Fearless The King Series Book One - By Tawdra Kandle Page 0,25
but you make sure he doesn’t hog you all the time. I enjoyed talking with you yesterday.”
More happy warmth spread through me. “I enjoyed it, too,” I told Anne. “I’m sure I’ll see you at lunch tomorrow.”
“Okay!” She slipped past me with a quick wave and smile as I continued on to class.
I was so far into my happy place that I didn’t even spare Nell and company a glance when I entered the chemistry classroom. I put my books down on the table and then walked to the front of the room to hand in my missed lab assignment worksheet. Ms. Lacusta took it absently from my hand; she seemed absorbed in something else on her desk, and I was happy to slip away without more interaction.
When I returned to my seat, though, my books were no longer piled neatly on the table; they were spread open and face down all over the floor in the aisle. I hadn’t heard a sound, so I assumed the three girls had worked together to quietly and quickly displace them.
Immediately I gathered the books and put them back on the table, taking my seat. Nell was turned sideways in her own chair, and in striking contrast to the previous days, she was staring insolently at me.
“All dressed up today, aren’t we?” she mused. “What’s the occasion?”
I was determined to keep things as peaceful as I could, and I answered her coolly but calmly.
“Nothing special. Just a pretty day. Oh, and I saw on the schedule that there’s no lab today, so I decided I was safe from having chemicals thrown at me.”
Nell rolled her eyes. “Oh, isn’t she dramatic!” she exclaimed, addressing Liza and Casey. She turned back to me. “No one threw anything at you. Your own clumsiness is what got you wet. Isn’t that what you told Ms. Lacusta? And if you had just taken my advice and dropped this class, maybe even that wouldn’t have happened.”
A day earlier, Nell’s words would have crushed me or at least angered me beyond the ability to reply, but in my current near-euphoric state of mind, I found I was able to respond.
“We all know what happened here, Nell. You can think whatever you like, but the next time you want to get nasty during a lab, I’m taking you down with me. Literally.”
Nell’s eyes flared at me, and she opened her mouth to say something, but at that moment, Ms. Lacusta began lecturing. With one final glare, she turned around. The atmosphere around us was tense, and I could feel the antipathy pouring off Nell.
Actually, I was amazed at myself. I had no idea where those words had come from. I never stood up to anybody. For that matter, I had never been in a position where I needed to stand up to anybody. But somehow the words had come, and it dawned on me that I had just threatened a girl who seemed to be a fairly powerful force in my new school’s social system.
And she wasn’t going to let it go. From the bits of loathsome feeling and waves of hate I was picking up, I knew that Nell was not one of those bullies who would back down when someone stood up to her. No, she was more like a black widow spider that would strike with deadly accuracy when I least expected it. I was going to have to watch my back.
I hurried my way to lunch and flew through the cafeteria doors, slipped past the people waiting in line and straight across to the second set of doors leading outside. I blinked in the bright sunshine and spotted Michael just setting two trays an empty table.
“Hey!” I greeted him. And then stared at the food on the table. “I thought it was going to be just us for lunch today.”
He looked at me in surprise. “It is. Why?”
“You cannot seriously imagine that the two of us are going to eat all of that. I could sit here for hours and not make a dent in it.”
He rolled his eyes at me. “You underestimate my appetite. And you have to eat up, because…” he dropped his voice and leered at me. “The gators at Lancer Park are expecting a good meal this afternoon. I’d hate to disappoint them.”
I just looked at him, evenly. “Oh, funny. You know, you probably don’t want to mess with me today. I stood up to Nell in Chemistry, and I am feeling pretty