Charles looks over and smiles at Nyx before he readjusts to throw his third knife, and her eyes smile back so subtly that if I weren’t watching her closely, I would have missed it. Emily gives Ben that look all the time when she’s trying to keep a smile off her face in front of a teacher. Which makes me wonder if Charles and Nyx are a couple. Then Charles releases his knife and it zips through the air with a crisp buzzing sound, like a loud fly. It lands in the farthest target an inch away from the X.

When my gaze returns to Messer, I’m startled to find her watching me.

“By the look on your face, you think you can do better,” she says like it’s a statement of fact and not a question.

My eyes momentarily widen. I can practically feel Layla radiating tension next to me about my inability to act normal.

“Well?” Messer says.

I clear my throat. “Better than their third shots? Yeah, definitely,” I say, and the whole class turns to look at me.

Aarya smirks. “I would love to see this,” she says, then covers her comment with a cough as Messer gives her a stern look.

Charles locks me in his gaze. “We welcome the challenge,” he says. He reminds me of this hipster I dated for a split second last year before I realized he was never going to like me more than he liked his hair.

By the way Charles and Brendan look at me, I can tell they don’t welcome the challenge one bit.

Messer is holding out three knives, but Brendan doesn’t move and I have to step awkwardly around him to take them. Maybe there’s a fine line between sadness and anger, or maybe I just don’t like bullies, but suddenly all my emotions from the past twenty-four hours are directed at beating these two.

I make eye contact with Brendan. “Well, I was going to go easy on you to make you feel better. But now I think I won’t,” I say.

I glance at Layla, who looks like she can’t decide if she’s horrified by my comment or relieved that I’m not weepy.

Charles scoffs and I turn toward the target. I hold my first knife up, pull back, and let it soar. It knocks Brendan’s knife right off the target.

“Oops,” I say. “Let’s try that again. Maybe I’m just stiff.”

I bounce on my toes and shake out my body. I pull back my arm and send the next knife flying. This one knocks Charles’s knife clean off the second target. There are a few whispered comments behind me, but they’re too quiet to make out the words.