Chapter 214
I was sitting in algebra class only the day after Cadence’s unexpected visit when I got an IAC message from her. Unlike everyone else, she can just barge in whenever she wants because she’s the boss.
“Hey, Cass. Sorry to interrupt.”
“What?” I asked, trying to listen to my teacher even though I knew for a fact I was not one of the people who would actually need algebra for their profession someday.
“What are you doing?”
“Algebra. We’re taking a quiz.” It was a lie, but if it got her out of my head quicker, I didn’t really care.
“Oh, sorry. Well, I just wanted to let you know that something’s come up, so I’m going to send Brandon to get you this weekend, okay? But you can’t tell anyone anything about any of this. Got it?”
I wasn’t sure why Cadence was acting like it was such a big deal that she was sending Brandon to get me. It was probably just as well anyway. If he could come along when she came to get me herself, he always did, and since she didn’t ever really seem to have that much time to give up, it was sort of a relief that it would just be him. “Whatev,” I replied, hoping my disinterest would cut her off. I had no idea what an asymptote was now. I was beginning to think pre-AP Algebra was a huge mistake, even with my IAC.
“You’re not mad?”
“No, I’m not mad. It’s fine.” I tried to embody the gentler, kinder Cass everyone had known and loved, but I was struggling.
“Okay. I’ll talk to you soon.”
The IAC turned off, and I tried my best to tune back into my teacher’s monotone voice, thinking I’d have homework tonight for sure just trying to figure out everything I’d missed. That was one time when I really wished I didn’t have an IAC.
That day at lunch I didn’t even pay attention to what was on my tray. I just grabbed something, dropped my money on the cash register and went and sat down in my usual spot. I wasn’t hungry. Whatever was wrong in the atmosphere was starting to churn within me in a way I couldn’t quite put my finger on.
“Cass—what are you doing?” Lucy asked as I opened my water bottle. “Have you lost your mind?”
I looked down to see that I had a corndog and spinach on my tray. And that was all. “Gross,” I muttered.
“Seriously, you have got to get yourself together,” Milo said, shaking his head at me.
“Hey, I won’t eat anything green, but if you don’t want that corndog, I’ll eat it,” Wes said with his mouth full of chicken nuggets.
Without another word, I pushed the whole tray in his direction. “It’s fine. I’m not hungry anyway.”
“Are you sure?” Emma asked, looking at me like I was a pathetic bird with a broken wing. “Want one of my Zebra Cakes?” In all of the years that I have known Emma O’Sullivan, she has never once offered me a Zebra Cake. Ever. I must have looked really pitiful.
“No, Em. Thank you,” I said, forcing a smile.
“I would really, truly let you have it.”
That made my grin more genuine. “I’m sure you would.”
“You have got to snap out of this,” Lucy warned. “I seriously think we need to stage an intervention or something. You’re really starting to concern me.”
I could tell by her face that she was worried for my welfare. And I couldn’t blame her. If she’d been acting the way I had been lately, I’d be concerned, too. It was nice that my friends could see the change and wanted to help me, even if my parents seemed to be playing it off. “You guys, I’m sure I’ll be fine. I just… need to get back to Kansas City, that’s all.”
“Look, Cass, I know Brandon is a great guy and that he’s really important to you, but maybe you should think about breaking things off with him for a little while,” Milo said. “Maybe until after you graduate.”
He certainly had my best interests in mind. He had no idea that it wasn’t just Brandon I was missing. He didn’t know about the Clandestine Ternion, what I was, what my sister was, any of it. And I couldn’t explain it to him or to Wes. If they were capable of Transforming, it hadn’t been mentioned to me, and I wasn’t going to ask. It was enough trouble remembering what Emma and Lucy knew, which was pretty much everything, but just because they knew this secret world existed, that wasn’t the same as seeing it, as being part of it. They still didn’t understand what they were missing, and I wanted to keep it that way until they were able to Transform, or else they’d probably end up as pathetic as me.
“Thanks, Milo,” I said. “It’s just a little more complicated than all that.”
He raised his eyebrows at me but didn’t say any more. I supposed he felt like he’d said his piece, and he should probably let it go now, which was a smart idea since there wasn’t anything more I could say.
“Well, if something doesn’t change soon,” Lucy said, giving me her, “I mean business” look, “I’m going to talk to the school counselor and tell her she needs to do something. Because this is ridiculous.”
I let out a sigh and said, “I’m going to KC this weekend. I’ll talk to Hannah while I’m there.”
“You’d better,” Lucy warned, still eyeing me.
“Who is Hannah?” Wes asked as he devoured my corndog.
“She’s a counselor who works at my sister’s company,” I explained.
“So your sister works every day?” Milo asked, a puzzled expression on his face.
“Sort of,” I said, choosing my words carefully. “She works on a big campus, and her apartment building is there, too, so she sees a lot of her colleagues even when she’s not working, but they don’t get weekends off.”
“It’s security, dummy,” Wes said shaking his head at Milo, who was probably smarter than all the rest of us, except maybe Emma. “What? Bad guys don’t do bad stuff on the weekend?”
“I didn’t say I thought she didn’t have to work on the weekends. I just asked if she worked every day or how it works,” Milo retorted.
I didn’t want to be sucked into their argument, so I pushed my chair back. “I have some homework. I’m going to go outside and work on it.”
“It’s freezing out there,” Wes reminded me as I stood and shoved my chair under the table.
“I’ll live.” I couldn’t tell him I was immune to winter weather now.
Once I was out on the green, I took some deep breaths and tried to clear my head. My friends were right. There was no way I could make it the rest of the school year like this. I was beginning to resemble Bella Swan when Edward Cullen breaks up with her for no good reason. All I was missing was a chair and spinning seasons. I just hoped that things would somehow be different after my visit this weekend. They had to be….
