“It’s not okay, Harper. Mrs. Carter in English didn’t recognize me either. That didn’t seem like such a big deal, but then on the way to lunch, Lucy McCarroll stopped to welcome me to Grove Academy.” She reached out, wrapping her fingers around my wrists, her grip tight enough to hurt. “It’s like I never existed.” Her voice wavered on the last word, and there was real panic in her eyes. I stood there, helpless, and wondered where the heck Ryan was. This was his spell, after all. Maybe there was something he could do, some way to—

“Be a real shame if a girl as fine as you didn’t exist,” Brandon practically leered, and Bee whirled on him.

“God, shut up, Brandon!” She was scared and hurt and frustrated, and I think she only meant to swat at Brandon’s shoulder, like she’d done a thousand times before. Trouble was, all those other times?

She wasn’t a Paladin.

Her hand connected with Brandon’s collarbone, and he went flying backward, tripping over his backpack and landing hard on the grass with a startled yell.

“Brandon!” she cried as I squawked, “Bee!”

If only a handful of people had been watching this scene play out before, I was now pretty sure that every single person in the courtyard was paying rapt attention to what had just happened. I could hear voices not even bothering to whisper. One very loudly asked, “Who is that girl?” and Bee visibly shuddered.

David stepped forward, offering a hand to Brandon, who shook it off with an irritated glare before rising to his feet. “What the hell, crazy chick?” he asked Bee, who could only shake her head, and stammer, “I—I didn’t mean to.”

“Whatever,” Brandon said with a dismissive wave of his hand. He was a good-looking guy, all blond hair and cutest-boy-on-the-basketball-team face, but in that moment, his expression was one of the ugliest things I’d ever seen. He brushed past Bee without a word, and when she took a step after him, I pulled her up short.

“Wait,” I told her. “We can... We’ll talk to Ryan, and—”

Luckily, Ryan was already walking over to us, Mary Beth trailing in his wake. “What’s going on?” he asked.

“It’s your sp—” I started, only to stop when I realized Mary Beth was right there. “Your spectacularly dumb friend upsetting Bee,” I covered as quickly as I could, then jerked my head toward the building. “Can we go inside and talk for a minute? All of us?”