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TEN

"EXCUSE ME, MR NAGY? I CANT really concentrate with Lissa and Rose passing notes over there"

Mia was atte to distract attention froy’s question - and it was ruining what had otherwise been a pro day A few of the fox rumors still circulated, butRalf I still hadn’t cleared Christian of the fox incident - I was pretty sure he was psycho enough to have done it as son of affection for Lissa - but whatever his motives, he had shifted the attention off her, just as he’d said

Mr Nagy legendary for his ability to hu notes aloud, homed in on us like a missile He snatched the note away, and the excited class settled in for a full reading I sedto look as blank and unconcerned as possible Beside me, Lissa looked like she wanted to die

"My,the note over "If only students would write this much in their essays One of you has considerably worse writing than the other, so forgivehere" He cleared his throat " ¡®So, I saw J last night,’ begins the person with bad handwriting, to which the response is, ¡®What happened,’ followed by no fewer than five question marks Understandable, since soet the point across, eh?" The class laughed, and I noticed Mia throwing me a particularly ;What do you think happened? We hooked up in one of the elanced up after hearing soles in the room His British accent only added to the hilarity

"May I assu;hook up’ pertains to the more recent, shall we say, carnal application of the terreith?"

More snickers ensued Straightening up, I said boldly, "Yes, sir, Mr Nagy That would be correct, sir" A nuht

"Thank you for that confirmation, Miss Hathaway Nohere was I? Ah yes, the other speaker then asks, ¡®Hoas it?’ The response is, ¡®Good,’ punctuated with a smiley face to confirm said adjective Well I suppose kudos are in order for the uys go?’ Uh, ladies," said Mr Nagy, "I do hope this doesn’t surpass a PG rating ¡®Not very We got caught’ And again, we are shown the severity of the situation, this ti;What happened?’ ¡®Dimitri showed up He threw Jesse out and then bitched me out’ "

The class lost it, both fro some participants named

"Why, Mr Zeklos, are you the aforementioned J? The one who earned a smiley face from the sloppy writer?" Jesse’s face turned beet red, but he didn’t look entirely displeased at having his exploits made known in front of his friends He’d kept what had happened a secret thus far - including the blood talk - because I suspected Dimitri had scared the hell out of hiood misadventure as much as the next teacher whose ti;friends’ in the future that my class is not a chat room" He tossed the paper back on to Lissa’s desk "Miss Hathaway, it seems there’s no feasible way to punish you, since you’re already omir, will serve two detentions instead of one on behalf of your friend Stay here when the bell rings, please"

After class, Jesse found me, an uneasy look on his face "Hey, u to do with that If Belikov finds out about ityou’ll tell him? I mean, you’ll let him know I didn’t - "

"Yeah, yeah," I interrupted hi withof how easily Dimitri had thrown him around - and of his apparent cowardice - I couldn’t help but remark, "You know, Jesse’s suddenly not as hot as I used to think"

She only laughed "You’d better go I’ve got desks to wash"

I left her, heading back for athered in sarded the I had the free time to socialize

"No, it’s true," I heard a confident voice say Camille Conta Beautiful and popular, froious families in the Conta clan She and Lissa had sort of been friends before we left, in the uneasy erful forces keep an eye on each other "They, like, clean toilets or so"

"Oh my God," her friend said "I’d die if I was Mia"

I smiled Apparently Jesse had spread soht Unfortunately, the next overheard conversation shattered my victory

" - heard it was still alive Like, twitching on her bed"

"That is so gross Why would they just leave it there?"

"I don’t know Why kill it in the first place?"

"You think Ralf was right? That she and Rose did it to get kicked - "

They saw , I skulked off across the quadrangle Still alive, still alive

I’d refused to let Lissa talk about the sio I didn’t want to believe they were connected, and I certainly didn’t want her to either

But I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about that incident, not only because it was chilling, but because it really did remind me of what had just happened in her room

We had been out in the woods near ca skipped out on our last class I’d traded a pair of cute, rhinestone-studded sandals to Abby Badica for a bottle of peach schnapps - desperate, yes, but you did what you had to in Montana - which she’d sootten hold of Lissa had shaken her head in disapproval when I suggested cutting class to go put the bottle out of itsanyway Like always

We found an old log to sit on near a scuht on us, but it was h for va the bottle back and forth, I grilled her on Aaron She’d fessed up that the two of thee of jealousy that she’d been the one to have sex first

"So as it like?"

She shrugged and took another drink "I don’t know It wasn’t anything"

"What do you ? Didn’t the earth ?"

"No," she said, sh "Of course not"

I didn’t really get why that should be funny, but I could tell she didn’t want to talk about it This was around the ti to creep into lared at it

"I don’t think this stuff is working"

"That’s because there’s barely any alcohol in - "

The sound of so in the brush ca my body between her and the noise

"It’s some animal," she said when a minute went by in silence

That didn’t erous The school’s wards kept out Strigoi, but wild ani their own threats Bears Cougars

"Come on," I told her "Let’s head back"

We hadn’t gone very far when I heard soain, and someone stepped out into our path "Ladies"

Ms Karp

We froze, and whatever quick reactions I’d shown back by thethe bottle behind my back

A half-smile crossed her face, and she held out her hand

Sheepishly, I gave the bottle to her, and she tucked it under her ar there would be consequences to deal with

"You think no one notices when half a class is gone?" she asked after a little while

"Half a class?"

"A few of you apparently chose today to skip Must be the nice weather Spring fever"

Lissa and I trudged along I’d never been comfortable around Ms Karp since the time she’d healed e quality to er than before Scary, even And lately I couldn’t look at her without seeing those marks by her forehead Her deep red hair usually covered them but not always Sometimes there were new

A weird fluttering noise sounded to ht We all stopped