It’s odd, Danielle thinks, and she herself is odd, frankly. Stupid. She hasn’t even opened it yet. It’s only a note, folded in triangles, corners beginning to round off. But it’s hers now: Annie Deshaun Annie Deshaun Bruce Annie Danielle.

She’s known those three must communicate like this, of course, they’re so tight and so clever. Three years older, too. Are they cool just because she’s a first-year? No. Still, why does her sudden inclusion matter so much?

Because it says You are special, she thinks. You are important. We are what you want to be, and you are like us.