Bree gaped at me. Closed her mouth. Gaped again, then decided to take a sip of pop. “You’re serious, aren’t you?” she said finally, looking floored. “You? In the ocean?”

I grinned.

“Andi, that’s… wow!” She laughed, sounding relieved. “Wait. Swimming or… ‘swimming?’ ” she asked with an eyebrow waggle that made me scream and laugh, a flush rushing to my face. Anything that might have been left from the strange rift between us was closed. It was so good to have my good old Bree back.

“Swimming-swimming!” I whispered, exasperated but endeared.

She laughed, but studied me for a moment, wonderment in her eyes. “I don’t know, if he seriously got you over your hydrophobia, he’s something else… I don’t suppose he’s actually some kind of angel?” she teased.

I looked away quickly but couldn’t stop grinning. Close, Bree, but no cigar.

The bell shrieked before she could press me for more, and I sighed heavily in reply. It was time for my least favorite class of the day. I’d long given up hope that Mr. Cho would return to rescue third period any time soon. The best I could wish for was the principal realizing the epic levels of Ms. Epistola’s awfulness and kicking her vapid butt to the curb before she wrecked our GPAs for all eternity.

And of course I was right, when we arrived, Mr. Cho wasn’t there.

But neither was Ms. Epistola.

And for that matter, neither was Vik.

It took me a few minutes to realize anything was amiss while I was distracted by my reunion with Riley at our desks, but Bree’s lingering look at Vik’s empty seat beside her told me enough.

No Epistola and no Vik with no explanation? Bree must have been wondering the same thing that was in my mind: was there a connection here? There had to be, with how much Ms. Epistola had wormed her way into Vik’s life. Riley, too, looked as though he were in deep contemplation.

Without a teacher, the classroom erupted into chaos. The principal, Mr. Pence, showed up and tried to disperse the bedlam of our unwatched class. “Everyone,” he shouted futilely into the cacophony of gossip, games and texting, “remain quiet! A lack of teacher is no reason to act like undisciplined delinquents!”

There was no response, and after five minutes, Mr. Pence surrendered to the classroom’s madness, started up Finding Nemo and slammed the door, presumably leaving to pour himself a hard drink and wonder how he got stuck with a post at Portsmouth High.

“You know,” said Bree wryly as we watched CGI sharks darting after two tiny CGI fish, “I think I’m learning more about marine biology from this movie than I have from Ms. Epistola all year.”

~*~*~*~