Page 55 of The Hallows Queen

Mrs. Justice doesn’t ask for my participation, so I don’t offer it, opting to observe her teaching style and learn how to control a crowd of teenagers. She carries herself with arrogance, and it rubs me the wrong way. I don’t want to be her when I grow up, old and bitter and forced into retirement because I have a stick up my ass.

She doesn’t seem tocareabout the students. She follows her lesson plan down to the letter like a robot pretending to be a woman.

When 3rdperiod rolls around, my head hurts and my ass is asleep from sitting in my desk chair for so long without standing up.

Luxington High gives students fifteen minutes between classes, so after the minute or so it takes 2ndperiod to clear out, I have about ten minutes to myself before the next class comes in. Mrs. Justice says something about going to get a bottle of water, so I take the freedom to put my head flat down on the surface of my desk and will my headache to stop.

After about two minutes, I’m interrupted.

“Bad first day?”

His voice makes my head pop up too quick, so it throbs. I groan, meeting Hayden’s dark gaze. “You’re kidding, right?”

He smiles, tapping his tattooed fingers on the top of my desk like it’s a piano. “That bad?”

“Remember when I told you to pretend you don’t know me this morning?” I ask him, wanting to hurl myself over my desk and strangle him.

“I have some recollection of that, yes,” he answers, twisting his lips to the side playfully.

I clear my throat, placing my hands flat on my desk. “You’rereallybad at it.”

He laughs, shrugging his shoulders. “Eh, we all have our flaws.”

I shake my head, seeing Mrs. Justice in my peripheral vision walking through the classroom door. “Get out.”

His laugh echoes out again. “So fucking polite, Miss Leyton.”

“Mr. Monroe,” Mrs. Justice says, pulling both of our attention to where she’s standing at the whiteboard. “Find your seat.”

I look back at Hayden, whose mouth spreads into a sinister smile that makes a chill run down my spine. I stop breathing as I watch him slowly walk to the back of the classroom, and when he turns around to sit down in one of the vacant desks, he still has that smile cutting across his face.

Oh my god.

How didn’t I connect that he would be in my class?

Chapter15

Hayden

I keepmy eyes on Penelope from across the room, and she holds my stare, even with her delicious mouth dropped open and her eyes wide.

As students trickle into the classroom, she squirms under my gaze, but I don’t pull away. I’m getting too much pleasure from making her uncomfortable. Even when she turns away from me, pretending to do something on her computer, I keep staring. My eyes burn and my cheeks start cramping from my smile, but holy shit, I haven’t had this much fun in a while.

This may just be my motivation to keep showing up to this place.

Levi drops down in the seat next to me. “Hey.”

I keep my eyes on Penelope and answer him. “Sup?”

“What are you doing?” he asks, and I can see him staring at me in the corner of my eye.

“Nothin’,” I say.

Penelope is pretending to focus on something on the screen of her computer, but the way her chest is rising and falling quickly tells me that she’s not cool and collected like she’s pretending to be. She’s freaking out, maybe even having a panic attack. My entire body throbs with pleasure, wondering what’s going on inside her beautiful head.

“You’re staring.” Levi laughs, and I finally turn to look at him.

“What?” I say, my mind far away.

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