to crawl underneath the table for me. The rest of the kids at the table were staring at their plates. One of them snickered.
I'd never been more humiliated in my life.
Daemon turned away, staring over Ash's shoulder again.
"Run along," Ash said, flicking her long, slender fingers at me.
All the faces staring up at me, a mixture of pity and secondhand embarrassment, threw me back three years. To the first day I'd returned to school after my dad had died. I broke down in English class, crying when I learned we'd be reading A Tale of Two Cities, my dad's favorite story. Everyone had stared at me. Some felt bad.
Others looked embarrassed for me.
It reminded me of the same looks the police and the nurses had given me at the hospital the night I'd been attacked, reminding me of how helpless I'd been.
I'd hated those looks then.
And I hated them now. There was no excuse for what I did next except that I wanted to -
needed to...
Hands clenching the edges of the plastic tray, I leaned over the table and turned my plate upside down over Daemon's and Ash's heads.
Chunks of noodles and spaghetti sauce fell.
Most of the red gunk hit Ash and the noodles covered Daemon's broad shoulder. One long, stringy noodle slid over Daemon's ear and hung there, flopping around.
There was an audible gasp that rang out through the surrounding tables.
Dee smacked a hand over her mouth, her eyes wide and full of barely restrained laughter.
Shrieking, Ash leaped from Daemon's lap, her hands out to her sides, palms up. One would think I dumped blood on her considering the horrified look on her face. "You...you..." she sputtered, wiping the back of her hand down her sauce-stained cheek.
Daemon plucked a noodle off his ear and seemed to inspect it before he dropped them on the table. Then he did the oddest thing of all.
He laughed.
He really laughed - a deep, stomach rumbling kind of laughter that reached his minty eyes and warmed them, causing them to sparkle like his sister's.
Ash lowered her hands, balling them into fists. "I will end you."
Daemon jumped up, throwing his arm around the girl's tiny waist. Whatever amusement he felt was long gone. "Calm down," he ordered softly. "I mean it. Calm down." She pulled against Daemon but didn't make it far. "I swear to all the stars and suns, I will destroy you."
"What does that mean? Are you watching too many cartoons again?" I was so over this bitch. I tested the weight of my arm in the splint and seriously thought about hitting someone for the first time in my life.
For a second, I swore her eyes started to glow a bright amber from behind her irises. And then Mr. Garrison was suddenly there, standing at the edge of our table. "I believe that's enough."
Like a switch being thrown, Ash sat down in her own seat. The edge on her rage dissipated as she eyed me and grabbed a fistful of napkins off the table.
Daemon slowly picked a clump of long noodle off his shoulder and dropped them on the plate without speaking. I kept expecting him to explode on me, but like his sister, it looked as if he were trying not to laugh again.
"I think you should find another place to eat," Mr. Garrison said, voice low enough that only the people at our table could hear. "Do so now."
Stunned, I grabbed my book bag and waited for him to tell me to see the principal or for other teachers in the room to intervene but that never came. Mr. Garrison stared at me. He waited.
Then it struck me. He was waiting for me to leave. Like the rest of them were.
Nodding numbly, I turned around and walked out of the cafeteria. Eyes followed me, but I kept it together. I didn't break when I heard Dee call out my name. And I didn't break when I passed a dumbfounded-looking Lesa and Carissa.
I wasn't going to break. Not anymore. I was tired of this shit with Daemon's, well, whatever she was. I hadn't done a single thing for her to treat me this way.
I was done with being pushover Katy.
Chapter 13
I'd made a name for myself by the end of the day. I became the 'Girl Who Dumped Her Food on Them.' I expected backlash in every hallway and class, especially when I spotted one of the Thompson boys in my history class or a freshly clothed Ash sulking by her