"Whatever. There will be a rematch and you will be going down," Brigit declared, rising out of her seat. "Right, Ana?"
Ariana didn't know how to respond. What if she claimed Brigit was right and then tanked even more swiftly next time? She wasn't sure she could handle that kind of humiliation without exploding. The silence seemed to drag on for an excruciatingly long time, until Maria finally spoke up.
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"Move along, girls. We're bored with you now," she said to Tahira and her entourage.
Tahira scoffed. "Like anything could be more boring than vanilla." Then she and her friends moved off, obviously satisfied at having had the last word. Ariana's fists clenched under the table. Sooner or later, Tahira was going to get what was coming to her. She would see to that.
"Speaking of lame people," Landon said, glancing at Tahira over his shoulder. "Did you dudes hear that someone swiped Christian's Rolex this morning?"
Suddenly, Ariana was grateful to Tahira for her taunts. It meant her face was already red when this topic came up, so that when she grew even redder, no one at the table noticed. "What? Where?" Brigit asked. Her fingers touched the sparkling aquamarine and diamond pendant around her neck. Royal jewels worth hundreds of thousands, no doubt.
"He claims it was in the boathouse," Palmer replied, "but I think he must've left it back at the dorm. No one was down there but our teammates, and none of them would have taken it."
"Exactly," Lexa said, flicking her hair over her shoulder.
Ariana marveled at their certainty. Their absolute trust. Had nothing bad ever happened to these people?
"Hey, Texas, did you see anything?" Landon asked, lifting his chin.
There was a long pause, and Ariana suddenly realized that he, along with everyone else at the table, was looking at her.
"Texas. That'd be you," Maria said in a flat voice.
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"Oh, right. .. um . .. no. I didn't see anything," Ariana said, looking at Palmer. "I left right after you did."
A girl at the next table backed her chair up so that it lined up with Landon's. "You know, one of my bracelets is missing too," she said, letting her long blond hair tumble down behind the back of her chair. "I thought I left it at home, but maybe someone took it."
"Interesting," Soomie said, raising her eyebrows. "It seems we have a thief on campus."
"What are they, admitting scholarship students now?" Maria joked.
Everyone at the table looked right at Adam, including Ariana. She couldn't help it. It was a knee-jerk response. The poor boy paled as his brown eyes flitted nervously around the table in a conspicuous way. Ariana was confused. Was Adam the first-ever scholarship student at Atherton-Pryce? Maybe he was simply the first one ever to hang out with this particular crowd.
"Oh, crap, Adam. Sorry," Maria said. Then she snorted an embarrassed laugh and looked up at the waiter, who had just arrived at the end of their table, a handsome if scruffy college-age guy in a white shirt and black pants who looked as if he'd rather be anywhere but there.
"She didn't mean anything," Lexa clarified to Adam, her tone kind. "The girl has a tongue-control problem."
Adam managed a laugh. "It's okay."
As Maria ordered her meal--making demands about oil and butter and salt--the rest of the table fell into an uncomfortable silence. Ariana
tried to tell Adam with her eyes that she felt for him, but he had
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trained his gaze on his menu and refused to look up. Suddenly Ariana became aware that someone was repeatedly clearing his throat.
"Ana. Your turn to order," Maria said. "What's with you tonight?"
"Sorry." Ariana looked up at the hovering waiter and smiled her apology. He simply sighed in return. "I'll have the salmon," she said. "Thank you."
As the waiter made a note and moved on to Brigit, Ariana tried to relax her tense shoulders. She had, of course, known that people would notice when their things went missing, but what had she expected? That people wouldn't talk about it?
At least no one seemed all that angry or upset about the stolen jewelry. Probably because they could all easily afford to replace their things. But now people were talking about it, which meant it could become something big. A scandal. Would there be an investigation? How was she going to make sure she wasn't implicated? She could not get thrown out of APH for stealing. That would be way too pathetic an end to her grueling journey.