Page 66 of Misfit Monsters
When we get to the servers, I ask for a barbeque chicken burger and fries. The spicy scent that wafts from the tray I'm handed makes me giddy. Fen and I head toward the other tables.
A few feet from the nearest one, the floor turns abruptly slippery beneath my shoes.
My feet skid and swerve with a twinge of my ankles. The tray wobbles in my hands, and my fizzy drink tumbles onto the floor.
Fen snatches my shoulder and helps me catch my balance before I lose my food as well. Dark liquid streaks across the floor from my cup.
One of the school staff materializes from the shadows with a wrinkling of his nose. "I'll clean it up. Go on."
Striding by with her own food, Gloss tsks her tongue. "Such a klutz."
My hair flickers with a ruddy glow of both anger and embarrassment. I think she has wintry powers like Hail does. She was punishing me for whathesaid.
Maybe Rollick should add logic classes to the curriculum.
I have better things to think about. The burger tastes just as delicious as it smelled. For several minutes, I listen to Fen fill me in on the latest drama she's seen and heard around the school and put our bully out of my mind.
As we're leaving the cafeteria, Fen brightens. "Oh, there’s a book I wanted to show you—it’s got amazing pictures from all over the mortal world. We'll probably be sitting on the sidelines for the morphball game today. I'll run and get it from my room. Meet you at the gym?"
"Sounds good!" I set off with a spring in my step.
I only make it around one turn in the hall before Gloss catches up with me, on her own. I don't know how she moves so fast with those mincing steps.
She whirls on me with a flash of her amber eyes, her voice pitched low and outright frigid. "I don't know what charms you tried to work on Hail, but he'd never be remotely interested in a wimp like you. If he's been the slightest bit nice, it's only because he had no one better to pay attention to."
Her words cut straight through me. I wasn't looking to get any particular attention from Hail, but I still want to curl up in a ball against her hostility.
“I didn’t try to do anything with him,” I say. “If he wants to be with you, go be with him.”
She makes a scoffing sound, her anger only sharpening. "You've been putting on your cluelessly sweet act from the second you got here. I know it's only because you're the weakest being here. I doubt you'll even come back the next time Rollick sends you away, and no one will miss you, not even the drip."
She glides off without a backward glance.
My muscles clench up instinctively with a tremor of my nerves. Even if Jonah’s sorcery will stop me from blaring out harmful energy, I’d rather not test the limits of his command.
I close my eyes and see the glitter of silver and iron chain links on the ground, the gleam of battered trophies through glass.
My next breath comes shaky, but a strange sense of calm settles over me.
I might not be able to prove much, but IknowI'm not weak. I survived a man much crueler than Gloss could imagine.
Compared to that sorcerer, she’s the wimp.
The reminder carries me the rest of the way to the gym. I grin at Fen when she hustles in with her book and “Oooh” over the pictures of places she'd like us to visit together. But all the while my stomach stays knotted.
No matter what I do, some people in this place are always going to hate me, and I don't even understand why.
25
Periwinkle
The academy doesn’t have much in common with human farms, but the plain, boxy structure set back from the two main buildings is doing a reasonable impression of a barn. As I walk over to it through the dry desert wind, my skin prickles as if I’m engaging in illicit agricultural activities.
I’m allowed to be here. It’s still on the school grounds. And I couldn’t do much damage to the dusty earth, wizened shrubs, or craggy mountains rising in the distance even if I wasn’t under sorcerous command.
But it’s the first time I’ve left the reform building on my own. Is a teacher going to appear wagging a disapproving finger at me?
I make it to the sort-of barn’s door without any chiding. The hinges squeak as I slip inside.
