Aftershock

BIANA VACKER

SHE HADN'T WANTED SOPHIE TO find out that way. Actually, she hadn't wanted Sophie to find out at all. Because while her dad might have had to force her to be friends with Sophie in the beginning, everything had changed when she'd gotten to know the blond girl. Now Sophie was her best friend. For real. And after all they'd been through, everything their tentative friendship had overcome, Stina had probably just crushed it into smithereens with one badly timed reveal.

"Why would you say that Stina?" Biana exploded. "You know we're friends now!"

"Miss Vacker!" the study hall monitor, Lord Astin, called. "Keep your voice down. This is study hall, not PE!"

Biana closed her mouth, but continued glaring at Stina, her nostrils flaring threateningly with each violent breath.

As soon as Lord Astin looked away, Stina opened her eyes wide, feigning surprise and ignorance. "Oh," she whispered in a sickly sweet voice. "I was just trying to help. Would you rather I let her drag you down with her?" 

"Yes, Stina," Biana hissed, "because that's what friends are for. To help you when you're down. Not that you'd have any clue, you poisonous viper!"

Stina sneered at her. "I though the Vackers were supposed to be high class." The other girl scoffed, flipped her hair, then signaled for her minions to follow her to another table.

Biana slammed her head onto the table, drawing the attention of the prodigies closest to her and Lord Astin. "Miss Vacker, you've just earned yourself a detention. I've never seen you act this way, and I sincerely hope this doesn't become a pattern."

Just then, Fitz stormed into the room, drawing the eye of every prodigy in the room as Foxfire's golden boy shouted angrily, "Biana! What in Exile did you do?"

"Mr. Vacker—" Lord Astin started, but Fitz ignored him.

"Dex, Biana, out in the hall," Fitz ordered. "Now!"

"Mr. Vacker, I'm afraid this is very unorthodox and I can't—"

"Lord Astin, I apologize for interrupting your study hall, but there's been an emergency that's much more important that sitting here doing homework for an hour." With that, Fitz stormed out of the room.

Dex immediately bounced up, the surprise of being summoned by a Vacker throwing him into supersonic mode. But Biana sat frozen for a few moments before she flushed a deep maroon, quickly gathering her books together and hurrying outside after her brother and Dex. Whatever her brother had to say, it wasn't good. And it was probably about how she'd ruined her friendship with Sophie.

As she passed Stina's new table she shot her a death glare and purposefully knocked her books off the table. Walking out of the pyramid she could hear Stina complaining to Lord Astin about being bullied by "mean old Biana." That was probably another detention, but she honestly didn't care.

"Biana!" Fitz exploded as soon as she came into view. "How could you tell Sophie that about Dad?"

"I didn't!" she cried, feeling the need to defend herself. "Stina came up and said that Maruca had told her a secret, and I couldn't stop her from telling Sophie!"

Keefe jogged up. "Dex just leapt to Havenfield," he told Fitz, glancing nervously at Biana.

"Why did Dex go to Havenfield?" she asked Keefe, trying to avoid meeting Fitz's eyes, which burned with disappointment.

"He went to try and stop Sophie from doing whatever crazy thing she was thinking of doing," Keefe said. "So what happened? Because I was feeling some serious rage and betrayal. And maybe even a little bit of despair in there."