Moby Clique

by Cara Lockwood

  I don’t think I’ve ever been so embarrassed in my entire life.

  “She’s going to get in trouble,” Hana says, worried. She nods to the Guardians—Bard’s versions of mall security—at the corners of the cafeteria. They’re starting to take notice of the ruckus. If she doesn’t quit, and soon, Lindsay is going to have a one-way trip to the headmaster’s office. I remember what Ms. W told me about my dad’s threats to send us to juvie if either of us gets in trouble. I’ve got to stop her.

  “Lindsay!” I shout, jumping up and heading toward her. I reach her before the Guardians do, and nearly have to step over Ryan to get to her. I ignore him for now, even as I feel him looking straight at me. I have bigger problems at the moment.

  “Lindsay, you’re going to get in trouble, stop it,” I tell her, pulling on her wrist. “Get down, now.”

  “Leave me alone,” she barks at me.

  And then, a wayward gravy-drenched roll hits me in the face and tumbles down my chest, leaving an oily smudge down the front of my Bard Academy uniform. Parker, or one of her clones, threw it.

  “Booo!” they hiss at me.

  “Guys! Cut it out,” Ryan says, annoyed. He stands and holds out his hand. “Lindsay, come on, that’s enough.”

  She looks at him and smiles, and then hops off the table and back into her seat. The Guardians stop their forward momentum, resuming their posts at the edges of the tables. Crisis averted—for now. I wipe congealed gravy from my forehead and flick it on the ground.

  “Miranda…” Ryan lifts up his hand as if to help me. But what can he do? Besides, this isn’t exactly how I pictured our first conversation since the “let’s be friends” speech last semester. I never imagined that the first time he’d see me close up again I’d be covered in gravy. My face feels hot, and if that’s not enough, I feel hot tears prick at my eyes. Don’t cry. Do not cry, I order myself. I pray the floor opens up and swallows me whole. It’s Bard. It could happen.

  But it doesn’t.

  “Forget it,” I say, wiping more gravy off my face and turning away from the table. As I walk away, I hear Parker tell Ryan, “Let the little baby go cry it out,” and it’s all I can do not to burst into tears right there.

  Seven

  “I will so put a hex on Parker,” Blade tells me the next day in study hall.

  “What about my sister?”

  “Her, too, if you want,” Blade says. “All I need is some of their hair, some chicken livers, and garlic powder.”

  “Oooh, I love garlic, what are we making?” Samir asks, sliding into the seat next to Blade.

  “We’re making curses,” I say.

  “Hexes, technically,” Blade tells him.

  “What’s the difference?” Samir asks.

  “For one, you need liver, for the other, chicken blood,” Blade says.

  “Sorry I asked,” Samir says, wrinkling his nose.

  “I just can’t believe my sister is a Parker clone,” I say, shaking my head. “That girl can never think for herself.”

  “Maybe it’s just a phase,” Blade says. “Like when I was once a prep for a week.”

  “You were a prep for a week?” Samir asks, amazed.

  “Yeah, there are lots of things you don’t know about me,” Blade says and winks at him. Blade, who once had a crush on Samir, seems to be taking an interest again. Hana won’t be happy about that. She’s had a secret crush on Samir since I’ve known her. Of course, it’s so secret that she won’t even admit it to me.

  Before I can ponder this further, outside the main bell tower tolls three times in short bursts.

  “What was that? Is study hall over already?”

  “No, that’s the signal that someone’s run away again,” Blade says. “They just started ringing the bell when it happens, or so I heard. Then they send Kujo after them.”

  Outside a nearby window we see Guardians scramble toward the woods, as if looking for someone. They all have dogs on leashes. At the head of the pack is Coach H.

  “What’s he doing with the goon squad?” Blade asks.

  “He must’ve done something to tick off Headmaster B,” Samir says. “But why do they even need the search-and-rescue team? I thought it was impossible to escape from this place.”

  “It is,” I say, thinking back to when I tried to run away my first night at Bard a year ago. I got lost in the woods and then ended up circling right back to campus like I’d never left. The woods were definitely a spooky place, and nearly impossible to find your way in or out of.

