DESCENDED

PRIED

"Maybe you should go back to the nurse," Tessa suggests.

I stand up to get some napkins to stop the bleeding when everything starts to spin. To avoid another fall, I reach out for Anna and end up falling in her lap.

A proctor in the cafeteria comes over to check on me, and hands me a warm towel to place under my nose. I'm sent back to the nurse, and as I leave the cafeteria, Sebastian and his friends are glaring at me.

Why were they glaring at me like that?

Have they never seen someone with a bloody nose before?

I spend the next hour in the nurse's office trying to get my nose to stop bleeding. Soaking through at least two towels before the bleeding finally stops. Then the nurse sends me back to class.

"What the heck happened to you?" Tessa asks.

"I don't know," I shrug. "I've never gotten a nosebleed like that before."

"Maybe you were staring at Sebastian so hard you broke a blood vessel in your nose?" She teases.

"Anyway," I smile. Shaking my head.

"You could have burrowed a hole through his head."

"He was the one staring at me," I reply. "Did you see how he was looking at me?"

"That whole table was giving you the evil eye," she laughs.

"I know, and I don't even know why."

"Well, either he really likes you, or he can't stand you."

"Why would you say that?"

"Because Sebastian hasn't shown anyone a modicum of the attention, he's shown you. Good or bad," she confides.

"He's not as scary or as good-looking as he thinks he is," I scoff.

"Says the girl who gave herself a nosebleed gawking at him," Anna laughs. Fist bumping Tessa.

A shadow suddenly forms over our table, and I gasp.

Which one of my friends was it going to take now?

"Hey Angelique?" A girl asks from behind.

I turned around just in time to watch he throw a cup of red liquid at me. Instinctively, I throw my hands up, but it doesn't stop the liquid from reaching my face.

"What the hell!" I shout. Standing up to face her.

This girl just signed up for an old-fashioned beat down.

"Oh, I'm sorry," She feigns an apology. "I thought you might need some cooling off after eye-banging Sebastian during lunch."

"You did that on purpose," I realized.

"What are you talking about?" She folds her arms across her chest with an innocent look on her face. "My cup slipped."

"I know something else that's about to slip," I reply. "My fist across your face."

"Is that a threat? Emerald academy doesn't tolerate threats."

Everyone in the cafeteria is watching us and I can't have witnesses. So, I back down. Besides, this whole thing with Sebastian has gotten way out of hand. And now I'm covered in fruit punch.

Taking off my gray sweater, I'm glad the fruit punch didn't soak through to my camisole.

"Here, I wouldn't want you to catch a cold," Samuel offers me his jacket.