Mackenzie Blue Read Online Free Page B

decided that buying hot lunch on the first day would make her feel more like a mature upper schooler. Bad idea. She felt more like a kindergartner who’d wandered into the wrong lunchroom.
    It didn’t help that she was still carrying around her bookbag, now completely loaded with the textbooks she’d collected that morning.

    It wasn’t as though Zee had never felt out of place before, but usually Ally was there—and feeling just as out of place. Together they had always managed to figure everything out. Now Zee resembled the main character in an Animal Planet special. Without the other members of her group to guide her, the young chimp looks for a safe place to eat her lunch. Will she find it? Or will she be eaten first?
    Zee took a deep breath and scanned the room, trying to find a friendly face.
    â€œHi, Zee.”
    â€œAaaaaa!” Zee jumped, her plate taking a dive off the side of her tray. Her brother, Adam, who had snuck up behind her, grabbed it before it hit the ground. “Adam! You scared me!” Zee cried, chasing after her water bottle. “Were you sent by the chimp leader?” she asked when she returned to where Adam was standing.
    â€œHuh?”
    â€œNever mind.”
    â€œActually I came over to save you, so you don’t sit in the wrong place and end up with your underwear flying from the flagpole, but if you don’t want my help…,” he said, then turned to walk away.
    â€œNo! Wait!” Zee called out a little too loudly. When Adam turned around, she said in a normal voice, “What do I need to know?”
    Adam pointed across the noisy room to an area all the way over to the farthest corner. “Those are the seventh-grade tables over there.”
    â€œI thought there was no assigned seating,” Zee said.
    â€œThe administration doesn’t assign—the seniors do.” Great. Another reminder that Zee was on the bottom rung of the upper-school ladder. She glared at her brother.
    Adam held his hands in the air. “Don’t blame me. I’d let you sit at a better table, but this is the social order.”
    â€œJust what I thought—the seniors are like chimps,” Zee said.
    â€œYou’re weird,” Adam said. Then he pointed at the senior table. “Just don’t make the mistake of sitting there—like that girl.”
    Oh no! That girl was Chloe, eating at the end of the forbidden table. Zee rushed over to get her. “Let’s sit over here,” she said, swooping in to save her new friend. As the girls switched tables, Zee realized her work wasn’t done. Jasper was reading a book at the eighth-grade table.
    She tapped Jasper on the shoulder. “Want to sit with us?”
    Jasper had just bitten into his apple. “Pffwmph,” he said as he stood.
    As the three of them finally made it over to the right place, Marcus waved and motioned for them to sit across from him. Excellent! Marcus was next to Landon. Zee could sit close to her crush without even trying.
    Of course, Kathi was on the other side of Landon, and as Zee got closer, she could hear her talking to Jen. “I mean, I know lots of upperclassmen, but I would never sit at their tables—unless they invited me, which they eventually will.” She laughed. “But not the first day.”
    Zee dropped her tray on the table. “I think they should just be honest and start calling it lukewarm lunch from now on,” she said to let Kathi know they could hear her talking about them.
    Unfortunately for Kathi she had failed to make Chloe feel bad about sitting at the wrong table. “Hi, y’all,” Chloe said cheerfully. “I’m new here—in case you couldn’t tell.” Then she looked right at Kathi. “You sound like you know what you’re doing. If I have any problems, I’ll come right to you!”
    Kathi looked like someone had just told her she had a giant piece of spinach on her