Welcome to Bridgeport Academy, an elite boarding school in New York where glamorous rich kids don't let rules get in the way of a good time.
[ Based on the It Girl series by Cecily Von Ziegesar ]
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"Doesn't it seem so mellow without Jasmine and Robyn around? I can feel my blood pressure lowering as I speak." Alex stretched out her legs across the arm of the couch in Waverly upstairs lounge. On her lap was a plastic bowl filled with buttered microwave popcorn, freshly popped and slightly burned. With all the girls in Café Society out for the night, the whole dorm felt quieter.
Kae opened one of the windows and waved out some of the burnt popcorn smoke. "I know what you mean." She breathed in the cold night air, letting it sting her lungs. "The two of them—they sort of make me forget how much I like it here."
"Yeah. Just tonight, walking across the quad and looking up and seeing all those stars...I mean, the sky doesn't look like that in Jersey." Alex pulled the bottle Ciroc from her red leather bag. It was already half empty. She poured some more into her mug of cranberry juice. "Need a refill?"
"Thanks." Kae handed over her mug. Alex was from New Jersey? She'd gotten the impression that she was from East Hampton or something. "I really love it here. It makes me feel so...I don't know...wholesome." It sounded moronic, but it was true. Bridgeport, with its groomed athletic fields and state-of-the-art libraries, its glamorous student population with their rich families and cashmere sweaters, was strangely like some sort of earthly paradise. And while she'd felt a little awkward at times, something told her she belonged here.
Alex grinned. "Yeah, it's probably all the drinking and drugs and sex going on that gives you that impression." She pulled a strand of hair in front of her eyes and expertly scanned it for split ends. "But I know what you mean. I love it too." Her eyes clouded over a little. "Think how perfect it would be if Jasmine hadn't come back."
Kae didn't even want to let herself think about that. Yes, it would be heavenly if Jasmine could just evaporate into thin air, if she'd run off with some rich international businessman she met in the halls of the Ritz-Bradley. "It feels like she's out to get us both."
"Probably because she is." Alex sat up and set the bowl of popcorn on the table. "But you know what, fuck her. Fuck all those other girls. What are they doing right now? Getting shitfaced. Dave's probably running around buck-naked, trying to grope everyone."
Kae cringed at that unpleasant image. Suddenly she was completely relieved she wasn't there in Boston, with Jasmine and Robyn and the other girls. She was happy to be here, eating popcorn with Alex and gossiping. If only Chris weren't in Boston. If only Chris weren't furious with her. "I miss Chris."
Alex popped open the tab of a Sprite. "I know. I miss Quincy too." Ever since that day in the cemetery, she'd been thinking about him a lot. She wondered if he was seeing anyone at St. Lucius yet. He hadn't mentioned any other girls, but it was hard to believe that he could stay single for very long. He was the star of their football team and was sexy in a slightly goofy, natural way that endeared him to all members of the opposite sex. An image of him in his Ralph Lauren boxers came to her, and she could almost feel her hand running along his sculpted stomach muscles. Mmmm. "Maybe I shouldn't have broken up with him."
