Page 20 of Sweet Nightmare

“It was bound to happen eventually. It almost always does,” I say. “Anyway, we should really get to class.”

“That’s kind of an exaggeration, isn’t—” Caspian starts, but he breaks off abruptly because even he can’t stomach the lie right now. Or is it just because he can’t speak the truth?

It’s what we do here at Calder Academy—what we have to do. Squirrel everything soft and hopeful and vulnerable away deep inside, where no one can see it—not even us.

It usually even works…until it doesn’t.

CHAPTER TWELVE

KISS MY

FANNY

I’m still working on swallowing down a tidal wave of grief as I walk into the classroom…only to find Jude sitting at my usual desk.

Grief turns to rage in an instant. Because fuck this. And fuck him. Fuck all of them.

I square my shoulders and march over to him. He’s the one who stopped talking to me, and after I got over that trauma, I swore that if we ever spoke again, he’d have to be the one to break the silence.

I’ve kept that vow, and there’s no way I’m going to break it now…over a desk.

I slide into the desk beside him and keep my head down, but I can feel the weight of his eyes on me the whole time. Who cares? Let him look.

The angry part of me wants to stare back. But my grief over Serena is too fresh for me to be playing power games with Jude, no matter how much he deserves it.

I also notice Jean-Luc staring at me from across the room. He’s wearing the same shit-eating grin he had on when I caught him burning ants under a magnifying glass freshman year. My stomach clenches, because I’ve dealt with him long enough to know that it’s never good if he thinks you’re one of those ants. Too bad I don’t have enough fight left in me today to disabuse him of the notion.

Whatever’s up with him, Jude seems to notice it, too. He keeps glancing warily between Jean-Luc and me.

Ms. Aguilar flits to the front of the room, yellow hair bouncing and skin glittering with pixie dust. “‘I find I cannot exist without poetry.’”

She clutches her hands to her chest, whirling around and coming to a stop right in front of my new desk before continuing, “‘I will imagine you Venus tonight and pray, pray, pray to your star like a Heathen!’”

She gives another spin…only to get a fist full of Hot Tamales flung at her face.

They bounce off with an audible thump, causing the Jean-Jerks to snicker. “Hey, teach!” Jean-Luc starts, but before he can get very far, Izzy slides into the desk next to mine.

She toys with the ends of her long, red hair as she leans over to me and says—loud enough for the entire class to hear—“So what’s the penalty in this place for slicing off the fingers of fellow students?”

Her gaze slides over to the Jean-Jerks as she says it.

“Pretty sure that’d count toward your community service hours,” I tell her as my anger over Serena—my anger over all of this—continues to build inside me.

“That’s exactly what I was thinking.” Her fangs flash in what I’m pretty sure is her version of a smile.

“You really think you can take us?” Jean-Luc snarls. Seconds later, a handful of Hot Tamales hits Izzy in the face, too. “Come at us.”

She fades across the room and back so fast that barely a second goes by. But as she settles back into her desk, Jean-Luc lets out a screech. Both his hands are now spread on his desk, and there are daggers jammed into the desk between each of his fingers and another two longer knives bent and wrapped around his wrists like cuffs, pinning him to the desk.

“What the fuck?” he snarls as he tries to lift his hands and fails.

Izzy shrugs as she crosses her arms over her chest. “Next time, I won’t be so careful.”

“You’ll pay for this, vamp!” Jean-Jacques threatens. “Do you know who our fathers are?”

Izzy yawns. “Here’s a tip. No one ever sounds threatening when they feel the need to bring their daddy into the conversation. If you want to be taken seriously, what you should ask is, Do you know who I am?”

The answer to that is clearly someone not to be fucked with. Which is why everyone in the class is currently busy looking anywhere but at Izzy. Well, everyone but Jude, who gives her a little chin nod of respect. Izzy turns back to Ms. Aguilar and says, “Go on.”

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