The Missing Link (Book 1: Outcast) [CURRENTLY EDITING]

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO: FORGED WITH FLAMES

"You're the one who wanted to pair up with Page-Wannabe Sally-Michaels," Jared murmured, pointing at Sally's best friend with the tip of his pencil. She was sitting on the other side of the room. A couple other girls were with her, but she seemed lost in thought—almost flustered.

Will shrugged. "Yeah, bad idea." Before either of us got a chance to ask him why, he went on. "And there's no way in hell you two are doing Greek mythology without me, not after I spent the last twenty minutes of my life convincing that man to let me join in on the fun."

"How did he ever agree to let you switch groups?" I asked, giving Mr. Brown a quick glance. He was an old man—his green glasses were crooked a usual inch to the right—whose work attires never strayed from suspenders and ties. He smelled like day-old coffee and drugstore cologne. Jared swore he had emotional issues, which gave him the tag of the strictest professor in the entire school.

Will had a smug smile on his face. "Let's just say I know my way around things. And I already have the perfect idea for the creative part of the project."

Jared sighed and dug his face into his palms. "All right, rip the Band-Aid. What is it?"

Will glowered at him. He turned to look at me instead, perhaps in hopes that I'd take his plan seriously. "I say we dress up as gods," he explained. "As a matter of fact, I'll be Zeus. I can even be naked and all. The ladies say I have the grace of a swan."

Jared's palms muffled his laughter. "Leda and the swan it is, then."

"I doubt Mr. Raegan would like to see you roaming the halls naked," I said. "Scratch that—doubt anyone at school would like to see you roaming the halls naked.

"Um, everyone wants to see me naked."

"No nudity unless you want an F on your report card, Wilson," Mr. Brown called out, peering at Will over the rim of his glasses.

"Mr. Brown is right. Save us the pain of such atrocity," Nancy, who had been playing with a small cutout of the Titanic, said.

Will turned around to give her a snarky reply that involved her incident with Roger from two weeks ago—according to the rumors, shoes weren't the only things that smacked Roger on the face when Jenna found out he'd cheated on her. Jared took advantage of the moment to slide a piece of paper neatly folded in four at me. Inside, it read,

Didn't you say you had to tell Will about what happened yesterday?

Icy threads of cold water moved through my veins, and I looked back at him with a pleading look. I'd ended up calling him last night after sneaking back into my bedroom, but the conversation had been rather short. Not only was Patricia still at his place but I was also way too tired to explain every living detail of what happened.

"I don't know how," I whispered. It was useless, though. Even with the bell yowling through the speakers, Will turned back around to give us a questioning look.

"You don't know how to what?" he asked.

Jared scratched the back of his head. He gathered his things as fast as he could before pointing at the door. "I gotta go take some books out of my locker, but Liv told me she needs to talk to you."

My eyes widened like plates, but I doubted either of them noticed—or they simply didn't care at all. "Does she?" Will let one of the straps of his backpack hang loose over his shoulder, giving me a smile before his focus returned to Jared. "I think you're the one who needs to talk to us. Mind telling me why Patricia's been going on and on about a little lip-locking action between you two last night?"

The ice in my veins turned to stone. "Lip-locking?" I echoed. "You didn't tell me that."

"Keep your voice down—do you mind," he said, risking a glance on Patricia's direction. She seemed too busy staring at the green flashcard on her desk to notice. The soft edges of humor washed away from Jared's factions then. "And I didn't say anything because...I—ugh, it wasn't like that."