My name is Cormac. I have been at Sundermoor for two years, and I know when a room is waiting for me to do something it can use.
The new girl sat down beside me and set her bag on the chair like she was planting a flag.
I gave her a count in my head. Ten, then twenty. Then I stopped counting, because counting meant I cared what she did next.
She stayed.
Wexley read from his book and did not look at us once. That was his way of handling me. I was a spot on the wall he had agreed to ignore.
Wexley: Binding rituals fail for one of two reasons. We will cover both.
Cormac: You should move.
I said it low, under the professor's voice, and I didn't look at her when I said it. That way it wouldn't count as wanting something.
Nell: Is the seat taken?
Cormac: No.
Cormac: That isn't what I said.
Nell: It's the only part I cared about.
She said it like the rest of the sentence was mine to work out on my own time.
Here is what usually happens. A laugh, a bag lifted off the chair, and a face going careful and sorry, like they all do.
I waited for it. That's the honest part. I sat there and waited to be left.
Instead she turned in her chair and looked at me straight on, which nobody in this school does.
Nell: Can I ask you something weird?
Cormac: You just sat down. It's already weird.
I don't know why I said that. It came out flat and stupid, the way I get when someone stands too close.
Nell: Do you breathe fire when you're nervous?
Of all the things a stranger could ask me. I looked down at my own hands on the table.
Cormac: No.
Nell: Okay.
Nell: Good to know. Because you look nervous.
She said it kindly. That was the part I couldn't make fit anywhere.
Cormac: Sometimes there's smoke.
I don't know why I told her that. It isn't a thing I hand out to people.
Nell: See, that's useful. If the room fills with smoke, I'll know it isn't me.
She smiled at the table, not at me, and something in my chest did a small stupid thing.
Sable: Great. Now the blank's adopted the animal.
Behind us, someone laughed. Her jaw went tight, and she stayed exactly where she was.
Cormac: You know what they say about me.
Nell: I know what they say. I've had people decide what I am before I got a word in. It's a whole thing with me.
Cormac: I'm not a joke.
Nell: I didn't say you were.
People don't usually look at me this long. I forgot where to put my own face.
The bell went, and everyone got up fast. Nobody was glad to be near the back of that room.
I stayed in my chair, because I always stay a minute. It's easier than watching them leave.
Nell: Tomorrow. Same seat.
Not a question. She said it like a plan she'd already checked her side of.
I said nothing at all. But I didn't tell her no.