House of Cards by W. J. May, Book Cover By Design, Chelsa Jillard Page B

wanted to be done with all the feelings, hurt or otherwise. Maybe if she could get rid of all the feelings, she wouldn’t feel so awful anymore.
    Rae headed past him and toward Aumbry’s concrete steps. “Hey Devon?”
    “Yeah?” He stood on the sidewalk, quickly swinging around when she called out.
    “You don’t have to try to avoid me. We live at Guilder, work with the PC, so it’s going to get tiresome trying to look the other way. Maybe we can figure out how to be friends somehow.”
    “Okay.” He looked at her a long moment. “Goodnight, Rae.” He turned and began walking away with his head down.
    Rae wished she could see inside that head and see what he was thinking.
    “Goodbye, Devon,” she whispered, not sure he heard her.
     
    Inside Aumbry House, she raced up the stairs using a tatù and once inside her room, leaned her back against the closed door. Her body slid down to the floor and she buried her face against her knees. She had no idea how she was going to get through the rest of this year. It seemed utterly impossible.
    She dug through her backpack to find a Kleenex, her fingers brushing against the Organic Blueberry book. She pulled back and popped her finger in her mouth when she got a paper cut from a corner that was sticking out. She stretched her backpack completely open and saw the piece of paper sticking out from the book, realizing that it was a copy of her mother’s note.
    She pulled it out, unfolded it and then laid it between her knees. Knowing now that her mother had worked for the Privy Council, she wondered if this was a secret message supposed to go to them years ago. Or could it be something else?
    She stared at the weird marks and tried to find some kind of pattern. Nothing. Concentrating on this and trying to figure it out seemed a lot easier than dealing with Devon and her feelings for him.
    She turned the paper upside down and then sideways, still no luck. It was like trying to read ancient Egyptian or some foreign language. Rae tilted her head and got up from sitting on the floor. She went over to the desk. What if it’s a code? Maybe only some of the markings are the important ones. She seriously considered taking the copy to Jennifer the next day, realizing having an ally would speed up the process of deciphering the code, but then decided against it. Riley would be there as well and she had no intention of letting him see it.
    She told herself that the code had been in hiding for who knows how long. It probably meant nothing now. If it sat for another week or two, nothing bad would come of it. She stared hard at it again, trying to will the answer to come to her. “I give up.” She opened her desk drawer and put in the printed copy and the blueberry organic book on top of it.
    Her stomach growled. The fish and chips! The brown paper bag lay on the floor, dirt on the bottom of the bag and oil stains making their way through the thin paper. She pulled out the newspaper wrapped box, which contained the fish and made a face. It was cold and no longer had the freshly fried smell from the chippy shop. However, hunger was hunger. It just needed a little heating up. She put the fish and chips on a plate and warmed it in the microwave and also reheated the curry and poured it over top.
    It didn’t taste as good as it should, but it wasn’t half bad. She put the leftovers and garbage back into the paper bag and slipped down the stairs to throw the bag in the bin outside. Not going to stink up my room .
    “Rae!”
    She jumped at the sound and swung in the direction of the voice, the fennec fox tatù automatically kicking in. “Molly?”
    Molly walked up the concrete steps. “You okay?”
    “I’m fine. Just tired.”
    “I thought so but I came back to check on you.” They walked into Aumbry House together. “What time we going tomorrow night?”
    “Tomorrow night?”
    “Yeah, to the Twisted Cork to see Luke.”
    Shoot! Forgot about that. How bad is it that my best friend