  “Maybe they’re not trying to prevent them from running away,” Blade says. “Maybe they’re trying to protect them from what’s in the forest.”

  Samir looks at me, and I look back. We’re both remembering that last year William Blake’s tiger was on the loose in the forest. That was not a good semester.

  “What do you know that you’re not telling us?” Samir demands, turning to Blade. He looks worried. He is not the bravest of our little circle of friends. “If that tiger is back, I’m transferring, I swear to God.”

  “No tiger,” Blade says. “Some of my friends said they saw some dudes hanging out in the forest.”

  “Dudes?”

  “Yeah, dudes, with long hair. I dunno. They didn’t get a good look at ’em.” Blade shrugs. Very little scares Blade.

  “I guess that’s slightly better than a tiger,” Samir says. “So I guess I’m not transferring.” He pauses. “Yet,” he adds.

  “Well, maybe we should investigate,” Blade says. “This sounds like a case for the LITs.”

  “Man, you are really pushing the LITs this semester,” Samir says, shaking his head.

  “What? I’m just waiting for it to catch on.”

  “Well, keep waiting,” Samir says. “I don’t understand why everything that happens on this campus is always our problem. Why can’t someone else battle whatever crazy fictional disaster is on the loose this time?”

  “You’re overlooking the fact that not everything at this school happens for a supernatural reason,” I say, watching as Parker enters the library, followed by two of her clones, and my sister. Parker orders my sister off to get some books for her. Lindsay happily trots off to the research section. She’s already writing Parker’s papers, no doubt. The thought makes me want to break something.

  “Sometimes there’s a reasonable explanation,” Samir adds.

  “Yes, like Parker Rodham,” I say, a sinking feeling in my stomach. Parker is planning something evil for Lindsay. I just don’t know what.

  For the next several days, I see plenty of Lindsay. I see her fetching Parker’s books. I see her cleaning off Parker’s tray in the cafeteria. I see her scrambling to pick up anything Parker accidentally drops. And Parker always manages to send me a nice, smug smile, to be sure that I know that she knows this is driving me crazy.

  Of course, Lindsay won’t listen to reason. In fact, she won’t listen to me at all. I catch her as she’s heading out of homeroom one morning. We’re standing in Austen Hall, between rows of lockers, as students mill past us.

  I decide to get right to the point.

  “Lindsay, you have to be careful with Parker. She’s a backstabber and can’t be trusted.”

  “Whatever. You’re just jealous.” I notice she’s not lisping. I wonder if Parker told her to lose the retainer.

  “Of what?”

  “Maybe the fact that I’m more popular at this school than you and I’ve only been here five minutes but you’ve been here forever. I mean, it’s so obvious,” Lindsay says.

  I sigh. “Parker is evil, Lindsay. She’s probably just befriending you to get to me somehow.”

  “Oh, and you don’t think she could just like me for me?” Lindsay’s eyes are flashing now. She’s seriously ticked.

  “No, I mean, of course she would,” I lie. There’s no way in hell Parker would go for Lindsay. She doesn’t befriend people in general as a rule. She ruins their lives. Stomps on them like ants. While I’m thinking of how
to explain this so Lindsay will get it, I happen to glance down and look at the books in Lindsay’s arms. Her spiral notebook is sitting on top, and there’s a giant doodle on it in marker. It’s a heart and in it is “L.T. + R.K. 4eva.” My heart starts to race. R.K.? Ryan Kent?

  I grab the notebook.

  “Is this Ryan?” I say, pointing angrily to the R.K. “Are you crushing on my Ryan?”

  Lindsay’s eyes widen a little, a guilty look flitting across her face, and then she grabs the notebook back.

  “He’s not your anything. You broke up with him,” she says.

  “Not true,” I say. Technically, I broke up first, but then he broke up second. “Besides, you cannot like him. You just can’t.” I am angrier than I should be. But, objectively, there are a million reasons why this won’t work. One, Parker would kill her if she found out. And two, hello—he’s my ex. Sisters cannot date each other’s exes. It’s a rule. Somewhere. Definitely in stone.

  “It’s my life,” Lindsay says, flipping her Parker pony-tail. “I can like who I want.” And with that, she pushes past me, pressing her “Lindsay loves Ryan” notebook tightly to her chest.

