"What's your name?" I asked.

He glanced at me, then at the Mace in my hand, and grinned, flashing his even, white teeth. His blond hair whipped around his head. Despite the bizarre number of midges buzzing around this desert, he still drove his convertible with the top down. My face had cobalt lash marks from my hair. How this guy avoided eating his own curls, I had no idea.

"Jack," he told me, hanging one arm over the rolled-down window. "Jack Knightly."

"Alyssa Carde." I started to hold out my hand to shake, but then I realized it was covered in sapphire splatter. And he was driving. Wouldn't want to make the boyfriend crash. So I tucked it back into the crook of my arm, hoping he hadn't noticed the gesture.

"I know," he said. "Lily's made a point of letting everyone know she hates you."

"Well, whoop-de-do for her," I muttered, crossing my blue arms over my blue chest. Was I turning his fancy-schmancy, white leather bucket seat blue, too? You bet. Did he seem to notice or care? Oddly enough, no. "What's her problem, anyway?" I kicked my backpack for emphasis.

"You're new, so I'm going to let you in on a little secret," he said, sliding into the far right lane. We were coming up on Stoker Street, where my house was. "Pillar High has two factions, and only two factions - white and red. Lily is white, and Geneva Carson is red. It's like the Sharks and the Jets, except with colors instead of ethnicity."

I arched my eyebrow.

"You've seen West Side Story?"

He laughed. He had a nice laugh, rich and full of vibrato, like velvet. It was an adult laugh, though, which made me look at him a little closer. Was he a fifth-year senior? No, because Pillar High didn't take anyone below a D average and he'd have had to flunk twelfth grade. So why did he sound so grown-up just then?

"Several times. Anyway, you made an enemy of Lily. She's used to getting her own way. That makes you Geneva's flunky right away."

"It's going to be a right onto Stoker. And I'm not her flunky," I added, practically spitting out the words. Jeez, a flunky? Who's a flunky? "I don't even know anyone named Geneva."

"You don't know... oh, right, you haven't been to lunch. Well, tomorrow during lunch period, then, you'll probably meet Geneva - she's hard to miss. She's obnoxious, though, just to warn you. You two probably wouldn't get along."

"I can't really trust your opinion on girls," I told him frankly. My hands frantically tried to keep the blue-coated strands of my hair from whipping into my mouth. I didn't know if tempera was toxic, but I didn't want to risk poisoning myself by accident. "You're dating Lily-the-Lunatic. You'd probably consider Mother Teresa a bad influence."

His mouth tightened and he glared at the road. Crap. Had I said something to piss him off? My thumb stroked the nozzle of my Mace can.

"I'm not dating Lily," he said through clenched teeth.

"Huh?"

"She's not my girlfriend."

I'll admit it: I gawped at him again. My mouth popped open, my eyes bugged out, and everything. So, apparently Mr. Stud-Muffin from Mars wasn't dating the blond psycho, but he hung out with her anyway even though he didn't really seem to like her all that much? Was I missing something or was it just me?

"Are you dating one of her posse?"

"I would honestly rather eat crap-flavored dirt," he informed me deliberately. "They're all idiots."

"Are you gay?"

I had to make sure.

He shot me a confused look before signaling and hanging a right onto my street. I kept my eyes open, but I lived at 221B and we were in 1045D. We had about twenty minutes of winding residential road before we got to my house. Hopefully, my parents wouldn't be home. Glancing at Jack, I realized he was still eyeing me with a puzzled look on his face.

"What?" I said.

"Why would you think I was gay?"

"Are you?"

"No."

"Just checking," I said. "Don't be offended, it has nothing to do with your masculinity." Hell, no, it didn't. A guy like that? Blond, with eyes like twin onyxes against tan skin and the lean muscles of a weight lifter who worked more for tone than bulk, Jack Knightly looked like he'd just crawled off the cover of Playgirl. I was salivating just thinking about it. "I was only wondering why Blondie didn't have her hooks all in you, since you were so close to her. It would make sense if you had a boyfriend."

"I'm single."

Oh, really?