Sixty

Raven

I sat in the library, toying with a calligraphy pen and pricking my thumb with the metallic nib. I had so many tests and exams coming up, but I couldn't bring myself to concentrate.

All the words in my textbooks became blurry lines. I tried everything I could, from taking long walks from one end of the school to another, practicing mindfulness exercises that Taylor had introduced to me, and even wearing more makeup and dressing better, which Taylor felt could attract Vlad back to me.

None worked.

Vlad never looked at me more than once, and I stopped everything altogether when that bitch Ivy mocked me when I wore a stupid tank top that revealed my stomach.

I didn't know what to do anymore, or even who to tell. This was getting stranger by the day, and I knew that Vlad wasn't joking when he rejected me.

But it bothered me that he hadn't asked about the staff of authority that was in my custody.

And from the look of things, he didn't seem like he was planning to. I had n