The Better to Bite (Howl #1)(27)

“Your dad busted up the party!” She screeched at me.

Um…okay.

“Ignore her.” Cassidy came to my side and actually made shooing gestures to the fuming cheerleader. “I think her ponytail is too tight.”

The cheerleader gasped and spun away with a swirl of her skirt. And, really, why was she even wearing her cheerleading uniform? Game day was Friday. It was Monday.

I’d survived a car crash and hadn’t even managed to score a single day off school. That was my sucky luck streak again.

“I wasn’t sure if you’d be here today,” Cassidy said as she studied me with narrowed eyes.

“I’m here.” I rolled one shoulder as I spun my combination lock. I didn’t even look down. Why bother? My fingers knew what to do. “What’s she so pissed about?”

Jenny chose that moment to pop up on my right side. “Everyone is so mad,” she said cheerfully.

I stopped spinning the lock and frowned at her. “Mad? Because I was in a wreck, nearly killed, and—”

“Because the deputies found the beer at the party.”

I kept frowning.

“You were in the ambulance by then,” she chirped on. “But your dad had the place searched, and he found all the beer. Now it’s this whole big thing and the mayor is even gonna have a town hall meeting about underage drinking.”

Ah, yes, now I could see why I was Miss Popular today. “Great.”

“And since everyone thinks you and Brent were drinking when you had the wreck—”

I spun fully toward Jenny then. “What?” My voice was as screech-like as the cheerleader’s had been.

She blinked her big, blue doll eyes. “Well, you were talking all crazy about a big wolf jumping you.”

Not just great. Fantastic. “We weren’t drinking,” I gritted from between clenched teeth.

“I believe you.” Cassidy’s quiet voice.

The half-moon was a reassuring weight against my skin. Yeah, I’d worn it. So what?

“Uh, yeah, sure, I believe you, too,” Jenny rushed to say as she nodded quickly. “Totally believe you.”

Total lie. This day was going to suck.

The bell rang.

“And they’ll get over it,” Jenny promised with an airy wave of her hand to indicate glowering cheerleaders and—well, glowering everyone. “In a week, they’ll forget all about this.”

Bull.

“Especially since Brent’s back.” She tossed this over her shoulder as she hurried away. “Everything will be cool soon, you’ll see.”

She bounced down the hallway, stopping only long enough to wiggle her fingers in a little wave at Troy.

He actually wiggled his fingers back at her.

I turned to Cassidy. She was eyeing me with an assessing stare. “Brent’s already back?” I asked, stunned. Forget the beer, how had the guy gotten the all-clear for school this fast? His leg had been so beaten up that I'd been sure he'd spend days in the hospital.

But she didn’t have to answer because Brent was walking down the hallway then. Walking without so much as a limp.

“Things aren’t always what they seem, are they?” Cassidy murmured as she pushed away from the bank of lockers. “We’ll talk at lunch.”

I dragged my mouth off the floor and rushed to class.

Brent, I noticed, didn’t look my way. Not even once. Great. Now he was acting like Rafe, and if there was one thing I didn’t need…it was two Rafe Channing’s in my life.

***

“So…you’re a witch?”

I jumped at Cassidy’s voice and sent my drink spilling right across the table. I grabbed napkins and tried to mop up the mess. Score. “Would you keep it down, Cass?” I hissed as I automatically shortened her name. “I’m already a favorite enough as it is today. Let’s not start telling folks I’m—”

“You’re what?” Cassidy dropped on the bench beside me. I was eating alone. Jenny had abandoned me to sit with Troy. No, actually, she’d invited me to sit with them both. But Brent was over there, and he was still doing his whole no-eye-contact weirdo thing, so I’d opted to sit alone in the shade.

I wasn’t so alone anymore.

“You know I heard what my gran said, about your mom believing in the power.” She paused. “You’ve got to tell me…was she a witch?”

The girl didn’t have any kind of volume control on her voice. I darted my gaze around. Oh, yes, a few folks were staring at us with wide eyes. I leaned toward her. “Witches aren’t real.” Maybe she believed they were because of Granny Helen and the scam she was—

Cassidy started laughing. Like, the extremely hard laughter that makes tears trickle from a person’s eyes.

I ate my chips and waited for her to calm down.

After a long while, she did. “You’re serious? No, you’re not. I mean, come on…you know what Haven is!”

The chip stuck in my throat.

Cassidy must have read my poor, lost expression. “You don’t know.”

I had the feeling a history lesson was coming on. Yep, sure enough—

“You at least know about the Salem witchcraft trials, right?”

I put the chips down. No sense choking in front of everyone. “I’ve heard of them.” We’d even covered them in history class a few years ago.