Callie Vernon chomped into a slice of cheese pizza. Usually she wouldn't even touch the stuff, but tonight's pizza party was for her, so she might as well eat, right?

Well, actually the party was for Tinsley Carmichael, Kara Whalen and Brett Messerschmitt, too, but she liked to pretend she didn't have to share the spotlight with anyone else.

It was their going-away party. The girls had been transferred to Octavian Country Day School For Girls, and they were celebrating it in Callie and Jenny's now mostly empty dorm room in Dumbarton.

"Hey, Cal." Verena, a ninth grader, sat next to Callie. "Why so glum?"

"I can't believe that after we got this room, the best one in this whole dorm, and we're leaving it!"

"Oh, come on. This means I get it now, and you'll always be able to come back. I'll have a spare bed and everything." Verena smiled. "It's not like I plan on sharing the room with some random nobody."

"True," Callie admitted. The she stood up and brushed some pizza crumbs off of her blue BCBGirls wraparound dress and walked away, towards the center of the party. "Hi," she said as she wriggled in next to Tinsley and Brett.

"Hi, Callie," Brett responded. "Is my hair more orange than the last time I saw you? I swear it is."

"No," Callie snapped. Brett was always worried that her punk-rock stylist would use a red-yellow dye on her instead of a red-blue.

"I swear it is." Brett lifted a chunk of her chin-length bob and inspected it. "Ugh…" She sighed crossly and sipped at her margarita glass.

Callie did a double take. Brett? Drinking alcohol? Whoa.

Seeing Callie's look of surprise, Brett released her hair and smiled. "Relax, its just Gatorade."

"Oh," Callie laughed. "I knew that."

"Of course. Just like you knew that Tinsley was organizing our transfer to OCD, not that Constance Billard school."

"Constance what?" Callie asked.

"Exactly." Tinsley laughed on Callie's other side. "OCD sounded a lot more bubbly. It also stands for obsessive-compulsive disorder, you know."

They laughed. "Wow, what a great name," Callie fake-gushed.

"I know! Sounds a lot more fun that CB, though." Tinsley giggled, her violet eyes flashing wickedly. "And it's co-ed now, too. Used to be all girls, and that's just no fun."

"Definitely," Brett and Callie said, smiling.

"So it's official? We're enrolled at OCD?" Callie asked.

"Would I have made you pack up the best room in Dumbarton if we weren't?" Tinsley asked. She stared at Callie with her freaky eyes.

"No," Callie responded softly.

"We leave tomorrow morning, Cal." Tinsley hugged her friend. "Don't worry, this is guaranteed to be fun."

000000

"It better be," Callie murmured to herself the next morning, as she closed the door to Dumbarton 301 for one last time.

She walked down the halls of Dumbarton with Tinsley and Brett on each side. Girls opened their doors and shouted their goodbyes. One freshman girl stepped forward and presented the trio with small bouquets of roses.

"A parting gift from the ladies of Dumbarton," she said. "Everyone here wishes you good luck at your new school. However much the Waverly student body will miss your presence, we wish you nothing but the best. May you find yourself at the top of the social ladder, the first names on the honor roll. There is a rose for each thing we wish for you: good fortune, luck, happiness, friends, academic success, popularity, and perfection. Don't unwrap the stems until you're at your new school. They will bring you success and good fortune, and a little surprise."

Then the whole freshman, junior, and sophomore classes cried out, "You will be welcomed back with opened arms should you decide to visit our humble dorm."

Callie remembered her freshman year. She'd been chosen to do the same speech to the graduating seniors at the end of the year. And even though she, Brett, and Tinsley all knew what was a the bottom of the tiny pile of tissue paper from being forced to make twenty of the little bundles for outgoing seniors, she still wanted to see the gift in her hands, shining with that familiar promising newness that each new day held.

Finally, hope that someone could hold in their hands. Now she knew why the outgoing seniors' rooms always had their lights on until deep into the night before they left.

They were crying.