Chapter 5

Field House North Gym 7:34

Flipping through the multi-colored flyers handed out by my new swim & diving coach I noticed with some disdain how green she was. She had long straight hay colored hair that was tinged with green (the chlorine definitely had an effect), a green hoodie and Speedo combination, dark green cargos, and lime green CROCS. She struck me as a granola-eating-environmental-activist-type, probably petitioning for new solar panels a-top the Field House.

Awesome thing about Dawntill is that I do get to continue on with the two organized sports I participated it back home. Lacrosse—we had to travel around everywhere for games, LA isn’t exactly Lax central—and Swimming/Diving. A couple of rec. letters from my previous coaches and I was in. And oddly my hair wasn’t green, praise the Gods. One summer on vacation in Australia I found this pomade that completely eliminated the problem. It supposedly coated the hair in flax-seed oil to keep out the chemicals before hand and after wards washed out. All I care is that it works, amazingly actually. I’d have to give some to her, Ms. Crosio, soon. She was pretty except for the inexcusable hippie-ness—her eyes were a pretty moss green too—which could be fixed.

The practice schedule I would have to get used to though. Every weekday open gym and pool that was mandatory and two and a half hour practices at four. NUMBER ONE ISSUE I had with all of this was: we didn’t start the season till late NOVEMBER. It’s September for God-sakes; do we really suck so bad that we have practices this much already? There was one plus though, until the actual season starts the practices were with the Varsity Boys team. Preston, Edge, and Tai were all on the team. We also had dinner at the local pizzeria once a week plus the boys, minus the coaches. Killer!

I glanced down at my blinking phone that read “one new message” assuming it was Dustin, who I’d been IMing at various intervals since dinner last night and breakfast this morning. Basically everyone was up early today for sports team meetings. It blinking again and slipped out of my fingers and landed with a clang on the tile beneath me.

“Please put that away, Ms. Dartmin,” Crosio said smiling empathetically. I bent down reaching for the phone and almost fell off my chair I had to reach so far to snag the little devil thing that was still flashing rudely at me. And looked up—hoping nobody noticed the stumble—into the eyes of Edge and Preston who were stifling laughter.

GRIFFIN INSTANT MESSENGER

Edge.T: u & me Romano’s Friday?!

Edge.T: either ur letting me down easy or in a daze, has Crosio started handing out her homemade granola yet? I heard she laces them with HGH…

Abrielle.D:I thought you were someone else… but sure

Abrielle.D:plus the team…

Edge.T: jeez group date way to break my heart. Don’t worry I don’t give up easy. AND Dustin doesn’t tell me what to do either.

Abrielle.D: hmmm, I’ll keep that in mind. But I’m confused, why does practice n stuff start so early? I’m already sleep deprived as it is…

Edge.T: cause you guys kinda suck and Crosio’s a tyrant

Abrielle.D: she seems nice, a little crunchy but nice.

Edge.T: she comes into our locker room sometimes with no warning; my locker was by the door last year.

Abrielle.D: what you don’t like the crocs?

I looked up and saw the meeting dispersing and got up swinging my orange snakeskin Birkin bag (same as Lindsay’s, yak) over my shoulder and pulling my favorite yellow Free People sundress down. Belle handed me the light blue oversized cardigan that fell off my lap the same time as the phone. Belle was on swimming with me also. We shared a couple cigs on the way across campus after breakfast. She had Lucky Strikes and gave me one of them. I made her try my favorite, hand rolled in strawberry papers that I stuffed in an old Louis Vuitton coin purse last night. Belle had this theory that you can decide whether you like somebody by what kind of cigs they smoke and what kind they don’t like. We both hated Camels, Vogue, and Zevs and love super skinny Parliaments, Marlboro Reds or ultra lights, Lucky Strikes, and hand rolled. Annddd both of our mothers smoked Virginia slims.

“I wanna do something tonight,” Preston said walking up to us.

