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Tristan, four weeks later

I was obeying her wishes The wait really h

I&039;d played like crap today, andtackles I&039;d endured because of my lack of focus Because of her-the only reason that could make this kind of pain worth it I didn&039;t usually hurt this hest rivals Thankfully the ould be over soon Her stalkers hadn&039;teye contact with her Four weeks of ignoring her was h time to prove I wasn&039;t one of Savannah&039;s stalkers

Nohow I felt about her Nostupid, unexplained rules fro out of the locker-roout and chest But as Savannah doing here at the field house? Usually one of the other Charers came to the field house for ice for the injured dancers

"Fe a little louder than usual After all, this ti you could only see into the locker rooh the hall doorway a few yards past the ice uys either covered up or stayed out of sight froet flashed while she filled ice bags

I sat on a bench out of view from the hallway, dried off with a few quick toipes, then pulled on my boxer briefs

"Well, hellooo, baby," Dylan called out

I looked up Dylan was standing nude and minus a towel in front of the door

"Dylan!" I barked, half rising fro, Dylan jerked his blond bangs out of his eyes then sauntered over to the bench

"Man, the ladies don&039;t want to see your two puny inches," someone joked from the other side of the lockers

"You&039;re a jackass," I muttered to Dylan Why did I still call hi hitting him upside the head

Hmm I couldn&039;t hit him, but I could

The twisted wet towel hit Dylan&039;s bare butt with a loud crack, followed by his even louder howl

Yeah, that would do for now

Savannah

I ignored Dylan&039;s leer as I entered the tiny portable building for yet another fun-filled history class Talk about a grade A jerk Dylan probably thought he was a real stud, flashing er As of ice at the end of Charmers practice But this weekend, Mrs Daniels had dropped a bootten a new job in Dallas Vicki and Keisha were filling in as alternate dancers for two Charone wrong Since I was still reluctantly keepinganyer who had to lead around two silly freshmen office aides temporarily on loan froers not to get lost or distracted at the field house, so they had been given the job of stowing the s and wrapped injuries at the end of the ht have to change that job assignment around

Not because of Dylan Dylan&039;s i hadmoron, like nore him

The football player and descendant whonore, despite my every effort to, was Tristan Four weeks had only s were for him Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, those sas forin the first place

Like now Here I was, unable to stop thinking about the guy stretched out in his desk just inches away from me And he obviously couldn&039;t care less in return Not an eye flickerFour weeks ago, it was all hearts and roses and pro up my ex-boyfriend Now I didn&039;t exist at all Exactly as I should have expected all along froical part-said I was extre right after their fight And yet my heart still stupidly ached over the fact that they were both avoiding me now Tristan was a player; of course he would blow hot and cold, and I was just an idiot for hoping otherwise But Greg had never seeirlfriends were still friends with him Why couldn&039;t we stay friends, too?

I foundat the weirdest times now Like last Saturday onbut happy, I ended up spendingwhether GregIf we had still been together, he probably would have taken me out somewhere to celebrate

And then last Wednesday when I passed ot my license, one of the Charmers teased me about how the blue backdrop in my photo made my hair look the exact same color as carrots I couldn&039;t tell my friends about that; they would have seen it as proof that all Char around withIf ere still friends If he wasn&039;t avoiding ue

Maybe it was better that both boys were ignoringaccidentally gaze dazed again And I wouldn&039;t have to argue with Tristan about e shouldn&039;t break the rules and date each other

I just wished I could forget as easily as they did Then I wouldn&039;t be constantly tor at the ho down atkisses along my cheeks and neck

The look in Tristan&039;s eyes as he&039;d thrown Greg to the ground

Sighing, I restedmy forearm to block my peripheral view of Tristan Lord, how I hated this class Everywhere else, I could stay busy, find ways to think about so else But in here, with Tristan just inches away, it was i but the past

A past I wanted to forget Needed to forget, if I ever hoped to like ain

Because in that ainst Tristan outside the cafeteria,the blood on his lip, when I&039;d realized I was staring right into his eyes

I&039;d wanted aze to affect him

Worse yet, while part of me was happy to see him clear eyed now and able to focus on Mr Smythe&039;s lecture, a darker part of me wished he hadn&039;t recovered at all

I should be locked up I was a menace to the male half of society And a scary freak to the other half

Since no one had lockedI could do was aiuy I wanted was a notorious player as off-li when she saidsomeone in the Clann could start a war between them and the vampires But just in case she wasn&039;t, I planned to avoid Tristan as much as possible fro hi minute of the day!

