This time I did laugh.

A hundred feet down the hall, another boy approached. He was older, broad shouldered, with blinding white teeth. I'd seen him before; a junior or senior, I thought. "Hello," he said. "I'm John."

I blinked. Was this another victim of Caffeine's posse? Didn't seem likely. He didn't look like the sort people picked on. Possibly quite the opposite.

"Hello," I said neutrally, not stopping. "I'm Cent."

He fell into step beside me. "Sent where?" he laughed at his own little joke.

"To class, John. To class."

"Hang on. I haven't seen you before."

He slowed, obviously expecting me to slow as well. I didn't, and he lengthened his stride to catch back up.

"I'm new in town, but I was here all last week. I certainly saw you."

He grinned, broadly. "I hear that a lot."

I turned abruptly at the water fountain and took a quick drink.

The quick change surprised him and he staggered as he pivoted to follow.

"Sorry," I said. "I just threw up in my mouth a little, there."

He looked confused, then irritated. "Something you ate?"

"Something I heard. Good day!"

I turned down the wing toward biology class, but he took a quick step after me, reached out, and grabbed my arm. His hands were big. I'm not skinny and his hand encircled my bicep. "Hold on, darlin'."

I glanced around. The only people visible were a boy and girl talking at the far end of the hall. "Let go of my arm," I said, looking back over my shoulder.

"Wait a minute," he said, not letting go. "I wasn't finished talking."

I jumped.

Not away. I did one of the things I learned in the desert, where I jumped in place, but turned 180 degrees, going from facing away from him to facing him instantaneously. My arm ripped out of his grip and my face was suddenly right there before his.

He yelled and fell backward.

I walked away. When I turned to go through the biology classroom door, he was still sitting on the floor, one hand scratching his head.

Tara was just sitting down at the back of the room. I waved frantically at her, beckoning her over, and said, "Look down the hall. Who is that?"

She stuck her head out the back door of the classroom.

I joined her as she returned to her desk.

"Why's John Chanlee sitting on the floor?"

I smiled weakly. "I heard that name somewhere."

Tara shook her head and came back inside. "Yeah, I told you about him. Football team. His father owns the quarry. Rich kid."

"Jade said something."

Tara got an angry look on her face. "Yeah. He trapped her in the back of a school dance and groped her. From what we've heard, she wasn't the only one."

"Nobody report him?"

"Rich kid, remember?" She ran a finger over the fabric of my suit jacket. "Why are you dressed so nice?"

Apparently heels and makeup are some sort of indicator. Three more boys introduced themselves as I tried to get to the cafeteria at lunch. One suggested dancing, another coffee, and the third Bible study.

When I finally showed up, Jade was relieved to see me.

"Christ! I thought you were a teacher for a moment, dressed like that."

"Oh, yeah, a short teacher," I said.

"It's the heels," said Tara, "plus the suit. Besides, even without the heels, Mrs. Nizhoni is shorter than you."

"Forget that crap," said Jade. "We're still on for tomorrow morning, right?"

"Tomorrow?" I frowned, as if I had no idea.

"The snowboard team?" she said, frowning back.

"Well, I'm still a little stiff...."

Jade's eyes widened and I could hear the air rushing in through her nose. Before her mouth opened I grinned and said, "I'll be there. Promise."

She shook her fist at me. Tara laughed.

I took the lid off my bento box. It held hot food today: Japanese curry with breaded chicken and pickled cabbage. The steam rose up.

"How the hell do you keep it hot?" asked Tara.

Dad had grabbed "takeaway" from a place in London a half hour earlier and I'd collected it from our kitchen five minutes ago, jumping there and back from a stall in the girls bathroom.

"I wrap it," I said. "What's going on with Caffeine?"

"Oh, right. Um, you know that she was suspended for two weeks," said Tara.

"Heard that one."

"Ok, how about the rumor that you were suspended, too, yesterday?"

"Huh. That one I didn't hear."

Jade shrugged. "It didn't last long. Mr. Hill explained that you were sick. But people did say you were home quaking in fear, and others said you'd been injured by Caffeine or her peeps and that was why you weren't here."

"Peeps." I blinked. "Am I in danger from Caffeine's peeps?"

Tara held out her hand and waggled it. "Hard to say. She's the one who usually picks the targets for that crowd."

Jade looked worried. "Uh, didn't she already pick Cent?"

Tara licked her lips.

"Who is in her posse?"

"Can we sit here?"

I twisted my head around, a little surprised. It was Grant, Tony, and Dakota, lunch trays in hand, their heads turned toward us but their body language saying, just passing through.

It reminded me of my first encounter with Tara.

Jade glared at them and was about to say something so I said quickly, "Sit. I have questions."

Jade and the three boys stared at me, frozen.

"Now, ladies!" I scooted a bit to the right.

Dakota moved first, sitting beside me, and there was a comical moment while Grant and Tony tried to get to the empty spot on my other side. Tony won and Grant sat on the other side of the table, next to Tara.

Tony took advantage of the small footprint of my bento box to push his tray, and himself, closer than was appropriate or comfortable. I used my chopsticks to lift a piece of chicken to my mouth, raising my elbow higher than truly necessary. The suit fabric grazed his face and he jerked back. "Oops. Perhaps you should shift a little," I said. "I would hate for there to be an accident."

Grant laughed. Dakota, on my other side, shifted slightly away from me.

"You know these guys?" I asked Jade and Tara.

Tara nodded. Jade sniffed and said, "Freshman ... I believe."

I saw Grant frown and I said, "Yes, scummy freshman-but they're my freshman. Supposedly I delivered them from evil or at least Caffeine. They are grateful."

Jade raised her eyebrows and said, "Oh! I see."

Tara looked interested. "You were the one they taped to the bike rack, weren't you?" she asked Dakota.

I look sideways at Dakota and saw him blush. "Yeah," he muttered.

"Have things really changed for you guys so much?" I asked, "in just two days?"

"In two minutes," said Grant. "We decided, the three of us, we were done."

Dakota said, "Fuck, yeah. We're not taking their crap anymore."

"No more losing lunch money to those bastards," added Tony.

"And definitely no more running their packages into school."

"Packages?" Jade said. "What kind of packages?"

Tony and Grant exchanged glances and clamped their mouths shut. Dakota cleared his throat and became very interested in the back of his hands.

It was Jade who said, "Pot. Also ecstasy."

"No way," Grant said weakly.

He didn't sound very convincing.

Tara laughed softly. "It's not much of a secret. So they bullied you into carrying them past Tomez?"

"Who's Tomez?" I asked.

Jade said, "Sheriff deputy. He's our cop, assigned to the school district. But that means mostly here and a little bit over at the middle school."

"Half narc, half truancy, and half gang activity," added Tony.

Tara raised her eyebrows. "One hundred and fifty percent? How you doing in math there, Tony?"

Jade flipped her palm up. "Tomez does work long hours."

I'd seen Tomez after school where he stood around at the main entrance, but hadn't realized he was specifically for the school.

"So you were running drugs past the cops?" I said. I kept my voice neutral. They didn't seem like criminals.

"Technically, we don't know that," said Grant. "We never saw the contents."

Jade snorted.

"Why didn't you just refuse?" I asked.

Grant looked away.

"Threats of violence?" I tried.

"It doesn't matter," said Tony, abruptly. "What matters is we don't do that anymore." He glanced at me, then away.

I turned to Dakota and he tried to meet my eyes but he dropped his gaze almost immediately. I looked over at Tara, mystified, and she shook her head side to side, very slightly.

"Right, then. So, what do you guys do-chess club?"

"Of course," said Grant.