Free Don't You Trust Me? by Patrice Kindl Page A

but I didn’t need to worry about hanging out with a bunch of other people just to avoid being alone.
    Brooke, of course, thought that I must have felt terribly lonely and unsure of myself in a school where I knew no one, because that’s the way she would feel in my place. Aunt Antonia had arranged for me to be in several of Brooke’s classes and for us to share the same lunch period so I wouldn’t be on my own too much. Brooke dragged me from one clump of people to another, introducing me as, “My cousin from LA. She’s teaching me horseback riding, and she’s really good!” Some of these people were obviously the elite, some were elite-wannabes, some run-of-the-mill, and some were hopeless losers. Brooke treated them all the same and acted like she thought they would all be equally thrilled to meet her horsey cousin from LA.
    I nodded coolly, said hello and not much else. One girl who was apparently also into horses perked up atthe mention of what a fabulous rider I was and started gabbling about dressage and point-to-points, whatever they were.
    All in all, I was satisfied with my first day at school. I would have to watch the scene here for a week or two before I figured out where I would fit in best. Socializing does not come naturally to me; I have to study people to figure out what is motivating them and what they are thinking beneath the surface.
    We already had a ton of homework—different again from my old school, where they let you off easy the first week—so we went straight home after school. After a snack of low-calorie dip and vegetables (Brooke was trying to lose a little weight, so I was condemned to diet food as well), we retired to our respective rooms and dug into the algebra problems our mutual math teacher had assigned.
    At dinner that night the conversation was lively, with Aunt and Uncle asking a lot of questions and Brooke burbling away the way she usually did, about her friends, her new teachers, and her classes. Finally Aunt turned to me.
    â€œAnd, Morgan, how about you? How did you like your first day?”
    â€œOh, Morgan is really smart, you can tell,” put in Brooke before I could open my mouth. “She’s in my economics class, and she gave a brilliant answer when Mr.Humber asked us to discuss this quotation about how, when ethics and economics are in conflict, economics always win. She was ruthless! Wow, don’t ever cross Morgan! I think you should be a lawyer, Morgan. You’ve got that kind of logical mind. Only, it seems to me like economics have to be guided by ethics, or we’ll be living in a dog-eat-dog world where only the strong survive.”
    â€œWe are living in a dog-eat-dog world where only the strong survive,” observed Uncle Karl, the car-dealership king.
    â€œOh, Dad, we are not! You know you are much nicer than you give yourself credit for. You are a generous—”
    â€œ Actually , Brooke, Karl, I was asking Morgan how her day went,” pointed out Aunt Antonia. I replied in a composed manner that it had gone well, and Uncle Karl and Brooke picked up their argument and battled it out amicably for another ten minutes.
    â€œAny acts of generosity that I perform, I perform because they are in my own best interests,” Uncle Karl was saying. “I treat my customers well so that they’ll come back and buy another car from me in a few years. I treat my employees and suppliers well in order to make my life easier and my business more successful. Donations to charity are good for public relations because if people think you’re a nice guy, they’re more likely to stop by your dealership when they’re in the market. It’s enlightened self-interest.”
    This seemed entirely reasonable to me. In fact, I could not imagine what Brooke could see wrong in this; it’s how the world works. Brooke thought that her father had a generous nature because he was generous to her, when,