Snark and Circumstance Read Online Free Page A

across a screen.”
    Not in eleventh grade, I want to point out, but I don’t. Across the patio, Tori smiles at me as she pulls on one of her curls and then turns back to Trey.
    “I guess, but it could be an alternative for other, less ambitious people. Or, like I said before, I could do all of the write-ups and drawings. I can’t draw people at all—they come out all wonky, like monsters, somehow—but I am actually pretty good at drawing just about anything else.” I smile lamely and get no indication that he’s heard anything I’ve said, so I finish with, “I mean, I think I can handle drawing a frog intestine, if that helps. Assuming frogs have intestines . . .”
    I can’t be sure, but I am willing to bet that Darien rolls her eyes behind her big Chanel shades, and she says something to Michael too softly for me to hear. They’re a perfect match, those two, and they don’t need me to witness their patrician perfection for them, so I walk over to Tori and Trey and Willow and try my last magazine ploy.
    “Those sandals are gorgeous, Willow,” I coo as I set my plate down on the nearest hard surface. I am pretty sure I am going to spill it if my hand shakes any harder.
    She smiles slightly and looks down at my battered high tops. I take a perch on the wide armrest of Tori’s seat and resolve to ditch the stupid Cosmo advice and try instead to maintain an objective eye for observation. But I can feel that clinical distance withering by the second.
    “This week has been really great,” Trey is saying. “Everyone has been so friendly here, I already feel like I’m part of things.”
    I say, “It must be hard, moving in your last year, as a senior. We moved here last year too.” I don’t say, though, that last year no one was throwing any parties for us.
    “Yes, where did you come from again?” Willow asks me.
    “Colorado,” I say. I can feel Michael’s dark eyes on me now as Darien leans in and whispers to him again.
    “Oh, that’s right.” Willow traces the rim of her glass with a long finger. “Well, we have a house in Vail.”
    “It’s beautiful up there!” Tori says and they talk for a while about the Rocky Mountains and how Willow finds them to be inferior to east-coast mountains in their shocking lack of vegetation, something she seems to take as a personal affront. Tori says how excited she is to see the leaves starting to change color again, since it had been years since we saw that before last fall, and I start to agree, but I feel Michael’s eyes on me again.
    It is truly disturbing that such a cool stare can make me feel like I’ve been singed somehow.
    When I can’t take his voiceless stare any longer, I ask him how his first week at LHS has gone. Maybe I can get him to reveal what a pompous snobhole he is. For research purposes, of course.
    “Fine,” he says.
    “You don’t miss your other school—what was it . . .?” I ask. Even though I can remember the name, I like the look of annoyance that crosses his face, as if I had forgotten the most obvious thing in the world, like my own name or the state capital or something.
    “The Pemberley School,” Darien answers for him.
    But Michael keeps his eyes on me when he says, “No. I don’t.”
    We seem to be locked in a creepy version of the elementary school staring contest, holding each other’s gaze until the other one cries “uncle” or something. His mouth twists slightly at the corner; otherwise his face is blank. I don’t know if he is challenging me to ask him why he left Pemberley or if he is inviting me to beg him for all the thrilling details of his first week at Longbourne. Either way, I don’t feel like playing. I just sigh and look away. This experiment is over and I just want to go home and eat some coconut milk ice cream right out of the carton and watch a stupid movie with one of the cats.
    As I am planning an escape, Tori asks to use the bathroom. Willow gives her directions, and then turns to me as Tori