Chapter 2: Ivy
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Cheyenne opened the door to her room, and she and Damian stepped inside. Ivy was sitting on her bed playing with her laptop computer. Her black horn-rimmed glasses made her face look a little like a raccoon's. Ivy glances up from her computer and saw Cheyenne and Damian standing in the doorway.
Ivy's first reaction was to take off her glasses. Cheyenne frowned when she saw this; the only reason Ivy ever took off her glasses was to talk to a cute boy. Still, Cheyenne wasn't too worried. After all, although she was certainly pretty enough, Ivy was a little awkward in conversation. Of the two of them, Cheyenne was definitely more of a social butterfly, and guys flocked to her much more than they did to Ivy.
Damian dropped his hand from Cheyenne's arm and walked over to Ivy. "What are you doing?" he asked Ivy after Cheyenne had introduced the two of them.
"Hacking into the Clay Heuristics website," Ivy said excitedly. "I'm only a couple firewalls away from the company's innermost secrets."
Cheyenne yawned and waited for Damian to politely lose interest in Ivy and turn his attention back to her. To her dismay, this didn't happen.
"That's awesome!" Damian exclaimed. "I actually want to be a software engineer when I graduate college, but my dad wants me to start out as an executive in the family shipping business."
Cheyenne groaned to herself. She would have to fall in love with the world's only movie star-handsome computer nerd. Why couldn't Damian be into wine tasting or stamp collecting, normal hobbies for guys of their social class, something that Cheyenne knew at least a little bit about?
"You should go for it," Ivy advised Damian. "That way, you can build security systems to keep out hackers like me." She laughed and patted the bed next to her. "Sit down, I'll show you how I'm doing it."
Damian hesitated, then shook his head. "I can't, I got to get unpacked and grab some dinner before evening chapel. But listen, I was wondering. Maybe you'd want to have dinner at the Red Barn next Friday?"
Cheyenne closed her eyes, then slowly opened them again. She had passed the Red Barn on her way into Easton. As far as Cheyenne could tell, the Red Barn was the only fancy restaurant in Easton. The fact that Damian had asked Ivy on a date there meant he liked her a lot, maybe almost as much as Cheyenne liked him.
Ivy glanced uneasily at Cheyenne, then smiled at Damian. "I'd love to."
Damian smiled back. "Cool. I'll try to stop by after chapel. Take care, Ivy. You too, Cheyenne. Put an ice pack on your head if it still hurts." He flashed Ivy one final grin, then picked up his lacrosse stick and left, whistling under his breath as he did so.
"How could you do that?" Cheyenne hissed as Ivy put her glasses back on. "I'm in love with him! Wasn't it obvious?"
Ivy glared at her. "First of all, no, it wasn't obvious. And second, you fall in love with a new guy every few days. By the time next Friday rolls around, you'll have a new crush and you'll forget all about Damian."
Cheyenne shook her head. Ivy had a point, but this was no crush; this was true love, something she'd never felt before. Cheyenne could easily imagine herself and Damian married in ten years. If only Ivy wasn't in the way…
"Shy?" Ivy was waving her hand in front of Cheyenne's face. "Are we still friends?"
Cheyenne considered this. There was an old saying: "Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer." Ivy might be good at computers, but Cheyenne was a master at manipulating people into doing what she wanted. One way or another, she would get Damian. And when she did…
Cheyenne smiled broadly as she hugged Ivy. "Friends," she agreed. "We'll always be friends."