Then my message sounded. Unfortunately, it was too loud.
Everyone around me stared at me. And the professor looked up from his iPad. Right at that moment, my message tone sounded for the second time and I gritted my teeth. The professor turned his head toward me.
Oh damn.
“Ms. Blair?” He stood up and set the iPad aside. “Would you like to share with us what you’re typing there?”
“No,” I blurted, far too panicked, and I shoved the phone under my desk.
He smiled challengingly. “Then please turn off your ringtone.”
I obeyed and took a deep breath while the girls around me giggled and Noah snorted at the back of the room.
David was the only one who didn’t make a sound, probably because he had also been on his cell phone and had now discreetly slipped it into his pocket.
“Well, then I’d like to compare the assignments,” the professor began, walking toward my table. “And since you seem to have finished quickly, I’ll put your worksheet under the camera as an example.”
I didn’t even have time to protest as he simply pulled it off my table and walked back to the front.
Kelly giggled gleefully next to Amber, who gave me a condescending look.
Didn’t this girl have any other facial expressions in her reservoir?
A glance ahead told me that Mr. Suspicious hadn’t expected me to finish everything. He ran his examining gaze over my worksheet.
I couldn’t help but smile triumphantly, even though I regretted it, because he looked up and studied me before pinching his lips together as if he was annoyed.
Nevertheless, I left the classroom proud of my achievement. And when the strange thoughts about the runes tried to catch up with me, I quickly reached for my cell phone to read Erik’s messages.
The smile disappeared from my lips.
What if Erik was one of those who knew about the dark side of the city? What if he was one of them? What if he was a Senseque or a Ruisangor?
I shook my head.
What a stupid thought.
Probably his message was simply referring to the campus drama, the murder and the ongoing election preparations.
And as if the devil had been spoken, someone pressed a flyer with Vivienna’s face on it into my hand.
I sighed grimly and put it in the nearest garbage can.
If anyone wasn’t getting my vote, it was her.
Chapter 46
Larissa
“I swear to you, my mother thinks the Copelands had something to do with the murder,” Barbie nagged next to Vivienna.
I rolled my eyes. This girl was the epitome of hysterical and spreading fucking fear around campus. To make matters worse, her friends were no better.
“Her whole face was scratched up... Doesn’t that speak for itself?” Amber squeezed out with a dry laugh.
Bayla next to me looked at the two of them, as if she wanted to believe their brilliant words.
I looked at her dumbfounded, and she looked back in shame at my laptop, where we were looking at the pictures of yesterday’s fight.
“Girl, he’s hot,” I exclaimed when we got to a picture of Nash running, his dark blond hair a little tousled from the wind.
I’d managed to get some damn good footage of the fight between Nash and Julian yesterday. And it looked like Vanderwood was the perfect place for hot footage.
“He’s an idiot,” Grace just said, shaking her head and continuing to lean over the stone slab of our seat on campus.
She was in the middle of writing a campaign speech, and so far, only she and Vivienna had registered for the March elections.
“A hot idiot,” I said to Grace, shrugging my shoulders. “We should vote for him if he’s running, Bayla. Don’t you think so?”
I knew Vivienna and Grace were looking at me like I had lost my marbles, but I didn’t care.
“Or, how about this? We vote for Emely!”
I was sure she would let her friends put her up for election. At least, that’s what the rumors were saying.
Vivienna’s jaw dropped.
