Chapter 36

Elise felt her phone vibrate inside her bag, but the lesson was still going. She left it alone. Only when class ended did she remember to check.

Miles had sent her two messages.

Miles: Took notes for the entire lesson. Turns out studying isn't that hard. [smug face]

Miles: [photo]

She opened the image. The page covered junior-year material she'd studied just a few days ago. For someone who went through life looking ready to fight it, her brother had surprisingly orderly handwriting.

She'd never seen his writing in their previous life. So this was what it looked like?

A smile spread across her face. She'd barely finished pleading with him to take school seriously, and he'd already listened.

Elise: Good job, Miles!

Elise: 👍👍👍

She sent several more thumbs-up emojis for good measure. Learning took time and effort, and it was easy to lose heart along the way. If her brother was willing to try, she could certainly give him plenty of encouragement.

Miles grinned at the screen so broadly that his cheeks hurt.

It worked. His sister liked people who studied hard, and he could become one of those people.

Of course, nobody became good at school in a single afternoon. He'd listened to the teacher. He'd even taken his own notes. His writing was simply too ugly to risk showing her, which was why he'd sent Dylan's instead.

Dylan ventured a question.

“Are you sure she won't find out?”

He'd watched the whole thing in disbelief. Trying to get a girl was one thing. Trying to get her this way took nerve. If Elise discovered what he'd done, she would skin him alive.

Miles's grin vanished. He turned to Dylan.

“Are you going to tell her?”

Dylan shook his head so fast his neck nearly hurt. Tell her? Miles would skin him alive first.

“What about you?” Miles asked the others.

Every boy he looked at immediately shook his head.

The grin returned.

“There you go.”

Then he addressed Dylan with unusual gravity.

“I'm going to be counting on you from now on.”

“Huh?”

Miles patted his shoulder.

“Keep the notes up to this standard. You could make your writing a little more consistent, though. Want me to get you some handwriting practice sheets?”

Dylan's face darkened. This was only the beginning? He'd been appointed Miles's personal note-taking machine?

It was inhuman. Unfortunately, objecting might get him punched. Worse, Miles might actually make him sit there practicing his letters.

“N-no. I'm fine.”

He collapsed across his desk. What had he done to deserve this? All he'd ever done was have decent handwriting. Why was he being punished for it?

“What's wrong with him?” another boy asked.

Miles propped his head on one hand and stretched his legs into the aisle. He was still reading his conversation with Elise, one foot swinging contentedly.

“Found his purpose in life. Overwhelmed with joy, probably.”

Dylan buried his face deeper in his arms. Oh, he was joyful. So joyful he wanted to die.

The bell rang at the end of English. As soon as the teacher left, conversation broke out around the classroom.

Elise was sorting out the assignments she needed to do that evening when the noise abruptly faded. She looked up.

Jade Mercer and several of her friends were leaning against the front doorway, arms folded, looking in her direction. Their hair was dyed in an assortment of bright colors. Jade's locs and sleeveless top, with the bold tattoo exposed along her arm, made her particularly hard to miss.

They looked ready to start something. Nobody seemed inclined to approach them.

Why had Jade come to their classroom? Had someone offended her?

One student finally gathered enough courage to ask, “Are you... looking for someone?”

Jade lifted her chin toward the back.

“Elise.”

Heads turned. What could Jade possibly want with her? What had Elise done?

Elise stood up, delighted.

Jade attended a different school. How she'd got inside Northbridge was a mystery, but she'd come to see her. That alone was enough to make Elise hurry over.

“How did you get in?”

“Climbed over the wall.”

“You what?” Elise began, then remembered how easily Jade moved. A wall would hardly trouble her.

Jade put an arm around her shoulders and steered her out of the classroom.

The students watching them were stunned. Jade hadn't simply come looking for Elise. Judging by that easy familiarity, the two of them were already close.

Jade was one of the two people nobody across the neighboring schools wanted to cross. Elise looked like the sort of girl who always did her homework. Seeing them together made no sense at all.

“I'll wait outside your gate after school,” Jade said. “Want to go skate?”

Elise couldn't have been happier with the invitation. Studying came first, but she'd almost finished working ahead through all her fall junior-year courses. A little time out wouldn't hurt. She could still get through a couple of practice papers when she got home.

Besides, she wanted to spend time with Jade.

She smiled and nodded.

Jade hesitated. Her forehead creased.

“I've heard some stuff about you. People at this school giving you trouble?”

After meeting Elise, she'd started hearing about what had happened at Northbridge. Elise had only been reunited with the Whitmores at seventeen, and the girl they'd adopted before finding her had repeatedly stirred up other people against her.

Jade didn't measure friendship by how long she'd known someone. With Elise, she'd had the odd feeling they were old friends from the start. Hearing that people were bullying her had brought her straight here.

Elise's smile softened.

Now she understood. An invitation to skate would have taken a message. Jade had made a point of appearing at her classroom with all her friends.

