Drink, Slay, Love

Chapter Thirteen

The next morning Pearl marched through the school halls. She wasn't trailed by an entourage this time. In fact, the students widened a path for her as she passed. She heard whispers and felt stares.

Up ahead, Bethany was at her locker. She was counting out pencils—she had a separate one for each class (pink for history, blue for English, yellow for calculus). Seeing Pearl, she smiled and waved. She was the only one.

"Fickle," Pearl commented as she reached Bethany. She gestured at the other students, who all pretended they hadn't been staring at her.

Behind her, Evan said, "You made them afraid to drive their cars to school."

She supposed she hadn't behaved like Ashlyn or Tara. In fact, she probably hadn't behaved very humanlike. But then, she wasn't human. "Fear can be fun." She smiled (full teeth but no fangs) across the hall at the girl named Melody, who whispered to her friend and then scurried away. At least this reaction was much more appropriate than the original new-girl worship. As a bloodsucking fiend of the night, she was supposed to be feared.

Leaning against the lockers, Evan looked entertained. She wondered if anything ever ruffled him. She bet she could wipe that expression off his face. She pictured sliding her hands around his back and kissing his soft lips. . . She met his eyes, and his smile enveloped her like a warm wind. Pearl shook herself. He wasn't Jadrien; he was human. She shouldn't be picturing doing anything but drinking from him. Ugh, what was wrong with her? She needed soap for her brain.

"Ta-da!" Bethany said. She presented Pearl with a notebook. "I noticed you didn't have one. It's kind of one of those all-important school-supply things." She selected a pencil from her collection and handed it to Pearl as well. "You use it to jot down the highlights. Dates, names, formulas . . ."

"Eighties song lyrics," a voice said behind her. Zeke.

"Plans for world domination," Matt said, also behind her.

"Doodles of . . . anatomy," Zeke said. Evan raised his eyebrows at him. "Hey, what? I'm not about to draw puppies and rainbows."

Pearl examined the notebook. It was cherry red, which was a reasonable colour, and she didn't see any illustrations of the aforementioned puppies and rainbows. Given that all of Bethany's notebooks boasted smiley faces, ballet slippers, or silvery mountains, Pearl counted herself lucky. "How much do I owe you?"

Bethany laughed. "It's a present, silly. It's for you."

Pearl studied Bethany and wondered what she really expected out of all this niceness. "Sorry to miss tutoring. Can we reschedule?"

"Of course!" Bethany said. "Can you meet me after school in the reading room of the public library?"

"Fine." Pearl had been hoping for Bethany's house, but at least this was a start. "I love the reading room. . ." She trailed off as she realized that she'd seen Bethany there before. Bethany was the girl with the strawberry-blonde hair who had read a book in one of the leather chairs while Pearl had marvelled at the sun through the stained glass. "You were there. The first day I . . ." She trailed off, unable to describe why it was a monumental day.

"It has beautiful windows," Bethany said. Her eyes were wide and guileless, as if she had no memory of that day. Perhaps she didn't. It would have been an ordinary day for her, though it was odd that she'd been in the library instead of school. She must have had a project.

The bell rang.

Zeke and Matt darted in the opposite direction, and Evan and Bethany flanked Pearl on the way to their class. All the while Pearl wondered what game Bethany was playing. Or if she was even playing a game at all. That thought was so shocking that Pearl was silent for the entire walk.