The moment I got back to my new friends, I was basically yanked into my chair by Sunday.

"What," she asked while I caught myself to avoid dropping my tray, "were you doing over there with Felicia Kensington?"

Following her pointed glare, I glanced back at Felicia and her friends, who were in the middle of a conversation and thankfully didn't notice me. "You know her?" I asked.

"I know her? I know her?" Sunday let out a laugh, but there wasn't much mirth in her face. "Felicia Kensington is the queen of the school. Everyone in a ten-mile radius knows her!"

I had kind of guessed she was popular, but even so, hearing just how popular she was surprised me. What could a person like that want from me? All of a sudden I was glad I hadn't trusted her for a second.

"Really?" I asked. "I mean…I don't know what I was doing with her. She just came up and started talking to me, and then she dragged me over to her table."

"She what!"

I almost choked on my drink. The look of absolute shock on both Sunday and Dan's faces was way bigger than anything I had expected.

"She…invited me over?" I repeated. "Is it that much of a big deal?"

"Dude, Felicia Kensington never invites people to her lunch table." Sunday narrowed her eyes in unrestrained suspicion. "She and her two little cronies are like celebrities here. Everybody knows them, but they never invite anyone into their exclusive little club."

I wondered if I should bring up the whole thing with Brandon to see if it explained anything, but for now I had other questions. "What do you know about them?"

"Oh boy, here we go." Sunday pointed unsubtly to Chelsea, who was currently looking something up in an expensive-looking planner. "See that dark-haired girl? That's Chelsea Rose. She's like Felicia's sidekick, those two are always together."

"Chelsea's scary smart," Dan remarked, stealing a few fries off my plate. "I have some classes with her. There's nothing she doesn't know."

"Including people's business," Sunday agreed. "She looks quiet, but don't be fooled. She knows everybody's secrets and she can use them against you."

I gulped, instantly wondering if I had accidentally revealed anything embarrassing about myself earlier. "Okay…"

"The redhead," Sunday continued, pointing at Louie, "is Louie MacMillan. She's got a 4.0 GPA, but her mom is crazy rich, so when it comes to the real world she has the IQ of a piece of charcoal."

Despite myself I let out a small laugh. "Yeah, I figured she's a bit sheltered," I admitted. "She asked me if my parents were cousins because I'm from the countryside."

Sunday burst out laughing, startling the students at the tables around us. "Yeah, that's classic Louie!" she shouted. "What did you tell her?"

I smiled sheepishly. "That people on the countryside don't marry their cousins anymore." I paused, then I added, "And then she asked me if I grew up on a farm."

Sunday laughed so hard there were tears in her eyes. "Oh, man," she said, wiping her eyes. "How disappointed was she that you didn't?"

"Extremely."

"Whew! Life is great today." Sunday wiped her eyes again, then sobered up. "Anyway, the one in the middle is Felicia Kensington. And look, I'm not saying she's evil, but I'm pretty sure hell has been missing a demon since she was born."

Dan stole more fries from my plate. "Kinda feel like you're exaggerating here, Sunny."

"I'm not, and you know it." Sunday turned back around, away from Felicia and her friends. "I've known her for years, and she's terrible. The only thing she cares about is status and popularity." She rolled her eyes. "And as soon as you're getting in the way of that, she ditches you like a used Kleenex."

I glanced over my shoulder again. Felicia caught my eye, smiled and waved, and I hastily turned back around.

"Really?" I whispered.

"Totally. She used to be okay, and then she got a popular boyfriend and totally ditched all her old friends," Sunday replied. "And then she became the queen bee through him and started this huge drama and left him. And now the whole school feels super bad for her because he hurt her sooo much."

An ex-boyfriend who had allegedly hurt her…A suspicion hit me. "Was the boyfriend's name…Brandon Prince?" I asked.

Sunday blinked in surprise. "How do you know?"

"Oh, ah, well." I glanced over my shoulder again, but Felicia was busy talking to her friends this time. "The truth is, she actually warned me about him."

Sunday stared at me like someone faced with a deliberately unsolvable math problem.

"Okay, so here's what went down," I answered and gave her and Dan a quick crackdown of what had happened with me and Brandon. Sunday's eyes widened in understanding while Dan's face distorted further and further into an irritated grimace.

"Oh, so that's what happened," Sunday said with a grin. "She dumped him with all this drama, but our queen bee's still not over him, huh? And now she's totally jealous!"

"I dunno, man," Dan remarked. "I kinda believe that he just sucked that bad."

I looked at him in surprise, and Sunday sighed. "Don't mind him," she said. "He's got this thing about Brandon Prince."

