Heather

I shoved away the stabbing pain in my heart at the thought that Brent would choose this girl over me. Instead, I’d focus on the fact that my visions might be coming back. The relief was tangible. Now, if only I could get this girl to back off. "Excuse me?" I didn’t care how rude I sounded. Having a little bit of my own normalcy back was enough to make me confident.

"Move out of the way." La Bitch moved to shove me, but I sidestepped in time, and managed to keep my plate from slipping off the tray. Go me.

The girl’s face reddened. She leaned into my space. "Listen, whore," she whispered. "I don’t know what you did to my Brent, but you better stay far away from us."

I met her stare. "I really don’t give a shit about you or your cheating boyfriend. You need to back off before you start something you’re going to regret." We stood there frozen. Somehow it turned into a third grade staring contest, and I wouldn’t look away first.

Time stopped as I waited for her to look away. As soon as she did, I smiled, and it wasn’t in the least bit nice. "Leave," I said. "Now."

She spun, stomping her feet like a child.

Who knew telling her to go would work? I couldn’t stop the grin. I was badass.

It didn’t take long for the grin to disappear. Everyone in the room had been watching.

Fan-freaking-tastic. I hoped that was the end of showdowns, but knew I could never be that lucky.

I found my way to the table where Serena and Xander were sitting, and slid into the chair.

"Well, that was intense," I said.

"Intense?" Serena said. "No. That was ah-may-zing. Do you know what this means?"

"That she’ll leave me alone?"

Xander laughed. "No. You’ve just made an enemy for life. No chance in hell she’ll ever leave you alone now."

"Aaaaand," Serena said, cutting off Xander before he could say anything else. "More importantly, you might be an alpha."

"I have no idea what you’re talking about." I looked at La Bitch, who was now talking furiously with three other girls. "What is her problem?"

"She’s Callista Hoel. She thinks she’s the shit," Xander said. "And she likes to think that she’s Brent’s girlfriend."

My heart double-timed it. "But is she Brent’s girlfriend?"

"No," Serena said. "They kind of grew up together, and a bunch of people, including her, thought that they’d end up together, but they’ve never really dated. I mean...there was that rumor—"

"The rumor had some truth to it, but she threw herself at him and wouldn’t leave him alone until he gave her a chance," Xander said.

I stopped breathing as Brent walked into the room. Callista ran to him and put her arms around his waist. He put his arm on her shoulder as she talked to him. He jerked back at something that she said, and then his gaze found mine.

Shit. I sank down in my chair. Being in the middle of a soap opera wasn’t my idea of a good time.

"She’s really pissed. I love being right. I knew I was going to like you," Xander said. He blew me a kiss.

I pretended to catch the kiss and press it to my cheek, and then I looked behind me again. Brent stood still, ignoring Callista. His eyes were glowing, but I wasn’t sure if he was staring at Xander or me. My heart sped up. Was he going to come over here?

Brent spun on his heel and left the cafeteria, slamming the door behind him. Callista stood there for a second, staring at the door, before going after him.

I ground my teeth. She was out there alone with Brent, and I despised her for it.

I was so dumb.

I thought back to the vision I’d gotten from Callista.

It seemed like I heard her current thoughts, which was odd. It’d happened before—when someone was drunk or when it was Mom—but it was rare enough to throw me a little off. If my visions were coming back, I needed to put on my gloves.

I leaned in my chair enough to grab the cobalt ones from my back pocket. I slipped them on, trying to make it look casual, and felt instantly more like my old self.

A glance around the room confirmed that everyone was still staring at me, probably waiting for my reaction. I smiled at Xander. "Hopefully Brent won’t come back to bite me this time."

Xander laughed. "So I heard you had a little early morning adventure."

Serena dropped her fork with a loud thunk. "She didn’t?"

"Yup." He grinned as he leaned back in his chair. "Brant Thompson won the pool."

"Damn it. I was listening for the door."

Good thing I went out the window.

"Window," Xander said.

How did he know? Oh God. If he knew, then who else knew?

"Again?"

The jerk was enjoying making me squirm in my seat. "Yup," Xander said.

"If you were going to try to run, why not tell me so that I could win?" There was a hint of whine in Serena’s voice.

"Uh. Sorry?" I cleared my throat. "Was everyone in the entire school in on this?"

"Yes," they all answered as one.

"Wow. That’s really embarrassing. Can we talk about something else?"

Serena crossed her arms. "No."

"Okay..."

"If you’re going to run away again, you have to make sure it’s next Tuesday during fourth period." She punctuated her words by banging the table. "It’s the only way you can make it up to me."

Holy hell. How dumb did they think I was? "I’m not going to run away again."

"Yeah, you are. Every once in a while there will be a Were who marries a norm and doesn’t tell their partner about the whole going wolf thing. It’s a hot mess when their kids come here. They always run away. And you were an actual norm. So, you’re due a couple more runs at least." She paused. "Tuesday. Fourth period."

Serena had somehow managed to turn something uber-humiliating into something kind of okay. I could’ve kissed her for that. "I’ll see what I can do."

"Fair enough."

I tried to bring the conversation back to something normal. "So, what are the teachers like here? Tough? Easy?" I said as I tugged at my gloves.

"Classes are pretty tough, but the teachers are helpful," Serena said. She eyed my gloves, but accepted the topic change. "I mean most people leave here and go Ivy League or study in London or wherever they’re from." She paused. "What’s up with the gloves? You can’t be cold. Werewolves don’t get cold."

"I’m not cold." I shoved a giant bite in my mouth as everyone stared. I swallowed. "So I take it not everyone is from here?"

"Yeah. This is the place to go if you’re a Were. People come from all over. I’m sure you already know all about that because of being with Brent."

I knew exactly nothing about that. "Um, I think he mentioned that he’s from France."

"Oh?" She paused, waiting for me to keep going but I wasn’t going to tell her what happened.

There were too many ears around. Plus, she was right. I didn’t trust her yet.

A soft tone dinged throughout the cafeteria, and everyone got up and moved toward the doors.

"Well ladies, it’s been lovely. See you at lunch." Xander blew us another kiss before leaving.

"That’s the bell?" I said.

"What did you think it was?" she said.

"I had no idea, but it doesn’t sound like any bell I’ve ever heard. Usually they’re more fire drill-like."

"No fire drills here. Talk about insta-headache. Werewolves

Werewolves have really good hearing. Plus, once you know what the bell sound is, you can’t miss it."

"But your alarm clock—"

"Just because I have good hearing, doesn’t mean I want to get up in the morning. The more obnoxious and harder to turn off, the better. And I have a tendency to smash them. I go through a couple a month." Serena frowned at my tray. "You didn’t eat nearly enough."

The girl had lost her mind. "I ate a humungo-sized omelet, hash browns, a bagel with cream cheese, and a bowl of fruit. That’s more than I’ve ever eaten in one sitting." There physically wasn’t any more room in my stomach.

Serena rolled her eyes. "Hang on one second." She walked back to the guy making the omelets, talking to him while pointing at me. He shook his head in disapproval.

Jeez. Why didn’t she call the National Guard while she was at it?