I stood in the office for maybe ten whole minutes before the little old lady at the typewriter figured out just who the hell I was. I told her my name was Marlene Haines, but she kept pulling out a record for Hayes.

During this ten minute trial of patience, I kept glancing over my shoulder. At least now Gordie and I would have more in common. The little old lady, Mrs. McInerny, typed out a schedule for me around 8:15 and I took it from her in a hurry. I knew I would feel much better sitting in a class full of witnesses.

I glanced down at my schedule and felt a jolt of horror when I read that I wasn't on the collegiate track. My academic goals, the schedule implied, were terminal. Home economics was my first class and I crumpled the paper with a growl, wondering if my mother had changed her mind AGAIN.

I turned out to be the only girl in Home Economics wearing pants, and the only one without makeup. Our first assignment was to set a proper table for a dinner party, assuming our spouse was a big executive. I didn't even waste paper taking notes on that shit. When the bell rang signalling the end of the period, I shot out of the class like a cannon.

Next period was US History. I still managed to be late, though, since all the hallways were starting to run together. I entered the class just as the bell rang and I felt a few familiar eyes on me. Ace was standing beside the teacher, a large beefy guy with a beard and mustache. I held my bookbag up to my face and tried to find a seat.

"Excuse me, Miss? New Student?" The teacher said, addressing me. Ace fixed me with a look that sliced into me. Then he smiled. I froze.

"Me?" I said. The teacher beckoned for me to come to his desk and I sighed. I headed back through the aisle of desks when a foot shot out in front of me before my brain had the chance to react. I tripped and faceplanted into the floor, my bookbag landing on my head. The entire class erupted into a fit of laughter.

The teacher, Mr. Carter, came over to help me get to my feet. As I stood up somewhat shakily, I glanced over at the person whose foot had caused me so much humiliation. Eyeball shrugged at me innocently, a shit-eating grin on his face. If I could just make it through the rest of the day, maybe I could convince Mom to send me back to Catholic school.

At lunchtime, most kids went home for the hour. As for me, I decided not to go home because I didn't know if I could make myself go back. There was a Cobra in every single one of my classes except for Home Ec. And they were not happy with me.

I went back to that tree where Gordie and I had met up with his friends before school. I sat down on the ground and leaned against the trunk. I hadn't packed a lunch, and without breakfast, my stomach was starting to turn inside out.

Vince's and Ace's cars weren't out front and I assumed they had already gone. I let out a sigh of relief and relaxed my shoulders for the first time in hours. I leaned my head back against the tree and enjoyed the silence. Maybe I could learn to get used the teasing. Already I liked being teased by boys way better than girls. The girls I had known were excessively cruel in a way that I hadn't seen yet in the Cobras. But the day was still young and the year had just begun.

I closed my eyes and held my bookbag close to my chest. As I dozed off, I imagined Ace walking across the street like he did when I first saw him. I hadn't known then he was THE Ace Merrill. Nothing like a heavy dose of reality to shoot a lovely fantasy to hell.

I opened my eyes slowly and nearly jumped a foot when I saw Ace kneeling beside me on the ground. I hadn't even heard him approach me.

"Hey!" I said. I hated getting scared but before I could curse him out, Ace put a finger to my lips.

"Cool it, baby." He said. He didn't sound particularly mad. My eyes darted all around the front of the school and I noticed we were the only ones around.

"I told the guys to leave us alone so we could talk." Ace said. He stared at me questioningly and I didn't know whether the calm in his voice was good, or very, VERY bad.

"So talk." I said. I tried to keep my breathing and heartbeat at a more normal rate, otherwise I was afraid I might keel over. Ace sat beside me against the tree, which didn't seem like something a tough thug would do.

"I thought I'd give you a chance to explain. Here I was introducing myself and you nicked me in the crotch for no reason." Ace said.

"There's a reason." I said smugly. He glanced at me sideways and pulled a carton of cigarettes from his sleeve. He put one to his lips and lit it, then offered me one. I shook my head. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, waiting for me to go on, but I didn't.

"Christ, why's it like pulling teeth to get one little answer outta ya?" He said. I tried not to notice that he was really handsome up close, but I reminded myself that he wanted to beat the shit out of my cousin.

"Why do you give a damn? I'm just some nobody from out of town." I said. I didn't know whether it would be better or worse for me to keep Gordie's name out of it, but for now I tried to be as evasive as possible.

"No chick's ever kneed me in the nutsack before." Ace said. I didn't know how to respond, so I tried my best not to go to pieces over his lustful voice.

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." I whispered to myself as I closed my eyes. I figured maybe a few Bible verses would snap some sense into me, but no such luck. Ace turned to face me.

"What was that?" He asked. I shrugged helplessly.

"Nothing." I said. Ace leaned in closer to me, the cigarette from his mouth casting wisps of smoke around my face.

"I know that King James shit when I hear it." He said. I felt the color drain from my face. Ace picked up on my nervousness and smiled. His face was barely two inches away from mine.

"You gotta crush on me or something?" He said. As much as I wanted to give him a smart-ass comeback, I couldn't think of a thing to say. My brain was getting all fuzzy. I had never felt this stupid around a boy before.

When I didn't answer, Ace seemed to take it as a confirmation.

