met you today and that you were so cool.”
At first I had no idea what she was talking about. Then I remembered the guy who’d helped rescue my runaway class schedule and who’d later calmed everyone down at the assembly. Seth Rector, of Rector Realty. And probably the Rector mausoleum in the cemetery.
Well, one day. He obviously wasn’t of it now.
“Oh,” I said, not really sure how else to respond. “Hi.”
“What are you doing, standing way back here?” Farah asked, looking appalled. Her voice was so loud, everyone in line had stopped looking at me — the girl who’d allegedly killed a teacher at her last school, at least according to Kayla — and was staring at her instead. “This is, like, insane.”
“Uh,” I said, glancing at Alex and Kayla, whom I couldn’t help noticing Farah had completely ignored.
But that seemed to be okay, because they were ignoring her back. Alex was staring stonily out at the water. The beach was only about a hundred yards away, across the parking lot and beyond the three-foot seawall. And Kayla had gotten her cell phone out and was checking her text messages.
“I guess we just got here a little late,” I said. “We had to make a stop after school, on our way here.”
I didn’t mention that the stop had been to the New Pathways office to pick up my cell phone, which I was not allowed to carry in school, due in part to my neurobehavioral developmental disorder.
“Well, come sit with us,” Farah said with a great big smile, reaching out and grabbing not my arm but Kayla’s…a gesture that seemed to surprise not only me but Kayla as well. I saw her tense up and then exchange a quick, astonished glance with my cousin Alex. “We’ve got tables over on the beach — with umbrellas, so they’re in the shade. And Seth is almost to the front of the line. Just tell me what you want, and I’ll go add it to our order.
Then we can all go sit out by the water. It’s sooooo much nicer over there, you can’t even believe it.”
“No,” Kayla said quickly. “That’s okay, Farah. But thanks.”
“Yeah,” Alex said. “Thanks, but we’re good.”
I looked from Alex to Kayla and then back again. Something weird was going on.
True, the only thing in the world I wanted to do at that moment was get my stupid Stomach Buster or whatever it was, eat it, then go home and wait for Mr. Smith to call so I could find out what he wanted.
I wasn’t exactly looking forward to being accused of yet another crime I did not, in fact, commit.
But since it was going to happen anyway, I wanted to get as much of my waiting over with in air-conditioning, or at least shade.
Even if Kayla and