Moby Clique by Cara Lockwood Page B

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