ra'

fore the bus do

into something lower and more pointed. Students who had stayed behind were

t wal

oon," someone said. "Do y

another voice answered, lik

n her birthday. That's not

I focused on the door

"You realise half the school i

otic

d be enjoy

reall

appearing beside my locker with questions about homework, walking too close, laughing too loudly. One of them, a senior named Callum who had sat two rows be

ing on a blood moon,

t two rows behind me in His

Yeah I know, I just ne

id, and walk

ssed and the satisfied expression of someone watching a

to

s face when you

eo

here for every second of it." He fell into step beside me. "Also at least

t informati

elcome,"

*

enior girls who had always moved through these halls like they owned them were watching me with expressions that had nothing

s she's al

thinks she is the most pop

sn't even that stron

said without looking up, "Three of them hav

kno

re jea

w that

re you weren't about

ave to spare. Two days back and already I was exhausted by the version of myself everyone had decided I was now, like the b

ed across the hall toward me and every c

e questioning whether he belonged wherever he was standing. The senior girls who had been glari

ed in fr

oon shift. First one at

been told

. How does

ng line. "Stronger than I expected,"

more about that," and then he

xpression she wore right before sayi

I said before sh

t say an

ere ab

nce walked across this lunch hall for anyone outside his

about

e it

it's worth, half the girls in this roo

worth anyt

ght you should hav

ssion that said she had already formed an opinion and decided it was not yet t

*

s crossing the courtyard

but something else. More deliberate. Coming from a direction I

ts crossing between buildings. A group near the b

th

just my new senses still adjusting, to

courtyard I looked once more toward t

g I co

r how hard I tried. Something beyond those trees had been watching me,