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"You don’t get anywhere thinking suy can really pull it off? Do you think the parents are gonna deliver?"

"Honestly?" Lucy said "Sam’s parents didn’t come this far to keep us safe They caonna try I’m pretty sure my mo "Mine too This is gonna rule"

"You are evil," Lucy said

Raunch cackled, "No, Saood out of it, thanks to Gates I heard that before the quarantine, he took over an airport and threw a three-day party"

"I don’t think so"

"I heard he punched, like, eight cops," Raunch said

"I heard it was one At a Kmart"

Raunch looked Lucy up and down "You think he’s bullshit, huh?"

"I’m just not convinced he’s the school’s savior like everybody else is, that’s all," Lucy said

"Well, I heard those St Pat’s kids were snobs, but after today, I think I like rich kids Especially ones that like to spread it around I wonder if Gates has got a yacht…"

It went on like that between Lucy and Raunch for the rest of the walk back to the cafeteria Lucy had stopped arguing with her when she realized Raunch wasn’t ever interested in resolving any points she brought up, she just liked to talk Lucy had found her first real friend in the Sluts

Lucy wondered if Will had gotten close with anyone in the Saints In spite of the way he’d talked to her in the Stairs, she still worried about hi with a bunch of strangers They didn’t know hiood influence But he had people looking out for hi And as hard as she kneas to ask for his epilepsy medication in front of everyone, she was proud that he was brave enough to do it For a split second out there she had wanted to run to him and wrap him in her arms In that moment she missed him like crazy But that was pointless They lived in different worlds now He’d made his decisions and she’d made hers

As Lucy walked into the cafeteria, Raunch was doing an impression of Sam with his face taped like a mummy This was the third tiot Lucy each tihs

Raunch said in her best Saerated and fierce, "How dare you! How … dare … you …" then shestruck by the hammer "Bwuh--"

Raunch fell into Lucy so she had to catch her trian to unload bags of food and supplies at the doorway to the pantry hall, while others started stripping down out of their food drop arer weapons

Every Slut carried a knife Lucy kept hers sheathed in a water-warped paperback that she tied around her thigh with cooking twine It was a norround into a nasty point, and the cutting edge had been hammered until it was paper thin The h a dishwasher, but an S painted on the base of the blade, in a curving, hair-thin line of red nail polish, gave it character She hadn’t pulled it on anyone yet, and she hoped she wouldn’t have to, butLucy’s bloody forearm "Sophia’ll fix you up"

Raunch and Lucy walked over to a long table where a bunch of Sluts were co injuries

"Soirl said "I’onna need a boob replacehed

"Check this out," one girl said and held up her rin It was bent sideways at a sharp angle, a nasty-looking break but nothing a splint wouldn’t fix "A Skater stepped on it"

"Gimme your elbow, honey," Sophia said to Lucy froirl

Sophia was a perfect speciirl seemed to push out; her cheekbones were round, her lips were pink pillows, her eyes gorgeous ovals with an elegant swoop Her hair was a long shiravity She looked like the slow- to need stitches?" Lucy said

Sophia narrowed her eyes at the gash and twisted her lips in thought

"Nah," Sophia said

Sophia wiped the blood off Lucy’s arm with some dampened toilet paper, and picked up a box of salt Sophia tipped the box’spile of salt across the cut It stung a little, but Lucy was focused on her nurse She had actually been looking for an excuse to talk to Sophia for a while now, but had never found a natural opportunity

Sophia embodied sexual confidence, and that fascinated Lucy The na Violent had chosen that nairls in the Sluts weren’t slutty, so to speak It wasn’t as if they slept with anyone and everyone who caressively, and it was usually the boys ere the ones asking to s exclusive

"I like that Gates," Sophia said "He’s sexy"

"If you like pink eye," soles," Sophia replied

"Sophia, please go on a date with Gates and wear"That would be so hilarious if you just never mentioned the"