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car and they drove off,
leaving me alone on the sidewalk, thinking about how the last thing
I wanted was a friend with a Talent who would get herself hauled
off to the State School.

Chapter 7

    Joss

    You realize, of course, that you are a
complete idiot.
    Well, conscience, I’d say that much is
obvious.
    Such were my thoughts as I made my way from
the safety of my stairwell down to the cafeteria at about half past
lunchtime. Truth be told, ever since I’d had to share my space with
Marco, all his limbs, and his unfortunate idea of entertainment, I
was really soured on what had been my own little corner of Fairview
High for the last few years.
    Needless to say that the cafeteria was chaos
as usual, and yeah, it scared the crap out of me. But at least this
time I had a clear objective in my sights, and I was more wary of
skirting too close to the muck like I did last time.
    Kat was sitting with the same group she had
been with the other day: Heather, Maddy, and Elizabeth. Maddy’s
brother Matt was there too, straddling a backward chair between
Maddy and Kat and talking intently to his sister about something.
Maddy raised a gloved hand—part of her unique style was to always
wear these thin, leather cyclist gloves—and gave Matt the finger
with a sneer on her pixie-like features. And that’s when they
looked up and saw me standing there, rather awkwardly, holding my
books in front of me in that way I remembered I shouldn’t but
couldn’t change now.
    Not so much a sense of everybody knows
your name and they’re always glad you came, so much as startled
bewilderment from everyone at the table. But Matt immediately got
up and spun the chair around.
    “Want my seat, Joss? I was just leaving.”
    I felt my face getting hot. “Oh, no, you
don’t have to—”
    “No, really, I’ll be contemplating twinnicide
if I spend another minute with this brat.” He cuffed Maddy on the
back of her short, platinum hair. “Take it.”
    “Um, thanks.”
    Matt wandered away and I thought, not for the
first time, how different they were. Him big, kind of brawny, but
with that whole prep-school wannabe thing he had going. Her small,
and slight, but also edgy, looking like a punk-rock fairy. And
really, Matty and Maddy? Naming your daughter Matilda is bad
enough, but the naming police ought to come and shoot their
parents.
    “So, Joss, cool to see you. What brings you
to the cafeteria?”
    That’s a good question, Kat. What the hell
was I thinking? I’d been so into talking to her about what had
happened after school the day before that I hadn’t even thought
about the fact that I’d never be able to get a private word in this
place. Great. I casually turned my head to glance around the
room and saw several people look quickly away, including Dylan, and
made a note-to-self never to do this again.
    “Not much, really. I wanted to ask you if I
could talk to you—after school—if you’re not busy or anything.”
    “Really?”
    “Um, yeah, but it’s no big—”
    “No! That totally works because I was going
to ask you to come over to my house today.”
    I glanced around the table. Maddy was talking
quietly to Elizabeth—who I don’t think ever talked any other way
than quietly. They were a study in opposites with Maddy’s rebel
looks and Elizabeth’s classic shy girl chic. Heather caught my
glance, smiled, and moved her chair around the table to get in on
their conversation, leaving Kat and me a little more privacy.
“Your…house?” I stuttered. You’d think she’d invited me to her
family crypt as freaked out as I was by the invitation.
    “Yeah, you know, where I live, with my
parents. And I keep my room there too.”
    “Huh. Interesting.”
    “So…will you come over?”
    “Why?”
    Kat made a disgusted noise in the back of her
throat. “Because that’s where I keep my Great Big Book of Manners
by Emily Post and I want to beat you with it.”
    I was totally confused and just looked at her
blankly.
    Which got