One ofhim to see that I still cared about hiain I would just have to get better at hiding h, I rested , muscled body stretched out in the desk beside ather up his stuff fro wasn&039;t enough for you, princess?" Dylan&039;s too-close drawl yankedin front of ht I&039;d been too lost in thought to notice the bell had rung and everyone was getting up to leave Great

Don&039;t react, I told myself That&039;s what he wants, to see you look e e, I looked up at his nose "I&039; to actually see?"

Tristan snickered ater His eyes squinted "You knorong You&039;re not just a princess You&039;re an ice princess Must be why Greg Stanwick duid for his taste"

If he only knew the truth That thought curved my lips into a smile "Ice Princess Hmm, I kind of like that one" It was better than so, Dylan shook his head and walked away,that sounded like "freak"

Like I hadn&039;t heard that one before I didn&039;t even blink

The Brat Twins giggled at Dylan&039;s reot up from their desks behind Tristan

Two more reasons to play the Ice Princess in here

I ss and joined the traffic exiting the classrooiven y for the rest of the year I could still be myself everywhere else But in history, I would play the Ice Princess-cold, eet no reactions from me to feed his sadistic-bully side The Brat Tould be deprived of their entertainment

And Tristan wouldn&039;t see how I really felt about hi, and I had Dylan to thank for it

I&039;d thought that playing things extra cool around Savannah for ato stalk her, so she could relax aroundof this week But then that idiot Dylan just had to mess with her and call her an ice princess Ever since, she&039;d see to heart Her face was like aclass that I so a statue She blinked, breathed, took notes and read But there was zero visibility into her real personality

If possible, she&039;d beco four fellow descendants in class with us didn&039;t help, either With Dylan one row to my left and back, the Brat Twins directly behindthe class, ht as well have not even had a class with Savannah this year, for all the opportunity I&039;d had to talk with her I couldn&039;t even look at her for two seconds without the Clann knowing

By Friday, all the hope I&039;d started the as ht into frustration I&039;d have to co to history class today for soht, everyone was talking A few people stood around, adding to the low-key party at around His irls ts over But soe

"Hey, Tristan" Vanessa laid a hand on my shoulder

I turned in , do you have a date for the Fall Ball yet?"

As if I&039;d ever be stupid enough to date her again "Not interested, Vanessa"

Soh to shake the entire building All conversation stopped

I jerked ht in tihed and strolled away from Savannah&039;s books and papers, which now covered a three-foot span of floor in front of her feet

What the

"Did you want to help me pick up all the stuff you just knocked off my desk?" Savannah muttered In the dead silence of the room, her every as as loud as if she&039;d shouted

There you go, Sav, don&039;t take any of his crap

I gripped the edge of les the Brat Twins didn&039;t bother to hide Evil witches; they must have been in on Dylan&039;s plans and distracted me on purpose They knew I&039;d never let Dylan bully anyone Though I&039;d thought he&039;d outgrown this crap back in junior high Unless he&039;d just been hiding it from me for the past few years

He stood by his chair with an arrogant grin "Who says I knocked your books off, sweetheart? They probably just fell off on their own"

"I have eyes I saw you, Williarin turned nasty as he slid into his desk sideways, stretching his legs across the aisle "Yeah, I&039;ve been hearing soe stories lately about those freaky eyes of yours, Colbert"

I started to lunge out of lide down the aisle, reaching Dylan&039;s desk in three long-legged strides

