Snark and Circumstance Read Online Free

combine a clinical study with a test run of popularity-garnering tips from a random sampling of Cassie’s magazines. Maybe I’ll even major in sociology or psychology in college and use Willow and her friends as the basis for my thesis. I’m feeling kind of hopeful, even a little excited, because now I have a purpose.
    And then I get within view of the party.
    This promised to be an A-list party, and apparently the A-list at LHS is even smaller than I had imagined because there are only a handful of people there, all of them tanned from weekends on the Cape and wearing shirts and shorts the colors of Skittles. Some guys from the lacrosse team are attempting to play hacky sack with a hard white ball around the koi pond a few feet below the grey stone patio. A few people sit on teakwood chairs near a bar that looks like it belongs in some cheesy, tiki-themed, vaguely Polynesian restaurant. Among the guests I recognize Darien Drake, a senior whose sleek black hair, pale skin, and dark blue eyes allow her to look exotic even in a white polo shirt and a short pink skirt with green seahorses cavorting across it. She is sitting on the end of a chaise occupied by none other than Michael Endicott, who is sporting a blue Oxford shirt that looks as if the maid had pressed it for him minutes ago with a pair of similarly creaseless khakis. Michael and Darien look up as we approach, but then immediately go back to their conversation. The hostess, Willow, is in no hurry to greet us either, and instead trails her manicured hand along the arm of the blond boy she is speaking to. He, on the other hand, immediately breaks into a grin that spreads a patch of light freckles across his face.
    “Tori!” he calls. “You made it!” He rises and lopes toward us. “And this must be your sister. Hi, I’m Trey,” he says to me, extending his hand. We shake, but he’s still looking at Tori and smiling like he has just won a big stuffed dog for knocking over some milk bottles at the fair.
    Willow suddenly appears behind Trey, planting a hand on his shoulder to steer him back to the seated guests.
    “Oh, I’m so glad you’ve already met Trey-eyyy,” she says to us over her shoulder. “He’s the guest of honor—I put this together for him, you know, since he’s new to Longbourne.” She takes a seat next to him and adds, “Oh, and help yourselves to drinks.”
    Tori thanks her and takes the chair on the other side of Trey, asking him about his first week at school. As I walk over to the bar, I notice Willow and Darien exchange a look. There are lots of fragile-looking glasses in different shapes and sizes and bottles of beer and wine and some things I would have to mix, which all seems too complicated. I decide to just pour a glass of soda and put some homemade-looking tortilla chips and salsa with huge chunks of tomato and jalapeno on a plate—a real plate, not paper. And then I make myself walk over to Michael and Darien, since Michael is the only person I know at all besides Tori. This thought does not exactly settle the tsunami forming in my stomach.
    “Hey, you’re here, too!” I say to him as brightly as possible.
    “Your powers of observation are formidable,” Michael says and Darien giggles behind one perfectly manicured hand, like some sort of preppie geisha.
    “I have a couple of ideas about the bio-lab thing,” I say as I sit down on a stray paisley seat cushion that is as thick as my mattress at home; so thick I almost topple off of it backward, getting salsa all over my face. I can picture this so vividly I cringe a little. So much for Cosmo tricks and clinical detachment.
    Michael raises an eyebrow and just looks at me. I assume this is an invitation to keep speaking, so I say, “There are these great apps now for dissection that could be used instead—”
    “What if someone wants to get into medical school?” he asks and takes a quick sip of his drink. “They need to do actual dissection, not move their finger