I forced my suddenly stiff legs to carry me down the short flight of stairs off the side of the stage and into the audience area, then around to the front edge of the stage so I could finish setting up the sound system. This also gave me a reason to keep my back to everyone and hide my face so they wouldn’t see me react to the thoughts that kept washing over me in wave after wave. After five blissful months of having to listen to only Dad’s and Tristan’s thoughts, I’d forgotten just how loud a bunch of humans thinking fast and furiously could be. I’d have to reschool my face not to show anything.
And still their thoughts kept coming.
Miss Savannah’s back! Just in time, too, ’cuz I was totally considering quitting this team. Bad enough having to fetch crap constantly, much less get yelled at every single day. Just because I haven’t had as much practice working the music like Miss Savannah has doesn’t mean I deserve to be made to feel like crap about it...
Wow. Look at her...you can’t even tell she was ever pregnant. I wonder who’s watching the baby? Or maybe she gave it up for adoption? Maybe Tristan found out it was Ron Abernathy’s and made her give it up?
Whoa. Gone away for five months to secretly have Ron’s baby? That was the rumor behind my disappearance? I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
I pressed a shaky hand to my forehead as it started to pound. Normally I would have dreaded listening to the sniping thoughts of the Clann. But right now, I would have given anything to have a descendant’s mind to listen to and drown out the humans’ thoughts instead. At least the descendants all knew the real reason behind our absence. Unfortunately no descendant had made the dance team in the past couple of years. Maybe they preferred being on the cheer team. Or maybe they were just avoiding me.
I took a deep breath. Focus, Sav. Just think about what you’re here to do. The gossip will die down eventually.
“Miss Savannah!”
I turned around just in time to be wrapped in a tight hug.
Mrs. Daniels leaned back, gripping my shoulders, her face lit up. “Oh, thank G—” She glanced sideways at a nearby sophomore manager. “I mean, I’m so happy you’re back! You are back for good now, aren’t you?” Her eyes turned a little panicky.
“Um, yes, ma’am.” I blinked fast, trying to assimilate the fact that my usually frosty dance team director had just hugged me.
She let out the longest sigh. “That is the best news I’ve had all year. Welcome back, dear!”
We can finally get our practices back on track! Mrs. Daniels thought to herself as she turned and headed back up the aisle to take a seat toward the center back of the audience. Too bad Savannah wasn’t here for the first part of show season; maybe then we could have held the show when we were supposed to, instead of having to delay it because of these inept newbie managers. I swear, this has been the longest year of my life!
I had to turn back to the stereo to hide a smile. At least someone on this team was happy I was back.
“Hey, Miss Savannah!” A voice behind me made me turn around yet again to find the entire team lining up to welcome me back with hugs as they followed their director’s lead. They still weren’t sure why I had missed five months of school. But if their director was okay with my return, then they would be, too.
I noticed Bethany Brookes, however, wasn’t so eager to join the welcome wagon. She stopped to fiddle with her shoe, then took her time removing her warm-ups from over her dance outfit. By the time she managed to actually get in line, Mrs. Daniels was calling everyone to get ready for the start of practice. Bethany’s shoulders seemed to sag a bit with relief as she took a seat with the dancers who weren’t climbing the stage steps in preparation for the first number.
Bethany and I had always had a lot of awkward tension between us, though we both did our best to be polite to each other in spite of it. She was actually a really nice girl. It wasn’t her fault that Mrs. Daniels had started to call out my number, then corrected herself and called out Bethany’s instead, at Charmers tryouts our freshman year. Or that Bethany used to have a terrible crush on Tristan while he and I were secretly dating last year. Or that he accidentally and very stupidly led her on for months after the vamp council and Clann made me break up with him.
And now she probably knew, or was about to find out, that he and I were very publicly together again.
I just hoped she wouldn’t hold it against me for too long. Otherwise getting through Charmers practices was going to be extremely awkward.
By the end of first period, I was all too eager to escape to chemistry class, where Ron also surprised me with a huge hug as soon as I walked up to our lab table.
“It’s about time!” he said with a grin as we settled onto our wobbly metal stools. “So? How’s the...uh...new situation working out?”
“Well, we’re both here today,” I answered cautiously, trying and failing to ignore the fresh wave of whispers involving both my and Tristan’s names that broke out behind us.
Ugh. First the Charmers. Then everyone on campus that I’d been forced to walk past on my way here. And now this. Was it going to be like this all day long? I honestly didn’t know how much more of the JHS rumor mill I could take.
“Oh, yeah, she totally slept with both of them, so it’s anybody’s guess who the baby daddy really is,” someone whispered.
That was it.
I twisted around to glare at my classmates, stopping just short of baring my fangs at them. The whispering stopped.
Hmm. Maybe being the only female vamp on campus did have some perks after all.
“And our golden boy?” Ron asked. “How’s the...er, transition going?”
I faced forward again and shrugged one shoulder. “I haven’t heard any screams or explosions yet, so I guess he’s doing all right so far.”
Ron laughed as he reached for a glass beaker to begin the day’s lab experiment. Then he glanced at me and realized I was serious. “Jeez. You two must have had a fun five months away.”
“Oh, yeah, and then some.” I scowled at the lab table’s black enamel surface, scarred by countless knicks and bored students’ carvings. “Let’s just say it’s been a learning process for both of us.”
Ron grunted. “I guess it’s safe to assume you two won’t be eating with us in the cafeteria then?”
I looked at him in surprise. “Why wouldn’t we?”
“Uh, because of all the humans and descendants that’ll be packed in there?”
“He thinks he can handle it. He’s even looking forward to it now that we don’t have to sneak around anymore.”
Ron snickered. “Yeah? And is he also looking forward to getting grilled by all of your friends? Who, I should mention, all blame Tristan for your five-month absence from their lives.”
Oh. I hadn’t thought of that. I’d stayed in contact with my friends by way of the occasional text message. But life in that cabin in Arkansas had been pretty boring, and since Anne was the only one of my human friends who knew the truth about vampires and the Clann, I hadn’t been able to say much to Carrie or Michelle.
So now, not only would Tristan be dealing with smelling and hearing all those humans and their stinky human food and the hateful descendants around us—plus feeling the Clann kids’ constant scrutiny of his every little twitch and blink—but he would also be trying to earn my friends’ approval as my boyfriend.
Not to mention we’d be sort of rubbing our relationship into poor Bethany Brookes’s face.
What the heck was I thinking when I agreed to our eating together in the cafeteria?
Groaning, I propped my elbows on the table