Year Two: Rebels - Cara Wylde Page 0,21

my head. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Oh… okay.”

Hayley had spent the last semester in a parallel dimension. She was the first to participate in a student exchange program, which was technically an almost impossible concept, given that Grim Reaper Academy was the only one of its kind in the world. But since Hayley was a skilled dream jumper and it so happened that we’d discovered a parallel dimension that was on the same timeline as ours, the two Academies had decided to try what had never been tried before. And it had worked. While my Hayley had been in the other dimension all through the second semester of year one, her counterpart had attended classes here. I couldn’t wait to hear how it had all been for Hayley. All I knew was that her twin, so to speak, was very different from her. Shy, insecure, almost afraid to be herself – all the things my Hayley was not. While she’d been here, Jace Merlin from the Neutral Death Cabal and Ivor Gray from the Righteous Death Cabal had bullied her constantly. Although, if I remembered well, she had eventually won them over.

“How was it?”

“Ugh. It was weird. Oh my God. I don’t even know where to begin. All the students and professors were so cold toward me at first. It was like they thought I was a freak of nature or something. I was clearly not the Hayley they knew, and I soon found out that we had entirely different personalities, and that was just so trippy for everyone. I made some friends eventually, but it wasn’t easy.”

I smiled around a mouthful of bacon. “Tell me about Jace and Ivor.”

Her brown eyes went wide. “You know?”

“I know these two fools gave the other Hayley a hard time.” I tipped my chin at the mage and the vampire, who, oddly enough, were sitting together at the NDC table. They seemed to be pretty close, too.

Hayley chuckled in slight embarrassment. “The oddest thing happened. I fell in love with them in the other dimension, and Hayley fell in love with… well… them in this dimension. I’m not even sure how we’ll make it work. She and I exchanged places a couple of times this summer, and we also do it every other weekend. It’s tough. At least the boys are perfectly capable of taking care of each other when we’re not around.” She winked mischievously.

I almost choked on my food. I coughed and drank a bit of water. “No way!”

“Yes way.” She laughed.

“No.”

“Mhm. They’re together. They’ve been into each other since day one.”

“Wow.”

I stole a glance at the boys. Sure enough, they seemed to be very intimate. Every now and then, Ivor would lean in, and Jace would blush cutely. Their hands would brush on the table, and neither of them would pull away.

I shook my head. “I’ve missed so much.”

Hayley chuckled. When she saw me poking at my food, my brows furrowed in deep thought, her smile fell. “I’m sorry. I’m happy but… I don’t have to show it. I’m such a jerk. Are you really okay? I know you don’t want to talk about it now, but if you ever change your mind, I’m here. You can tell me anything.”

That snapped me out of my trance. “Hayley, no! You should be happy and show it. I just got a little distracted.”

“But you’re okay, right?”

She really needed me to reassure her that I was fine.

“Yes,” I said, even though I didn’t believe it myself.

Hayley talked all through breakfast. Feeling myself slip more and more into melancholy, I didn’t participate much. It was a good thing I’d kept Corri around, because she kept everyone at the table entertained with pixie jokes and harmless magic. In exchange, she got to taste everyone’s food. One thing was for sure: the Merciful Death Cabal liked pixies, and their newest mission seemed to be to fatten mine up.

Students finished their breakfast and went to classes, leaving their plates on the tables for the kitchen staff to clear. I couldn’t bring myself to stand up. I asked Corri to get me another pancake and lingered at the MDC table as even Hayley excused herself and told me she can’t be late for Geography. I’d cut my pancake into pieces and was chasing it around the plate when Davien and Seth plopped next to me, one to my right, the other to my left. I squeezed my shoulders, trying to make myself small. From the negative