The Ivies - Alexa Donne Page 0,12
to send in our most charming members, Margot and Emma, to merely plant the idea of suspicion in the teachers’ minds so that it never traced back to us. And once, in our coup de grâce, we set off the fire alarm in Whitley the night before a big chemistry exam to give Avery and Margot an edge over, well, all the senior boys.
None of it was good, exactly, but nothing was too terrible, either. It got me into Harvard, after all, didn’t it?
Not that I’m telling Avery that.
Emma breezes in five minutes late with kiss-swollen lips that announce precisely the reason for her tardiness. Avery shoots her a Look, then checks that Margot is ready to go as Emma shimmies her tiny body between Sierra and me on the love seat. Margot poises her fingers over the keyboard, ready to type. And we jump right in.
“We have two jobs.” Avery holds up two fingers, paces the floor in front of us. “One, find out who took my spot at Harvard. I want to know who got in.”
My stomach somersaults, and Sierra darts a glance my way. Lucky for me, Emma starts coughing loudly, drawing Avery’s attention. “Do you need a cough drop?”
Emma shakes her head, now clearing her throat gently.
“What happens to the person, or people, who got in?” I ask, fighting to keep the tremor out of my voice.
Avery scoffs, my question beneath her. My mind conjures up all manner of worst-case scenarios, from Avery pulling a Tonya Harding to slipping Nair into someone’s shampoo. Once she swapped a girl’s fifty-dollar foundation for a nine-dollar bottle of CoverGirl just because the girl bragged about scoring higher on a test than Avery. She’s someone who favors raw, unmitigated revenge. Unconsciously I touch my hair, smooth it down against my skull.
“Two, I need a regular-decision school list,” Avery keeps going. “Then we’re going to find out who else is left for RD round, and we develop our new List. Mostly for me, but this goes for anyone else who doesn’t get in ED.”
I swear to god, Avery looks to me for a microsecond. Fire licks at my insides. I have half a mind to tell her, I got in, you smug bitch, but no. I have to swallow my pride and let Avery and everyone else believe that I’ve been deferred at Penn. But I can’t play that fiction until tomorrow.
“Ugh, I thought we were done with this shit,” Sierra groans. “Can’t we enjoy things for once? It’s only a few weeks until apps are due, and there’s not much we can do. We should leave it.”
“That’s easy for you to say, since you’re going to Yale.” Avery throws her a glare. But I notice the way Aves is playing with her fingernails, something she does when she’s feeling nervous. Or hurt. This is what we do for each other, the basis of our friendship. Sabotage. If Sierra isn’t interested, how does she fit with us?
She doesn’t need us anymore. My gut pangs as I contemplate whether our friendship could really mean that little to her.
“Obviously, we’ll help.” Emma cuts through the tension, as she is wont to do. “You tell us your school list, and we’ll figure out who to target. We’ll do what we can.”
“Yes, Aves. You know we will.” Margot opens a new tab and labels it Avery RD Schools.
I nod, because this is how I fit. By going along.
Sierra huffs, shoulders slumping in surrender. Of course she won’t abandon us now. We’re not supposed to question the lasting quality of our friendships until much closer to graduation.
“We’ll use the ED day party tonight to gather intel.” Avery assesses the group. “The question is how to divide and conquer. Some of you need to figure out who got into Harvard. The others suss out who didn’t get in ED and will be throwing themselves into the RD cycle. Get top-choice schools if you can, obviously. Then we can strategize on how to knock back anyone applying to my top schools.” Avery scrunches her nose, unsure. There is no plan for how to sabotage the competition this late in the game. We stopped most of our work months ago. Almost everything is locked in by first semester senior year.
My hand shoots up. “I’ll ask around about Harvard.”
“Me too,” Sierra volunteers, just a shade of panic in her voice. She whacks me on the thigh when the others aren’t watching. We share a look. Why have I