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The throbbing inside edso hot herself She wore a light blue robe and fuzzy slippers Her face was puffy when she looked up from her paper She eyed the red scarf around ?" she asked

"I have a headache"

"I saw the ene in your rooed "Which reminds me, Happy New Year"

Moathered in her eyes

"Look, sorry about the scene last night Obviously I was under the influence Tell Dad I was drunk and that it won&039;t happen again"

Mom blinked several times and nodded "You shouldn&039;t have had the entire bottle"

"I learned h my teeth so my mom wouldn&039;t worry somy neck chewed open, Denise spent the holiday with her faht

She and Erin sipped out of paper espresso cups in front of the lockers the first day of school

Second semester The end was near Literally

I threw back uys! Hoas your holiday?"

They exchanged looks at my cheerful tone Mom had advised me to be more peppy Like if I acted that way, I&039;d feel that way Fat chance

"Fine," Denise said "Hoas yours?"

"Wild!" My mouth expanded on the word

"That&039;s nice," Denise said, turning back to Erin "So anyway, like I was saying, Alan Baxter called me yesterday to invite me to the winter ball"

Once upon a time, in a world without vampires, Denise would have tracked me down to share that news

"When&039;s winter ball?" I asked

"At the end of the week"

"What did you tell him?" Erin asked

"I told hio to winter ball with?" I pondered aloud

This was enough to pull Denise&039;s attention away fro like a coo take you to winter ball?"

I never realized how little I cared for Denise until now

I straightened to ht and took a step toward her "You mean I haven&039;t quite been lared at h I was practically in her face

"U to class," Erin said

Denise shotto Erin "I&039;ll come with you"

Good Denise should be friends with so vampires

I could make new friends, too Maybe even ones ere aware of &039;deht about the hickey I&039;d seen on the black-haired girl&039;s neck Only I no longer believed it was a hickey

It was just a hunch, but there was only one way to find out

I irl&039;s bathrooh, I noticed three fahts I followed theirls&039; bathroom

They were all short, like they&039;d formed a club - the Three Mouseketeers

I set my backpack on the counter in front of theA toilet flushed behindbell rang, and several girls rushed out The Mouseketeers kept their places at thetheir lips At least they didn&039;t chatter

When the final bell rang and it was just the four of us in the ladies&039; room, I unwrapped my scarf, folded it, set it on the counter in a corner clear of water drops, and turnedwound I dug around in irl looked over and nodded at my neck "What is that?"

I pulled out a tube of pink lipstick, puckering my lips after I applied pale pink shiirl with the red streaks in her hair laughed "It looks like you and your boyfriend had a heavy make-out session"

"Oh, please," I said with a roll of ot is so much better"

"And what&039;s that?"

"None of your biz"

All three girls turned toward me and folded their arms

"Wait a irl as in a coma?"

"Yep" My lips puckered as I formed the word

The two other Mouseketeers lowered their arms They looked me up and down "I heard they had to reattach your body parts"

"Nope, just replace ans"

"Wicked"

Red took a step towardto party?"

I tossed my lipstick insideto party I party"

"I&039;m Whitney," Red said "This is Noel and Hope"

"Noel," I repeated, looking at the girl in the hoodie "Don&039;t tell ive you an &039;Alaskan&039; name, too?"