The Vigilante's Handbook (Misfits #1)

Three: Persuasion Only Works If People Like You

He got to his feet and reached out his hand again, this time to pull me up from my cot. The paper beneath me crinkled uncomfortably loud in the silent halls of the General Building. The only people left on this side of campus were the evening janitors and the two of us.

The younger students had been shepherded to their dormitories on campus or allowed to play outside near the dorms. Our class was probably all the way across the city to East Lincoln where our off-campus housing was located. The teachers were wherever they went when they weren't pouring useless information down our throats.

It was a lonely thought, and I found myself walking closer to Miguel as we left the building. He didn't seem to notice.

We pushed through the polished double doors of the General Building. On either side of the stone steps leading down from the doors were marble lions lying in rest, remnants of the college campus that Paramount Lake had been a few decades ago.

I remembered walking into the General Building for the first time as a tiny Anna with dirty brown hair and wide-eyed fear. I had looked at those lions like they might pounce on me and rip me apart with their powerful jaws. I wasn't a pleasant child.

Three years later, Eleanor had told everyone about my secret fear after one of our rare fights so Ariana brought the marble behemoths to life, which resulted in the most terrifying two minutes of my life and one missing paw that had fallen off in a freak freezing accident.

I grabbed Miguel by the arm as we passed under their watchful gaze. He tensed under my grip for only a second, and his eyes shifted toward the lions.

"I'm not scared of them." He looked skeptical. "Okay, maybe never seeing them again is my favorite part of graduating, but that's not the point. I stopped you because I remembered something important."

A roll of his eyes said that he didn't believe me, but he motioned for me to continue.

"What time is it again?"

He wasn't wearing a watch, so he grabbed my wrist and pulled it up to his eye line so he could check my super watch. (Not actually super, but it did count my steps. All vigilantes come from humble beginnings).

"Exactly. Nearly six. And do you know what starts at seven?" I didn't wait for him to not respond. "The game! Our last game at the academy and we are so dead if we're late."

I started to tug him along to the bus terminal so we could head to the arena the school had rented out. Miguel didn't budge.

"Excuse me, mister, but you are coming to the game. I don't care if you don't like it." He tried to pull away from me, but I held firm. For being a human giant who easily cleared six feet with the widest shoulders known to man, Miguel wasn't particularly strong. Or he was holding back because he secretly loved our games but admitting that would ruin his carefully curated facade.

"Please!" I whined. "Mona would kill me if I showed up late without a good reason. But if I show up with you I become the school hero for two seconds before everyone remembers that I used the s-word in Freyson's class today."

A smile broke across his face.

"Yes, I called us superheroes. You know I hate that rule." I tugged again. This time his feet started moving after me but only because he looked on the verge of a fit of giggles.

"Shut up."

"Just because you aren't saying anything, doesn't mean I can't tell you to shut up."

"Don't look at me like that. Shut up does not count as swearing."

"Oh, get off your high and mighty horse, stupid head."

"Yes, I did just call you a stupid head, because you deserved it."