Anyone watching could work out what that meant. Elise had Jade behind her.

“There was some trouble before,” she said. “It's been sorted out. You don't have to worry.”

Jade relaxed and glanced at the girls with her. Their expressions eased, too.

She patted Elise's shoulder.

“If anyone starts on you, tell us. We're on your side.”

Elise nodded emphatically.

Somehow, she'd acquired a whole collection of people willing to stand behind her. Julian, Adrian, Miles, and now Jade. All of them were on her side.

When Jade left and Elise returned to her seat, her classmates were looking at her strangely. Even Nora seemed to be holding back a question.

“What is it?” Elise asked.

Nora bit her lip.

“You and Jade are close?”

She'd seen Elise approach Jade at the plaza the other day, but it had only been a few days. Now they were walking around with their arms over each other's shoulders.

Nora had promised Julian she'd look after Elise. She couldn't ignore this.

“Yes. We're good friends.”

That made Nora more worried. Elise was sweet and well behaved. She worked so hard at school. How had she become friends with someone who smoked and fought?

What if she started copying Jade?

An image of Elise smoking, her arms covered in tattoos, appeared in Nora's mind. She shuddered.

“Elise, I think... maybe you shouldn't get too close to her. She gets into all kinds of trouble. She even fights boys. There are plenty of people who have a problem with her.” Nora leaned closer. “And what if hanging around with her gets you into smoking and fighting, too?”

She meant every word. Girls like Jade belonged to a world Nora generally avoided by crossing the street.

The girl in front turned around.

“I think Nora's right. Nobody dares stand up to Jade. Even the teachers can't control her. You'd be better off staying away.”

What had happened with Hannah had changed her opinion of Elise. The more time she spent around her, the more she liked her kindness and easy manner. Seeing Jade turn up had worried her enough to speak.

Both girls looked genuinely concerned.

Elise understood. They were frightened of someone they didn't know.

“I don't choose friends by how they look,” she said seriously. “You're afraid of Jade because you don't know her. She's loyal, and she's kind. That's plenty for me. And it doesn't matter if school isn't her strength. Some people are good at other things. That doesn't make it fair to judge them, does it?”

Jade's grades had always been terrible. On a skateboard, she was exceptional. In their previous life, she'd entered competitions all over the place and come home with plenty of prizes.

Her explanation didn't quite settle either girl's worries.

When school ended, Nora insisted on walking out with her. She hadn't persuaded Elise, but she'd made Julian a promise. If Jade took her somewhere dangerous, Nora could at least let him know.

Elise found the look of grim determination on her friend's face both exasperating and funny. Nora looked prepared to sacrifice herself in the line of duty.

“Elise left with Jade?”

Miles had been on his way to find his sister so they could go home together. Dylan and the others had intercepted him halfway there.

They were furious.

“She came onto our turf? Who does she think she is? Does she even remember you're here?”

“She's asking for it. Somebody needs to teach her a lesson.”

Northbridge was Miles's territory, as far as they were concerned. Jade climbing over its wall in broad daylight was a challenge to him.

Miles let them complain, then headed toward the gate without a word. They hurried after him.

“Where are we going?”

“To find Jade.”

His expression gave Dylan no reason to ask anything else.

The last time they'd met, Jade had been much too close to Elise for his liking. Telling his sister to stay away from her had accomplished nothing. Now Jade was coming to take her out right under his nose?

Jade usually stayed around the schools. The boys asked around until someone told them they'd seen her and Elise at the plaza.

They went straight there.

Half an hour later, they were sitting on the steps. Not far away, Elise was skating with Jade and the other girls.

Dylan looked at Miles in bafflement.

“Weren't we coming to teach her a lesson?”

Ever since Antarctica, Miles had been different. First the studying, and now he'd lost all interest in fighting Jade over territory. He'd arrived, seen her, and quietly sat down.

Miles shot him a look. His sister was having fun. Was Dylan blind?

Elise noticed him from across the plaza. For a moment she was surprised, then she remembered how many students liked coming here. Of course her brother might, too. She lifted her hand and waved.

Jade saw the boys as well. They made no move to approach, so she looked away.

The others crouched around Miles, disappointed. They'd come ready for a fight. Surely he'd get up in a minute. Surely he still remembered who Jade was.

Miles rummaged in his bag and produced a pen and a battered workbook. He opened it and began studying the page.

The boys stared.

Dylan gave up. Nothing Miles did could surprise him anymore. He'd go to any lengths for a girl. Fine. His friends could make an effort for him, too.

“Want us to get our books out as well? Make it look more convincing?”

The others nodded. That was a good idea.

Miles was considering a problem. He had no idea what to make of it, and it offered him no help whatsoever. Even getting started seemed beyond him.

He scrubbed a hand through his hair.

“No. Carry on looking like you hate studying.”

“Why?”

“Makes me look like I love it.”

