Chapter Ten
The Rumor Mill

"Luke Morgan Castellan, get your ass down here!"

Thalia giggled. "Your middle name is Morgan? Isn't that kind of…girly?" She was lucky she was so cute.

This was how I loved to start out my mornings. "Tell you about it later," I groaned. My head was pounding, and everything that had happened last night was kind of hazy. Something told me Mom was going to be less than sympathetic.

I was right. The screaming started the second I walked into the kitchen. "Why is Thalia up in your room? Don't think I didn't hear you two stumble in this morning. I thought you'd have more class than that – the girl's mom just died. But you just love taking advantage of people, don't you? I hope you don't get in trouble for being at that party. That's right, I knew about it. Word gets around in a small town. You're this close to being expelled. The school called me. It's October. How can you almost be expelled?"

I quit listening after the part about being classy, but tuned in to the very end. It's how I normally got through mom's rants, and she couldn't tell the difference. "I got caught drinking, then I was apparently being a smartass in history class. What happened next? I think I was looking at questionable content on the school computer. No, that was last year. I remember now; I broke Kelsey Forester's arm." Lack of sleep factored in with a killer hangover brought out my inner smartass.

Okay, maybe a little too much so. Mom was shaking, like literally, shaking. She narrowed her eyes. "I hope one day you realize what it's like to have a child half as terrible as you," she spat.

"You think I'm ever going to be stupid enough to have kids?" I returned her glare. She always backed down first, and today was no exception. She turned on her heels and started doing dishes with a ferocity that kind of scared me.

I turned around and headed back to my room. "I'm taking Thalia home."

"Don't rush back," she shouted.

No problem.

Thalia was sitting on my bed, staring at my phone. She'd thrown her costume in the trash and was wearing one of my old shirts and a pair of basketball shorts. Only she could leave for two years, come back, and automatically think she was entitled to go through my stuff. Again, she was lucky she was so cute.

She glared at me and shoved the phone in my face. "Look at this."

"Nice phone."

"The text, dumbass."

It was from an unknown number. there ws a nark the parti last nite. big trouble monday. b prepared. admit nthing. Okay, seriously? Who texted like that? Well, besides the little kids in grade school who thought they were so cool because they had phones. Because of the sheer shittiness of their typing, it took me a few minutes to understand what they were trying to say.

"The whole high school was at that party. It's not like they can do anything?" She looked to me with wide eyes.

"This person is probably some nerd with no life. I bet it's not even true. And they wouldn't be able to suspend the whole school."

But if this was true, and Percy Jackson had gone there, I was in big trouble.

Shit. I hated being a fake mentor.

"I hated the party," Clarisse grumbled. "Thank God we left early."

Bianca di Angelo's party had been terrible. I'd never be able to get my shot at Luke as long as Thalia was around – that much was obvious. She'd been all over him at the party, and he hadn't seemed to be complaining.

I'd spent the rest of our little stay at the party making out with the new kid – the one on the swim team. He tasted like chlorine. I know, it was kind of really gross.

Oh, and Chris hadn't been there for Clarisse. Big deal. She still had a chance at him.

After maybe an hour or two at the party, we'd gone to my house and watched a few scary movies, followed by The Last Song. Clarisse pretended I made her watch it, but that lie was totally busted when I caught her drooling over Liam Hemsworth.

"Yeah. Halloween party. How junior high can you get?" I rolled my eyes and continued flipping through an old People magazine.

Clarisse groaned and put the TV on mute – she'd been watching a football game while I worked my way through a stack of tabloids. Sports just couldn't hold my interest like gossip could when I was in this kind of mood.

"Silena, you could have any guy you wanted at the snap of your fingers."

"Except the one I want," I argued. "And you only hated the party because Chris wasn't there."

"He probably left when he saw there was booze there. Basketball season is coming up, and you can't play if you get caught drinking," Clarisse protested. "Remember last year when track almost went to state? Then Castellan got kicked off the team because he got caught smoking."

I tried to hide my reaction. I still hadn't told Clarisse about my hopeless crush on Luke, and there was no reason to now that Thalia had him in her slutty little clutches. I mean, really? Did you see what she was wearing? Apparently girls without boobs had to find other ways of catching a guy's eye – like showing an unbelievable amount of skin.

I'd almost torn the People magazine in half. Real discreet.

Clarisse laughed. "Really? You like Luke? I'm sorry, but everyone knows that now that Thalia's back…"

I was fuming. "What? Just because the bitch was his best friend a million years ago? Did you hear them in the hallway the other day? They-"

"Slept together. Yeah, the whole school heard, and people have been betting on how long it would take them to get back together. And you saw them at the party. I'm sorry, but he's hers." She had this haughty expression on her face, all oh, your guy has been snatched up by his undying love, but mine is still up for grabs.

I tell you, whoever thought this girl's only interests were cross country, basketball, and softball couldn't be more off. She was the definition of well-rounded: sports by day, The Bachelor and gossip by night. Except I was the only one who knew it.

And right now she was being a total bitch. Well, two could play at that game. "I heard a rumor that Chris really likes girls who are all boho earthy, like Katie Gardner. He'd totally go out with her if she went for guys like him."

Clarisse grunted. "Last week I heard rumors that you got a boob job over the summer and slept with the entire archery team. And we both know you'd never get work done, and you're still a virgin. People say shit just to hear their own voices."

That, and to make life a whole lot more interesting. "Whatever. Long story short, I can't get Luke. You can't get Chris. Let's go get some ice cream, watch The Notebook, and cry."

Clarisse got this wicked glint in her eyes. "Or…we figure out how we're going to get both of them."

"That'd be awesome. We could be, like, the school's power couples. But it's impossible."

She rolled her eyes. "Think about it. Who was Luke's best friend after Thalia left?"

Ooh. That's where she was going with this. I grinned. "Chris."

"They got into this big argument after Luke got kicked off the track team. Chris thought cheating was contagious or something, and he didn't want to get kicked off the baseball team when he was their starting shortstop. But, you know, that'd be water under the bridge if his girlfriend could just talk some sense into him." I wondered where she heard that. I was her number one source for gossip, and no one had told me that one.

"And his girlfriend could convince Chris of what a bitch Thalia is, and then he'd tell Luke, who would break up with her…and get together with the girlfriend's best friend!" I giggled excitedly.

"So all we need to do for us both to get what we want-"

"Is hook you up with Chris!"

I loved manipulating people. It definitely filled up some of my free time since The Hills had been cancelled.

Thalia wasn't going to know what hit her.