Demonhead didn’t come back, but Doctor Sharp did, more shocked than anything about the state the fight had left the house in.

  We pretended that Demonhead had destroyed the couch.

  His advice was to act like nothing had happened and to continue with school while we searched for the Shadowyn.

  He also advised us to pair off into couples while at school, but the appearance of normalcy wasn’t THAT important to us.

  Returning to school was awkward. The bridges we had burned with Hunter and his friends meant we were out a lunch table, instead settling at the back of the cafeteria for breakfast.

  The table at the edge of the room, however empty it had seemed at first, was apparently taken.

  I barely had time to sit before my chair was kicked out from under me.

  “This seat’s taken,” said the tall kid who had tipped me over.

  I stood, brushing off my pants as his equally tall friends crowded in, their grins predatory. Green was already scheming in my head, eager to give them exactly what they were looking for.

  “What’re you gonna do, bitch boy?”

  Another voice joined in. “Yeah, bitch-made boy.”

  I glanced down at my fallen breakfast tray, soggy nachos with watery cheese. Hardly a great loss. But they had been my nachos.

  Another shove to my chest. “That’s what I thought, you little bitch.”

  Green was roaring now, urging me to act. I was just about to when...

  THWACK.

  The lead bully let out a strangled gasp, eyes wide, his body jerking forward. His hands shot to his backside in shock.

  “What the hell?!”

  A girl stepped around him, barely four feet tall, holding a sock weighted with what looked to be a bike lock inside it.

  “I do not tolerate these things, George,” she snapped. “You know I don’t.”

  The cafeteria fell into stunned silence.

  George, apparently the name of my would-be tormentor, grimaced, shifting from outrage to mild exasperation. “Penny, fuck off.”

  She cracked the sock against his shin.

  George collapsed.

  “No, George, I will not!” she barked, stomping her foot for emphasis. “You know me better than that!”

  She must have caught me staring, because she suddenly raised the sock in my direction. “What are YOU looking at, SMALL FRY?!”

  Even Green faltered under the force of her energy. “I’m just… wondering who to thank for my rescue.”

  A wide grin split her face. She planted both feet like she was about to make a declaration worthy of a royal court. “Penelope Graves, at your service! I don’t suffer a bully to live, let alone my idiot brother.”

  To punctuate her point, she kicked George in the chest.

  He groaned.

  “Newbies are his favorite targets. Best act smart about it, or he’ll get ya every time.”

  She let that sink in, then pivoted sharply toward George’s friends. “And the rest of you, clear off, or else!”

  The stunned silence stretched. No one dared move for a long, awkward beat, then George’s friends took off in a hurry.

  With the threat disposed of, Penelope waved goodbye and strode off, leaving us alone with the wreckage.

  Wolf finally broke the silence. “Holy shit. I think I have a crush.”

  Edge and Love murmured agreement.

  I bent down, grabbed George by his arm, and hauled him into a chair across from us. His face was an odd mix of shame and sheer disbelief.

  I smiled at him. “I think you’d better go.”

  He nodded and left, and we all sat back down.

  “So what—”

  There was another hand on my seat, and I whirled around to face my next attacker, only it wasn’t an attacker. It was Charlie. He didn’t say anything, just handed me his journal, then left.

  “...What was that?” asked Edge.

  In response, I opened the book. On the interior of the cover was a drawing of the old hospital.

  The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “Looks like we’re going to go see Mr. Teeth,” I responded.

  Edge groaned. “I hate small towns...”

  Wolf considered him. “Do you hate small towns, or do you hate Pampa?”

  He looked up at her. “Can’t it be both?”

  Love shrugged. “I was born in a small town, Edge.”

  Edge looked at her with frustration. “Well, I’d probably hate your hometown too.”

  My scalp prickled. I still couldn’t remember my home. They had reassured me they had no intention of abandonment, but that didn’t stop the fear from surging every time I heard them talk about it.

  I needed to calm down.

  The rest of the school day went by pretty normally, period to period, listening in class, then regurgitating what we had talked about onto paper to prove we had absorbed the knowledge.

  It was at lunch that I was approached by Penelope once again, her gait bouncy, giving her some extra distance with each step. Everything about her was dynamite, compact but brimming with power. I noticed the movement before I registered faces. Following behind her was another girl I didn’t know.

  I wasn’t really paying attention. I FELT them more than I saw them approach. My brain marked the shift in footsteps, the slight adjustment in air displacement near me, preparing for something. Anything.

  “NEWBIE.”

  The sound hit like a shockwave. My muscles snapped tight. Instinct screamed at me,

  move.

  react.

  assess.

  but I forced the impulse down. I stayed still, ignoring the twitch in my fingers.

  Why was I so twitchy? They weren’t a threat.

  “What!? What...” My voice didn’t quite come out natural, and I hated that.

  Penelope motioned to the girl, who immediately looked away the moment my gaze met hers.

  “This is Lee. She’s into you but too nervous to say anything.”

  I blinked. She was... trying to set me up? As if this was normal. As if I was supposed to feel honored. Flattered? That’s how this kind of thing worked, right? I searched for the feeling, but all I found was unease.

  “Penny, what the fuck?!” whispered Lee, her face, neck, and ears burning red.

  Penelope just grinned up at her, sharp and knowing. “Trust me, Lee. I know what I’m doing. Newbie here is a stand-up guy.”

  I should say something.

  “Penny, I’m in a relationship. I appreciate the thought, I just—”

  WHACK.

  Pain split my vision as the bike sock came swinging and cracked me square in the nose. My body reacted before my brain—weight shift, stance adjustment, ready—but I caught myself before I followed through.

  Why was Penny setting off my instincts? Another reason to distance myself.

  I straightened up, pushing down the unnecessary tension. Lee grabbed Penelope’s swinging arm, pulling her back.

  “Penny, please! You’ve embarrassed me enough! It’s not his fault he’s already dating someone!”

  Lee let her go, and I could see her trying to shrink into herself, avoiding my gaze. She wasn’t unattractive, but Love wouldn’t like it if I suddenly started dating.

  “I’m sorry about this,” she said to me, her voice quieter now. “I mentioned it in passing ONCE.”

  I laughed. Or, I think I did. It was the right reaction, wasn’t it? It was normal.

  A normal student would laugh.

  The laughter felt foreign.

  Hollow.

  A practiced habit rather than instinct.

  I left the room in a hurry. Three more periods to get through. Three more rounds of pretending nothing had changed.

  But beneath the forced normalcy, something festered. That warning still echoed in my mind, the stories Hunter had told us.

  Mister Teeth.

  Sigma had a date with the thing lurking in the ruins of the old hospital. And whether we believed the stories or not, soon enough, we’d find out the truth.