glare as he wiped droplets from his forehead.
“Don’t look now, but are they actually leaving?” Toni asked.
Her statement made me do the opposite of what she said, swiveling my head toward my stalkers, just as they began trudging toward the gate.
“Looks like it,” I perked up, instantly feeling a sense of relief at the idea of not being shadowed for a change.
It had been nonstop, intense work as we came into our seventh week of class. Our instructors had been deceptively easy on us in the beginning. Since then, they’d completely flipped the script. The only time I did get a break was in combat training. Because I had yet to shift, they only allowed me to work on basic defensive moves, which didn’t even involve magic. Long story short, my friends and I were all feeling a bit restless.
We desperately needed to let loose, and with no clubs or hangouts in walking distance, we planned to create our own fun. The moment the coast was clear of all mentors, my friends and I—plus a bunch of other kids I didn’t know—were finally going to act our age. Lucky for me, the Shade Brigade appeared to finally be taking off, which meant things were starting to look up for the day.
Of course—being the pricks they were—they had to be the last of the mentors to go.
Ori’s lingering glare made one final pass over me as he and the others exited through the gate. I hadn’t had much to say to them since helping Kai a few weeks ago. They were already cold, but the distance between me and them only seemed to grow—bunch of ungrateful bastards. You’d think that after helping one of them, they’d at least be appreciative, but that hadn’t been the case. If anything, the suspicious glances seemed to increase, and they were even more leery of me than before. I was so sick of it that if I thought I could take them, I would’ve buried a fist in one of their faces days ago.
But alas, I was no fool. Any one of them could have snapped me in half like a twig.
A faint whistle from across the courtyard had Toni’s head whipping that way. Her smile grew when a tall blond guy gave a thumbs up—the signal that the last mentor had gone, and we were home free.
Still, we needed to hurry before someone else with authority came around.
“That’s our cue,” Tristan piped, hoisting himself off the cement bench where we all sat.
“It’s about time,” Marcela groaned, pulling down sunglasses from on top of her head to cover her eyes.
As I positioned myself to stand, Tristan’s hooded gaze fell on me, and then his gentle smile.
“Come on.” His hand reached out for mine, and I wasn’t sure how to react for a moment. Of all the girls around us for him to help, he was focused on me.
“Um … thank you.” The words left my mouth hesitantly. Mostly because I wasn’t quite sure of his motive. It seemed like a friendly enough gesture; however, coupled with a few other odd occurrences over the weeks, I wasn’t so sure.
Once or twice, I noticed him gawking at me when he didn’t think I paid attention, and other times I caught him smiling my way as he zoned out. Since then, I’d been mindful of not leading him on, not giving him hope that I might be interested in something other than his friendship.
Because I wasn’t.
As soon as I could pull away without causing him offense, I did, and then shoved both hands in my pockets while we walked.
My eyes caught Toni’s when she glanced at me, and I knew she hadn’t missed even a moment of the awkward exchange. Several nights, before dozing off, she went on and on about how she thought Tristan felt something for me. And each time, I assured her that if those feelings did exist, they were completely one-sided. Then, no sooner than I got her off my case about Tristan, she started in about my guardians. She seemed to think all the guys in our circle—apparently, even the douchey ones—wanted a piece of this.
Sweet, delusional girl.
Another quiet whistle lifted into the breeze, and on command, several more students fell in step with us. It became clear that word spread further than I realized, as our number easily increased to fifty or more.
Beneath my shorts and t-shirt, I’d hidden a black bikini. Carrying a bag with me on a Saturday would’ve alerted