"I thought you dropped out of school last year." I blurted out about a minute later. Ace had since moved back into his own personal space and took a deep drag from his cigarette.

"I came back. Lucky you." He said. He glanced over at me and it began to sink in just how weird this was. What the hell was Ace trying to pull, here? I screwed up some fraction of the courage I'd had when I gave him a hard knee to the crotch and stared him down.

"Look, unless you've come to apologize for making my first day of school a living nightmare, I don't think we have anything else to say to each other." I said. I took out a faded copy of 'A Room of One's Own' and began to read, hoping Ace would leave me alone if I ignored him long enough. Of course, it had rather the opposite effect.

"What's this?" Ace said, pulling the book from me and flipping through the pages without really reading them. I let him, even though it made me extremely anxious.

"What's the big deal? So this Virginia's got her own room. Who the fuck cares?" He added. I smirked a little and held my hand out patiently.

"I care. It means Virginia can do her own thing." I said. The book had been given to me by a special person, and I'd always treasured it both as a gift and as an encouraging guide. Ace tossed the book in my lap and rolled his eyes.

"You're weird, Godiva, you know that?" He said. I was never going to live that down.

"How about you? Don't you care about anything besides fast cars and fast babes?" I asked. Actually I didn't really know what he cared about, but I decided to stick with the stereotype.

"I care about money." Ace said. He had me there. I cared about money lately, too. Mom didn't have a job and we were basically living off whatever my dad sent to us. If he didn't put up the money for me to go to college, I didn't know if I had a snowball's chance in Hades of getting there on my own.

"Me too." I admitted. I didn't know what Ace's money problems were, but he didn't look too happy about them. He fixed me with a nasty look and pitched his cigarette butt in the grass.

"Get a load of this. Diamond Doll from Chicago likes money." He said. Apparently I had done something wrong. Again.

"How'd you know I was from..." I began. Before I could finish, Ace had stood up and brushed himself off. He leaned against the tree and hovered over me in an intimidating way.

"I'd watch your back from now on, rich kid. Don't say I didn't warn ya." Ace told me. Then he walked away and I was left alone underneath the tree wondering what had just happened. Not one bit of our conversation made any sense to me. But at least I knew enough to realize I hadn't exactly mended any fences.

The school day ended without fanfare, the Cobras having more or less ignored me since lunch. Gordie and I began walking home beside Chris while Teddy and Vern lagged behind.

"Clubhouse?" Gordie asked. Without speaking, the boys agreed. And I was rather pleased to note that they hadn't seemed nearly as jumpy as yesterday.

"Hey, Gordie." I asked. Gordie looked up at me.

"Have there been any...rumors going around about me?" I said. Gordie kinda shrugged.

"Nothing that isn't true." He said. I stared down at my feet and wondered what the "truth" was.

"So what's been said?" I repeated.

"Nothing major. Just that you moved here from Chicago after your dad died." Gordie said. I didn't know if I'd heard right.

"Died?" I said.

"Yeah, and he left you a million dollars in his will. Which makes you the richest goddam person in town." Vern said, coming up behind me. Gordie and Chris glared at Vern until he shut up.

"What?" I sputtered. If only it were true.

I stayed quiet while the boys headed off to the clubhouse. We parted ways and I went home by myself, wondering who would start a rumor like that.

I came in through the kitchen door and immediately raced to the fridge. Thinking could wait.

"Hi, sweetie. How was your first day?" My mom had ducked into the kitchen and leaned against the wall as I took out everything I needed to make a big-ass sandwich.

"What are you wearing?" She said as I emerged from behind the refrigerator door.

"I changed on the way home." I lied. As I haphazardly threw my sandwich together, my mother went behind me cleaning up my messes.

"Rough day?" She asked. I slumped into a chair at the kitchen table and took my first bite.

"Yeah considering there are a bunch of horrible rumors going around about me." I said with my mouth full. My mother appeared to be quite concerned as she took a seat beside me.

"What rumors? And don't talk with your mouth full." Mom said. I rolled my eyes and swallowed.

"That Dad is dead and he left me a million bucks." I told her. When my mother didn't look the least bit surprised - actually, she seemed pretty relieved - I furrowed my brows in confusion.

"Oh, that stuff? Just little white lies." She said. I dropped my sandwich.

"You mean you said all that stuff?"

"How do you think they'd treat us if I said I was getting a divorce?" Mom said. We both flinched at the word. Suddenly I was hard-pressed to blame her. She had a pretty good point. We'd be social pariahs for life.

"Well, how about the million dollars?" I asked at length. Mom chuckled a bit.

"That was just something I told your uncle so I could see the look on his face. Sometimes his holier-than-thou attitude really drives me up the wall." My mom conceded.

My Uncle did have a tendency to act all superior. For years he'd been bragging about Dennis as if he'd been some sort of god among men. No wonder Gordie was quiet all the time.

"Yeah, but now I got people thinking I'm a whiny little rich girl." I said. I suddenly understood why Ace had been so disgusted with me. And call me crazy, but I really cared what he thought about me.

"I'm sorry, sweetie. But you'll meet some true friends who won't care about the money. Just give it time." She said. I nodded miserably and finished my sandwich. I had wanted to bring up my schedule with her, but I found I was a little too scared. What if she told me I couldn't go to college?

It was a conversation for another day. A less trying day.