chapter 41

Valen Casey and Valarian excitedly pull me down the halls of their run-down school. The floor alone is filthy with scuff marks, and I shiver with disgust, fighting the urge to start scrubbing the floor. The classrooms aren’t much better; the desks are falling apart as the cheap particleboard chips away and some kids are even sitting on milk crates. I look around to ensure this is a school and not some homeless shelter. Valarian shows me to his desk—definitely the cleanest one in the room. I watch as he removes a white table cloth from his bag and sets up his desktop. His pencils sit neatly in a row as he places each one out carefully. Casey, however, opens her pencil case and upends it on the table. I see him cringe before he glares at her and starts rearranging her pencils in a straight line. I don’t want to touch a thing in here; this place is a bacterial infection waiting to happen. When the teacher comes in, I have to do a double-take. She indeed has poodle hair, like she chose the