Corey was the kind of guy that I’d never have crossed paths with at school. The party-boy, class-cutup jock. I would have worried, if our paths did cross, I’d become a source for his jokes, because of my stutter. In Corey’s case, I won’t say he wouldn’t have done it, but it would have been ignorance rather than cruelty, and he’d have stopped as soon as he saw that it upset me—or as soon as Daniel caught him and told him to cut it out.

“Ooh, I like Corey,” Liz piped up. “He’s super cute. Super funny, too. He’s not a genius, but I don’t mind that. Cute and funny is better. Plus, he was really sweet that time he wanted to know more about Greek myths, and I asked a ghost who’d been there and—”

“Is she still talking about Corey?” Derek cut in.

“Sorry,” Liz said, blushing. “But cute. And funny. And sweet. Not dead, too, though, which is a problem. Not that I wish he was…” She straightened and cleared her throat. “Okay, boy-gushing over. I’m back. And it’s not Corey, which is weird, because he’s definitely got cool powers and—” She made a face. “Back again. Ahem. It’s not Corey.”

“Who then?” I said.

“Victoria.”

“Tori? Seriously?”

“Exactly what I said. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with Tori…”

“Of course there’s nothing wrong with her,” I said.

“Nothing a frontal lobotomy couldn’t fix,” Derek said, and Rae snickered. I gave them both a look. Tori might have been the token “mean girl” at Lyle House, and I won’t say she turned out to be a misunderstood nice girl, but, as with most people, there was more to it than that. We’d become friends on the run, and while we weren’t quite as close these days—the Salmon Creek kids offered us both more suitable companions, in Maya for me and Hayley for her—we were still friends. Derek, as usual, was a different matter. He no more forgave Tori her trespasses against me than he did Rae.

When I gave them a look, Liz said, “It’s okay. I know Tori’s not always easy to get along with. And she is powerful—that witch and sorcerer combo means she kicks serious spell-casting butt. But, well, it’s not special, right? You’re just as powerful as a necromancer. Derek’s just as powerful as a werewolf. And the Salmon Creek kids are unique. So, why Tori?”

“Could you have misunderstood?”

“Maybe,” she said. “Is there another Victoria in the group? Someone new?”

I shook my head. “They keep telling us one of the other Salmon Creek kids showed powers and will be joining us, but nothing’s happened. It’s the exact same group it was from day one.”