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“Hey, Wyatt,” I said. “What’re you in for?”
He looked at me and his face lit up. “Hey! Uh, Piper, right? You’re the girl who saved me from that psycho hall monitor last year!”
I grimaced despite myself. Sonja hadn’t been an official hall monitor, but she’d been determined to police the halls of the school anyway. “Yeah. That was me. How’ve you been?”
“Uh…” He wrinkled his nose. “I dunno. I think I might have failed my exams. I don’t know why else they would put me in this class. I know why you’re here though. I think it’s stupid.”
“Thanks,” I said. “I think so too. But I bet you passed your exams. They might just have put you in here because of that incident last year—you know, just in case.”
He smiled hopefully. “Yeah, maybe.”
“What about you, Hannah?” Xero asked, his brow furrowing.
“Pretty sure it’s because I’m friends with you delinquents,” she said, her eyes sparkling. “But I also saw it on the available classes and requested it specifically. At the time, I just wanted to know if you guys could possibly forage enough to survive.”
“We managed.” Jayce made a face. “But it wasn’t fun.”
She patted his arm sympathetically.
“So it’s just been the two of you for a week?” Kai asked.
The kid nodded. “We’ve learned a lot.”
“I’ll get you all caught up,” Hannah promised.
“Good morning, class.” The professor blew into the classroom in a flurry of loose papers and flyaway hair. “Ah, there you are. I was wondering when my class would fill up. Had to get place-fillers so I didn’t get rusty. You two are dismissed if you don’t want to stay here.” She gestured vaguely at Hannah and the other kid.
He went limp with relief. “You mean I’m not here because I’m going to get banished?”
She blinked at him. “Nobody is. Is that what you thought this class was for? No, no. These five were there long enough to become familiar with the landscape. To recognize things. I’m making sure all of my information is up-to-date and putting names to the things they encountered, that’s all. You’re welcome to stay if you like, but you don’t have to.”
“I—yeah, I’ll go.” He stood up, grinning from ear to ear. “Wow. I really thought I was on the chopping block!”
“Go see Toland for a different bio class,” she said, waving him away like she’d already forgotten about him. Then she turned her attention to Hannah. “And will you be staying?”
“Yes.” My friend shrugged, grinning at me. “This class is a reprieve, honestly.”
I didn’t ask her what it was a reprieve from. I had a feeling I already knew.
The next few weeks proved my theory right.
As we settled into the fall semester, still waiting for the Custodians to come decide our punishment, it was impossible not to notice the angry atmosphere around the school. And it wasn’t just directed toward me and my bond-mates. It was directed at Hannah too.
Everyone at Fallen University was aware that Hannah and I were tight, and the people who held a grudge against me had been taking it out on her in my absence.
“It’s been rough,” she admitted one morning. “I mean, I don’t like to complain, especially with how bad you all had it. My problems are nothing compared to that.”
“Hey now, rough is rough,” Jayce said. “Drowning is drowning, whether it’s in six feet of water or twelve.”
She smiled at him gratefully, and I was reminded once again just how good Jayce was. I knew I didn’t deserve him. I decided I would have to work on that—on becoming more worthy of a guy like him. It wasn’t like either of us could get out of this.
At one point in my life, the impulse would have been to undermine his goodness until we were on the same level, but there was no way in hell I’d do that now. Maybe I had grown as a person. Or maybe I was just smart enough to know now that doing something like that would only end in mutual torment.
“Thanks, Jayce.” Hannah brushed her hair over her shoulder. “When we figured out that Sonja was dead, the girls started in on me right away. They’d corner me and interrogate me until a teacher came to break it up. I haven’t sat with anyone at lunch since you left, and I’ve mostly only talked to teachers and the occasional outcast, but even they don’t want to talk to me in public. I’m tainted by association.” She offered a tight smile. “But it is what it is. I know that you guys have been in the right this whole time, but nobody will believe me. They think you’ve got me brainwashed, Piper.”
I rolled my eyes. “Then they need to pay closer attention in Monsterology. My mind control powers won’t work on someone if we’re not even on the same plane of existence.”
“People will do all kinds of mental gymnastics to prove themselves right,” Xero said grimly. “No matter how much evidence there is to the contrary.”
