Nick cleared his throat. “I know. I’m sorry. I’ll catch up.”

His teacher studied him, and Nick told himself not to look away. Finally, Dr. Cutter clapped him on the shoulder. “I’ll let you do a retake. Friday?”

This was a pity move. Nick knew it, and pride was pricking at him to refuse. Like with his brothers, Dr. Cutter was judging him on what he expected from Nick. But this was an AP class, and his performance here might carry a lot of weight when colleges started dishing out funds.

He told his pride to stick it. “That would be great. Thank you.”

AP Calculus wasn’t much better. Nick had completely forgotten to do the homework. Three questions—three stupid questions! —but he’d never gotten around to opening his assignment book last night, so he hadn’t bothered to do them.

He mentally added another zero to his imaginary grade sheet. At least this was only homework.

By the time he sat at a table at lunch, he was ready for some cutlery, just so he could stab something.

Lunch was pizza. Figured. Not even so much as a plastic fork.

A tray dropped onto the table beside him. Four slices of pizza and a coke. The air told him it was Gabriel before his eyes did. His twin dropped onto the bench. “What’s with you?”

They hadn’t seen each other all morning, but Gabriel could always read his moods like Nick had a news crawl embedded in his forehead.

“Failed a physics test,” Nick said.

“You know how I solve that problem?” said his twin. “I don’t take physics.”

“Hilarious. Where’s Hunter?”

“Working on a research project. I was starving.” He popped the cap on the soda. “You look like shit.”

“Wow, I’m glad you sat down.”

“Hunter said you snuck Quinn in last night. I’m guessing you didn’t get much sleep.”

Nick shrugged, keeping his eyes on his food, torn between defending Quinn’s honor and keeping his own secrets. Then again, she wasn’t exactly making a strong case for her own chastity.

“She needed a place to crash.” Nick hesitated. “Tyler’s hassling her.” He repeated everything that Quinn had told him last night.

Gabriel listened, stacking two slices of pizza to eat them at the same time. “What was she doing behind the 7-Eleven?”

“She won’t tell me.” Nick kept rolling it around in his head. Had she been so upset over Tyler? Or had something happened at home?

“Nicky, you need to ditch this girl.”

“Why?”

“Because she’s nothing but drama. You don’t need that.”

Nick glared at him. “I think I can manage.”

“Jesus, don’t bite my head off. I’m just trying to save you the trouble. We have enough drama.”

He didn’t need a reminder of that. Nick picked up his slice of pizza to spare himself the need to say anything.