his dark hair and broad white smile. He made me feel a bit dizzy.
‘Whoa, are you okay?’ He reached out and grabbed my arm as I started to topple over.
‘Yeah, thanks, sorry,’ I mumbled, just as Cassidy Walters waltzed up and grabbed Bryce’s hand.
‘Hey Bryce, thinking about making an addition to your fish tank?’ She glared at me. The bus incident had left her with a very fat lip, and I considered how, out of the two of us, she was the one who now really defined the term ‘Mrs Fish’. But even with a fat lip she was easily the most beautiful girl in school, if you liked blue-eyed blondes with perfect teeth – which Bryce obviously did. It was finally dawning on me that she was his girlfriend
Even so, Bryce rolled his eyes at me as he turned to her. It made me feel like we shared some camaraderie.
‘Give it a break, Cassidy. Vania’s new to the school. You could try being nice.’
Cassidy gave me a withering look. ‘Since when do you side with the terminal losers?’ she said to Bryce.
‘There’re no sides – she’s just new. It’s my job to welcome new students, remember?’
I stepped away from both of them, feeling like an idiot. Of course. I was the freaky new girl, he was just doing his presidential job, and I should just crawl back under the rock I’d come out from. But as I turned away, Bryce caught my eye, and he looked . . . apologetic? Yeah, right.
In chemistry class I pretended to pore over my textbook, but really I spent the whole class thinking about Bryce, Cassidy and my life in general. I had been at this school for two weeks; had no friends, only enemies; and my nicknames, ‘Mrs Fish’ and ‘Fish Lips’, seemed like they were going to stick.
It was true that I had full lips. I didn’t know where I’d got them from – certainly not from my mum or dad – and I hadn’t known there was anything wrong with them before my thirteenth birthday. My mum had thrown me a surprise party and she was angry with me for not interacting with any of the friends she’d invited.
I’d never had any real friends and these kids from our old neighbourhood weren’t people I’d wanted to spend any more time with than I had to. When I’d said as much to my mother she’d told me to pick up my bottom lip or I’d trip over it. Two years later, it was still her favourite put-down for me. But in her defence, I guess, I did pout a lot.
‘Vania Thorn, are you paying attention?’ Mr Barrow’s sneering tone jolted me out of my reverie.
‘Yes, sir,’ I answered hesitantly as a few of the students laughed at me. Thankfully Cassidy wasn’t in this class. Her peabrain didn’t make the grade for advanced chemistry.
‘Well, would you grace us with your solution for the formula in question? In fact, you can come up here and write it on the board.’
I was really good at chemistry. I just seemed to have a gift for putting somewhat odd things together to make something else, and I loved all the signs and symbols. But I did not love being the centre of attention. The walk up to the front of the classroom was brutal . . . until the bell rang as I reached the board.
‘Saved by the bell,’ Mr Barrow said with a disdainful expression.
I sped gratefully back to my desk to get my bag. From the corner of my eye I could see Mr Barrow looking at me coldly. I was bewildered by his mean attitude towards me. What had I ever done to him? My chemistry grades from Australia had put me at the top of the class, but he wasn’t exactly welcoming me with open arms. In fact, he seemed to see me as a nuisance.
I got out of there as quickly as I could. In the hallway I collided with something and hit the floor, the contents of my bag spilling everywhere. I looked up into a pair of identical faces. Two girls were standing over me, close enough that I could count their freckles. They really did look exactly the same, including the fiery red hair glowing around their heads like demonic haloes.
‘Hello,’ they said in unison.
‘Uh, hi,’ I mumbled. ‘Sorry for crashing into you.’
‘That’s okay. Hey, I’m Amelia,’ the one on the left said.
‘And I’m Alyssa,’ said the one