2

"Are you and Chloe still fighting?" Everly asked me over pizza in the dining hall. That was another reason I didn't want to rush Alpha Delta Beta — Chloe was a member.

I rolled my eyes. "I guess."

"Alexia."

"I don't think she's ever going to get over it."

"So, you bumped her from the valedictorian spot two years ago, so what?"

I shrugged. "Her parents are really hard on her and Brock."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I don't understand why parents just don't let kids live their lives."

I nodded, thinking about how different her parents were compared to mine.

Edgar and Elinor Rawlings, Everly's parents, took a more hands-off approach than my parents when it came to raising their five kids. They were definitely good parents, but they were also happy to stand back and let their children be the people they wanted to be.

"Besides, you know that there was a lot more involved than that," I said, wiping up the last of the ranch on my plate with my pizza crust.

She sighed. "I know. But it wasn't really her problem. What happened was between you and her brother. She shouldn't have let it bother her."

"And, if it had happened to Elodie? Or Evan? You would feel the same way."

"My siblings aren't bad people," she muttered, gathering her plates and taking them to the tray return.

"Chloe didn't think her brother was either," I said after she was out of earshot. With a sigh, I cleared the table and followed her out the door.

We stopped to look at the posters that Dakarya had hung on the bulletin board.

"Mixer in the hall Monday night?" I asked Everly. "That should be fun!"

She groaned. "I know you well enough, thanks."

I bet you want to get to know Sabrina better though. I hated that thought as soon as I had it. I wanted Everly to be happy, but I had a bad feeling about Sabrina.

"I just hope no guys show up," she added.

My phone started ringing in my pocket, and I pulled it out to see my mom's face.

"Ugh, I don't want to talk to her," I held up my phone to show Everly who was calling.

"Have fun," Everly sang, unlocking her door.

I playfully rolled my eyes at her, and she waved at me as she closed her door behind her.

I guess I'm not getting out of this.

"Hi, Mom," I tried to be cheerful as I answered the phone, entering my room and quietly closing the door.

"Hi, have you gotten settled in yet?"

"I'm working on it. Everly and I just got back from dinner. We're having a mixer on Monday night with the other girls from the floor, so that should be fun." I put my phone on speaker so I could start arranging my textbooks and binders on my desk.

"You know you'd already know all the girls if you would have rushed ADB last year."

I internally sighed, groaned, and screamed at the same time. The whole point was that I didn't want to rush. I didn't sign up to be a part of this legacy, and I certainly didn't want to be anywhere close to Chloe. It seemed like a lot of unnecessary work when I could make friends the way I'd been doing it all along.

"Mom, I don't want to join. I want to have my own college experience, not yours. We've had this conversation already."

"Just meet up with Chloe."

"You know she's a big reason why I don't want to join, right?"

"Alexia. What happened between you two is in the past, and it needs to stay there."

I took a deep breath. The first was shaky, so I took a second one that was more steady.

"I'll see what I can do about Chloe," I said, sounding more steady than I felt. I knew she meant well, I just didn't have it in me to think about sorority life this early in the semester. "Mom, I have to go. Everly is waiting for me."

She let me off the phone, and I threw myself onto the bed. I sent Everly a quick text.

Me: What are you doing?

Everly: Craving ice cream. Want to come?

I laughed. She knew exactly what I wanted before I did most of the time. I didn't get to respond before I heard a knock on my door. I stood and answered it.

"The Vanilla Bean?" She asked.

I grabbed my lanyard and wallet and followed her into the hall.

The Vanilla Bean was a student-run ice cream shop on campus. There was also a coffee shop called The Roasted Bean, and I was determined to get through the entire drink menu before the school year was over. My mom had one idea for a college legacy, but I had another.

"What's your schedule look like?" Everly asked me as we started walking toward The Vanilla Bean.

"Umm," I pulled out my phone to answer her. "Chemistry and Twentieth Century Fiction on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. World History and Spanish on Tuesday and Thursday, and Chemistry Lab on Wednesday. What about you?"

"On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I have Portraits and Landscapes, and some math class and Geology on Tuesday and Thursday. Wait, don't you hate Chemistry? That seems more like a Sierra class."

"I do, and it is. It sounded fun when I signed up for it. Now that I started flipping through the textbook, it just sounds scary."

"I'm sure you'll do fine," She said, opening the door into The Vanilla Bean. The sun was beginning to set, casting long shadows into the store. "You were the smartest girl at Blue Haven High."

"Just because I was valedictorian doesn't mean I'm smart enough to take Sierra level classes," I rolled my eyes at her, closing the door behind me.

While we waited in line, I found myself running my fingers over the yellow beads that made up my bracelet. Everly and I had first made friendship bracelets for each other in kindergarten. When the strings became too tight before middle school, we remade them into the ones we were wearing. We made sure to add sunflower beads to mine and hummingbirds to Everly's.

Right before college, we bought each other tattoos — I had a sunflower, my favorite flower, on my shoulder, and Everly had a hummingbird on her foot.

We'd been thinking of ideas for a permanent friendship bracelet when Everly's oldest sister Emerson had suggested the tattoos. Emerson, Everly, and Everly's twin sister Elodie had gone in later and got matching flower tattoos.

We had just ordered when Everly's phone pinged with a text. Her eyes flitted between me and her screen before she decided to quickly respond.

"Do you want to come over and watch a movie tonight?" I asked. "One last girls' night before everything starts up again?"

"I should probably finish unpacking. I want to get it all done before Monday."

I gave her a sideways look as we took our ice cream from the cashier. "Last year you didn't finish unpacking for almost a month. What's with the sudden change?"

She half-heartedly shrugged as we started walking back toward the dorm. I was trying to eat my caramel sundae as quickly as I could without making a mess

"Everly Azalea."

She sighed. "If you must know, Sabrina's going to get to the dorm in like twenty minutes."

Bingo. I tried to push down the mixed emotions I was feeling. I was a little let down. I'd been looking forward to spending one last night with just Everly before the school year really got underway.

Was it also jealousy? Logically, I knew I had no reason to be jealous. Everly was allowed to have other friends than me, just like I was hoping to make new ones. After mostly keeping to myself freshman year, I was looking forward to meeting new people.

I nodded, trying to keep a neutral face. This was Everly's situation to figure out, and I owed it to her to be as supportive as possible.

"Can't you try to get along with her?" Everly asked softly.

"Only for you," I responded by nudging her shoulder, and was rewarded with a half-smile. "Come on, Ev, this year is supposed to be fun."

"Yeah, Maybe you'll find someone too."

Yeah, maybe.