Page 93 of That Pucking New Girl

I can’t tell if he’s coming from or going to practice, and I frankly don’t care enough to ask.

“No,” I whisper. Ugh, words suck right now. “I need water and someone pissed in my bottle.”

“No…are you fucking serious?” he squawks, making me roll my eyes. Of all the things that have happened to me today, that is pretty low on the list.

“Hey!” A loud, slightly accented voice pulls my attention away and I smile weakly as I see Ignacio crossing the lawn. The truck door is wide open, and Liliana gets out from behind the steering wheel with puffy, tear stained eyes.

“I’m so sorry,” I whisper.

“Get away from her,” Ignacio says, ignoring my words. “You fuckers can’t seem to catch a clue. That was her private fucking information, come mierda!”

Oh, so they know some of what happened. I’m not sure what’s worse: having to explain it all, or their half knowledge of today’s events.

“I don’t know anything about it!” Draven yells back, his hands wide. “Are you going to pick a goddamned fight about it?”

“Thanks for the invite,” Ignacio mutters, smashing his fist into Draven’s face.

“Woah, Nacio!” Lili says, running toward him and jumping on his back. Her arm wraps around his throat and she presses her lips against his ear to hiss something.

“Guys,” I say, feeling myself begin to fall.

Someone dives in my direction, barely catching me before the lights go out.

CHAPTER

TWENTY-THREE

DRAVEN

Carefully laying Noor down on the ground, I raise my hands up in Nacio’s direction.

“I didn’t want her to hit her head on the ground, man,” I murmur.

Scowling, he stalks over to me. Noor’s other foster mother drops from his back, her gaze worried and stressed.

“I need to raise her feet,” she mutters, dropping to her knees. Her intense gaze makes me cringe as she raises Noor’s legs up toward the sky, while keeping her back on the ground.

“No one knew where she was all day,” Nacio growls. “We’ve been checking the woods, the cliffs, everywhere for her since school let out and she didn’t come out.”

“We saw that her backpack was on the move and came back to the school,” her foster mom says.

“Lili,” Nacio grunts, his hand moving to easily hold up Noor’s ankles from his position. His hand is fucking huge.

“We aren’t gutting the kid in the school yard,” Lili says, shrugging. I swear it’s as if she can look into my soul as she glares at me. Her dark hair is pulled onto a bun at the top of her head and she’s wearing work out gear.

Instead of it making her look like a Stepford workout Barbie, she looks dangerous. Lili could probably outrun me, despite the morning runs I do before school. This woman fucking scares me.

“I, ah, have to get to practice,” I say, my voice cracking as I stand.

“Did you really have nothing to do with this?” Lili asks, following my movements as she stands.

I shake my head, because I really didn’t. Alastair mentioned that Ciaran had been acting weird, but I had no idea he was doing this. He’s the only one who could have access to the information the flyer had. I did get my hands on one before the end of school, and I have to admit this was a low fucking blow.

“I swear,” I say. “Look, just so you know… Someone pissed in her water bottle. She complained of being thirsty and discovered something was wrong with her water. I don’t think she’s had much to drink all day.”

“Shit,” Lili grunts. “That explains part of why she’s like this. I’ve never seen her actually pass out. I’ve just heard about it.”

Since I have seen Twinkles pass out, I wisely keep my mouth shut.