Marked

master and the fencer will be at a permanent and serious disadvantage.”
    "Okay, I'll remember,” I said. Dragon smiled warmly again before he moved off to work his way among each practicing pair.
    "What he means is don't get discouraged or bored if I make you do the same exercise over and over.”
    "So what you're really saying is that you're going to be annoying, but there's a purpose behind it?”
    "Yep. And part of that purpose will help lift that cute little butt of yours,” he said sassily, tapping me with the side of his foil.
    I slapped at him and rolled my eyes, but after twenty minutes of lunging and settling back into the beginning stance and lunging― over and over again―I knew he was right. My butt would be killing me tomorrow.
    We took quick showers after class (thankfully, there were separate curtain-draped stalls for each of us in the girls' locker room and we didn't have to barbarically and tragically shower in a huge open area like we were prison inmates or whatever) and then I hurried with the rest of the crowd to the lunch room―better known as the dining hall. And I do mean hurry. I was starving.
    Lunch was a huge build-your-own salad buffet, which included everything from tuna salad (eesh) to those weird mini-corns that are so confusing, and don't even taste like corn. (What exactly are they? Baby corn? Midget corn? Mutant corn?) I piled my plate high and got a big hunk of what looked and smelled like freshly baked bread, and slid into the booth beside Stevie Rae, with Damien following close behind me. Erin and Shaunee were already arguing over something to do with whose essay for their Lit class was better, even though they'd both gotten 96 on their papers.
    "So, Zoey, give. What about Erik Night?" Stevie Rae asked the instant I'd forked a big bite of salad into my mouth. Stevie Rae's words immediately shut up the Twins and focused the entire table's attention on me.
    I'd thought about what I was going to say about Erik, and decided that I wasn't ready to tell anyone about the unfortunate blow-job scene. So I just said, "He kept looking at me." When they frowned at me I realized that through my salad mouth what I'd really said was "He keffft looookn at mmm." I swallowed and tried again. "He kept looking at me. In Drama class. It was just, I dunno, confusing.”
    "Define 'looking at me’," Damien said.
    "Well, it happened the second he came into class, but it was especially noticeable when he was giving us an example of a monologue. He did this thing from Othello, and when he said the line about love and such, he stared straight at me. I would have thought it was just an accident or something, but he looked at me before he started the monologue, and then again as he was leaving the room." I sighed and squirmed a little, uncomfortable with their way too piercing looks. "Never mind. It was probably just part of his act.”
    "Erik Night is the hottest damn thing at this entire school," Shaunee said.
    "Forget that―he's the hottest damn thing on this planet," Erin said.
    "He's not hotter than Kenny Chesney," Stevie Rae said quickly.
    "Okay, just please with your country obsession!" Shaunee frowned at Stevie Rae before turning her attention back to me. "Do not let this opportunity pass you by.”
    "Yeah," Erin echoed. "Do not.”
    "Pass me by? What am I supposed to do? He didn't even say anything to me.”
    "Uh, Zoey honey, did you smile back at the boy?" Damien asked.
    I blinked. Had I smiled back at him? Ah, crap. I bet I hadn't. I bet I just sat there and stared like a moron and maybe even drooled. Okay, well, I might not have drooled, but still. "I dunno," I said instead of the sad truth, which didn't fool Damien at all.
    He snorted. "Next time smile at him.”
    "And maybe say hi," Stevie Rae said.
    "I thought Erik was a just pretty face," Shaunee said. "And body," Erin added.
    "Until he dumped Aphrodite," Shaunee continued. "When he did that I realized the boy might have something going on upstairs."
    "We can already tell he has it going on downstairs!" Erin said, waggling her eyebrows.
    "Uh-huh!" Shaunee said, licking her lips like she was contemplating eating a big piece of chocolate.
    "You two are gross," Damien said.
    "We only meant that he has the cutest butt in town, Miss Priss," Shaunee said.
    "As if you haven't noticed," Erin said.
    "If you started talking to Erik it would really piss off Aphrodite." Stevie Rae said.
    Everyone turned and stared at Stevie Rae as if she'd just