Once Was a Time by Leila Sales Page B

couldn’t understand. What were action figures? What was a Star Wars lunchbox? Why were any of these things bad?
    All I knew about Jake was that he had helped me when I arrived in Sutton, alone and lost. That seemed good, to me.
    But what did I know about what was good in America in the year 2013? What did I know about “coolness”?
    Only what Dakota and her friends told me. Nothing more.
    â€œFifth grade!” a short older woman shouted from the steps of the school.
    â€œThat’s Mrs. Vasquez!” Dakota held on to one of my hands and Sydney took the other. Together, my new friends and I queued up with the rest of our classmates.
    I looked around for Jake, wondering whether I would be able to tell, when I looked at him, that he was not cool. Would it be obvious to me, now that I knew what I was looking for?
    But when I found him, standing alone at the back of the queue, he didn’t seem not-cool. He just seemed sad. And he didn’t meet my eyes.
    â€œFifth graders, let’s go!” Mrs. Vasquez called.
    I turned back around to face the front, and I followed the teacher into school.

Chapter 15
    The morning of my first day of school wasn’t as bad as I’d feared. Maths is the same anywhere. In Social Studies we were doing American history, which I knew nothing about, but from what I could tell, nobody knew anything about American history yet. Mrs. Vasquez said we would learn. In English we were each given a shiny new paperback of a book called The Giver . I hadn’t got to that one at the library yet, since I was still on the A s, and this author’s last name was Lowry.
    Then it was time for lunch and break. As soon as I got out to the playground, Dakota grabbed me and dragged me to the top of the brightly colored metal climbing structure with her. Sydney and Kianna were already up there.
    â€œCharlotte,” Dakota said, her voice unusually deep. “Welcome to the Top of the Playground.”
    I giggled. She sounded ridiculous.
    Kianna and Sydney did not giggle. Dakota narrowed her eyes and shook out her horse-mane hair. “I’m serious,” she said. “Maybe you don’t already know this because you’re new here, but getting to hang out up here is a very big deal.”
    â€œProbably the biggest,” Sydney contributed.
    â€œLast year’s fifth graders promised this spot to the three of us,” Dakota went on. “And we are sharing it with you. No one else can come up here except for people who we say are worthy.”
    â€œOh.” When she put it like that, it did sound like a big deal. “Thank you,” I added. I looked down at the rest of the playground and imagined briefly that I lived in outer space, staring down on the inhabitants of the foreign planet Earth. “What do you play up here?” I asked, hoping Dakota would answer “Martians.”
    Dakota did not say “Martians.” She said, “Truth or Dare.”
    â€œOh,” I said. Again. I was so tired of saying “Oh.” Why don’t you come to my time? I kept wanting to scream at everyone. See how well you can fake understanding things!
    â€œYou have to choose either Truth or Dare,” Dakota explained. “If you choose Truth, you have to answer whatever question I choose completely truthfully . No lies, no matter how embarrassing. And if you choose Dare, you have to do whatever dare I assign you. So, for example, Kianna—Truth or Dare?”
    â€œTruth,” Kianna answered, swinging her legs back and forth between the metal bars.
    Sydney and Dakota groaned. “You always choose Truth,” Sydney complained. “You’re such a wimp.”
    Kianna shrugged. “I like Truths.”
    â€œFine,” Dakota said. “Truth: Which of the boys in our class would you want to be your boyfriend?”
    â€œDylan Cooper,” Kianna answered. While Dakota and Sydney shrieked, I looked down on the playground