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Kitchen makes this. What’s it called again?”
    “Jell-O Surprise.” Link grinned.
    “What’s the surprise?” Ridley examined the red gelatin more closely.
    “What they put in it.” He flicked the cube with his finger, and she pulled it away.
    “Which is?”
    “Ground-up hooves, hides, and bones. Surprise.”
    Ridley looked at him, shrugged, and put the spoon in her mouth. She wasn’t going to give him an inch. Not as long as hewas creeping around Savannah Snow’s bedroom at night and flirting with her all day.
    Link looked over at me. “So, you wanna shoot some hoops after school?”
    “No.” I shoved the rest of the sloppy joe into my mouth.
    “I can’t believe you’re eating that. You hate those things.”
    “I know. But they’re pretty good today.” A Jackson first. When Amma’s cooking was off and the cafeteria’s was on, maybe it really was the End of Days.
    You know, you can play basketball if you want to.
    Lena was offering me something, the same thing Link was. A chance to make peace with my former friends, to be less of an outcast, if that was possible. But it was too late. Your friends were supposed to stand by you, and now I knew who my friends really were. And who they weren’t.
    I don’t want to.
    “Come on. It’s cool. All that crazy stuff with the guys is history.” Link believed what he was saying. But history was hard to forget when it included tormenting your girlfriend all year.
    “Yeah. People around here aren’t into history.”
    Even Link caught my sarcasm. “Well, I’m gonna hit the court.” He didn’t look at me. “I might even go back on the team. I mean, it’s not like I was really off.”
    Not like you.
That’s the part he didn’t say.
    “It’s really hot in here.” Sweat was dripping down my back. So many people, crammed into one room.
    You okay?
    No. Yeah. I just need to get some air.
    I stood up to go, but the door looked like it was a mile away.
    This school had a way of making you feel small. As small as it was, maybe even smaller. I guess some things never change.

    Turns out, Ridley wasn’t interested in studying the cultures of the Southern states any more than she was interested in Link studying Savannah Snow, and five minutes into the period she convinced him they should switch to World History. Which wouldn’t have surprised me except switching classes usually involved taking your schedule to Miss Hester—then lying and begging and, if you were really stuck, crying. So when Link and Ridley showed up in World History and he told me that his schedule had miraculously changed, I was more than suspicious.
    “What do you mean, your schedule changed?”
    Link dropped his notebook onto the desk next to me and shrugged. “I don’t know. One minute Savannah sits down next to me, then Ridley comes in and sits on the other side, and the next thing I know,
World History
’s printed on my schedule. Rid’s, too. She shows the teacher, and we get kicked right outta class.”
    “How did you manage that?” I asked as Ridley settled into her seat.
    “Manage what?” She looked at me innocently, clicking and un-clicking her creepy scorpion belt buckle.
    Lena wasn’t letting her off that easy. “You know what he’s talking about. Did you take a book from Uncle Macon’s study?”
    “Are you actually accusing
me
of reading?”
    Lena lowered her voice. “Were you trying to Cast? It’s not safe, Ridley.”
    “You mean not safe for me. Because I’m a stupid Mortal.”
    “Casting is dangerous for Mortals, unless you’ve had years of training, like Marian. Which you haven’t.” Lena wasn’t trying to rub it in, but every time she said the word “Mortal,” Ridley cringed. It was like pouring gasoline on a fire.
    Maybe it was too hard to hear from a Caster. I jumped in. “Lena’s right. Who knows what could happen if something went wrong?”
    Ridley didn’t say a word, and for a second it seemed like I had single-handedly put out the flames. But