Chapter 1
Jimmy Choo stilettos click-clacked down the tiled hallway. Scarlet nails carefully twirled the combination out on her lock. As she reached into it for her books, a charm bracelet glinted on her wrist. Amber eyes sparkled as she touched up her lip gloss in the mirror. Massie Block was ready to take on the school and win. Just like she did every day.
"Hey! Massie! Wait up!" Massie's best friend and loyal sidekick, Claire Lyons, caught up to her.
"Hey Claire. What's up?" Massie asked, smiling.
"Just wanted to wish you good luck on the Latin exam today. It's evil." Claire said, before running off to her locker.
Wait. Back up. I have a Latin exam today?? Massie panicked for a moment until her calm alpha side took control. It was just another test-she was going to ace it as usual.
* * *
In a very different room at BOCD High, bitten-down nails tapped on the keyboard of an ancient but trusted Dell laptop. "C'mon, load. Don't let me down!" Dark brown eyes flashed from behind a curtain of hair roughly the color of maple syrup. A ridiculously huge and incredibly geeky watch reflected the fluorescent lights into the eyes of anyone who looked too closely. Adrian North was not to be bothered.
"Hey! Adrian!" Adrian's friend, Logan Matthews, ran-well, more like stumbled under the weight of his overstuffed backpack-into the room. Adrian turned.
"Morning," he said, in his usual icy voice. Adrian was an island of his own, floating further and further away from the mainland of BOCD High every day.
"I just wanted you to help me with my Latin-there's an exam and I think I'm going to fail and my parents are going to cut me out of the trust fund if I fail and-" Logan was cut off when Adrian held up one long thin finger.
"One moment. I just need to –aha!" Adrian grinned as the program began running on his laptop. The program-written by Adrian himself-was a virtual T-Rex dancing the flutterwagon.
"What the hell is that??" Logan asked, looking over Adrian's left shoulder.
"It's the flutterwagon. From Alice in Wonderland??"
"Oh. I haven't seen the new one yet…" Logan said, pulling a sheaf of dog-eared flashcards with Latin vocabulary on them out of his backpack. "So…will you quiz me?" Logan handed Adrian the flashcards. Adrian sighed. As much as he hated being distracted from his work, Logan was his best friend…
* * *
Massie drummed her fingers on the surface of her desk as her Latin teacher began to walk around the room passing out tests. Please don't let me fail, please don't let me fail…
A test landed on Massie's desk and she looked at it. The vocabulary translations all seemed like gobledeegook and she had absolutely no idea how to conjugate video, videre in the present tense. Massie shut her eyes and breathed for a minute. When she opened them again, she grabbed her purple pen and began the test…
* * *
Adrian was once again working on his program, changing the T-Rex into a velociraptor that would also make weird cat-like noises while it danced, and adding on top a sign that said "The Frabjous Day is upon us!".
"How was the test?" Logan asked, taking a bite of his pizza.
"Like all others-ridiculously easy." Adrian said, tapping the keys of his laptop.
"Hey, Adrian, are you going to finish those fries?" Logan asked, eyeing Adrian's cheese fries hungrily.
"No. Knock yourself out." Adrian pushed the plate of fries towards Logan.
"Thanks man, I have hockey practice today and I'm starving."
Adrian sighed and pulled out a pack of Five gum (the wintergreen kind). He tossed a piece to Logan, and began chewing one of his own.
