“Laugh at what?”
“Oh, Lola, you’re so funny.” Anna burst out laughing and played with her hair as she pretended to double over in a fit. I stared at her in confusion, and she glared at me as she continued laughing.
“I am?”
“Oh, Lola.” Her laughter became even louder, and she took two steps backwards and bumped into the tall blond. “Oh my, I’m so sorry. I didn’t see where I was going.” She turned around and gave him a huge smile.
“No worries.” He smiled back at her and then looked over at me. “What’s the joke?”
“I’d like to know that my—” I started, and Anna started coughing.
“I’m Anna.” She batted her eyelids up at him. “I’m from Florida, which is in the United States of America, and this is my best friend, Lola.”
“Hi, girls. I’m Jason, from Brisbane, Australia. Not to be confused with Jason Donovan.”
“Who?” Anna and I both asked at the same time.
“Oh, sorry, mates. He’s an actor. I guess the Brits love him. All I keep hearing about is Jason Donovan and Kylie Minogue. I’m like, I’m in my twenties. They ain’t popular where I’m from.”
“Oh.” Anna smiled at him again, and I looked at him blankly. I had no idea what he was talking about, and I could barely understand what he was saying.
“I know Florida, though. I’ve been surfing in Cocoa Beach. Went to a contest put on by Ron Jon’s Surf Shop.”
“Oh, awesome!” Anna flashed a brilliant smile at him. “Are you a surfer?”
“I used to be.” He shrugged and his blond hair fell in his face. “Now I play rugby.”
“I love rugby,” Anna lied. I knew for a fact that Anna was lying because we had had a conversation the previous year about sports that were sexy but that we didn’t understand and rugby was at the top of the list. “And cricket.”
“Cricket.” He nodded. “I used to play in school. I was plenty rubbish though.”
“Oh, that sucks.”
“That’s okay.” He shrugged. “Want a breadstick?” He handed us the plate, and I thought Anna was going to burst from happiness as she took a limp piece of bread from the offered plate.
“No, thanks.” I shook my head.
“You girls studying with the program?”
“That’s what the party’s for, right?” I mumbled, and Anna glared at me.
I figured she deserved my being a bitch for dragging me away from Sebastian. Not that I really cared about Sebastian. In the back of my mind, all I could think about was my night with Xavier and the way his lips had kissed me all over.
“What are you studying, Jason?” Anna asked him as if it were the most important question in the world.
“Art history.”
“Really?” I looked at him in shock. He didn’t look like the sort of guy who knew anything about art.
“Yeah. I want to own my own gallery when I grow up.”
“Wow, me too.” I looked at him consideringly. I had to stop judging people by their appearances. “I’m in the art history program as well.”
“That’s cool.”
“I’m in the literature program,” Anna sighed. “Though it seems like I may be in the minority.”
“No, there’s a cool dude in that program.” He pointed to a skinny guy who was sitting on a chair playing with his phone. “That dude. I forget his name—Mike or Paul or something. He’s in the lit program as well.”
Anna looked over at him. “Figures,” she muttered as she took in his nerdy appearance.
“I heard that they are going to make us all take a lit and art class this year, though.” He made a face. “They’re trying to expand the vision and learning experience of the program.”
“But what if we’re not interested in the other stuff?” I frowned, slightly upset at the news. I had come to learn about the great art pieces of Europe, not about books.
“They think it’s all connected. At least that’s what that professor said on Friday.” He shrugged. “He seemed like he was all about it. This way, art and books can infiltrate every part of our lives. They’ll be like the air we breathe. That’s what he said. Or maybe that’s what he hopes.” Jason shrugged. “Didn’t you hear him?”
“I kinda missed the actual talk.” My face flushed. Damn Anna and Max!
“Oh.” Jason grabbed another breadstick. “You didn’t miss much.”
“Yeah, just the fact that the whole program is changing.”
I turned away to look at the other people in the group. It looked like everyone had already formed their own cliques. There were a bunch of obviously rich girls. I could tell from their clothes that they didn’t shop at Target and Forever 21 like Anna and I did. There were some obviously nerdy girls, all wearing glasses and standing around, barely talking. Most of the guys were with the rich beautiful girls, aside from the nerdy lit guy, who was sitting down, and Sebastian, who was chatting with a very obviously drunk Henrietta.