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Taylor was about to break every one of my ribs. That’s how hard she was hugging me in the entrance of the second period Literature class we shared.
“Oh, it’s so good to have you back!” she exclaimed. “Is your momma okay?”
“Y-yeah,” I managed. “She’s d-doing a lot b-better. T-Taylor… I can’t breathe!”
“Oh,” she said, letting me go. “Sorry.”
The late bell rung and I stepped into the classroom. Taylor led me to her table. A couple of Asian boys were already seated and they each said hello. The taller of the two had a knowing smile, and gave me an extra nod, which I assumed was to let me know that he knew who I was. Taylor explained that the teacher was a big fan of group activities and that this would be our group for the rest of the semester. The name card folded beside the empty chair said so.
Taylor introduced me to the boys. “Ana, I want you to meet Kevin and Christopher.”
“Christopher?” groaned the boy who I supposed was a warlock. “I told you to call me Chris.”
“Well, I think Christopher is cute,” Taylor returned.
“And he thinks you’re cute,” Kevin interjected, chuckling. He was stocky and wore sunglasses up over his forehead.
Chris looked mortified. “Dude, what the hell?”
It reminded me of Carlos teasing Darren on my first ride to school, and again I thought about the mind reading that followed. I made a mental note to ask London if she could teach me how to use it.
Taylor gave me a big-eyed smile and I could tell she felt exactly the same way about him. For now though, she pretended not to hear Kevin. Chris looked relieved.
The teacher made me introduce myself to the class after he took roll—during which I’d been very much tempted to say “witch princess who enjoys the company of vampires.” After that, he gave us the entire period to work on the group presentations that were due next week.
Chris slid over a sheet of paper. “That’s your part.”
“You guys are finished already?” I asked.
“Oh we gets it dones over here,” Kevin piped in a high pitched cartoon voice that he seemed very proud of. He slid his shades down and crossed his arms. I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Seriously,” Chris said. “I am embarrassed to know you right now.”
That made us all laugh, especially Taylor. Okay, so she was definitely into him. It felt kind of nice to see that I wasn’t the only one catching the love bug.
“Christopher and I signed up for the school paper,” Taylor answered. About ten of us meet every day after school, but until we choose an editor, there’s not really much to do so the two of us just started on the project.”
“Just you and Chris?” I asked.
She nodded, unsuccessfully fighting a smile.
“Alone?” I followed.
Taylor’s eyes got big again, and her cheeks flushed.
I flicked my eyes to Kevin, and I could see that he knew where I was going with this. Unfortunately, he lacked any kind of subtlety.
“Naked?” he added.
There was a collective groan around the table, which got our teacher’s attention. We quickly pretended to be working.
I sat with my literature group at lunch, too. And Darren. He had deserted his place at the popular table to come sit with me, and that only made me feel that much worse. He was really trying to make this work.
The boys seemed intimidated to have him sitting with us. I didn’t expect it out of Chris, but when Darren asked if his name was Christian, despite Chris’ trying out for the football team this year, I remembered that living in the same part of town doesn’t make you friends. Thankfully, Taylor’s bubbly personality rarely wavered.
“Sooo, since you and my best friend are dating, does that mean you’d agree to do a preseason interview?” She dropped her voice low, even though she was well aware that the rest of us could still hear her. “It’s always a good idea to butter up the best friend, keeps us from talking about you when you’re not around. Plus, we’re more likely to have your back when you screw up. And let’s face it, boys always screw up.”
It warmed me to hear that Taylor had adopted me as her best friend so quickly. But to say that Darren and I were dating? Where had that come from? Then I remembered our kiss.
“Uh, sure,” said Darren. The fact that he hadn’t denied it made me feel uncomfortable again. Not because I couldn’t picture it, but because I knew that it was going to be that much harder to “kinda sorta break off” our “kinda sorta boyfriend/girlfriend” thing. There was also the fact that a part of me didn’t want to.
