Read Online School Spirits (Hex Hall Novel, A) by Rachel Hawkins - Free Book Online Page B

thought. My waffles were burned and I was in
danger of missing the bus.
    Throwing on some clothes—jeans, another black T-shirt, and, remembering the looks I got yesterday, the one pink hoodie I owned—I ran out the door. The stop was down the block, and the bus doors were starting to close as I rushed up. My hair was still damp on my shoulders as I hoisted myself up the steps, giving what I hoped was an apologetic smile.
    The driver—Maggie, according to her name tag—gave a disdainful sniff. “I don’t wait,” she snapped at me. “You lucked out this time, girlie.”
    “Sorry,” I mumbled, making my way to the back. I scanned the rows for an empty spot, and suddenly Dex stood up, waving his arms. “Isolde!” he called. “It’s me, Dex, your new best friend! I saved you a seat!”
    Several of the kids around him turned to glare, but Dex either didn’t notice or didn’t care. I lifted my hand, acknowledging him. He sat there beaming at me, looking as threatening as a golden retriever, but I couldn’t forget what happened yesterday. If I knew Dex was Prodigium, did he know what I was? Is that why he was so buddy-buddy this morning?
    The bus lurched forward just as I got to the back, and Dex reached out to steady me. I think he was trying to grab my waist, but his hand landed on my hip. Even through my jeans I felt that low hum of magic.
    Dex jerked back, and for a second I thought maybe he’d felt it too. But then he winced and said, “Sorry. We probably haven’t reached the inappropriate touching stage of our friendship yet.”
    Oh, right. I’d been so concerned with trying to figure out what Dex was that it didn’t even occur to me that a boy had just touched my hip, which was definitely in the “bathing suit zone.” That was as far as Mom had gotten in her Facts Of Life talk a few years back: “Don’t let boys touch you in the bathing suit zone.” Then the warlock she and Finn had been chasing chose that moment to leap onto the hood of our car, and the rest of her talk had gone unfinished.
    I think Mom had been relieved.
    Blushing, I sat down next to Dex, trying to keep our thighs from touching. (Thighs were not in the bathing suit zone, but I was pretty sure they were still kind of scandalous.)
    As I reached behind me to start braiding my hair, Dex propped his ankle on the opposite knee. Today he was wearing gray corduroys and a deep navy V-neck that made his eyes look even bluer. The peacoat was balled up behind his head.
    I nodded at it. “Were you napping?”
    “Yeah. Bus gets to my neighborhood at six thirty, which is just inhumane, if you ask me. I usually sleep the whole way, but I’ll endeavor to be an alert seatmate for you.”
    Securing a rubber band around the end of my braid, I looked at him. “Do you always talk like that?”
    “Like what?”
    I raised both eyebrows. “‘Endeavor to be an alert seatmate’? Who says stuff like that?”
    Chuckling, Dex elbowed me in the ribs. “Civilized people. People with names like Dexter and Isolde.”
    “Izzy,” I told him. “Only my mom calls me Isolde, and even then, just when she’s mad at me.” I didn’t mention that Mom had been calling me that a lot lately.
    “So how did you end up in Ideal, Mississippi, Izzy?” Dex asked, sitting up. His hair was tangled in the back, and I had this completely bizarre urge to smooth it out. Just in case my fingers decided to do that, I clasped them together, laying my hands in my lap.
    “We lived in Tennessee, but then my mom, um, lost her job. So she thought a change of scenery would be good for us.” There it was, my first time using the cover story. Dex accepted it with an easy shrug.
    “I’m new, too,” he said. “Well, newish. I moved here back in the summer.”
    “From where?”
    Dex linked his fingers and stretched his arms over his head. “New York.”
    “Did your parents want a change of scenery, too?”
    “They’re, uh…not around anymore.”
    Surprised, I twisted to