“You've got to learn to stand your ground and," she flicked her feet in a little Irish stepdance and sang, "you've got to have faith, faith, faith."My jaw dropped. "You're kidding me, right? You're dancing in the streets and quoting George Michael. I'm about to get eaten alive!”

“How'd you get the burn?"Ignoring him only got me a barrage of chatter."Yeah, how?"'Did something, or someone, do it?""You're bleeding.""It's her knee again.""She opened it up.""Did you fall?""You've got grass in your hair.""Were you in a fight?""How'd you get grass in your hair?""I think she was in a fight.""Leaves and some dirt, too. And...is that a feather?""You were in a fight with a bird?""Hey, how did you manage to knock Blake down?""She didn't knock me down! I caught her.""Hah! A little girl took you out.""Shut up or I'll take you out.""Her extreme velocity overcame Blake's superior mass.""I am superior.""How'd you get moving so fast?"I stopped abruptly and turned on them, arms gesturing wildly. "Shut up!”

“He likes you. You like him, you're just scared. Well," she glanced over her shoulder and dropped her voice, "unless you tell me he's some freaky psycho-killer..." I rolled my eyes and shook my head. "Then I'm not letting you mess this up for yourself. Your creepy hermit status is officially over.”

“I wanted to talk to her because she seemed the most likely to not be manipulating me, but because she looked like the one least likely to manipulate me, she could in fact be the master manipulator, manipulating me into manipulating myself by asking for her help, ergo—yeah, I’d looked it up and it wasn’t a person—I’d fallen right into her trap. Got it? Glad somebody did.”

“And you're been nothing but a pain. So don't get all high and mighty. Good chocolate milk by the way."Muscles ticked in Matthias' jaw. "It's not chocolate milk. It's Milo."I took another sip. "Well, it's good.”

“Ayden and Blake stared each other down. "Oh. My. God," Luna blurted from Ayden's back seat. "It's a love triangle."We all looked at her like she'd sprouted an alien from her head. "it's just like in a book. Two guys after one girl and-"I groaned. "That's ridiculous, Luna, this is not a love triangle.""Says the girl in the middle of a love triangle. Luna ignored my protests and prattled on. "Not one Hexy Boy but two. I've got to call Danica. Oooo," she squealed and clapped her hands,"We could have teams. Team Ayden and Team Blake. With T-shirt and buttons and-""I could make a website," Lucian offered."No!" My voice pitched with panic. "No teams. No shirts. No-""I'll get you some headshots," Blake said, turning his profile towards Luna and Lucian. "I've been told the left is my best side. What do you think?""Aurora's right," Ayden said. "This is buts. Blake you can follow us-""Dude, you know no one would pick Team Ayden. You're just jealous.""That's not true. My team would be way bigger than yours.""Dare to dream, little man, dare to dream.""Care to make a wager on it?""Absolutely.""Fine. How about-""You two shut up!" I shoved myself out of the car.”

“You don’t understand.She was mean to me. Very mean. And she’s dangerous. A very dangerous girl. I’m your guardian, Ayden. I have to protect you!It’s my sworn duty. My sworn duty!”“Protect me?”“Yes!” Pearl hovered frantically in front of “her boy,” and slathered her voice with disgust. “She threatened to…” Oh, she wouldn’t.“Kiss you!”She would. My cheeks fired. I stared at the floor.Ayden laughed. “Kiss me?”“Yeeeeesss,” Pearl wailed in agony. “She promised a big juicy kiss! On a real date. No pretending. With hand holding and—and cuddling!”And I thought it couldn’t get any worse.”