Lycan Blood (Alex Vane: Demon Stalker #1)

Everyone Hates Mondays

That Monday morning felt heavier than the others. I knew that the second I walked through those doors, I would only hear about one of two topics and neither of them were particularly appealing. Best case scenario, everyone was talking about me and Luke and Friday night. Worst case scenario, everyone would be talking about Rachel.

I tried not to show any emotion as I entered the building, wanting to gauge the situation first. I could tell from the revered silence that today was not going to be a good day. The moment I stepped in I was confronted by a giant memorial wall with a huge, blown-up photo of Rachel surrounded by candles. I stared into her perfect grin and I felt like I was going to throw up.

That wasn’t even the worst part.

The first thing that happened was the principal decided to hold a giant assembly service for the whole school. He started by breaking the news to the three people who didn’t know, and then it was twenty minutes solid of weepy cheerleaders and other friends talking about how great Rachel was. The whole time all I could see was that pink stiletto, shiny plastic dulled by blood. After that personal hell, I then had to endure people talking about it all day. In every corridor and every classroom you could hear at least one person whisper her name feverishly, usually followed by a word such as ‘tragedy’ or ‘shock’. By lunchtime I was an utter wreck. I felt like that pink shoe was going to haunt me for the rest of my life.

“What’s up?” I blinked up at Scott as he set his tray down beside me. He sounded breezy and I’m not sure whether it was his tone or his presence which made Jacey’s eyes widen. Jenna looked startled too and that’s when I was reminded that I was supposed to be grilling her. Drat. She'd spent most of lunch doodling in her notepad and what with Rachel's ghost haunting me, it had been far too easy to forget she was there.

“Er, nothing much.” It took me a minute to realise he wanted to sit with us. I clumsily shifted my bag off the seat, trying to act like it was completely normal that he be there. In reality I was panicking a little. Did this mean we were friends? Or was he just trying to get closer to Jenna? Did he not realise how this would look to Jacey?

“Everyone’s been kind of reserved today.” Jacey added, her meaning clear. Breezy tones were not acceptable today. Thankfully Scott’s blue eyes filled with sympathy and he dipped his head down a little.

“Yeah, of course they have. It’s a big deal. I’m shocked something like this happened.” I watched him carefully, curious. He was a better actor than me, that’s for sure. He looked like someone who had only just heard the news, instead of someone who had known for weeks and weeks. It scared me a little.

“Of course, you’re from the city right?” Jacey tilted her head. I could tell she was glad for the distraction. Being weepy really isn’t in her nature, “Bet you don’t get many animal attacks there.”

“No, we didn’t. First time I’ve heard of something like this happening,” he shovelled a spoonful of corn into his mouth, looking away from Jacey to Jenna. Jenna seemed to have gone extra-quiet since he turned up but then, that wasn’t really unusual. She was a shy person after all. She was sketching in her notepad again, her brow furrowed tightly in concentration, “What are you drawing?”

Wide eyes peered over the edge of the paper nervously. I gave Scott a pointed look-lunchtime was definitely not the right place to start an interrogation. But he deliberately ignored me and gave Jenna a warm smile. That was apparently all it took to get her to reply.

“Oh, nothing really. Just a sketch.”

“Can I see?” He held out his hand and after a minute or two, Jenna carefully pressed the notepad into it. I found myself glancing over his shoulder as he turned it round, curious to see it too. Her last drawing had been so powerful after all. She sketched all the time but I hadn’t seen any others since that first one.