Free House of Cards by W. J. May, Book Cover By Design, Chelsa Jillard

her feet and hands. “L-Like a c-cat.”
    Jennifer’s mouth hung open and her eyebrows had disappeared under her bangs.
    Rae straightened and wiped her sweaty hands on her pants. She grinned. That had been freakin’ scary, but she’d landed on her feet. She had to admit, it had felt kind of thrilling.
    “Why don’t we call it a day?” Jennifer blinked rapidly, her eyes still huge.
    Rae wanted to laugh but held it in. It must have looked a lot worse than it had felt.
    “I’ll clean up. We’ll meet tomorrow afternoon. I’ll text you the time and place.”
    “Sounds good.” Rae jogged over to grab her jacket and bag. She glanced to see Jennifer’s hand press against her temple as she surveyed the mess.
     
     

Chapter 7
    Depression
     
    Rae left the gym and headed back to her dorm room. As she drove, she couldn’t stop running the session with Jennifer over and over in her head. She wished she could hit stop and switch to a different train of thought, but it seemed impossible. Back at the dorm she slipped into her room and grabbed her toiletries. In the shower, the hot, hot water didn’t erase the tension in her shoulders.
    She tried thinking about school. Had it only been yesterday she had classes? It felt like so much had happened in the past few days. Three months of school left and she would be done. Hard to believe. Maybe Monday in the Oratory I’ll talk to Carter and see – Wait! The journal! The Oratory reminded her of her father’s journal that she still hadn’t had a chance to read.
    She jerked the shower handle to off and stepped out. Barely bothering to dry herself off, she shoved her clothes on and headed back to her room. She wanted to see what everyone wanted to see in that stupid journal. Burning it in a fire might be the smartest thing to do. Then no one would ever know what was inside of it.
    Molly crashed into Rae’s room. “Did you text him? What did he reply?” Her gorgeous mahogany hair swung side to side from the pony she had put it in. It seemed like the thick, wild mane was trying to escape. Rae had always envied her hair. She idly wondered if she could mimic it somehow now that she had a little power over hair? Hmmm what would I look like with red hair though? Rae’s mind wandered a little from the topic of conversation as she waited for Molly to take a breath and let her respond.
    “Text who?” Rae pretended not to remember. The moment before Molly burst in, she had grabbed her father’s journal, hoping to have a look at it and then hide it in a very good hiding place. No chance of that now. She slid the journal between two textbooks on her desk as non-chal lantly as she could. Molly was super-observant though, and she half expected to be called out on it.
    “Luke, of course!”
    “Oh yeah, I forgot.” She grabbed the top textbook and the journal and put them into her school backpack, zipping it up tight. Better on me at all times than haphazardly hidden in my room.
    Molly shook her head, her pony swinging wildly again. “Come on, Rae.” She held out her hand.
    For one wild second Rae thought Molly was asking to see the journal and her heart rate kicked up as she wrapped her arm around her backpack possessively, trying to come up with a good excuse not to show Molly.
    “Give me your phone.” She beckoned with her fingers.
    Rae sighed with relief and plopped on the bed, tired from the crazy morning and suddenly hungry. The cafeteria had closed half an hour ago so she’d missed lunch. She would have to settle for the rest of her croissant and a bowl of cereal till dinner time. Rae pulled her phone out of the front pocket of her backpack and held it just out of Molly’s reach. “You’re not texting him.”
    “Why not? You won’t.” Molly tried to grab the phone but missed. “I’d send you a zinger of electricity, but I did that to Nic this week and fried his phone.” Molly thought hard for a moment. It always amazed Rae how Molly’s mind worked. It barely took