Free House of Slide Hybrid by Juliann Whicker

what Slide is doing. I don’t want you to be trained because those two kids are more tough and lethal than you’ll probably ever be, when it should be the other way around. Training isn’t going to be easy for someone like you, someone who’s so naïve that she’d trust a monster.”
    “How did you know…” I began, but he cut me off with his growl.
    “You’re going to get training that if you do survive, you’ll no longer be the little darlin’ we’ve all grown so fond of. Everything will change.”
    He stopped talking and the silence he left behind didn’t ask to be answered. Even if he’d answered me honestly, it seemed the question about the Nether no longer needed answering. I thought he knew anyway since whatever I felt you could read on my face even when I did block the emotions, the leaning. He was right; I was innocent and stupid, likely to run into something without thinking because of my lack of experience, but what could I do about that besides have experiences? On the other hand, I thought as I gripped the hem of my shirt, feeling the soft fabric between my fingers, I didn’t want to give up my innocence and become that girl, the one who wanted to kill Lewis instead of get his phone number.
     
    Chapter 5
     
    I wore my hair in braids the next day, but looped up so they were a little more than milk maid braids, or toddler braids, as Snowy called them when she saw me.
    “So,” I began as she stood at her locker, ignoring me as she took out her books. “Do you do that a lot? I mean, go on dangerous missions with Osmond and Satan?”
    She shot me a look, a, ‘you’re not seriously asking me this’, look before she said, “What else is there to do around here?”
    I hated that she was mad at me, but I wasn’t willing to pretend I was someone else to make her happy. “Let’s go shopping,” I said, wishing I could have asked her when she was in a better mood. It wasn’t like me to want to go shopping, but I wanted to get some more cute shirts in my size, maybe some skirts, shoes, a coat that wasn’t the ugly yet warm marshmallow people coat. “After school,” I said when she raised an eyebrow like I’d said something she’d never heard before.
    “Today?” was all she said though.
    I nodded. “Yeah, it will be fun. The city’s safe, I asked my mother this morning. She and Satan seem to think that you won’t let me get into very much trouble. Little do they know,” I said with a grin.
    Snowy didn’t smile though, instead she looked thoughtful, then looking past me, I felt the hairs on my neck stand up as I realized someone was behind me, quite close, and big, and without a doubt…
    “Osmond, do you think it would be a good idea for me to go to the city shopping with Dari today?”
    I stopped breathing as the memory, the kissing and the bare chestness, filled my mind, combining weirdly with the experience with the Nether. I knew I was blushing, could feel the embarrassment even as I made sure that my internal barriers were high, so that the entire school wouldn’t feel how I felt. If that happened, I would never ever be able to walk these halls again.
    “Why not?” he asked before he put a hand on my shoulder. I felt frozen in place as he leaned forward and whispered, “You did great last night.”
    When he was far enough away from me that I could breathe, I realized that Snowy was staring at me, had been staring at me for who knew how long.
    “What?” I asked, walking briskly to my next class, like nothing had happened. Nothing had happened. Osmond had put his hand on my shoulder a dozen times before, and I’d never really noticed it. Nothing had changed, except that now I definitely noticed.
    “Do you like him?” she asked, following me when she should have been walking in the other direction. I glanced up at the stained glass arched above me, the balcony on the second floor where the artistic types hung out, and hoped she would go away.
    “You do,” she said, grabbing