"So remind me why we couldn't be roommates this year?" Holly whispered to Kyle as she wrinkled her nose with distaste at the name under her own on the official-looking page in her hand.

"Um, because we can't afford priority housing, so we did the lottery again?" Kyle smoothed a white chunk of hair down against her head, scratching the dark roots of her pixie cut with a purple nail.

"But I didn't think Sarah Wenham would be doing the lottery too. Sarah Best Friends With The Kateasaurus Rex Wenham." Kyle frowned up at her friend.

"Sarah's nice. You should give people more of a chance." Of course Sarah was nice to Kyle. Most people were nice to Kyle. She was pretty. She looked like Twiggy, or maybe Edie Sedgwick with better eyebrows.

"I'll give anyone a chance who gives me a reason to."

"Isn't that kind of an oxymoron?"

"Shut up. Hey, when does Jeremy get-"

"Hey, are you-" Came a voice from somewhere behind Holly.

"The girl who Reid pushed in the pool last year. Yes. What?" Turning, Holly came face to face with a pretty blonde girl who was in the process of offering a hand to shake.

"Well, actually I was going to say aren't you the Holly who had that piece published in Ink magazine? But um, that's good to know too." Sarah bit back a smirk at the bright splotches covering the taller girl's face.

"Oh… uh… yuh. I guess." YUH?!?! Since when is Yuh a word?

"You're an amazing writer. I thought that poem was so… eloquent, I guess. Really really beautiful."

"Uh.." How about I try for a non-grunt this time. "Thanks?" Good enough.

"I'm Sarah Wenham." Holly shook the girl's small, annoyingly non-callused hand.

"Holly Donnelly."

"You're my new roommate, I believe?"

"Yeah, I guess." Good. Multisyllabic response. Shows improvement.

"Do you know what floor we're on?"

"The first, cause it's room 112. The floor number's always the first number. At least I won't actually have to do anything that might constitute as exercise just to get to my room." Last year she had been on the fifth floor, and Sarah smiled at her in understanding.

"But there will be more annoying freshman girls hanging around."

"Too true. We call them freshmeat." Sarah laughed then, and Holly caught herself watching the girl.

"Hmm? Do I have something in my hair?" A pale hand reached up to hover above golden strands.

"What? No, I was just thinking that you were different… than I'd thought you might be."

"Less of a snobby bitch?" Sarah teased, but her smile was genuine.

"Maybe," Holly allowed, ducking her head.

"Well, I'll make a confession, I guess, then. I was intimidated to be your roommate." Holly raised an eyebrow, incredulous. "No, seriously. I've only been expounding on the virtues of your writing in Ink all summer to Caleb. I was sure you were going to be a too-cool-for-school, Parliament smoking Eric Stoltz type character from Some Kind of Wonderful and think I was such a dweeb."

"I love Some Kind of Wonderful!" Holly's enthusiasm surprised even herself. "It's my favorite John Hughes movie," both girls finished together, before Holly ducked her head once more, and they laughed. Sarah lead the way to their new room, key in hand. If she didn't watch out Holly might just find herself becoming friends with the second-most popular girl in Spencer. She couldn't have that, now, could she?

They reached the room and Sarah rolled her eyes at Holly when she realized they were sandwiched between a room shared by two incoming freshman boys who could be heard fighting loudly with their online Halo team and a triple occupied by what could politely be called the Britney Spears Fan Club of all sophomores. Sarah opened the door with a deft twist of the old key in her hand, pushing it open to allow Holly to walk in before her. She stopped just inside the threshold, turning to the blonde girl.

"Don't worry," her voice was low, playful. "I mostly stick with smoking Marlboros."

--

"What do you mean, I'm not on the team???" Reid's voice was incredulous; he looked ready to hit Coach Lavender in the face with a kick board.

"I mean that the school board has decided that, given last years…accident, it would be best for you not to take part in Spencer's esteemed water sports program."

"How the fuck was I supposed to know she couldn't swim??" Lavender hesitated, the look on his face begging the boy to let it go so he could go back to reading one of the Playboys he kept in the bottom drawer or his desk.

"It was less the incident itself and more the fact that you expressed a discomfiting lack of remorse, as well as failing to so much as attempt to come to Miss Donnelly's aide." Reid shifted in his chair, feet jiggling impatiently.

"Did you learn those big words in your big board meeting?" The teen's blue eyes were cold.

"Garwin…" Coach Lavender rumbled warningly.

"Tyler had it under control, anyone could see that."

"And that kind of response is precisely what I- and the school board- mean. Your attitude towards your peers is concerning, and the school is hesitant to have you in a place of competition against some who might feel… unsafe, around you." Reid ripped a hand through his hair, growing more and more irritated. Time to try a new tactic.

"Look, Mr. L, dude- er, Coach Lavender… I completely understand. I have had… problems with my attitude in the past, but who hasn't?" He smiled, spreading his hands in an "I'm innocent" sort of gesture that a blind man wouldn't buy. "How can I convince you that I should be allowed to participate with my fellow athletes? This is my last season, Coach. There'll be scouts…" Lavender sighed, examining his hands in front of him. Losing a varsity swimmer as they entered their senior year wasn't exactly high on his list of priorities, either. Reid took nearly every backstroke event in the league. There had to be some way to convince the school board…

"Look, Garwin. Perhaps you can convince the school board that you have grown some, gained moral fiber. You give Miss Donnelly swim lessons, convince her to join the team and I'm sure I can try and work something out."

"What? Convince Drowning Donnelly to swim? You've got to be kidding me." Reid laughed, surprised Coach L had found a sense of humor hiding somewhere under that stack of Playboys- probably with the copy featuring Olympic swimmer Amanda Beard on the cover. Holly Donnelly was as likely to take swimming lessons from him as she was to pose nude on the cover of a magazine.

"This is no laughing matter, Garwin. You do it, we'll talk. You don't, you'll be high and dry come swim season."

Well, shit.