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Luce chose a desk close to the s, between Jas cuto s, a Dodgers cap, and a navy sweatshirt A few girls stood clustered near the door to the bathroolasses When Luce saw the girl's pro le, she nearly bolted froirl turned toward Luce, her face was a little squarer and her clothes were a little tighter and her laugh was a little louder and Luce al Of course it wasn't Penn It never would be, ever again

Luce could feel the other kids glancing at her--soht stared The only one who didn't was Shelby, who gave Luce an acknowledging nod

It wasn't a huge class, just twenty desks arranged on the risers, facing the two long any tables at the front There were two dry-erase white boards behind the tables Two bookshelves on either side Two trash cans Two desk lamps Two laptops, one on each table And the two teachers, Steven and Francesca, huddled near the front of the roo, they turned and stared at her too, then glided to the tables Francesca sat on top of one, with one leg tucked beneath her and one of her high heels skiainst the other table, opened a heavy maroon leather portfolio, and rested his pen between his lips For an older , sure, but Luce almost wished he weren't He reminded her of Cam, and of how deceptive a demon's charm could be

She waited for the rest of the class to take out textbooks she didn't have, to plunge into son overwhelmed and just daydream about Daniel

But none of that happened And lances at her

"By now youa new student" Francesca's voice was low and honey-thick, like a jazz singer's

Steven s a ash of brilliant white teeth "Tell us, Luce, how are you liking Shoreline so far?"

The color drained fro sounds on the oor They were actually turning in their seats to focus on her

She could feel her heart race and her pal she were just a normal kid at a noria At times over the past few days, she'd wished she'd never seen a shadow, never gotten into the kind of trouble that left her dear friends dead, or got her involved with Cam, or made it impossible for Daniel to be near her But there here her anxious, tu mind always came to a full stop: How to be normal and still have Daniel? Who was so very far fro it up

"I guess I' used to Shoreline" Her voice wobbled, betraying her, echoing o the sloped ceiling "But it seehed "Well, Francesca and I thought to help you get used to it, we'd change gears fro student presentations--"

From across the room, Shelby hooted, "Yes!" and Luce noticed that she had a stack of notecards on her desk and a big poster at her feet that read APPARITIONS AIN'T SO BAD So Luce had just gotten her out of a presentation That had to be worth so in roommate points

"What Steven ame, as an icebreaker" She slid down fro as she distributed a sheet of paper to each student

Luce expected the chorus of groans that those words usually evoked froreeable and well- adjusted They were actually just going to go with the ow

When she laid the sheet on Luce's desk, Francesca said, "This should give you an idea of who sooals ork toward in this class"

Luce looked down at the paper Lines had been drawn on the page, piding it into twenty boxes Each box contained a phrase It was a game Luce looked down at the paper Lines had been drawn on the page, piding it into twenty boxes Each box contained a phrase It was a gaia as a little kid, and again a couple of tio around the room and match a di erent student with each phrase Mostly, she was relieved; there were de nitelyicebreakers out there But when she looked s like "Has a pet turtle" or "Wants to go skyping sos like "Speaks es" and "Has visited the outerworld"

It was about to be painfully obvious that Luce was the only non-Nephiliht back to the nervous waiter who had brought her and Shelby their breakfast Maybe Luce would bethe scholarship kids Beaker Brady didn't even know he'd dodged a bullet

"If no one has questions," Steven said froin"

"Go outside, enjoy yourselves," Francesca added "Take all the time you need"

Luce followed the rest of the students onto the deck As they walked toward the railing, Jasreen- lacquered ngernail at one of the boxes "I have a relative who's a full-blooded cherub," she said "Crazy old Uncle Carlos"

Luce nodded, like she knehat that meant, and jotted in Jasmine's name

"Ooh, and I can levitate," Dawn chirped, pointing to the top left corner of Luce's page "Not, like, a hundred percent of the time, but usually after I've had my co ee"

"Wow" Luce tried not to stare--it didn't see a joke She could levitate?