Dylan had nothing to say to that.

Nora sat off to one side, watching Elise skate. She'd never tried it herself, and she'd been braced for trouble since they arrived.

Jade was teaching Elise some harder tricks. Elise had tried them in her previous life; going through them with Jade again brought the movements back. Her skating grew smoother, and she made fewer mistakes.

Her summer uniform included a skirt, leaving her slim, straight legs bare. With her narrow waist and the easy way she moved on the board, she drew looks from students passing through the plaza. Someone whistled after a particularly difficult trick.

Nora sat well away from Jade's friends, clutching her bag. Even so, watching Elise was making it hard to maintain her vigilance. How was she good at everything?

It looked fun. How did she make it seem so effortless?

Jade skated out and back, noticed Nora sitting by herself, and stopped in front of her.

“Want me to teach you?”

Nora forgot to breathe. Jade was talking to her.

It took her a moment to get a word out.

“I-I don't know how.”

Jade looked amused by her alarm.

“It's easy. I'll hold you up, if you want. You won't fall.”

“Huh?”

Had she heard that correctly? Jade would hold her up?

At this distance, talking to her like this, she didn't seem nearly as frightening. Nora looked past her at Elise, gliding across the plaza. She wished she could move that way. Put her on the board, though, and she'd probably fall straight off.

“No, really. That's okay.”

Jade raised an eyebrow at her hesitation. She'd always preferred trying something to worrying about it. Nora seemed capable of worrying herself out of anything.

She caught Nora by the arm.

“I'll hold on to you. Just roll a little way. Give it a try?”

Nora startled, but she'd almost forgotten to be afraid of Jade. The board was right there. She did want to try.

After another moment's hesitation, she nodded.

She stepped carefully onto it, gripping Jade's arm. Then her weight shifted the wrong way and the board shot forward. Luckily, one foot was still on the ground. She clutched Jade's arm and scrambled off, white-faced.

The girls sprawled on the steps burst out laughing.

Nora turned and glared at them, indignant. Being frightened of them had entirely slipped her mind.

Elise came back from a circuit of the plaza in time to see it. She held back a smile. Nora seemed to be getting along with them just fine.

Then she looked toward Miles and raised her eyebrows.

Was he doing homework?

People came here to have fun. Almost nobody studied in the plaza, which made him the oddest sight for a good hundred feet around.

He'd been watching her all along. The moment she seemed to glance his way, he bent over his workbook.

He hadn't written anything yet. He couldn't solve the problem. But thinking about how to solve it was part of the process, wasn't it?

“Miles?”

Elise rolled over and peered at the page.

He looked up with great seriousness.

“I'm... working on a problem.”

“Mm.” She nodded. His workbook was remarkably clean. He hadn't put down a single word.

“Can't do it?”

Now that she'd asked, pretending any further was out of the question.

“Yeah.”

He'd only started taking school seriously today. It was perfectly reasonable to have trouble.

Elise understood. Years at the bottom of the class couldn't be undone in a day.

She stepped off her skateboard.

“Which part's giving you trouble?”

Miles bit the end of his pen and pushed the book toward her.

She read the question, thought for a moment, and took a sheet of scratch paper. After working through the solution, she handed it back.

Her writing was neat and graceful, the steps easy to follow. She'd even circled several formulas at the side to make them stand out.

Miles was surprised. He remembered her grades. She'd always been somewhere in the middle at her old school. He couldn't judge how difficult this question was, but she'd solved it awfully fast.

The whole thing had taken less than three minutes.

Perhaps it was an easy one.

His thoughtful expression worried Elise. She didn't want one difficult problem to discourage him as soon as he'd begun.

“Learning takes time. It's normal to get stuck. Keep at it, and questions like this will be easy for you.”

She smiled at him.

“You're smart, Miles. If you work at it, you can turn your grades around.”

Two bits of encouragement in a row. Every effort he'd made had been worth it.

She was reassuring him because she cared. Because he mattered to her as her brother.

He nodded hard.

“I will! I'll keep working!”

Dylan and the others practically dropped their jaws. How had Miles managed to say something that corny with a straight face? Were they too young to understand, or had he become even more terrifying?

Around Elise, he put away every sign of his temper. He became gentle, earnest, and alarmingly full of enthusiasm for improving himself.

Dylan could have wept. The Miles who'd spent his days with them drinking, cutting class, and talking nonsense was slipping further away.

Elise was pleased by her brother's earnest promise. If he truly started studying, his life might take a different course. Perhaps this time he wouldn't end up struggling the way he had before.

Jade had taught Nora a few basics by the time she turned around and found Elise with Miles. Her expression darkened.

She stepped onto her board and skated over. Only when she got close did she see the open workbook. Miles was actually asking Elise questions about it.

Jade frowned. What was he playing at?

They'd been enemies for more than a year. She knew him. Since when did Miles study?

“What are you doing?” she asked.