Taylor smiled again. “Hey, you know what story I really want to cover in the paper?”
“What?” asked Chris, his eyes filled with more than just curiosity.
“Okay, so I was watching the History channel with my daddy yesterday—he’s a history professor so he’s kind of obsessed with that channel—anyway, they had the most interesting special on Massachusetts and its history of witches! Of course, everybody knows about Salem and the witch trials and everything, but did you know that witches supposedly inhabited this area as well?”
Complete silence; from the witch and two warlocks, anyway. Kevin just said “cool.”
Thankfully, something on the other side of the lunchroom was drawing a lot of attention and Taylor’s witch conversation was dropped as we all leaned over to see what was going on. Britney, one of the girls who had been texting about me in Mrs. Moorer’s class the other day, ran by us in hysterics, shouting, “London is unbelievable!” to a table of girls next to us.
“Unbelievable” was exactly the word I would have used as well. London emerged from the crowd wearing shorts every bit as short as the ones she had worn to the club last night. At first I thought that might be what had everyone so worked up—though I couldn’t understand why that would freak the girls out so much—and then I saw him. Aiden was just a few steps behind her, looking almost absurdly handsome now that he was in the light of day—in a “kill you where you stand” kinda way. Then most girls my age liked their boys dangerous. And he certainly fit the part. Not once did he smile, and when some freshman tried to steal their spotlight by running up to London, Aiden shot him a look so frightening that the boy fell over backwards.
They passed right by our table and though London overlooked me completely, as we’d discussed, she stared directly into Darren’s eyes. I could see that her entrance bothered him a little. Aiden ignored Darren, though his eyes widened at how close the two of us were sitting. They took up a small table near the wall and promptly shut out the rest of the world.
“What are you doing?” I thought to myself. I hoped that she could hear my thoughts given the distance.
“Nothing,” she replied casually. “Just getting ready to eat lunch with my boyfriend.”
“You know what I mean! Why did you bring him here? You said yourself he has trouble with the urges. What if someone sets him off?”
“Look,” she thought, the voice she projected into my head tinged with anger. “Last night was a breakthrough for him. He can handle it. Besides, he’s a student now. Mr. Bonderman made it possible. Not that the dirt bag had a choice.”
I remembered now why I had been so afraid of London before. She definitely had a mean streak.
Next, she turned it on me.
“Maybe, instead of worrying about my guy, you should focus on your two. You can’t have them both you know…”
That one stung. I could see on her face that she knew it too.
“I’m sorry… That wasn’t fair.”
I didn’t answer.
The sounding of the bell meant that lunch was over. Clearly, Darren was still having a hard time with London’s show, and that bothered me, even though I knew it shouldn’t. I said goodbye to Taylor and
found myself slightly annoyed when Darren decided to walk me to class.
“She just did it to one up us, you know? That’s how her mind works. I could care less, but I’m sure you’re probably upset.”
“Not at all,” I said, letting my irritation show in my voice.
“Oh,” he said catching on. “There’s actually a reason I wanted to walk you to class. Well, two reasons really. First, Dr. Roberts wants you to come by after school. I’ve got practice but I’ve already arranged for Taylor to take you.”
I thought about that for a moment, but decided that it was fine. I’d just have to make up a reason why she couldn’t come back to my mother’s room. “Okay.”
“And also, I wanted to know if you’d be willing to be my date for your mother’s birthday party.”
Surprise lit up my face. “Her birthday’s in two weeks. I’m not sure if she’ll have recovered that soon…”
Darren nodded and pulled out his cell phone. He dialed some numbers and then held it up to his ear. “Dr. Roberts, do you think Ana’s mom will have recovered in two weeks?”
His face dropped. “Oh,” he said sadly. “I understand.” He handed me the phone.
I glanced up at him, confused, before speaking into the phone. “Hello?”
“Ana?” said the voice on the other end.
My entire body stiffened and a smile ripped across Darren’s face. It took a couple of seconds before I was able to reply. “Mom?”