Possess

today?”
    “Dude,” Brad asked. “Are you okay?”
    “Perfectly well, thank you.”
    Brad looked to Hector, who just shook his head, and then to Bridget. “Liu, what’s going on with him?”
    “I’m sorry,” Peter said, dropping his spork to his tray. He turned his head from side to side, looking straight through Bridget as if he didn’t see her at all. “To whom are you speaking?”
    Brad pulled his head back. “Are you serious?”
    “Oh, come on, Peter!” Hector threw his hands in the air.
    Peter turned his cold stare on Hector, as if threatening him as next on the ignore list. “I don’t know what you’re talking—”
    “Would you knock it off?” Hector barked. “You’re creeping me out. We all know you’re pissed at Bridge, but get over it, okay?”
    “He’s pissed at Liu?” Brad asked.
    She so did not want this topic of conversation resurrected. Bridget bolted to her feet and whisked her tray with its half-eaten sandwich off the table. “Guys, I’ve . . . um . . . got to go check on my . . . er . . . choir music for rehearsal.”
    “Huh?” Hector said.
    “Yeah.” She shoved the contents of her tray into the nearby trash can and grabbed her backpack. “See you later.”
    Bridget dodged small packs of students eating in the hallway as she hurried away from the cafeteria. Freshmen, mostly. They sat huddled together on the floor, laughing and joking without a care in the world. Bastards.
    Her excuse to bail on lunch was total crap, but with fifteen minutes left before the warning bell, she needed something to do with her time. Going over her music for the upcoming show choir winter concert was as good an excuse as any, and maybe it would keep her mind off . . . everything. Bridget turned a corner, thankful the hall was free from giggling freshmen, grabbed her music notebook from her backpack, and plopped down on the floor to study.
    She only made it a page into Mozart’s “Ave verum corpus” before a shadow passed in front of the light. Bridget glanced up to find the deep green eyes and snarling smile of Alexa Darlington towering above her.
    “Well, if it isn’t Bridget Liu.”
    Bridget leaned her head back against the row of lockers. She so wasn’t in the mood. “What do you want, Alexa?”
    “With you?” Alexa sneered. “Nothing.”
    Bridget casually returned to her music notebook. “Then piss off, okay? I’ve got work to do.”
    “I just think it’s interesting that you’re picking up my hand-me-downs now. That’s all.”
    “What?”
    Alexa took a step back and folded her arms across her chest. “You asked Matt Quinn to the Winter Formal, didn’t you?”
    “I didn’t ask —”
    “So I think it’s funny.” Alexa barreled on. “I mean, I always knew you were jealous of me. Just didn’t think you’d go so far as to steal my—”
    Okay. That’s it. Bridget shot to her feet. “Jealous of you? Are you kidding me?”
    Alexa laughed, light and airy. “Duh. Ever since you assaulted me back in the sixth grade. Sister Ursula said you hit me because you were jealous.”
    Bridget hated Sister Ursula, their old principal at St. Cecilia’s, almost as much as she hated Alexa.
    “You should thank me, really,” Alexa said with a thin smile.
    “Thank you?”
    “Sister Ursula wanted to expel you, but I told my father that I forgave you so they let you stay.”
    Getting expelled from St. Cecilia’s would have been the single greatest day of Bridget’s life. “I’m supposed to thank you for that?”
    Alexa ignored her. “And now I guess I’m returning the favor.”
    “Huh?”
    “I should thank you for getting Matt Quinn out of my hair.”
    “Out of your hair?”
    Alexa shook her crown of red ringlets as if to emphasize her point. “Matt’s just never gotten over our breakup. He can’t seem to let me go.”
    All right. Time to stop the crazy train. “Really? Because from what I saw, he totally ditched you after school the other day to take me home.”
    “Is that what you think happened?”
    Bridget took a step toward Alexa. “That’s what I know happened. And in front of your little posse of sycophants. That must have sucked for you.”
    “I don’t know what you’re—”
    “ Sy-co-phants . I know, big words are hard for you. Sound it out and maybe Daddy will tell you what it means later.”
    Bridget felt the momentum swing her way, but Alexa wasn’t about to back down.
    “I guess it makes sense that you’d want to date Matt,” Alexa said,