  This time, I will kill her. I swear.

  Eight

  “Ryan won’t go for her,” Blade tells me with certainty. She and Hana and I are standing outside the cafeteria after dinner.

  “She’s way too young,” Hana agrees.

  “She’s way too something,” I agree. I still get a bitter taste in my mouth anytime I think about Lindsay and that stupid notebook of hers. Ryan is objectively gorgeous, but Lindsay’s my sister and she ought to show a shred of loyalty. Borrowing (read: stealing) my shoes is one thing. Stealing my ex is in a whole other league, even for Lindsay.

  “Anyway, forget them,” Blade adds.

  “Yeah, forget them, and come to the pit with us,” Hana says.

  The pit is a giant stone circle at the center of campus in front of the chapel. Every night, there’s a lit fire. There are stone benches around it, and it’s too dark to study. The only other gathering places are the library and the dining hall, and both of them are heavily monitored by Bard faculty and Guardians. The pit is monitored, too, just more at a distance.

  There’s not much to do at Bard. There are no computers or televisions or mobile phones, so the pit is pretty much it in terms of excitement. Unless you just want to sit around and count the gargoyles hanging off the eaves on buildings around here (so far, I’ve counted ninety-three), then the pit is it.

  “I don’t know,” I say, hesitating. Hana and Blade have been trying to get me to go to the pit since the start of school. The pit also is the place you go when you want to see and be seen. I used to hang out there a lot when I was dating Ryan. The idea of going there sans Ryan just makes me feel like a loser.

  “Plus, we’re juniors now, so we get the comfortable benches,” Hana reminds me. Technically, all the benches are made of stone, but the ones closest to the fire are unofficially officially reserved for upperclassmen. It can get cold at night, even during warm days at Bard, and the cold stone benches suck the heat right out of you.

  “Miranda got to sit on the comfortable benches with Ryan last year, remember?” Blade says. Swiftly, Hana pokes her for reminding me. Not that I could forget. Ryan—a year older than me—would always save me a place next to him, and when I’d sit down, he’d wrap me up in his letterman jacket and keep me warm.

  “I just don’t think I feel like it,” I say, hesitating.

  “Come on. You can’t avoid Ryan forever,” Blade tells me, practically. “Besides, if you keep hiding, then Parker wins.”

  “Yeah,” Hana agrees. “You’ve got to show her you’re totally over Ryan.” She pauses, giving me a doubtful look. “You are over him, aren’t you?”

  “Yeah, of course,” I say, with more conviction than I feel.

  “Good. Then we’re going,” Blade says, dragging me by the arm.

  When we hit the pit, it’s packed, as I expected. It’s after dinner, and we only have one free hour before curfew, when we have to head back to our dorms for mandatory study time. Everything at Bard is very strict and regulated, so you don’t have a lot of free time. The school’s motto is “I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.” Naturally, it’s a quote from Shakespeare, and it’s engraved in the campus chapel.

  I glance around, but there’s no sign of Ryan, Parker, or Lindsay, so I relax a little. Maybe this was a good idea. Maybe I was overacting.

  Hana and Blade take one of the last semi-empty upperclassmen benches, and I crowd in next to them. The fire pops and cracks, and the smell of wood burning reminds me of a ski vacation we took once back before my parents got divorced. We spent a week in Colorado, and Lindsay first learned how to ski and I helped her learn. That was back in the days when we got along. I remember a fire that smelled like this one, and drinking lots of hot chocolate, and me telling Lindsay knock-knock jokes, and Lindsay pretending they were funny. My parents barely even fought the whole week. It was a good trip.

  I wonder what happened to us. To Lindsay. To my parents. To me. How do you go from happy to totally dysfunctional in a few years?

  Oh yeah, your dad runs off with his secretary and totally abandons the family. Yeah, that’s how it happens. Then he divorces said secretary and marries another one. Dad can never find grass green enough. And then my sister is the only one who is okay with my dad being a cheater and my mom being a doormat, so my parents start treating her like a princess and me like a pariah because I tell the truth and they don’t like it.

