Free Dream Dark by Kami García Page B

cool. Al that crazy stuff with the guys is history.” Link believed what he was saying.
    But history was hard to forget when it included tormenting your girlfriend al year.
    “Yeah. People around here aren’t into history.”
    Even Link caught my sarcasm. “Wel , I’m gonna hit the court.” He didn’t look at me. “I might even go back on the team. I mean, it’s not like I was real y off.”
    Not like you. That’s the part he didn’t say.
    “It’s real y hot in here.” Sweat was dripping down my back. So many people, crammed into one room.
    You okay?
    No. Yeah. I just need to get some air.
    I stood up to go, but the door looked like it was a mile away.
    This school had a way of making you feel smal .
    As smal as it was, maybe even smal er. I guess some things never change.
    Turns out, Ridley wasn’t interested in studying the cultures of the Southern states any more than she was interested in Link studying Savannah Snow, and five minutes into the period she convinced him they should switch to World History. Which wouldn’t have surprised me except switching classes usual y involved taking your schedule to Miss Hester—then lying and begging and, if you were real y stuck, crying. So when Link and Ridley showed up in World History and he told me that his schedule had miraculously changed, I was more than suspicious.
    “What do you mean, your schedule changed?”
    Link dropped his notebook onto the desk next to me and shrugged. “I don’t know. One minute Savannah sits down next to me, then Ridley comes in and sits on the other side, and the next thing I k no w, World History ’s printed on my schedule.
    Rid’s, too. She shows the teacher, and we get kicked right outta class.”
    “How did you manage that?” I asked as Ridley settled into her seat.
    “Manage what?” She looked at me innocently, clicking and un-clicking her creepy scorpion belt buckle.
    Lena wasn’t letting her off that easy. “You know what he’s talking about. Did you take a book from Uncle Macon’s study?”
    “Are you actual y accusing me of reading?”
    Lena lowered her voice. “Were you trying to Cast?
    It’s not safe, Ridley.”
    “You mean not safe for me. Because I’m a stupid Mortal.”
    “Casting is dangerous for Mortals, unless you’ve had years of training, like Marian. Which you haven’t.” Lena wasn’t trying to rub it in, but every time she said the word “Mortal,” Ridley cringed. It was like pouring gasoline on a fire.
    Maybe it was too hard to hear from a Caster. I jumped in. “Lena’s right. Who knows what could happen if something went wrong?”
    Ridley didn’t say a word, and for a second it seemed like I had single-handedly put out the flames. But as she turned to face me, her blue eyes blazing as bright as her yel ow ones ever had, I realized how wrong I was.
    “I don’t remember anyone complaining when you and your little British Marian-in-training were Casting at the Great Barrier.”
    Lena blushed and looked away.
    Ridley was right. Liv and I had Cast at the Great Barrier. It was how we freed Macon from the Arclight, and why Liv would never be a Keeper. And it was a painful reminder of a time when Lena and I were as far away from each other as two people could be.
    I didn’t say anything. Instead I stumbled over my thoughts, crashing and burning in the silence while Mr. Littleton tried to convince us how fascinating World History was going to be. He failed. I tried to come up with something to say that would rescue me from the awkwardness of the next ten seconds. I failed.
    Because even though Liv wasn’t at Jackson, and she spent al her days in the Tunnels with Macon, she was stil the elephant in the room. The thing Lena was stil the elephant in the room. The thing Lena and I didn’t talk about. I had only seen Liv once since the night of the Seventeenth Moon, and I missed her.
    Not like I could tel anyone that.
    I missed her crazy British accent, and the way she mispronounced Carolina