Planting a hand on his desk and another on the back of his chair, she leaned over one slow inch at a time until her nose almost touched Dylan&039;s "Better to have freaky eyes than an entire face that looks like you were dropped on it as a baby," she led on the other side of the rooht prickles race overto use power on her

I letDylan would feel it as even sharper prickles on his skin My ancestors hadn&039;t led the Clann for four generations based on their good looks Just because I had no intention of following in my father&039;s footsteps for Clann leadership didn&039;t th for it And it was tilanced at the tith raised eyebrows They answered with tiny shakes of their heads Then his angry gaze shot over toa clue, I thought

He sighed, and his energy level backed down But he still didn&039;t look sorry

Then Savannah leaned over and whispered soain "Pick up your own crap, Ice Princess"

Shtened up and strolled to the front of the roos I wanted to help her, but I could feel three pairs of spying eyes watchingat the dry-erase board that ran the length of the front wall But to punish and warn the other descendants, I keptin her chair, and I grinned Maybe this would teach her and her sister not to help Dylan ely, Savannah&039;s forear, she paused to rub the her papers and books and returned to her desk

She&039;d done that before when I was ticked off Could she somehow be sensitive to the Clann&039;s powers?

As soon as Mr Sy level down to norht me over the past month I&039;d worked hard for weeks to develop control overfor lanced at all four of us descendants with obvious suspicion Every descendant on cay spikes Dylan and I had just released But instead of trying to sendsession, Mr Smythe dived into his daily lecture

Not that I listened much History was easier to remember when I read about it at hoforafter class "What was that crap in there?"

I waited for the last students to get outside of hearing range before I replied, "A reminder You seemed about to lose your control"

"Unlike sonored the insult My issues with energy control were old news "Then you were about to use power against an innocent on purpose"

"She&039;s no innocent Not with those freaky eyes of hers"

Because y wanted to spike out of control, I lashed out in a different way "What did she say that scared you so badly?"

"She didn&039;t scare me, she threatened me! She said if I wasn&039;t careful, she&039;d use those eyes onabout her, about what she can do?"

"Thenwith her?"

"I&039; to you, so just back off"

"Or what?" His energy level juht your best friend over her?"

I studied the ugly look on his face We had been best friends once But in the past year or two, Dylan had changed I didn&039;t even know the guy anyry bully who preyed on others Had he always been this way and I just didn&039;t see it?

"I will if I have to" Because no true friend of y flared out to her His hands flexed then fisted, the y stabbed at his skin

He held ament, then watchedinsidethis conversation wasn&039;t over?

Tonight&039;s gaest rival, had been a tough one so far Apparently their defensive line didn&039;t like Dylan any ht now, because they&039;d been after the quarterback especially hard all night Unfortunately as an offensive tackle, it was my job to protect Dylan&039;s sorry butt As a result, I&039;d been taking hits intended for hiht, hat I really wanted was for one of their defensive line to take Dylan&039;s head off and save ed helping the Charmers in the bleachers didn&039;t i the, I stood on the sidelines while our defense took over for a while I should be focused onon the field had been easier last year on JV, because they didn&039;t have the Charaot all the school-spirit groups at our ga sideways and up to the home bleachers Third quarter now, time for the Charmers to take their break Which meant Savannah would be in the concession-stand area instead of with her duffel bag and the protective charms I&039;d created for her If they were even still in there I&039;d have to get Anne to sneak a peek into Savannah&039;s bag at lunch next week and make sure

In the meantime, I&039;d just have to hope that none of her stalkers tried to ht now

After a few minutes, Savannah returned to the Charmers bleacher section My heart ra ponytail and toyed with the red strands, spreading it out like dark fire around her head

"Playing with fire?" Dylan reaze back to the field "No clue what you&039;re talking about"

"I&039; about Freaky Eyes up there"

I turned to face him "Man, what is your probleet it out ofto side with her over your best friend"

"I&039; we don&039;t attack innocents You know the rules"