"The thing's called I hate his guts, but I can't punch him without getting kicked off the team," Dan replied. "Brandon Prince is a prima donna asshole. I'm Team Felicia here."

Sunday grinned. "He's just jealous."

"Yeah, no shit I'm jealous!" Dan shot back. "If I pulled half the bullshit he's done, I would've been banned from the volleyball team for life, but he's still our star quarterback! Are you saying that's fair?"

Butterflies of admiration and amazement stirred in my stomach. "He's the star quarterback?"

"That's your takeaway here?"

I looked down at my hands. The star quarterback of the school had saved me on the staircase? No wonder he was so strong…A warm feeling spread through my stomach and face. For a second I could almost feel his arms around me again. For a second…I couldn't help wishing to end up in his arms again.

Yeah, no. Like that would ever happen. Not only was Brandon Prince more handsome than every male lead I'd ever read about, he also had to be just as popular.

"But why would she be worried about me?" I wondered out loud. "He's got to be surrounded by tons of pretty and popular girls, right?"

Dan laughed out loud. "Brandon thinks he's a bad boy," he said. "He acts like he's too bad to have friends." He pulled a candy bar out of his pocket, unwrapped it and took a bite. "I bet he actually sleeps in Hello Kitty bedsheets."

I tried to imagine that and couldn't. Brandon had simply seemed too cool for that sort of thing.

"C'mon, Danny. You're so jelly I could make dessert out of it," Sunday remarked, earning herself a good-natured punch in the arm from Dan. "Pearl, don't listen to him and Felicia. If you wanna go for Brandon, just show her and go get it, girl!"

She winked at me, but I only smiled and looked away. "Yeah, right," I said. "I don't think I'm going to talk to him again."

~ ~ ~

I was wrong.

Classes were over, and I hadn't run into Brandon or Felicia again. I did have one afternoon class with Chelsea, but she hadn't bothered to speak with me, so I hadn't approached her either. For now I was just glad to have survived my first day at a new school without any major embarrassments, but with a few new friends.

But when I opened my locker to get out my backpack and go home, a warm hand landed on top of my own.

"What's up, staircase girl," said a deep, low voice. "Not falling over anything this time?"

My heart skipped a beat. For a moment I thought it was my imagination, but when I spun around I was looking up into that same pair of green eyes as this morning.

"No, not falling this time," I answered, my voice coming out high-pitched and squeaky. "Thank you!"

"That's too bad." Smirking, Brandon leaned sideways against the locker next to mine. "I wouldn't mind catching you again sometime."

My face caught fire. The small, persistent voice of reason in my head insisted that there was no way, absolutely no way this could possibly be happening; but the last time I checked I hadn't been dreaming, and this scene seemed way too real for a daydream. "Thanks," I managed, my head reeling. "Um…what are you doing here?"

For a moment Brandon didn't reply; he only fixated his emerald-green eyes on my flushed, panicked face, as if he was searching for something I couldn't guess.

"Felicia already talked to you, huh?" he remarked at last, cracking a smirk again. "Wonder what nasty stories she told you about me."

My heart jumped. He had seen that? He had noticed me in the cafeteria? I hadn't seen him at all.

"Not that much, actually," I answered hastily. "She just…warned me. That's it."

"Really? No lies? No rumors? She's been nicer than I expected." Brandon stuck his hand into his pocket. "You're not planning to believe anything she tells you about me, are you?"

For a second I thought of Dan's words, wondered if maybe I should heed Felicia's warning after all. Then I thought about everything Sunday had told me. About how Felicia had only used him for popularity…how she was probably jealous.

Between Brandon and Felicia, I knew who had been nicer to me so far, kinder, who had made me feel special. I knew who to trust.

"Of course not!" I said. "You don't seem like a bad person to me."

"Finally, someone who doesn't listen to her stories." Brandon's expression softened a little, and my stomach did a somersault. "Everyone else believed them, you know. It's been pretty lonely since we broke up."

A warmth welled up inside me. "It's okay!" I said. "I believe you! Not that it means much," I added, looking down, "but maybe it still helps…to know you're not alone."

Brandon smiled bitterly.

"The world needs more people like you, staircase girl," he said. "What's your name, anyway? I can't keep calling you that."

I smiled. "I'm Pearl," I said. "And you're Brandon, right?"

"They told you my name already? Didn't know I was that famous." Pushing himself off the locker, Brandon fell into stride beside me. "Mind if I walk you to the gate?"

It was a harmless, innocent question. But looking back at everything that came from it, I probably should've said no then and there.