  Dad’s faults are obvious—he pretty much wears them on his Brooks Brothers shirts. But Mom’s are a little more subtle. Until she started dating Mr. Perkins, I think she was still hoping Dad would take her back. She’s a pleaser, Mom. Always wanting other people to like her. Come to think of it, Lindsay is a lot like Mom. Desperately craving approval all the time.

  Since Lindsay is like Mom, I wonder if that makes me like Dad? God, I hope not. Dad is the last person on earth I want to be like.

  Still, I wonder if Lindsay is my fault somehow. Did I fail her, like Dad failed us?

  As if I conjured Lindsay by thinking about her, she appears at the outer ring of the pit. I smile at her, and I’m about to wave her over, thinking maybe I shouldn’t be so hard on her, when Parker and the rest of her clones appear next to her. Parker sees me straight away, and then leans over and whispers into Lindsay’s ear. I know without hearing what she’s saying that this is not going to be good.

  “Miranda,” Lindsay barks at me, walking over toward our bench. “That’s Parker’s seat. So you guys have to move.”

  Lindsay is wearing her hair just like Parker’s in a high ponytail, and she’s got on Parker’s perfume, too. It smells like she bathed in it. It’s making my eyes water.

  Blade’s eyes narrow and Hana stiffens next to me. I can tell that Blade wants to stay and fight and Hana wants to flee. I’m somewhere in the middle, but one thing is for sure, I’m not going to let my little sister boss me around.

  “Tell Parker that if she wants this bench, she has to come over here herself.” I’m tired of my sister playing errand girl for Parker the Evil. If Parker wants to fight, then she ought to at least do it herself.

  Before Lindsay can relay the message, Ryan suddenly appears at her elbow.

  “Is there a problem here?” Ryan asks. Great, now my ex is joining in on the fun. Throw in a bit where I’m naked and forgot to study for a final exam and this is my worst nightmare.

  “Yeah, Miranda won’t move,” Lindsay says, crossing her arms. “Tell her that’s Parker’s bench.” She leans over just enough so Ryan can get a look at her cleavage. Is my sister flirting with my ex? Oh, I had better not be seeing this.

  “I don’t see her name on it,” Blade scoffs, making a big show of looking for an engraving.

  “We can sit somewhere else,” Ryan says quickly. “It’s no big deal.”

  “But it is,” Lindsay says, stomping her foot. “
The only benches left are the cold ones.”

  Then Ryan does something that takes me by surprise. He throws his arm around Lindsay’s shoulders and pulls in close enough to whisper something in her ear. Her eyes get big and bright.

  I feel a twinge in my stomach. Jealousy? What is Ryan doing getting so cozy with my sister?

  “Seriously?” Lindsay says when he’s finished. “You mean it?”

  “Sure do,” Ryan says, and then he hands her his letterman jacket. The very same jacket that I wore most of last semester. She giggles and puts it on and gives me a look that says “Ha!” and she then trots happily back to the other benches. I can’t believe what I’ve just seen. Is Ryan going after my sister? I feel hot and then cold and then hot again. “Furious” is the word that comes to mind. F-U-R-I-O-U-S.

  I glance quickly over the fire and see that I’m not the only one. Parker’s mouth is pressed in a thin line. She’s only barely keeping it together, and I’m sure it’s only for Ryan’s benefit. She gives Lindsay a stare that would kill a weaker person, but Lindsay doesn’t even register it, because she’s patting the letterman jacket like it’s a puppy dog. Oh, she is in for a world of pain, and not from me. Parker may have been out to humiliate me before, but now she’s gunning for Lindsay.

  “Sorry, guys,” Ryan says, flashing us an innocent smile, completely oblivious to the fact that he’s just started World War III.

  “Keep your friend Parker on a leash,” Blade tells him.

  “She won’t bother you again,” Ryan promises, but he’s looking at me. I’m too mad to even respond, so all I do is nod curtly and look away. That’s when I see Heathcliff standing very still under a tree a little distance from the pit. He’s watching me closely. It’s the first time I’ve seen him since my sister went Broadway in the cafeteria, and the first time we’ve made eye contact since he ran off and left me on the commons after thinking I still had a thing for Ryan. And now he sees me talking to Ryan? Not good. Not good at all.