“You always want to do something Pres, you have ADD its natural,” Edge said and Preston shoved him into a chair.

“Let’s go into town tonight. There’s a new spot, called Red Hotts. Tai said it’s like Dave & Buster’s and they don’t card.”

“Sounds fun,” Belle said taking out of her headphones, “I’ll send an email next period. I have JAVA.”

“You think everybody will be able to get OC passes?”

“Dustin and I’ll take care of passes don’t worry about it,” Edge said and I noticed his New York accent more when he was joking. We walked out talking about tonight and Edge, Preston, and Tai talked about how easy it would be getting off campus this year with all three of the super legacies and all.

I was walking to AP Chemistry with Preston and Edge. We had a half hour till class started and I was explaining to them why all of my classes were AP except for two, when I got two unexpected calls. The first from my mother and the second from Riley.

“Elle, darling hello, how’s the new school? Your room? Not too cramped I hope, you grandmother says I can get you a single if you’d like. Rosa said to call and reassure you that I’ll be there for parent’s weekend and everything. Twyla,” she said rushing and using my grandmother’s name, “says there’s a black-tie dance or something that weekend for the legacy students and their parents. So I’ve cleared my calendar for that weekend. October 23 right, dear?”

“Yes, mother. School’s nice, I like my room you don’t have to call and get the single. Where are you this week?”

“I’m in Paris now. Last night I had a fitting for a new Chanel dress, I’ll probably get it. There was a show two days ago and I found a dress perfect for you. Karl says he’ll tone it down a bit and send me a sketch. If we like it they can send someone to take it to L.A., I mean—Boston to have it fitted. If we do it fast we can have it for that weekend. You haven’t grown any, have you?”

“No not an inch why,” I said knowing why. I’d be getting the packages in a couple weeks.

“Well, I got you some things from—well, a couple people that had your measurements already. I think Ralph Lauren, Valentino of course, and Dior. And last week everybody got the new Ready-to-Wear so there’s a lot of that. There was an amazing trunk show last week in London at Harrods. You should get everything in a few days. What are you doing now?”

“Er—Mom, I’m headed to class so I’ll call you when everything arrives.”

“Oh, oh well good luck with your first day love, call to tell me if you like everything. Tell your sister, too, I sent her things too. Along with the clothes there’s a care package. Goodbye,” she said and didn’t wait for my reply to hang up. I heard a muffled order of a gin & tonic before the line went dead. Though I couldn’t help but be glad. She called me and sent clothes. And she didn’t have a nervous breakdown when I said I had to go. Now that was progress.

I sat down in between Preston and Edge who were both on their phones texting or IMing. I placed my purse on my lap and went through it cataloging the many items inside. A pink Vitamin Water, Benefit lotion, pencil case, la prarie lip stick, iPod, cellular device, wallet, and matching silver compact and brush were all I packed this morning surprisingly enough.

“Shouldn’t we head to class,” I asked wondering why they were so chill.

“Edge has a thing about being on time for his first class, he is never on time for his first class,” Preston said.

“Don’t you get in trouble?”

“Oh no, you guys never get in trouble.”

“If so you would have never had the pleasure of meeting me or Dustin,” Edge said, “We’ve done some pretty shady shit that the administration knew about. They just can’t kick us out. There’s a building named after my great-uncle and three for Dustin’s family alone. I bet if you ask your parents they’ll tell you which library or conservatory is yours.”

“Why is everybody so obsessive with the whole legacy thing here?”

“It’s just how it is. Dawntill was like the first boarding school in America, they’re—the administration—like obsessed with the old families. You have to be like a 2 generation legacy, like me, to do anything.”

“That’s so odd,” I said.

“Well you’re from L.A.; it’s just odd to you,” Preston said and I had to stop myself from staring at him and Edge. They were like opposites but both so hot.

“Oh, the age old new money versus old money battle?”

“Basically,” Preston said shrugging. I glanced over at Edge and he was looking at me with the most peculiar look on his face.