Crash Course Read online

  That sounded all well and good, but something about having an instructor whose name I couldn’t even hear made me more than a little uncomfortable. I glanced around the room and found a number of my classmates also frowning.

  Good.

  But one of them ought to be on the hook for asking questions for a while. I was tired of being our class’s sacrificial goat.

  No one said anything, though. So I opened my mouth to try again—but this time, the headmistress answered before I got the question out.

  “As long as the information is in front of you, you’ll be able to remember it,” Ms. Gayle said as if she were finally only just bringing herself to relent enough to give us that much. Then she turned and wrote on the board behind the instructor’s desk.

  Parabiology

  Instructor: S—s.

  I couldn’t even make out the instructor’s name in writing. Only that it began and ended with an S, and in between, I imagined the whole thing simply including ssshhh.

  Underneath that, Ms. Gayle wrote Wraith.

  Huh. I clearly needed to learn more about wraiths. I picked up my pen and glanced down at my notebook, only to discover that I had already written the word down at some point. I glanced around the room.

  Did someone tell us this before?

  I shook my head and set my pen down again.

  “All the course assignments will be uploaded to the campus intraweb, so there will be no excuse for forgetting to do your homework,” Ms. Gayle announced. “I expect you to take this chance, however, to learn to see around the wraith’s usual defenses. Working with Ms. Shhh will give you the opportunity to overcome those defenses, to learn to see beyond what is being presented to you. I expect you to take advantage of such a rare opportunity.”

  I shook my head. Rare opportunity?

  I stared at her again, but my gaze continued to slip off of her.

  I turned to Angelica again. “Why is this a rare opportunity?” I asked.

  She leaned in close. “Most of the wraith belong to the Lusus Naturae.”

  I stifled a gasp.

  I had known there was something off about this strange woman in front of me.

  Most of them belonged to the Lusus Naturae. I shuddered at the thought of it.

  Whatever they were.

  My gaze traveled up to the board behind Ms. Gayle’s head.

  Wraith.

  I almost remembered someone saying the word before. If only I could remember where I’d heard it.

  Anyway, she was definitely going to be an interesting addition to the campus. If only I could figure out what she looked like. Or remember her name.

  I glanced down at my notebook in front of me.

  Or, for that matter, remember what she was—and who had told me the word wraith so that I would have even known to write it down.

  Chapter 3

  My head was spinning by the time I left that class. I’d finally managed to get a handle on the idea that my instructor was a wraith—but it was like only a finite amount of information about her could exist in my mind. I’d figured out what she was, but I’d forgotten what she looked like.

  At first, I thought I was going to have an easier time with the second instructor Ms. Gayle introduced us to. Though I wasn’t entirely certain why we first-years were the ones who got all the new instructors. Maybe because they didn’t know much about teaching?

  Anyway, in the third class, Ms. Gayle was waiting again. This time, at least, I recognized that she was standing up there with a new instructor. Though honestly, in some ways, this man wasn’t much more memorable than the instructor in parabiology.

  I had finally managed to remember that instructor existed by focusing on my memory of Ms. Gayle’s introduction of her. I was determined to find ways around whatever it was that made me forget her.

  “Hello, again, class,” Ms. Gayle said when she opened psychics class. “This is Mr. Meriwether. He’ll be teaching your psychics class this year and your advanced psychics classes next year.”

  So much for my assumption about him only teaching the lower levels.

  “As for the rest of your schedule,” she continued, “Mr. Jamison will be teaching magics class for the rest of the semester. Mr. Ren will take over seventh-period Hunters’ History, and Ms. Stover, the librarian, will be presiding over your sixth-period study hall so she can help you prepare for this semester’s heavier course-load.”

  Mr. Meriwether stood up and wrote his name on the board. I was half-relieved to be able to read it and pronounce it in my mind.

  He turned back around to face us. He wore khaki pants and a long-sleeved, blue oxford cloth button-down, with a red and blue bowtie. I suspected normal ties were too long for him because he was very short. He couldn’t have been any taller than I was—5’5” on the days I was being honest—though he wasn’t as short as Mr. Jamison, who didn’t even hit 5’.

  Mr. Meriwether had a round, cherubic face, pink cheeks, and a shock of white hair.

  The hair doesn’t match the babyface.

  As I was thinking that, he turned around, scanned the class, and then nodded to me when he made eye contact. “Thank you very much, Miss...” he paused long enough to squint at me for a second. “Ah, yes, Ms. Deluca. I appreciate knowing how my students perceive me.”

  My stomach sank to somewhere around my toes.

  The new psychics teacher could read my mind.

  This was not good.

  Mr. Meriwether grinned at me. “Yep. Especially when you broadcast like that,” he added.

  I glanced around the rest of my class, horrified. Was he the only one who could hear me? Or were my classmates listening to me all the time?

  “Probably only me at the moment.” Mr. Meriwether moved to pick up a roll sheet from the desk.

  A few of my classmates tittered.

  My face flamed, probably turning a bright, hot red—the kind you can only get if you are very, very fair. Every time I got embarrassed, I cursed my blonde hair and gray eyes.

