His eyes held mine for a second, then tilted upward. “Your hair is different.”

“What?” I touched my hair self-consciously. “Different bad?”

“It was black yesterday. It’s brown now.”

“Oh. Oh yeah, I uh . . . it was a temporary dye. I washed it out.”

I silently patted myself on the back for this quick thinking.

“It looks better,” he said.

Excuse me?

“Was something wrong with it before?” I propped my hand on my hip.

He looked amused by my pose, and I was suddenly unsure of how to stand or where to put my hands.

“It’s just better now, that’s all,” he said, smiling.

I felt a heat creep into my cheeks, and I knew it meant my human face was turning all red under Dexter’s gaze.

“So, you’re going to All Hours after school?” he asked.

“Yes,” I said, and Reg said, “No.”

Another eyeball conversation.

Reg, I thought you wanted to smell coffee.

I thought you weren’t interested in human boys.

I hate you.

Reg winked at me and then said to the group, “We’d love to. Thanks.”

Ten

One Down, Two to Go

Two things were waiting for us outside school at the end of the day, and I didn’t know which repelled me more. At the bottom of the front steps, to the right, our new acquaintances stood chatting. I’d had all day to reconsider our decision to hang out after school, and I was now convinced it was a total waste of time. Sure, we needed to be on our best behavior if we wanted the Elders to hear our appeal, but we didn’t need to get chummy with the locals. It would just make things super awkward when they went back to being food.

I swung my gaze to the left, where another unpleasant sight was parked. Sal’s filthy gray pickup coughed and growled from the unmuffled undercarriage. Sometimes it belched out a little puff of smoke, just in case the noise alone wasn’t drawing enough attention. I could not recall ever having parents, but I imagined this is what it felt like when they embarrassed you.

Sal himself leaned out the driver’s-side window, craning his neck in every direction. Finally, he spotted me glowering from the top of the steps and waved me down. I glanced once more at Poe, Dexter, and the twins, letting my eyes linger longer on Dexter than the rest. Then I tried to ignore the group watching me as I walked to the pickup.

“What are you thinking, coming here?” I demanded. “So much for keeping a low prof—”

“This came for you,” Sal interrupted.

He lifted a slim white envelope up to my face, as if he could physically stop my talking.

“Is that—”

“Appears so.”

“But it’s so soon.”

“That’s not unusual.”