On Danielle’s other side, a girl was staring out the window, not bothering to hide the boredom in her expression.
“Hi,” said Sophie, raising her hand to wave a little. The girl didn’t even look back, and after a moment, Sophie dropped her hand back into her lap.
Danielle rolled her eyes and elbowed the girl. “This is Veronika,” she said, when the girl continued to ignore them. “Sorry about her. It’s not personal.”
Sophie smiled. “I’m Sophie,” she said. The girl didn’t show any sign of hearing her.
Danielle rolled her eyes again and turned to the girl. “Ron, you’re being a sociopath again.”
“Is that a bad thing?” came the girl’s mumble.
“Yeah, it is,” said Danielle, her voice light and peppy. “But go ahead and do your whole angsty teenager thing. I’m going to make a friend.”
“Good for you,” replied Veronika.
Danielle laughed, and turned back to Sophie. “Veronika kind of hates everything and everyone,” she said. “She only puts up with me because we’ve known each other forever.” She cleared her throat. “So, where did you go to school before?”
Sophie didn’t get the chance to answer, however, because Brianna’s voice was passing almost directly in front of them.
“…the country house is almost finished—that’s what we were doing this summer, redecorating.” She sighed. “I’d have liked to have gone somewhere, but my parents were set on getting this done, before—“
“—before you went bankrupt,” finished Veronika, still staring out the window. Her tone was indifferent, bordering on polite.
Brianna’s cheeks lost all color. “Hi, Ron,” she said in a quiet voice.
“Hello, Brianna,” said Veronika, turning to look at the girl. For the first time, Sophie could see her eyes. They were ice blue. “How was your summer? I heard your father lost his job.”
A second before the last word got out, Danielle moved. She tackled Veronika down onto her chair, but it was too late.
The rest of the classroom erupted into chaos. A larger group was forming around Brianna, while Brianna shouted out protests. Danielle was letting Veronika up at in exceptionally slow pace.
“You DON’T say that!” the girl was saying, waving a finger at Veronika like she was admonishing a small child. “That is PERSONAL INFORMATION. Just because you are able to figure out other people’s secrets doesn’t mean you get to tell people!”
“Was that a secret?” asked Veronika, looking utterly bewildered.
Danielle hit Veronika with a pencil.
I found out a couple years ago that my grandma wanted me to become a nun and my mom put her foot down and said no. 
