The It Girl by Cecily von Ziegesar Page B

in Brillo clumps on his head, and his tiny silver stud earring glinted in the harsh light of the hall.
    Easy quickly jumped off Jenny’s bed, pulled on his jeans, and grabbed his shirt.
    “Dude.” He strode right up to Mr. Pardee. “I was never here.”
    “You weren’t … what?” Mr. Pardee said, blinking furiously.
    “You don’t see me.”
    “Easy, I
do
see you.” Pardee sounded as if he were trying to convince himself. “You’ve used this line on me before.”
    “Nope,” Easy replied. “I was never here.” He dashed into the hall.
    “Wait—where are you going?” Mr. Pardee shouted. But it was too late. He shook his head and turned back to Jenny. Not knowing exactly what to do, she hadn’t moved. Mr. Pardee might have been the dorm mistress’s husband, but Jenny had heard he was also a total druggie. Supposedly, he only graded the French exams after smoking a spliff or two.
    Maybe he was too wasted right now to even know what was going on?
    “That wasn’t cool.” Mr. Pardee burped slightly. “No guys in the room except during visiting hour.”
    “I know, but—” Jenny sputtered.
    “Man.” Mr. Pardee was glaring at the condoms on the floor. No one had bothered to pick them up yet. “This doesn’t look good.”
    “What’s going on?” Callie stood in the doorway, right behind him.
    “I’m gonna have to report this,” the teacher announced through a stoned yawn. “I mean, Angelica will have to—”
    “No, wait!” Jenny pleaded. She couldn’t possibly be in trouble on the first day of school.
    “Hell
o
?” Callie repeated. “What’s going on?” Jenny noticed Mr. Pardee eyeing the sliver of skin between Callie’s low-hanging American Apparel shorts and her mesh Only Hearts camisole. The alligator on her bra peeked through its tiny holes.
    “Easy was in here,” he stated matter-of-factly.
    “Easy?!” Callie replied in a shocked tone, as if Mr. Pardee had said,
I saw monkeys drinking beer
!
    “Where were you?” Pardee asked.
    Callie scowled and rolled her eyes. “I was in the library. I’m just getting back.”
    Jenny stared at her incredulously. Pardee seemed to buy this story, even though it was the middle of the night and Callie was hardly wearing any clothes, no shoes, and didn’t have a back-pack or any books on her.
    “So what was Easy doing here?” Callie glared at Jenny as if to say,
Don’t fuck this up
.
    Mr. Pardee raised an eyebrow. “Well?”
    A suspicious, hurt look clouded Callie’s face. It was an acting job worthy of an Oscar. “Was something …
going on
?”
    Mr. Pardee shuffled his feet. “They were in bed together.”
    “But we weren’t
doing
anything!” Jenny defended.
    “Then why does it look like a Costco-size box of condoms exploded in here?” Mr. Pardee demanded.
    Callie rolled her eyes. “I can’t believe it. You little bitch!” she shouted at Jenny, yanking up her shirt in frustration to expose her stomach. Mr. Pardee stared hungrily at her field hockey-toned midriff. Callie wiggled her eyebrows at Jenny.
Keep going
, she mouthed.
    Jenny’s eyes widened. She wasn’t going to let Callie make her take blame for this!
    “Mr. Pardee, this is a big misunderstanding,” Jenny pleaded, not even caring that the tone of her voice was getting squeaky. “I really wasn’t doing anything!”
    But Mr. Pardee shrugged. “We’ll find out in DC.”
    “What?” Jenny said.
    “Disciplinary Committee,
whore-bag
,” Callie spat.
    “Callie, enough!” Mr. Pardee commanded. “Jenny, do you know who your adviser is?”
    “It’s, um, Mr. Dalton?” That was what the welcome-to-Waverly letter addressed to Mister Jennifer Humphrey had said, anyway.
    “Right. He’s new. Okay. You’ll report to Stansfield Hall to Mr. Dalton’s office at nine-thirty tomorrow. I’m not sure which room he’s in, but check the map on the first floor. He’ll evaluate your situation before it gets kicked up to DC.” He fiddled with his earring. “Got that? Good.