Unforgettable Read Free

thinking I might go less red this time.” When Jacques, her colorist, had first made the mistake and used a blue red instead of a yellow red on her, Brett had been horrified, worried that everyone would start calling her Crayola or Muppet or something. But now she’d gotten used to her somewhat punk-rock coloring, even if it did make her stand out among all her natural-blond and pedigreed-brunette classmates.
    “Definitely not.” Kara tilted her honey-streaked head, shaking it slowly. “No one at Waverly has hair like you. You look like Jean Grey.” She flicked through one of the
X-Men
comics, searching for a picture, and then held it up for Brett to see.
    “Oh. When you put it
that
way …” Brett laughed. It did make her feel good to think that something made her unique. Not freak-show or trashy-Jersey-girl unique, but rather the-cool-girl-with-the-one-of-a-kind-red-hair unique. She ran her hand over her scalp, tousling her hair to hide the darker roots. “You know, we had a DC meeting over lunch today, and there was this case involving members of the—get this—Competitive Eating club.” “What?” Kara sat up, tossing her head so that her hair fell neatly behind her shoulders. Tiny blondish wisps framed the edges of her face. “What the hell is that?” “You know. Like, they see how many hot dogs they can eat in ten minutes.” Brett sat up too and turned toward Kara. “These two freshmen guys—probably the
only
two members—got caught stealing
four pounds
of raw hot dogs from the dining hall freezer after dinner last week.” Kara raised her eyebrows in disbelief. “They defended themselves to the DC by saying they were ‘gathering materials for club activities,’” Brett made air quotes with her long fingers, “and that they’d had to resort to covert methods because they hadn’t received any funding.” She rolled her eyes. “Does the entire male sex suffer from a complete inability to see beyond their carnal impulses?”
    Kara leaned back on one elbow and shrugged her petite shoulders. “Well, they
are
freshmen.” The comic book slid off the edge of the bed, landing with a slap on the hardwood floor next to Brett’s neat piles of notebooks. Brett and Tinsley had moved their beds to opposite sides of Dumbarton 121 when they’d moved in, but that still wasn’t far enough.
    “Yes, but more important, they’re
male
—which means they only think about immediate gratification, with no foresight into the future. I mean, come on—what about Easy?” Brett asked suddenly, sitting up to unbunch the bottoms of her Citizens of Humanity cigarette-leg jeans. “He certainly suffers from the same affliction. I still can’t believe he took Callie out to dinner with his dad instead of Jenny.” Kara bit her pink ChapSticked lip. “I saw Jenny last night at the art studio. She just looked so … sad.” She grabbed her Dasani bottle from on top of Brett’s worn oak nightstand and took a long sip. “Do you think she’s going to be totally crushed?” “You mean if Easy and Callie get back together?” Brett shrugged. She honestly didn’t know. It was weird. She’d been so used to Easy and Callie as a couple—they’d been practically inseparable all sophomore year—that it was strange to see him suddenly with someone else. But then, to her surprise, she’d quickly gotten used to it. Easy had always seemed a little too … nice for Callie. Something about Jenny and Easy together had almost seemed more natural, as if two artistic, like-minded souls had found each other. Not that Brett exactly believed in that romantic crap anymore.
    Then again, if Easy was about to dump Jenny, maybe he wasn’t as nice as she’d thought.
    “Jenny’s tougher than she looks,” Brett finally answered, surprising herself. She reached up and fingered the gold hoops along the top of her left ear. She was always paranoid about her ears being sort of elfin-shaped, and hoped that the earrings would distract people