worse than free time when you don't know anyone. I walked the halls and tried to look like I belonged—like I was alone because I wanted to be alone. At the same time, I tried to exude approachability.
End result? Me with a dopey smile on my face, looking hopefully at all the students who passed ... then pretending I was smiling at some invisible person just beyond them when it became clear they weren't going to notice me.
It was exhausting and depressing.
I wished Archer was around. I could've talked to him.
I wished I could call Claudia, but she'd be in class.
I wished I was Trista, with everyone in school falling all over me to be my friend.
I wondered if she and the other Populazzi were back in that oak tree.
I went outside to take a peek, and realized what I'd seen that morning was only part of the picture. The Populazzi's tree and the flat lawn around it actually sat at the top of a steep, grassy hill. The hill sloped down away from the school, so I hadn't seen it this morning. It was dotted with more Populazzi, sprawled out and talking in clusters.
I walked closer, curious.
"Hey, loser!" a large Populazzi guy yelled.
He was looking right at me.
I stopped in my tracks.
"Yeah, you!" he said. "You a senior?"
He looked intimidating. I got nervous and words tumbled out of me.
"Um, no. I'm a junior. Cara. Cara Leonard. I'm new here. Hi."
Someone needed to smack me. How had I not shut up yet? Why was I introducing myself to this guy? He'd just called me a loser!
"Senior Slope," the guy said. "You got ten seconds. Ten...! Nine...!"
All the other Populazzi on the hill were watching now, and they joined in on the countdown: "Eight...! Seven...!"
If my legs didn't unlock, I'd still be on the Slope when they got to one, and I didn't want to know what would happen then. I backed away and made it to the top of the hill by three, at which point I tripped and fell on my butt.
"Nice one!" someone called. Hot shame crawled up my neck, but I turned around. Trista, her boyfriend, and all the others at the oak tree—which I now understood was the hangout for the junior class Populazzi—were laughing at me. For sure they'd all heard the guy call me a loser. I had the instant, hideous sensation of being five years old, soaking wet, with Heather Clinger's witchy finger pointing at me and twenty-nine high-pitched voices shrieking in my ears.
I was desperate to run away, but I knew that would only make things worse. I pretended to be unruffled, stood up, and strolled off as normally as possible, my head held high. It helped. I actually started feeling indignant, which was way better than ashamed. How was I supposed to know it was the Senior Slope? It was my first day! It's not as if they had signs posted. Now I was a loser because I couldn't read their minds?
I had the feeling Chrysella was loaded with land mines like this. I wanted no part of them. For fifth period lunch, I grabbed a Diet Coke and a Zone bar from the vending machines and retreated into my car. If this were Pennsbrook, I'd have driven off somewhere, but Chrysella's rule was that students stay on campus during the school day, even for free periods and lunch. More of the "Charter School Difference," I supposed.
I turned on the car, cranked the air conditioner and the radio, and called Claudia, hoping she'd ended up with fifth period lunch, too. The times didn't match up exactly, but she should be free to—
"Are you Supreme Populazzi yet?" she answered.
I groaned and told her everything.
"When you've reached the top of the Tower, you're going to look back on today and laugh so hard," she said.
"Did you not hear me? I was just officially introduced to two years' worth of Populazzi as 'Loser'!"
"It's the first day of school! You shouldn't be anywhere near the Populazzi. That's not how the Ladder works."
The Ladder. Just this morning I'd thought I might not even need it. Now I'd already had a complete social meltdown. Clearly I could not be trusted to handle high school on my own.
"What do I do?" I asked.
"Stop hiding in your car. At this moment, your cafeteria is awash in potential targets: lower-level Cubby Crew guys who would kill to have a girlfriend like you. Get in there, find one, and start going