Ivy Secrets by Jean Stone

I’m finished. Where’s your room?”
    “Across the hall. In the double.”
    “This is great. You can help me with my grammar.”
    Charlie laughed. “I was thinking about getting a pizza tonight. Would you like to join me?”
    “Sure. Why not. Do you have a roommate?”
    Charlie looked at Tess a moment. “Well, yes. But she’s out tonight.”
    “On a date? Wow,” Tess said, then had an instant fear that her early assessment of the Morris House girls might have been wrong: They could merely be Quad Bunnies on a budget. “It didn’t take her long to find someone.”
    “What do you like on your pizza?”
    “The works,” Tess replied, wondering why Charlie had ignored her last comment, but decided it didn’t matter. The important thing was that Tess seemed to have found one person at Smith who wasn’t a snob, even though she was certainly pretty enough to be.
        They sat on the floor of Charlie’s room eating pizza, listening to Carole King. About nine o’clock, the door opened.
    “It smells like a deli in here,” came a husky voice from the hallway.
    A girl peeked around the corner into Charlie’s room. She had the most gorgeous face and magnificent black hair that Tess had ever seen.
    “Oh,” the voice with the beautiful face said. “I didn’t know you had company. Sorry.” Her words carried an accent Tess didn’t recognize. It wasn’t Boston and it certainly wasn’t Brooklyn.
    “Come meet our new neighbor,” Charlie called when the girl began to back out.
    She hesitated in the doorway.
    “She just moved in across the hall,” Charlie continued. “This is Tess. We’re in English class together. Tess, this is …”
    Tess watched Charlie look quickly from one girl to the other. “This is Marina.”
    “Want some?” Tess offered, gesturing to the now soggy cardboard box that sat between them. “There’s a couple of pieces left.”
    Marina shook her head. “I have studying to do.”
    “How was your date?” Tess asked. Something about Charlie’s easy acceptance made Tess brave enough to be friendly.
    “My date? Oh. Well, it was fine. Nice to meet you, Tess.”
    Marina disappeared around the corner, into the other room of the suite. It may have been the accent, the perfectlyput-together clothes, or the confident strut with which she exited … whatever it was, Tess suddenly realized who Charlie’s roommate was: Marina Marchant,
Princess
Marina Marchant. She had heard the princess was going to school here; she had no idea she’d be living on campus, and certainly not at Morris House, in a double room, no less.
    Tess picked a piece of pepperoni off a now lukewarm pizza slice. “You didn’t tell me your roommate was the princess,” she whispered. “Jesus, I moved out of the Quad so I could be around real people.”
    Charlie smiled.
    “I heard that,” came the accented voice from the other room.
    Tess swallowed the pepperoni, and her embarrassment. “Sorry,” she answered to the wall. She looked at Charlie and made a face. “Sorry,” she mouthed.
    Charlie shrugged.
    Tess knew that, among other flaws, she also lacked the graciousness her mother had tried to impress upon her. Still, she never meant to hurt anyone’s feelings. She stood up. “Well, I guess I’d better get across the hall. It’s been fun, Charlie, thanks. But I’ve done enough damage around here for one night.”
    She turned to leave and bumped squarely into Marina.
    “I have changed my mind about the pizza,” she said. “The truth is, I had a horrible evening and I could use a couple of friends.”
    “Lousy date, huh?” Tess asked.
    “It was not a date. I went to the movies. With Viktor.”
    “ ‘Viktor’ sounds like the name of a date.”
    “Not exactly,” Marina answered and reached for a slice without onions.
        They became a threesome. Well, actually a foursome, if you counted Viktor Coe, who was never far behind.
    It was strange having Viktor always in earshot. Tess couldn’t feel