Most days she believed that.

Then she met Claire Bennett.

Claire was standing behind Maya in the cafeteria line on a Tuesday afternoon when they first spoke.

Maya was deciding whether the cafeteria’s baked chicken looked edible when a voice behind her said, “You know you’re blocking everybody, right?”

Maya glanced over her shoulder.

A heavyset white girl with long light-brown hair stood holding a turquoise lunch tray against one hip. She wore a gray T-shirt over a white long-sleeved shirt, faded jeans, and the kind of smirk that suggested the comment had been meant for more than one person.

There were two students between Claire and the next person in line.

Nobody appeared blocked.

Maya looked back at the food.

“I’ll try to recover from the embarrassment.”

The cafeteria worker almost laughed.

Claire did not.

“What?”

Maya picked up a pair of serving tongs.

“I said I’m moving.”

She placed chicken on her tray and continued down the line.

That should have been the end of it.

It was not.

Claire Bennett had attended Harrison Ridge since sixth grade. She was not a cheerleader, class president, star athlete, or anything else that would explain the amount of influence she seemed to have over certain students. What Claire possessed instead was a talent for discovering weakness and making other people laugh at it before the person being targeted could decide how to respond.

She had friends in every grade.

Not close friends, necessarily.

An audience.

That was more useful.

Claire could walk into a cafeteria, point at somebody’s shoes, say two words, and cause six people to laugh. She knew which freshmen were desperate to belong, which seniors enjoyed cruelty as long as it arrived disguised as a joke, and which teachers would rather say ignore her than spend an afternoon documenting a complaint.

Maya learned most of that from Jordan Kim, the boy assigned to the desk beside hers in AP Statistics.

Jordan had watched Claire stare at Maya for nearly an entire class period after the cafeteria exchange.

“You make friends fast,” he said.

Maya looked at him.

“What?”

“Claire.”

“I don’t know Claire.”

“She knows you.”

“That sounds ominous.”

“It’s not ominous.”

Jordan thought about it.

“Maybe a little.”

Maya went back to her worksheet.

“What did I do?”

“You didn’t react.”

“To what?”

“Her.”

Maya laughed.

“That’s a thing?”