All that just to stop me being around Astor. That’s the kind of serious bitch that Victoria is.
But there’s a problem.
I’m a bitch too.
Victoria did her utmost, but now she’s number one on my hit list. I’ve been bullied and tortured and hazed, but now it’s my turn. I’m going to do my utmost to get my revenge. Victoria Waldorf will be put in her place.
No one like her deserves to be at Hawthorne or any other school for that matter. She’s a total danger to anyone she doesn’t like; a lethal danger, and I have to stop her. I have to get her back for all the lives she cost, all the people she hurt, and all the trouble that she’s caused me since we became enemies, including taking Astor away from me.
No more cowering. No more being bullied.
It’s my turn to take revenge.
Despite that fact, and that Dana finally woke up, a dark cloud comes over me as soon as the car pulls up to the hospital doors. Immediately my shoulders fall, my head falls, my spirit falls inside of me. It’s the saddest looking place, just as gray as the day outside.
I leave the car and head towards Dana’s room. The nurses recognize me by now, and just nod in my direction when they spot me coming down the hall. This wing is dedicated to private rooms that have to cost a fortune; as if hospital stays didn’t already. The nurses here are hired privately and the rooms, though still sterile, look more akin to a hotel suite than a hospital. Like all things Hawthorne style, only the best for Dana.
At least she deserves it.
Today will be the first time I see her awake since the party. She walked in with me to the wine cellar, but she never walked back out. Victoria came back, though, and I saw her. I grabbed her so tightly with my hands and demanded that she tell me what was going on … even though, deep down
, I knew it was her fault.
She didn’t have to tell me the truth; I saw it painted on her arms. She set a fire to get me kicked out of school. The fire became an explosion, and the aftermath was grimmer than any of us could ever have imagined. Her pettiness made her a murderer.
I pause at the door and force a smile on my face. Just because I feel like my whole world is shattering before my very eyes doesn’t mean Dana has to know it too. She has enough on her plate as it is.
So, with that fake hopeful grin plastered across my face, I open the door to Dana’s room and walk in. I see her in the bed; half her body wrapped in plaster, her face so pale, and her looking so weak. It’s like her eyes have sunk back into her head. She looks dead, but I see the corners of her mouth turn up just a little when her eyes meet mine. I wondered if she would recognize me, or if she would be so drugged up that she wouldn’t know who I am. I’m relieved to see recognition in her eyes.
“Hey, there you are!” I tell her with the lightest, most cheerful voice that I can muster. I hope and pray that it sounds believable, because I have a terrible poker face and I know she can read my every thought just by looking at it. I move to stand beside her bed, one hand reaching out to gently touch her cheek before pushing her hair back away from her face.
“This isn’t how you’re supposed to party, you know.” I wink at her and hope that I sound convincing.
Dana watches me for a moment and smiles a bit. “It’s good to see you,” she says. Her voice sounds so dry; scratchy and foreign.
“Do you need anything? Can I get you anything?” I ask, hoping that I can do something to ease the hell that she’s going through.
She closes her eyes a moment, and she shakes her head.
“Just tell me what happened.” She speaks in a whisper. “All my parents and the doctors told me is that there was an explosion in the school and I was injured. Nothing else. They won’t tell me anything else. Come on … Teddy, tell me what really happened.”
She’s a smart one, coma or not.
I look at her seriously. “What do you remember?”
Dana sighs and closes her eyes. I can see that she’s struggling to think about it. “I don’t really remember much. The doctor says that I have partial amnesia and a minor brain injury that will heal, given time.”
Amongst other things. It takes everything in me not to stare at the cast, the scrapes and bruises, and wonder at the kind of pain she must be in.
I nod and sit on the side of her bed, taking her hand in mine to comfort her. “Well …” I trail off, not sure what I should tell her.
“Come on,” she pleads with me, almost desperate. “My parents are here. They’re just in the cafeteria for lunch. They’ll be back in a while, and we won’t be able to really talk. I’m going to have to be in here for a long while, so I won’t hear it from anyone but you, if you tell me now. Tell me what happened!”
Her pleas fall hard on my heart and I give in.
“Okay, okay. I’ll tell you. I know if it was me there laying in that bed, I’d certainly want to know.”
She looks at me gratefully, and I begin where I think it would be easiest. “You and I were working on a special science project. Rainbow Flames. Do you remember?”