Eliza gave Max a smile and a nod as he stepped forward, caught up in the excitement of the dunk tank. She stepped back cautiously, fading into the crowd of onlookers - Acacia seemed likely to try and press her into service. She'd just try to fade into the background, let everyone have their fun. Not that she didn't want attention to be on her, just the opposite, but this whole thing was too silly and garish for her taste. It wasn't the kind of image she wanted to project. If asked, she'd have to agree to take part (good thing she had swimsuits in the trunk of the Jaguar), but she certainly wasn't going to volunteer.
She scanned the other students in the vicinity - mostly faces she recognized, even if she couldn't place names with them - and the rest of the picnic. Alice Profit and some kid - Vladimir? Something foreign - were loitering around the dessert table, along with a few Eliza didn't recognize. That was fine. She wasn't going to take anything from there, anyway. Most everyone else was focused on the dunking booth, now that the principal had agreed to take part. Eliza felt an urge to leave, to spend some more quality time with her new car. A reunion overshadowed by party games wasn't quite what she'd been hoping for. She wanted to spend more time with Acacia, but her best friend was in full "glorious student body leader" mode so there was no chance of that.
Oh well. There were other people - in fact, there was Wren, just a few feet away and looking uncharacteristically disheveled. Were there crumbs of something on her shirt? Eliza shook her head, and sidled up beside her friend.
"Hey," she said, smiling, "When did you get here?"