Free When Rose Wakes by Christopher Golden Page B

thing.
    “No mind control,” Rose assured her. “It’s just that Mr. McIlveen paired us up and I don’t want him to be angry.”
    Kylie had forked another bite of salad but now she used it to gesture toward Courtney’s table, making her point.
    “You think Mr. Mac will be all disappointed that you ditched Courtney?” Kylie asked, brows knitted. “Not likely. He’ll be glad you found somebody you actually wanted to talk to. It’s not like he doesn’t realize Sauer and her cheer squad are bitches.”
    Rose frowned. “Then why would he make her be my student ambassador?”
    Kylie shrugged. “I think she was one of the sophomores who, like, guided the freshmen around at the beginningof the year, so she sort of volunteered for the job. Besides, she knows all of the teachers because of her grandmother working in the office.”
    Forking a bite of manicotti into her mouth, Rose glanced over the heads of the two girls sitting across from them and saw Courtney headed her way, darting between two of the long tables.
    “Uh-oh,” she managed, before swallowing the food in her mouth.
    “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Courtney demanded, leaning between the two girls across from Rose and Kylie.
    “Eating lunch?” Rose ventured.
    Courtney sneered. “You think you’re funny now?”
    Rose felt her cheeks flushing, but with anger rather than embarrassment. “Look, Courtney, you don’t want anything to do with me and that’s fine. I can find the rest of my classes on my own.”
    “Mr. Mac is going to think I blew you off.”
    “I’ll make it clear it was the other way around,” Rose promised.
    Courtney narrowed her eyes, then smiled in grim amazement. “Wow. Coma Girl gets her claws out.”
    Rose shrugged. “I just didn’t want to spend my lunch as a punching bag for you and your friends.”
    “Fine by me,” Courtney said. “Enjoy St. B’s. Hopefully I’ll never have to talk to you again.”
    She stormed away. The two girls across the table stared at Rose.
    “Wow,” one of them said.
    Rose shifted uneasily. She did not like the admiration she saw in their eyes any more than she did the derision of Courtney and her friends. She just wanted to be invisible today.
    “Are you always this scrappy?” Kylie asked.
    Rose gave her an apologetic look. “I actually don’t remember.”
    “Right,” Kylie said, nodding. “Coma Girl.”
    Shocked to hear the nickname from her friend, Rose shot her a hard look.
    “Hey, that genie’s out of the bottle,” Kylie said. “You’re never going to make the name go away, so you might as well own it. Make it yours. People want to call you Coma Girl, just nod and say, ‘Yeah, that’s me. Cool, aren’t I?’ Well, don’t actually say that, but wear that attitude. I mean, duh, it’s fascinating, right? Friggin’ coma and amnesia, you might as well be a superhero. People are gonna be interested, so let them.”
    “I don’t know,” Rose said.
    “Suit yourself. Just my two cents,” Kylie replied.
    “For cheerleaders, those girls aren’t very cheery.”
    Kylie arched an eyebrow, one corner of her mouth tugging upward in a lopsided smile. “Was that a joke, Miss DuBois?”
    “Not a very good one,” Rose observed.
    “No,” Kylie agreed. “But you get points for trying. And yeah, they’re cheerleaders for the football team, but they also make up about half the girls’ basketball team. They’re pretty good, too, Courtney and Ivy especially.”
    “Ivy being?”
    “Black hair, anemic-looking?”
    Rose nodded. The tall one who had made fun of her clothes.
    Kylie kept up a steady stream of chatter, segueing from gossip about teachers to her favorite bands to her take on the capricious nature of the universe. Yet she didn’t seem to be rambling just to hear her own voice. Kylie frequently paused to make eye contact and grill Rose about her thoughts on various matters, forcing her to think and engage. The girl had a voracious appetite for thought and a