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"The age thing is a little skewed, you er representatives? But younger va how to live, not how to e isn’t important, anyway Wisdoht of Caht prove to be

"So the Council has the power to ram?"

"Not power in the sense you " Cho braked hard and made a decisive turn off the ood-versus-evil battleground way of thinking about conflict," she said "It’s archaic Resolving probleotiations that are premised on mutual respect If the Council considers an issue and takes a position on it, their judghout the vampire world It carries enormous influence It has the clout of tradition behind it"

We were entering the Hillhouse ca issues and turned to my own problems Hoould I face Walker? What would I say to Bernadette? I suddenly wished the drive weren’t over I wanted to tell the doctor o and write your papers Don’t worry about the Nebulists now I’ll contact the Council and report all you’ve said Okay?"

"Thank you" I felt relieved knowing that so to help Mysty and the others

"And I’ll let you know the second I get the lab reports on the water saot out of the car as I did and walked around it to give"Meantime, better not drink the water here, either Stick to Picardo It’s safer"

I expected aardness I even anticipated an ugly scene What I didn’t expect was to find Bernadette back in our roo

"Oh, hey, where’ve you been?" Her eyes had the now faan, but she wasn’t listening In her head she was hu--dah dah dah dah, dah dah dah dah, dah dah dah dah

"What are you doing here?" I said

"Me? Oh, I moved back" She finished a line of stitches and bit off the thread with her teeth "There," she said, adood as new"

"I thought you ht back the ie of the two of them in my hotel bed

"It didn’t work out" Her tone was nonchalant She stood up and threw the shirt toward a chair It fell on the floor She giggled

I looked at the calendar over my desk Three weeks until the last class, and then exao back to Tybee My father would be well again--better than well--and I’d tell hi that had happened, and he’d make sense of it all He’d knohat to do And my mother would be able to rest, and the three of us would--

"Ari, Ari, we’re going to happy hour at the Anchor don Come with!" Bernadette stood up and danced across the carpet, tripping over her feet, collapsing onto her bed

The Anchor was a townies’ bar that served Hillhouse students grudgingly, knowing that most of their IDs were fake "No thanks," I said "I have a paper to write"

After she left, the rooolden stillness I picked up the clothes she’d discarded on my bed and desk and tossed them onto her bed Then I opened my laptop, sat down, and wrote the first half of ht, I saw Jacey Her hair was unbraided, and it spread over her shoulders like a cape

She came up to me, looked hard at oodness," she said "Ari, when you didn’t coht you’d been disappeared Like your friend"

"I went to visit my family"

We took quick short steps down the incline that led to the cafeteria I tried not to see the shrubs where, less than a month before, Walker had first kissed oodness," Jacey said again "The others came back all weird--except for Richard, and he eird before, but in a different way Walker and Bernie and Rhonda, they’re high all the time"

"I noticed"

We jumped over the low stone fence that bordered the paved path below us No one followed the paths at Hillhouse; everyone devised shortcuts through the landscape

"Walker doesn’t do Walker things any and playing guitar He acts all spaced out"

Iwith Bernie drove me crazy" Jacey had to take two steps for every one of h before, when she acted depressed and critical and mean Now she’s Ms Mellow What she says doesn’t et worse every day"

I stopped walking and faced her--looked down into her face, more accurately "Jacey, will you trust ?"

"I trust you," she said "You were the only one brave enough to spend the night withon with Bernadette and the others is just as strange as what happened that night"

Her eyes narrowed, and shestuff that makes them pseudo-mellow Have you heard of V?"