Had Asha completely lost it? Coming here was bad enough, but impersonating Nitya and her cousin was begging for trouble. Not that Asha cared. She’d known this was Nitya’s school, and she’d brought Tanvi here, anyway.

It felt like a bad dream—except she couldn’t just cram it into a vial.

“Can’t wait to see your portfolio today,” Mai said. “I’m so glad I don’t have to share mine until next week.”

Tanvi made a strangled sound.

Mai laughed. “Oh, you’re always too hard on yourself. Your photography is amazing, and you know it.”

Another bell rang. “We’re going to be late!” the boy said.

“I thought going to an arts school was supposed to mean less work,” someone else complained.

“Not in Collins’s class . . .”

“Well, we can’t all be good at everything like Nitya,” Mai teased.

Wishing she could stuff Asha inside one of the lockers, Tanvi forced a smile. Nitya must have arrived by now, too. The last thing Tanvi needed was for everyone to see them together.

She had to get out of here.

Asha, of course, was too busy telling some joke to catch Tanvi’s murderous stare.

A few of the students, including Mai, herded Tanvi and Asha into a classroom with charts of the periodic table on the cinderblock walls. Before Tanvi knew what was happening, she was squashed into a chair with an attached desk.

It suddenly hit her that if things had been different, this might have been her school, too. Those kids in the hall, her friends. The sense of being in a dream heightened, growing even more muddled and surreal.

Looking positively ecstatic, Asha shimmied into the desk right by her. “There are at least two elements mortals have not yet discovered deep within Prithvi’s crust,” she confided. “We nagas have known about them since the beginning. Shall I inform the teacher?”

Tanvi’s vision cleared. She’d had it all backward. Asha was the one dreaming. A stupid, completely selfish daydream about surprising a human boy at school. “Are you—”

“Hey, where’s your stuff?” Mai asked. “Do you need to borrow a pen?”

Belatedly, Tanvi realized everyone else had notebooks and pens and tablets. She shrugged. “I forgot?”

Mai gave her a funny look as Sameer walked into the room. He did a triple take. “Asha?”

Asha practically sparkled at him, her smile was so bright, and pointed to the neighboring desk. “Sameer! Sit with me.”

On her other side, Tanvi almost screamed. Any second now, he’d catch on that she wasn’t Nitya. What was Asha thinking?

Maybe Tanvi should just make a break for it. Asha could fend for herself.

Sameer, who looked like he didn’t know whether to be happy or freaked out, sat down and leaned over. “I told you not to come here!” he said under his breath.