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"What’s Jonesy talking about?" he asked, his hands on slack encased hips His parents had made him wear the Man Outfit John jerked the tie down a little so it was less like a noose

"I’ out in this bullshit," John muttered

"Dirty mouth, Terran," Tiff said in a sultry purr from behind us and the poor bastard went from ivory snow to red as a tomato as fast as you could say

Girl

Tiff was one of those rare individuals whose very existence gave me a perpetual case of the crooked an as she moved around to the front of our position and both our jaws dropped

Tiff looked like a girl

It was literally the first time we had ever seen her in a dress and she i self-conscious

John cleared his throat, the blush flaring ruthlessly back to life He opened his mouth and then shut it

"What?" she asked in a defensive bark

John looked at her, taking in the soft, honey colored hair that had missed mousy brown by a milliht mascara but her face was so sreen took up half of that precious real estate

And she had a body

Who could have known? Hoodie as Uniforrown into a curvy woue

Tiff huffed, pegging a small hand on her hip Hands I’d seen jab throats I was s she’d done when she earing skyscraper heels and a deep green blouse that hugged her torso tightly, a lacy black cae

I swear I heard Terran s Must’ve hurt Poor dude

"You look nice, Tiff," John said Color rose to her cheekbones and she was silent, fiddling with the he us and dragging Tiff along for the ride when Sophie walked up

Thank everything that was holy

"Hi guys," she said, her eyes shifting from my face to Terran’s then to Tiff’s

"What’d I uys look totally stiff" Then she lowered her voice, "Jonesy added soo have so like the stick is out of your asses" Then she straightened, looking at Tiff who glared back at her

"How do you boys like Tiff’s transforly

Holy crap, Tiff et a hold of her

Sophie looked at my face "Co her up nice and slow before zoo ti at thewith a print, I could tell

Terran sht be more Tiff’s style"

Tiff looked up at Terran and sard that was a first

Well, it was the first ti forwith such assurance that it sings a tune in your bones

Sophie gave ave an almost imperceptible nod in return

John and Tiff didn’t pay attention because they were too busy looking at each other

Perfect

CHAPTER 2

then

autu for me when I dropped Jade off at the dorm-like foster set up It beat the Frazier household (which had really been a ruse anyway) Jade hadn’t had any belongings to move except the dreamcatcher

We placed it last, above her new bed, es that ood fortune The creepiness of our past covered in the freedom of our future

It was as if her existence that year had been wiped froe on a day like any other when she turned eighteen in our senior year, getting the deed to her Aunt’s house andinto the new foster dorm the same day

We celebrated

Oh did we

For teeks after Brett’s funeral Jade had stayed ather settled in her new place We still found tiether and christen her new start

However, there had been the s, the house was a huge old-fashioned four square from the turn of the last century Its bold lines fraainst the carWhen she went through the door it appeared to s her

I left her in that cavernousaway uneasily to seek out Clyde

I knew he’d be with Bobbi and I headed there

But I pulsed Jade Itto pulse I had to know that she wasn’t being digested by her new environ for it either It’d been a helluva year and there were new challenges to face I’d rather face theht now Clyde was a shell of his former self Gale had a new scar above her heart; a bullet meant for Clyde had pierced her instead If not for his life force, she’d be on my team

Team Dead

None of us wanted that

I let the car idle in front of Roberta Gale’s house and sighed I pulsed the Camaro off and jerked open the door My foot hit the street, rain pounding the asphalt so hard it slopped back up and soakedthat looked reen The water resistant fiber h thealong the curb