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"If you don't drive me in, Dad will have to. There are dangerous predators on the loose."
Daniel sighed and got up to fill his mug.
"You okay?" he whispered as he stood beside me at the counter.
I nodded and turned to Dad. "Speaking of predators, any luck finding Marv?"
Dad shook his head. "Right now, the focus is on this fire."
Good. I hoped any cougar hunts were postponed for a while. Otherwise, with Annie roaming the woods in cat form, we could have another problem to deal with.
Daniel and I took care of the animals and got them ready for transport. When we arrived at school, I left Daniel with Corey and Brendan, and went off in search of Rafe. I checked the smoking pit first. Hayley was there. She glanced at me, and I nodded, then moved on, rounding the school to start down the path he'd take to get here.
"Looking for Rafe?" a voice said behind me.
It was Hayley. Her expression was guarded, and I thought of what Rafe had said. She was right--I'd never gotten past that incident with the math homework. I hadn't consciously held it against her, but it had changed the way I saw her. I'd backed off, and maybe others had, too. I should have noticed, and I hadn't.
That didn't justify all the crappy things she'd done to me and said about me since, but it did make me look at her a little differently as she came down the path.
"I heard you guys broke up," she said.
"We did."
"Did you decide he wasn't good enough for you?"
If I had, I wouldn't be looking for him, would I? I didn't say that. Didn't have the energy to fight back. Just shook my head and kept walking.
"Maya?"
I glanced over.
"What happened to your lip?" There wasn't any nasty snap in Hayley's voice now.
"It wasn't Rafe," I said.
I started to turn away again.
"He likes you."
I looked at her.
She shrugged. "I'm just saying, if you didn't want to break up, he'll come back. He really likes you." A sardonic twist of a smile. "Everyone does."
She walked away. I wanted to go after her, but I didn't know what to say.
I carried on along the path again and didn't get far before someone else hailed me. When I saw Sam jogging along, I tensed and glanced around. We were still within sight of the school. Safe enough.
She stopped in front of me. For a minute, she just stared at my lip. Then she pulled her gaze up to my eyes and said, "I'm sorry."
I remembered what Rafe said and what Mom said, and I resisted the urge to say "whatever" and walk away. But I wasn't going to say "It's okay," either, because it wasn't.
"Why'd you hit me?" I said.
"I didn't mean to. I just--" Her gaze shunted to the side. "I get mad sometimes, okay? Like Daniel does, only he can control it and I--I can't."
"Like with Rafe's sister?"
Her cheeks colored. "I wouldn't have hit her. I could tell she was, you know, slow. But I was mad at Rafe for not taking a hint, and when she laughed at me for wanting him to stay away, I blew up. I stopped, though."
