Starcrossed

was surprised to see Ariadne and Cassandra sitting at her customary table with her friends. Even from a distance Helen could see that Matt was flushed with repressed hormones. Gretchen and Zach, who never sat at their lunch table, were there, too, kissing popular ass. Helen wavered in the doorway for a moment, thinking she might still have a chance to sneak away, when Ariadne spotted her and waved her over.
    During that uncomfortable lunch, Ariadne was as nice as could be to Helen, and even though there was a brittle quality to Cassandra’s smiles, there were plenty of them. Despite this genuine attempt at friendship, Helen was so agitated by the insufferable presence of the Furies hovering just outside the corner of her eye that her testy behavior earned her several scandalized looks from Gretchen and a few worried ones from Claire. As they left the cafeteria, Claire pulled Helen aside.
    “Would it kill you to be nice?” she asked.
    “You have no idea how hard I’m trying,” Helen replied though tight lips.
    “Try harder. You’re coming off like a total snob, and I know you’re not one so don’t even start.” Claire continued over Helen’s protestation: “I can tell there’s something weird going on. Something that you’re not telling me about. I’m fine with that. But you have to start pretending you like them or people like Gretchen and Zach are going to make sure that your life here is miserable until graduation.”
    Helen nodded submissively. She knew she was getting good advice, but her life was already miserable enough without cozying up to the Delos family. Still, the next day she did her best to make an effort and smiled at Ariadne and Jason as she passed them in the hall. The attempt wasn’t pretty—it came off more like a toothy grimace than a grin—but it was well received by the twins.
    Hector was a different story. Apparently, he didn’t share in the opinion that they should all try to get along, and after another harrowing day of forcing herself not to flinch when she saw Lucas, Helen had to pass by Hector on her way to track. As if pulled by invisible wires, Hector changed direction and started following her across the field. He was calling her name under his breath, like he was singing a song to himself. Helen glanced around desperately for another person, a witness in case something happened, and sighed out loud when she saw a few girls headed in her direction. They looked at how Helen was practically running away from Hector and stared at her like she had grown horns. Most girls at school would have run toward Hector if he was smiling at them like that.
    All Thursday night, Helen was kept awake by the moaning of the Furies, as though one of the Delos kids were near. On Friday, Helen had to get up at dawn to drive Kate and Jerry to the airport. They were flying to Boston to attend a small-business owners’ conference for the weekend, and Helen was looking forward to a few days on her own. Between the lack of sleep and the daily harassment, Helen felt ground down to bare bone. All she had to do was make it through one more day at school and then she could crawl into bed and hide until Monday. Maybe, eventually, she would even be able to fall asleep.
    Unfortunately, what she thought was the Friday Finish Line was actually a trip wire, as she found out when she got to school. At first she didn’t understand why she was getting bumped into so much, and assumed it had to be some new trend that she had missed, until Claire began yelling at everyone to back off. Then Helen started to listen to what everyone was saying when they bumped into her.
    People she had never even spoken to were whispering “bitch” and “slut” as they passed her in the hallway. The whole day brought one insult after another. Three separate times Helen had to run into the girls’ room to hide. She managed to make it through the day without seeing any of the Delos kids, but in exchange she had become the bull’s-eye on everyone else’s target. By the time she was changing for track, she was such a nervous wreck she didn’t know if she was going to cry or throw up. Once outside, she caught up to Claire on wobbly legs. Thankfully, the other girls gave them a wide berth as they ran the trail.
    “Why do they even care?” Helen burst out in frustration. “What does it matter if I like the Delos kids or not?”
    “Because that’s not the whole story,” Claire said gently.
    “What did you hear?” Helen