  I glanced up and made accidental eye contact with Ms. Gayle. She looked pleased with herself, and for an instant, I wondered if she had brought Mr. Meriwether to campus on purpose to taunt me.

  Now you’re being paranoid, Kacie.

  Still, I couldn’t help but worry. Doubly so when I saw Mr. Meriwether hide a grin.

  As Mr. Meriwether called roll, I was glad to see that I wasn’t the only student he could read easily. He didn’t even have to wait for most students to respond before he pinned them down with his bright, sparkling-champagne eyes.

  “I see you have everything in hand,” Ms. Gayle said to him. “I will leave you to it. Please let me know if you need anything.”

  He nodded and as she left the classroom, I could hear her heels clacking away down the marble-tiled floor.

  Great. One instructor I couldn’t hold in my head, and another one I couldn’t block out.

  This is going to be an interesting semester, for sure.

  I didn’t know the half of it that point.

  MY SECOND CLASS, THE one in between parabiology and psychics, was Chemistry for Defense, and it had been exactly like it was last semester. We were still learning from Dr. Qazi how to create chemical reactions in order to blow up bad guys.

  It was becoming one of my favorite subjects. It was straightforward and predictable and didn’t include disappearing instructors or white-haired mind-readers.

  The rest of the class-day was much less stressful. There were no further changes in instruction announced, so at least I knew what to expect.

  After lunch, I had magics with Mr. Jamison, who already believed my control over what magic I might have was negligible, at best.

  At the beginning of the semester, I had, however, been moved up to a self-defense class from my Hand-to-Hand for Beginners class. I guess participating in taking down Shane and the evil Santa demon had gotten me some credit for not being entirely useless. Which was good, because I had begun to wonder if they were regretting
bringing me to the Hunters’ Academy.

  We met with Mr. Ren in the library during study hall. As much as I hated to actually do my homework in there, I spent that afternoon working so I wouldn’t have to worry about classes during my date. That’s what I told myself, anyway. I was mostly trying to distract myself, though.

  I did, however, keep getting distracted from my distraction by the thought of that date.

  “Psst.” Angelica waved a hand in front of my face from her seat next to me at the library table. “Feeling extra-studious today?”

  “Nah. Just trying to get a little ahead.”

  Her face wrinkled up. “It’s Friday. You don’t have to think about homework again until...well, Saturday, if you’re as behind as I am.”

  I debated how much to tell her. I’d spent years in migraine-hell, unable to participate in most social activities because of my tendency to suddenly go blind and collapse in pain. I had completely missed out on the part of life where you learn how to hang out with girlfriends. So I pretty much always felt awkward and weird.

  Honestly? I kind of liked hanging out with my speechless, panther-form hunting partner. At least he wouldn’t tell me if I was being an idiot.

  Though to be fair, Angelica never had accused me of being a dimwit, either.

  I inhaled. I could tell her. Right?

  “I have a date with Tony tonight, and I’m trying not to think about it.” The words all came out in a rush.

  “Ooh!” Angelica made a noise that started out like a teenage girl’s squeal and ended up sounding something like a horse’s whinny. She covered her mouth and closed her eyes in embarrassment. “Sorry about that.”

  “No big.” I shrugged. I probably should have said something more comforting, but by the time I thought of it, she had already forged ahead in our conversation.

  “Tony Eckles is so hot,” she whispered.

  I grinned. “He’s definitely cute. He’s got that dimple in one cheek.”

  “And those beautiful blue eyes,” she sighed, clasping her hands and hugging her arms into herself. “Is it true that the two of you went out over winter break? When you were like the only people here? And that Souji was furious over it and Tony threatened to kill him with magic?”

  Oh, wow. People had been talking about me more than I expected.

  “I can’t believe you waited this long to ask me about it,” I said.

  Angelica’s eyes grew wide and she shook her head. “No way. You are so super private, I figured you’d tell me when you were ready.”

  So maybe I wasn’t the only one who didn’t know exactly how to act around my peers? I shook my head. “Tony and I decorated the commons room together. That’s all. And then everybody helped send the Santa demon back to his own dimension.”

  “Did Souji and Tony get in a fight?” She leaned in close to me, whispering.

  “Not exactly.” The next part was the weirdest bit, as far as I was concerned, and this was the first time I’d actually talked about it since then. “On Christmas day, everybody was in the commons room—everybody but Souji—and Tony brought some apple cider over to me. Souji came in and snarled at Tony, and Tony pulled up some power and was holding it, and they...just had a kind of stand-off, right there in the commons room.”

  “That is so romantic.”

  “It was more strange. And kind of scary.”

  “Yeah, but two men, ready to fight over you.”

  My head-shake was almost frantic as I willed her to understand. “I don’t want that. We have enough fighting in our world. We can’t afford to fight each other.” I couldn’t explain to her how deeply I believed that or even why I was so certain it was true.

  “Yeah, but for love,” she sighed.

  “Nobody’s in love with anybody else,” I snapped.

  Angelica startled and sat up straight. “I’m sorry,” she said, her mouth tightening as she fought back hurt feelings.

