“Snoop,” growled Nita, who was plainly looking for trouble.
“Not exactly,” replied Dorothy, the color mounting to her cheeks.
“Now, see here, Nita Brandt,” said Tavia sharply, “I won’t stand for another word along that line. We all know perfectly well that Dorothy Dale is no ‘snoop.’ She’s been here long enough to have her reputation for squareness firmly established.”
“Three cheers for Dorothy!” called Cologne, and this was taken up by most of the other girls.
But with Nita Brandt, Lena Berg took sides, as well as Amy Brooks. This trio always “went together,” and could be depended upon to “stick to each other” in all school “rows.”
The present agitation, however, really mattered little to Dorothy, but the antagonism it was creating against Miette was what worried her. Several times later in the session she attempted to appease Nita, but the effort was met with prompt defiance. Certainly it was early in the term for quarrels, but when a girl has her pride hurt, as Nita did, she is apt to seek revenge.
“Poor little Miette,” thought Dorothy. “It will be hard to make her happy if those girls try to make her unhappy. I wish Mrs. Pangborn had given her to some one else.”
“Suppose we give up the initiation,” proposed Tavia to Dorothy, when they sat talking the affair over alone that evening.
“I don’t think that would mend matters,” replied Dorothy, “for they would keep up the trouble anyway, and perhaps do worse if they thought we were afraid of them.”
“Then why don’t you just tell Mrs. Pangborn? She told you to,” went on Tavia.