LEXI

Lexi the Loser. The words echoed out over the crowd. This can’t be happening! Blaine, an evil grin on his face, repeated the words, louder this time, while looking around him.

“Lexi the Loser!”

Delilah and her minions giggled, and I felt my insides turn to mush. My entire plan for the semester was ruined.

“Lexi! Lexi! Lexi!” Blaine was now leading the people around him in a chant, repeating my name over and over again in a cruel, sing-song way. I met Blaine’s gaze and suddenly, I was right back in high school…

It was a school assembly. I’d just won the science fair, and I was so proud. Beforehand, I’d spent half an hour in the bathroom, desperately trying to pat down my frizzy mop of hair with water, but I’d only made things worse. When my name was called during the school assembly, I flashed the smile I’d been practicing in the mirror, ignoring the pain in my teeth from my recent trip to the orthodontist. The pain didn’t matter. This was my big moment.

“Congratulations to Lexi on the advanced research she completed to achieve these impressive results! Lexi, perhaps you can tell us about your findings!” Principal Johnson ushered me to the podium and pressed a microphone in my hand. For a second, it screeched loudly with audio feedback, garnering laughs and jeers from the crowd. Then, the noise subsided, I brought the microphone to my mouth, and prepared to speak. But before I could…

“BORINGGGG!” Blaine’s familiar voice yelled out into the room. It was joined by chants and cheers from the others: “Boring! Nobody cares! Boring! Loser!”

I tried to ignore them, but the jeers continued throughout my rambling words. Unable to stand it, I cut my speech short and slunk offstage. Humiliated. My parents had been in the audience to witness the embarrassment, which made it even worse.

“Don’t pay any attention to those bullies,” Mom had said to me later. “They’re just jealous because they aren’t as accomplished as you are.”

But I knew that wasn’t true. Blaine wasn’t jealous; he really DID think I was a boring loser, and he made sure everybody else thought so too…

And now he was doing it all over again NOW. I stared around at the crowd of drunken college kids, eagerly chanting, “Lexi! Lexi! Lexi the Loser!” Blaine, his face red with excitement, was leading the cheers. I stared at him in disbelief. Blaine was the reason I’d gone to a college far away that nobody else from my high school was attending. Blaine was the reason I’d gotten contact lenses and a Brazilian blowout and created an entirely new image for myself: polished, smart, and ambitious Alexandra. No more Loser Lexi. But in this moment, he’d taken that all away from me. I was Loser Lexi once again.

“Come on!” A sharp voice cut into my thoughts, and a claw-like hand gripped my arm fiercely. “Let’s get out of here!” I turned with surprise to see Vivian, dragging me away from the chanting crowd.

“Thanks for the rescue,” I managed once we’d gotten away from the jeers, and I finally felt like I could breathe again.

“No worries. That guy is a jerk. I’ve seen him around my school’s campus a few times. He’s in a frat that’s on probation for excessive drinking and hazing.”

“That’s exactly what I’d expect from Blaine,” I said. “We went to high school together,” I added, meeting Vivian’s questioning gaze. “But I don’t get how he got in here.” I would have been surprised if Blaine had the requisite GPA to get into the prestigious program.

“Me either, but it sucks that he brought his shitty frat-boy vibe here,” Vivian scowled.

“He made my life miserable in high school and it looks like he’s going to do it all over again,” I said with a resigned sigh.

“No way!” Vivian said sharply. “Just avoid him. This boat is huge and there are plenty of nice people on it. Like this guy…” Vivian paused. “Brian, meet Alexandra. Alexandra, Brian.”

I shook hands with a tall, gangly brown-haired guy who seemed to cower from my touch. Under one arm, he clutched a laptop, holding it as if it were a comfort stuffed animal.

“Nice to meet you, Brian.”

“You too.” He spoke so softly, I could barely hear him. “Although to be honest, I’d rather be gaming right now,” he added, looking around the party with a dubious gaze.

Clearly, Brian was a little socially awkward, to say the least. “What brings you to the boat?” I was genuinely curious. Brian looked like he’d rather be anywhere but there.

“Uh, my parents encouraged me to do this program, because they think I’m not having enough fun at college. But if this is fun, I’m fine without it.” Brian wrinkled his nose in disgust.

“I know what you mean.” I followed his gaze to a girl, who’d had too much to drink and was vomiting in the corner. “I thought the bar only served mocktails?”

“Ugh, of course all these rich kids snuck in booze and are spiking their drinks,” Brian said.

“Brian is a smarty-pants scholarship kid like you, Lexi, I mean, Alexandra,” Vivian said eagerly, clearly trying to make a connection. “I’m sure you have loads in common.”

“Yeah, for sure,” I said absentmindedly. “I look forward to talking to you more later, Brian. I’m just going to go find Professor Gill and introduce myself quickly. I’ll be back,” I added apologetically. I hurried off, feeling slightly guilty. The truth was, I found Brian kind of boring. I wanted to hang out with people who were kind—not people who were anti-social.

I spied Professor Gill across the room and hurried over to her, pushing my way through the rambunctious crowd of dancing college kids. But before I could reach her, I paused—because I’d overhead my name.

“I don’t care if she was fugly in high school, man, Lexi is cute now.” I turned to see Blaine, pounding beers with a group of preppy guys all dressed so similarly, they looked like they were in uniform: khaki shorts and a polo t-shirt with the collar popped. Blaine’s words stirred up a mix of emotions in me—I was grossed out but also a tiny bit flattered.

“She’s definitely on my list of bangable boat girls,” one of the guys in Blaine’s group said. “I’m aiming to put a few notches on my state room’s bedpost on this trip.”

Ew. Now I was just grossed out.

“Nah, Finn, you don’t want that,” Blaine replied forcefully. “Trust me, the girl is a stone-cold bitch.”

I felt a twinge of hurt in my stomach. Somehow, Blaine’s words were the only ones that cut deep. The others didn’t matter.

“Yeah, you’re right. I guess I should focus more on Delilah and her friends. They’re all hot as fuck, and it doesn’t seem like it will take much to get them into bed.”

“One hundred.” Blaine took another swig of his beer and let out a rolicking belch that made Finn give him a high-five in response. Ewwww.

The guy named Finn went on,

“It sucks that I’ll have to be discreet though, with my mom being the dean. She gave me this huge speech earlier about how she expects me to be on my best behavior for this trip. It’s really going to cramp my style.”

He’s Dean Choy’s son?! I looked across the room to where the dean was talking with a sedate-looking professor. I couldn’t imagine drinking beer in the same room as my parents. Suffice to say, my family’s standards of what constituted “appropriate behavior” were very different from Dean Choy’s. That wasn’t anything new, though. All through high school and college, every family seemed to be more relaxed than my own.

“Yeah, that’s rough, man.” Blaine gave Finn’s shoulder a sympathetic clap. “Family can really get in the way of fun, am I right? Parental expectations in general can be rough…” Blaine’s voice trailed off, and I found myself nodding in agreement. I know exactly what he’s talking about. My parents loved me but sometimes all the hopes and dreams they had for me felt like a weight, dragging me down.

Wait a minute… Did I just relate to something that Blaine said?! I recoiled in horror at the realization. No. There was no way that I had anything in common with Blaine Astor. No. Freaking. Way.