Glimmers of Glass (A Glimmers Novel #1: Cinderella)

Chapter 7

I had three minutes to be in class before the bell rang, and I was spending it out in the hallway, trying to talk some sense into Daniel.

"Dad is going to kill you," I said.

"Dad won't give a crap," he said. "If he even notices." While this was unfortunately mostly true, it didn't do anything to calm the way my blood pounded in my temples.

"Daniel," I said, louder than I'd intended and with the edge of desperation in my voice that didn't sound good on anyone. "Seriously. What are you doing? You can't just ditch school in the middle of the day. It's not cool."

He threw up his hands. "Ask me if I care," he said.

This was my life, I realized. Trying to set up a geeky girl with the most incompatible guy on the planet and, in my oh-so-abundant spare time, trying to rescue my idiot freshman brother from turning into a juvenile delinquent. Fabulous.

"What's wrong with you?" I snapped. "Where do you think you're going?"

"None of your business."

"You have five seconds to tell me or I'm going straight to the principal's office," I said. Regret cringed its way through me less than a second later. I sounded just like our mother.

Daniel seemed to realize he had pushed me into the corner of self-loathing that always came with the realization that either of us was acting like our parents. That meant he had the upper hand, but the threa still hung in the air between us. I looked him in the eye and raised my eyebrows, promising us both that'd I'd follow through, no matter how much of a childish tattle-tale it made me. He sighed loudly, rolled his dark Feye eyes, and said, "Whatever. I'm going to my friend's to do this thing."

Immediately, my mind jumped to drugs, drug dealing, and prostitution. That escalated fast, I thought, trying to rein my mind back into something approaching reality. "What thing?" I said.

"None of your business," he said.

"Principal's office," I said. "Not even kidding."

"Fine," he said. His face flushed and I felt a wave of hot embarrassment rolling off him. "It's this performance art thing. My friend Devyn is putting together a spoken word performance group and we're rehearsing today for a poetry slam on Saturday. Okay?"

I blinked at him, caught completely off guard. My brother was skipping school for a poetry slam? Apparently I knew even less about him than I'd thought. "Weird homeschool girl Devyn?" I said.

"Ugh," he said, like I was the most clueless and out-of-touch faerie being on the planet. "Yes. That a problem?"

"Okay," I said. I lifted my chin and peered down at him, waiting to see if he'd sprout antennae or do something else unexpected. When nothing happened, I sucked on the inside of my cheek and thought for a moment. He was looking at me with a defiant expression, but I could feel hope mixed in with the embarrassment.

On the one hand, he was about to risk his education, future freedom, and a nice big screaming match at the Feye house on the hope that he wouldn't get caught. On the other hand, I had exactly one minute to be in class and avoid a lecture from Ms. Henson.

"Fine," I said, like I was doing him a huge favor. "I won't tell. But it's not my fault if Mom grounds you until, like, the end of time."

"Duly noted," he said. He rolled his eyes again, like it was beginning to be a nervous tic, and took off down the hall, his walk a mixture of defiance and speed.

I growled, the quiet annoyance rupturing out of my throat before I spun on my heel and went into class. I spent the first half of the period having conversations in my head with Daniel as he saw the error of his ways and apologized for being such an inconsiderate brat, then spent the rest worrying about Elle and how the heck I was supposed to get her hooked up with someone like Tyler Breckenridge. Imogen passed me notes now and then, but they were mostly about a new witch guy she'd just met, which was no help at all.