Kissed By Moonlight by Lucy Lambert Read Free Book Online Page A

destined to never make any friends.
    "That's a nice dress."
    I opened my eyes. A tall girl with straight, black hair stood in front of me. She was pretty, with full lips and clear green eyes. She, too, wore a dress, some summery thing that shimmered as she moved.
    "Thanks! Yours too," I said, smiling.
    "Where'd you get it?"
    I caught myself before telling the truth.
    "It's Prada," I said.
    She raised her eyebrow at that, "Really? I didn't realize they were copying last summer's line from Wal-Mart."
    I didn't know what to say. Heat rose to my cheeks, and I couldn't look her in the eye anymore. She sniffed and walked away. How come so much had to do with what label was on your clothes, and what the price was, and how many mansions and cottages your family owned?
    I wondered how much longer this picnic was going to last. I wanted school to start. Textbooks, homework, essays, tests. I could throw myself into that stuff, social life be damned.
    Classes had to be better than dorm politics. I hoped they were, at least.
     
    Chapter 9
     
    Had it really only been a week of classes? High school was never like this. My legs pumped as I walked from my American History lecture in the old Ross building towards my Introduction to Fiction class in the newer Arnold building.
    During the day, the campus was beautiful. All the trees made it feel like I was in the middle of some forest. With the light shining down through the shivering leaves, the place was vibrant, and green. Very green.
    The paved walkways were never straight, always meandering in gentle curves around the tree trunks as though they were all old deer paths that had been turned into sidewalks as a matter of course.
    The students seemed happier, too. They studied in the shade, or sat on and around picnic tables and benches. Their laughter and conversation mixed in with the melodious birdcalls and the cry of squirrels.
    But none of them really looked at me. I walked past two girls and a guy who'd set a little blanket on the ground beside the path. I smiled at them, and they smiled back. But that was all.
    It was like they could sense I was different from them. And by different I meant poor. The girls both had Louis Vuitton bags, and I bet their clothes weren't off-label.
    I was surrounded by people, but I felt even lonelier than I had back in Pasadena after all my friends drifted out of my life.
    The next curve of the path revealed the Arnold building. It was a long, ultra-modern thing with walls consisting more of glass than brick. It didn't really keep with the aesthetic of the rest of the campus, with its old gothic structures.
    A group of students spewed out through the front doors as I came up, and I had to struggle my way through them.
    My lecture hall was on the second floor. It had a few tiers of seating, and a whiteboard with a projection screen at the front.
    Being here almost made me feel at home, and it was my favorite class so far.
    I took my seat, second row right in the middle, just as other people began filing in.
    Today, a girl sat beside me.
    She had long red hair, very straight, that rested down past her shoulders. She also had a little stud nose ring in one nostril, and black liner all around her eyes. Those were blue, and the dark makeup made them seem so deep.
    I think she was the first Goth girl I'd seen on campus. It was pretty strange, now that I thought about it. You'd think in a place with all this history there would be more angsty teens fighting back against tradition and all that.
    The black shirt she wore made her skin seem even paler. But she was pretty, I had to grant, despite all her efforts to hide it.
    "Got a spare pen?" she said.
    "Uh, yeah, I think..." I said, digging into my messenger bag.
    That Eric guy who I'd met that first evening came in, his shorter toady, Joseph, as ever by his side. He always sat right behind me, always asking when I was going to come by the frat house.
    Today, when he looked at me and saw who I sat beside, his mouth