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After a moment, she shuddered, and when she opened her eyes, they were brown again Then she looked up and saw h

"Right," I said Like I'd ever seen a faerie before today

"This your first day too?" she asked

When I nodded, she said, "I'm Taylor Shifter, obviously"

"Sophie Witch"

"Cool" She knelt on the couch the faeries had vacated, folding her ar at et in here?"

I glanced around No one was paying attention to us

Still, I kept "

Taylor nodded "There's a bunch of witches in here for stuff like that"

"You?" I ventured

She pushed her hair out of her eyes and said, "Pretty irls atcompared to the crap some of the kids here have pulled" She leaned forward and her voice dropped to a near whisper "This one olf, Beth? I hear she actually ate so past me toward the stairs, "I'd rather have somebody like that for a roommate than a snotty faerie"

She looked back atwith?"

I didn't like the way she said "What," so my tone was a little sharp when I said, "Jenna Talbot"

Her eyes widened "Dude The vaet it I'll take a bitchy faerie over that any day"

"She's not so bad," I said autoed and picked up the remote she'd thrown at Nausicaa

"If you say so," shethe TV back on

Apparently our conversation was over, so I headed to the second floor That was Boy World, so I couldn't really do any exploring The layout was identical to the third floor, but their lounge area looked evenout of one of the couches, and a card table leaned crookedly in the corner There was no one in there, but I did glance down one of the halls I saw Justin trying to uessed was his rooed with defeat I felt a little sorry for hi him try to push around a trunk that was nearly as tall as he was reminded me that, vicious olf or not, he was just a little kid Then he turned, saw me, and, I boy you not, snarled

I hurried down the stairs and onto the first floor It was quiet down there I only saw a couple of people hanging around, including a tall jock-looking guy all in denim and flannel I wondered if he was someone's older brother, since he looked too old to be at Hecate, and he earing jeans instead of khakis

My footsteps wereshades of red and gold as I turned down one of the hallways off the main foyer

I peeked into the first roo rooe parlor Directly across fro rounds This room overlooked a small pond with a pier and a pretty, rareen The grass, the trees, the thin coat of algae on the pond, where I really, really hoped ouldn't be canoeing or anythingall of it was this bright, hurt-your-eyes green that was like nothing I'd ever seen before Even the heavy clouds that were beginning to sith the threat of an afternoon thunderstorreen, and it felt soft, alus Pictures covered the other three walls Every one showed the saathered on the front porch I didn't know if they itches or shifters, but there were no faeries A tiny gold plaque at the base of every fra with last year's picture, just to the right of the door

There were only six adults in the oldest picture, and all of them looked really serious, like they'd probably kicked kittens for fun Younger Prodigiu up until 1967 I wondered if that was the first year Hecate Hall had become a school And if so, as it before then?

Last year, there were nearly a hundred kids, and everybody looked a lotnext to a taller girl

They had their ar over each other's shoulders, and I wondered if this was the mysterious Holly

To be honest, I felt a little jealous I couldn't ih to someone to casually put my arm around them in a picture In allalone in the back with my hair in my face

Was that why Jenna had seemed so weird when I'd mentioned her old roommate? Had they been best buddies, and noas the interloper trying to take Holly's place? Great

"Sophia?"

Startled, I turned around

The threebehind eous It was just the one in the middle She had auburn hair that fell in soft bouncy curls nearly to her waist

She probably didn't even have to use a diffuser I bet she woke up with her hair looking like so out of a Pantene commercial while little bluebirds circled around her head, and raccoons brought her breakfast or so

I also couldn't help but notice that she didn't have any freckles, which was enough to ht was a blonde, and even though she had that whole California girl thing going--stick-straight hair, tan skin, deep blue eyes--her eyes were too close together, and when she smiled at me, I noticed she had a pretty bad overbite