friends. Her sisters.
When Ariana was just a few feet away, she noticed that Isabella Bautista, a senior who had taken
Ariana under her wing at the beginning of the year, was playing with her violet D&G heels under
the table, letting them swing from her toes as she gazed around the ballroom. Suddenly the right
one fell off and landed a few inches away from her foot. Ariana watched as Isabelle scooched
down in her chair as casually as possible to retrieve it. As she was fishing around with her toes, she
brushed Noelle Lange's ankle, and Noelle whacked her boyfriend Dash McCafferty's arm.
"You're playing footsie with me? What are we, twelve?" Noelle joked.
"Wasn't me," Dash replied, flashing a killer smile. "But I'll play any time you want."
Isabella finally shoved her foot into her shoe and sat up again, admitting to nothing, but the
snapshot of normality soothed Ariana. She smiled and finally joined them.
"There you are," Noelle said, flipping her thick dark mane of hair over her shoulder as Ariana
slipped into her chair. Noelle was, as always, wearing her signature black--a sleek satin Adam &
Eve dress that showed off all her curves. "I was beginning to think you'd nicked a bottle of Dash's
contraband Cristal and gone streaking through the streets of Easton."
Noelle took a sip of champagne from her crystal flute--the champagne Dash had paid off the
waiters to serve their table in lieu of sparkling cider, since alcohol was prohibited at school
functions--
257
and then took a bite of a chocolate-covered strawberry. Noelle was Ariana's best friend at Easton.
They balanced each other well. Noelle was more brazen and confident, where Ariana was more
reserved and cautious. During their hazing period at Billings, Noelle had helped Ariana through
more than one crisis of confidence, while Ariana had helped Noelle refrain from telling off the
older sisters on more than one occasion. She was sure that neither of them would have made it
through initiation without the other.
"Noelle, streaking is so gauche," Ariana admonished as she took a seat beside Daniel. She
smoothed her white, layered Alberta Ferretti dress over her knees and wrapped her hands around
the seat of her raw silk-covered chair. "I was just taking it all in. The social committee did an
incredible job."
"I swear, if you start rhapsodizing about the engraving on the silverware, I will kill you." Noelle