you, Evie. You’ve got a choice. I wouldn’t recommend going on a massive paranormal killing spree, though. It didn’t turn out so hot for me.”
I let out a strangled laugh. “You’re terrible.”
“Tell me about it.”
We were quiet then, both lost in our problems. Finally, Vivian took my hand in her even colder one again, pulling me up to sit next to her. “Well, enough with this pity party. If I’ve been gone for a while, there are important things we need to talk about.”
“What’s that?”
“Umm, hello? You need to catch me up on Easton Heights. I didn’t listen to a rundown of the first three seasons for you to leave me hanging now.”
I laughed. “Important, huh? Fine.” And I shared what little I could of the outside world, here in my dark dream-world where Vivian and I met.
Sometimes it felt more real than anything else.
When I woke up in the morning my hand was still curled like I was holding Vivian’s. I sighed. Viv nights always left me with the weirdest combination of well-being and regret. And then, of course, guilt over being friends with the girl who murdered my Lish, but Lish would understand. I hoped.
The faeries who raised Vivian never let her think she had any choices. She always felt like her life had been determined for her. I think she realized it wasn’t, now that it was too late. It made me wonder if I had connected with her sooner, if I could have stopped it all.
It was enough to make a person crazy, thinking about it.
In the end Vivian had made her choices and paid for them. Thanks to the faeries, she was out of options. But I wasn’t. I would make this life what I wanted it to be. Screw Reth—I’d be happy. I was going to have my cake and eat it, too.
Or rather, be normal and have my paranormal, too. I was special; why pretend otherwise? I needed to email Raquel. I was about to make her day.
“No, really,” Lend continued. “Dead serious. Dude’s a leprechaun.”
“Your technical writing professor is not a leprechaun.”
“How do you know? This is why you need to ditch next week and come to class with me. You can confirm. Right now all I know is that he has red hair, red skin, is about four feet tall, and wears nothing but green.”
I rolled my eyes, knowing he couldn’t see it through my shiny, pink cell phone. “And why would a leprechaun have a PhD?”
“I don’t know. Hanging out at the bottom of rainbows got boring, he was tired of clovers, pots of gold lost their sparkle for him—take your pick. But I’m right. In fact, did I tell you that my lab assistant may or may not be a dryad?”
“Wait—aren’t they notoriously lusty?”
There was a pause at the other end of the line.
“Oh, you are not going to that lab again.”
Lend laughed and I closed my eyes, picturing how he would look in front of me. “Trust me, there’s only one paranormal I’d like to be notoriously lusty for me.”
I sighed. “Okay, but I don’t think I can find a hag on such short notice.”
He laughed again, almost covering the sound of the bell. I looked around, panicked. A stray paper drifted across the now forsaken hallways.
“Crap, I’m gonna be late! I’ll talk to you later, okay?” Flipping my phone shut, I ran for the locker room. At least it was gym and there was a little wiggle room.
Or so I thought. Miss Lynn, that hideous creature, was waiting outside the door, marking off girls as they came in. She looked up and smiled, pleased to have caught me in an obvious infraction. “That’s half your participation points for the day, Green. Another tardy and I believe you’ll qualify for in-school suspension.”
Where was Tasey when I needed her? It took all my willpower to suppress an eye roll as I skulked into the locker room. The faint aroma of sweat and mildew greeted me, and I passed girls in various states of undress to get to my locker. I wasn’t nearly as fond of this one.
Carlee pulled on her tennis shoes, already good to go. Honestly, how her boobs could be so perky in a sports bra I’d never understand. Or stop envying.
She shook her head. “You should be more careful. Miss Lynn really doesn’t like you.”
I sighed, pulling out my gym clothes. What school chooses yellow and brown for their colors? Gross. Just, gross. “The feeling’s mutual.”
“So how was your weekend?”
“Sucktastic. Lend had to go back to school.”
“Lame. I’m sorry.”
“How was yours?”
Her face lit up. “Great! So John and I got back together, right? And at first I was all like, awesome! But then Friday night he was supposed to call, and he totally didn’t, so then I was like—” My eyes glazed over as I tried to pay attention. I liked Carlee, and appreciated having a friend that wasn’t undead, but sometimes the effort it took to keep up girl relationships felt like too much.
“—and then he was like, ‘If you don’t want to’—”
A scream erupted from another aisle. I didn’t know whether to be grateful for the interruption or scared of what could be happening. Carlee and I both darted around the corner and found girls covering themselves and shrieking. “What is it?” I shouted, vowing to never again leave Tasey at home.
One of the girls pointed to the next row and I crept toward it, every muscle tense and my back to the wall. The aisle opened in front of me and I shouted, ready to spring at—
Jack.
Stupid, stupid Jack, standing up on one of the wooden benches that lined the middle of the aisle, hands on hips as he surveyed the empty row like some sort of bizarre conqueror.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, horrified.
He looked down at me. “Oh, there you are. I’m supposed to give you something.”
“And you couldn’t have given it to me somewhere else?” I looked around, exasperated and anxious. Girls were starting to trickle over, past their first shock and now curious.
“What’s wrong with here? Here seems plenty nice to me.” He patted his pockets, finally muttering, “Aha!” before pulling out a familiar white phone-like device. An IPCA communicator. I’d forgotten how boring they were compared to my supercute cell. He smiled and let it slip through his fingers. I gasped and lunged forward, but he bounced it up off his foot and snatched it out of
