Queen of the Clueless #2 of 3 (COMPLETE)

Chapter 12

Confirmed: something was wrong with me.

Because I was obsessing over whether a certain teacher was seeing a certain student? No, of course not.

It was the fact that Sol and Diego walked into the Guidance Office together and I totally ignored it. Because Sol and Diego were not friends. Diego was not friends with anybody. Sol actually had a tiny crush on him, but they weren't on speaking terms at all. And yet they walked in together, and he stood there quietly as Sol dropped a wad of paper in front of me.

"Why are you still here?"

Oh crap. Three hours had apparently passed, and I was still in there. Browser tabs full of Denise Cabral's various internet footprints. There was a blog about her year of traveling and volunteer work after college graduation, a photo blog that hadn't been updated in three years, and an essay she wrote about introducing grade school kids to history, blah blah blah. No real dirt, nothing scandalous, nothing but admirable achievements and a life full of relevance.

Sol's concerned voice dragged me out of the vortex of this. "I can't believe you cut GenPsych. Ms. Sanchez gave the final project group work and everything!"

"I'm sorry, I was busy with important stuff."

"GenPsych is important, Psych Major," Sol said, rolling her eyes. "You can't keep your precious clerk job here if you drop out of school. Priorities."

I wanted to tell her that I knew all about priorities, sister. Like, I only cut class because of Goddess duty, and that was a totally unselfish reason to cut.

"Did you spend the whole time stalking Ms. Cabral?" Sol said, a little too loudly.

Okay, so maybe this particular cut was not so unselfish. "Why do you know her?"

"I know people who've taken her class. And she's the prettiest teacher in school. Why are you looking her up?"

No, it didn't work out this way. I analyzed people, not the other way around. "Am thinking of taking her class, and shut up."

Sol shrugged, and thrust a bracelet—with the largest, gaudiest charms I'd ever seen—in my face. "Look at this. Look at this!"

"Shiny."

"Neil gave it to me! He was so excited about it. I have a strange feeling that someone else actually owns this ugly thing, and they'll think I stole it. I thought you were going to talk to him, Hannah!"

"Talk to who?"

She blinked at me. "Neil. I thought you were going to pull your guidance office mojo on him and get him some help."

The words started coming out, and my brain only got to process it as I was hearing it. "Neil doesn't have a problem, Sol. He just really likes you. He's just doing things to make you happy."

"What are you... What?"

"You should never doubt him, that's all. He really cares about you. The fact that you suspect him of stealing is such a betrayal, you know."

Wow that was weird.

Diego folded his arms and leaned his weight against the short bookshelf near the door, but he didn't say anything.

Sol gasped a little. "You know what? Borrow someone else's notes. I can't believe you're taking his side."

I couldn't believe it either.

She turned toward the door so fast that she collided right into Diego, but his eyes stayed on me.

"New Girl, you're coming with me," he said, and it was an order.