  “No, I’m sorry.” I tried to soften my tone. “It’s just that I barely know either of them. Souji’s my hunting partner and Tony...is just some guy who asked me to hang out with him in the commons room over the holiday.” I shrugged. “Whatever that standoff was, it felt like it was more about them than about me, you know? Like they were being all testosterone-y and it barely even mattered that it was me they were snarling over.”

  “So how did it end?” I was glad she was still asking questions—I thought that meant she wasn’t mad at me for getting snippy with her.

  “I told them to stop being ridiculous. Then I stood up and went to get a cookie off the dessert tray. By the time I got back, they’d stopped.”

  Angelica threw her head back and laughed. “So you basically just stopped their fight in its tracks?”

  “I guess so.”

  “You out-badassed them.”

  I blinked. “I did?”

  “That’s what it sounds like to me. They weren’t wearing any Santa hats, right?”

  I rolled my eyes. “You’re not funny.”

  “But you are a badass.”

  I started to respond, but Ms. Stover walked by and tapped the table, a quiet reminder that we weren’t supposed to be talking during study hall.

  I spent the rest of the class period considering what Angelica had said. I hadn’t really thought about how I’d gotten my partner and my...whatever Tony was...to quit their stand-off. I just had.

  But even if I had “out-badassed” them, as Angelica said, I’d spent the rest of the time since then avoiding both of them as much as possible. So I’d chickened out on any residual badassery.

  I sighed.

  If I was going to keep seeing Tony, I would eventually have to deal with Souji.

  But I wouldn’t know about Tony until I spent more time with him.

  And that’s what tonight’s date was about.

  A thrill ran through my stomach, and I bent my head over my homework, determined to try to distract myself again.

  It still didn’t work very well.

  Chapter 4

  By the time I hit Hunters’ History, the last class of the day, everyone was whispering about the fact that the new parabiology teacher—the one I could only barely remember anything about—used to be a member of the Lusus Naturae.

  No one seemed to know where the rumor had come from, but apparently, that was par for the course for a wraith, a term I had found written down in my notebook from first period. I didn’t remember putting it there, but it was in my handwriting, and it all fit what I had read in my parabiology book over lunch about wraiths wiping the memory of their existence from other races’ minds without, as the chapter said, “great study and much practice.” In fact, about a quarter of the students I overheard discussing her were saying things like, “There’s a new parabiology teacher?”—even some who had been in class with me that morning.

  I wondered why Ms. Gayle had hired her to be an instructor—especially if she really was a former Lusus Naturae. It seemed like that, combined with the students’ inability to even remember her, would be seriously detrimental to her ability to teach.

  But maybe the constant gossiping about her would help everyone remember her.

  I did have to wonder if maybe her hiring had something to do with Mr. Ren’s decision to assign the first chapter on the history of the Lusus Naturae as weekend homework, though.

  After classes, I headed straight back to my room. I was sure that Angelica would tell people I had a date with Tony, and the last thing I wanted to do was face that gauntlet.

  I might even skip dinner tonight.

  But only because I’d been to the grocery store in town the weekend before and had a brand-new box of cereal tucked away in my closet. It wasn’t like I’d starve or anything. Assuming I wasn’t too nervous about my upcoming date to eat.

  Get over yourself, Kacie.

  I threw myself down on my bed and closed my eyes to practice the meditation techniques Coach Packwood had been teaching us.

  The next thing I knew, my al
arm was going off—the one I kept set so I wouldn’t forget to go to dinner in the evenings—and I spent the next hour getting ready for my date.

  AT FILM CLUB THAT NIGHT, we watched a teen romantic comedy from the 1980s. I had a hard time focusing on the on-screen shenanigans, though. Instead, I kept thinking that all their problems would have been dealt with instantly if only they’d had cell phones and could have gotten in touch with each other.

  Tony spent the whole time holding my hand in both of his, turning it around and over. So I was distracted, to say the least.

  I still wasn’t entirely sure what I thought of him—we barely knew each other—but I liked the warmth of his fingers on mine and the fact that he wanted to hold my hand in the first place.

  Anyway, that’s what dates were for, right? To get to know each other. And I wasn’t ready for this one to be over when the movie ended. As we walked out of the library, I gave his hand a little tug. “I’m not ready to go home yet. Want to do something else?”

  “Sure,” he said. “Where do you want to go?”

  I considered. The only places open this late were the coffee shop diner, where most of the underclassmen who weren’t already in their own rooms would be, and the Rathskeller pub, a basement bar and grill where the older students and sometimes faculty tended to hang out in the evenings.

  Neither place appealed to me. One was too full of my classmates, the other too full of Tony’s. And either would set off the gossip-mongers.

  It was cold outside, but the night was still, with bright moonlight shining down on us. The faculty had strengthened the wards around the grounds after the Santa demon’s imp had gotten onto campus over the break, so I was sure it was safer than it had been in years, as long as we stayed inside the warding circle.

  “Let’s go for a walk,” I said.

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  We turned and headed around the buildings, the opposite way from the dorms, following the paths that meandered around the campus.