Are You in the House Alone? Read online

  I wasn’t really that ready for boys. My hair felt funny around them, like it wasn’t falling as smooth as Natalie’s. And here were all these senior guys swooping their trays, reaching for cool. Even some of the more evolved jocks. Several swimmers like the Brolin brothers. A couple of track-and-field types. And student government leaders like Bob Silverman. Once in a while Spence Myers, who edited the school newspaper and had taken it online: www.pondscum.edu. Once in a rare while Spence Myers.

  Sometimes I wondered why we didn’t see more of Spence. He was so much like Tanya, at least in my head. Spiritual twins or something. Bookends holding up the whole senior class. In any group of guys, Spence was the one you noticed. In any group of girls, Tanya was the only one you saw. On a TV soap they’d be a couple—hooking up, breaking up, getting back together—all the fun stuff in a lollipop-colored world. Why weren’t they a couple here in reality? Or were they?

  I listened a lot to all the conversation buzzing around our table, whether I could process it or not. SATs were behind them. Now the buzzing boys were talking college: how to put together a great essay to promote yourself to colleges, and how to pad your profile. How to package yourself.

  And early admissions. And winter term community service that would look good on your application. Building clinics in Guatemala or Sierra Leone or wherever. Also peer counseling and inner-city tutoring. But more important than all that, the prom. And who’d be giving the A-list after-prom parties.

  Tanya wasn’t into colleges, though I hadn’t noticed that yet. But the prom was a different matter. Juniors give the prom in honor of the seniors. And last year Tanya was naturally head of the prom committee. She and Natalie were co-chairs, and it was the greatest prom ever. The theme was “Evening in Paris,” and Tanya had the ballroom of the Beekman Manor done over like Versailles or somewhere, with crystal Eiffel Towers. And she had the fathers of the juniors parking the cars in tuxedos. Then when the juniors’ mothers wanted to help with coat check and serving refreshments, Tanya barred them completely. Evidently it was great. Those seniors were probably still talking about it.

  As the Titanic goes down, will she

  accept her fate or fulfill her destiny?

  Be sure to catch Richard Peck’s

  dramatic novel Amanda/Miranda,

  full of intrigue and romance

  aboard the fated Titanic!

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