Threader by Rebekah Turner Page A

else wear what she’s got. She’s in leggings and knee-high boots, with a wide belt and fitted top. A thin girl with blonde hair trots behind her, dressed in a pencil skirt and an identical top.
    â€˜Olivia is the youngest in the Galloway family,’ Cora tells me. ‘She’s the redhead and a first year cadet, like us. Only a low-level TP esper. Nothing too flash. Tina is the blonde. I don’t know what she does, other than being Olivia’s doormat.’ Cora pauses. ‘This should be interesting.’
    â€˜Why?’ I watch Olivia march towards Archer and Cooper. Other cadets have sat at their table now, and I recognise Dutch and Jasmine with them, talking and laughing among themselves. Nobody notices Olivia until she stops behind Archer.
    â€˜Apparently, Archer and Olivia were an item nearly all through secondary school,’ Cora explains, ‘then he broke up with her a month ago. The rumour is, Archer was fooling around behind her back and she had no idea until Tina told her. Pretty sure that’s the first time someone tried to make a Galloway look stupid.’
    I glance back over my shoulder just in time to see Olivia say something to Archer. He doesn’t acknowledge her presence, but says something to Cooper, who breaks up in gales of laughter. Olivia’s back stiffens. Her head whips around, realising people are watching her. Anger ripples across her face, then smooths to nothing.
    â€˜Awkward,’ Darsh mutters.
    Olivia might come from a powerful family, but I can’t help but feel a little sorry for her. It’s obvious Archer doesn’t care that he’s humiliating a fancy-pants Galloway family member. But instead of fireworks, Olivia turns and stalks off. Her friend Tina follows, throwing Archer a dirty look over her shoulder.
    â€˜I wouldn’t like to be in Archer’s shoes.’ Darsh tugs absently at one of his ears. ‘You don’t screw around with the Galloways, without it coming back to bite you.’
    Turning away from Olivia, my eyes snag on a figure. Blake sits at a table by himself at the back of the room. He’s watching his sister leave, his brow furrowed. As if sensing me, his gaze zeros in on mine. I glance down quickly, busy myself with poking my congealing pasta.
    â€˜What?’ Cora catches my expression and looks around before spying Blake. ‘I wonder why he’s in here,’ she says. ‘He usually has lunch outside, by himself, nose stuffed in a dusty paper book or something. I mean, I love retro as much as the next person, but honestly. What a pretentious jerk. I mean, he shouldn’t even be eating in here, this is for cadets, not faculty.’
    â€˜Maybe he doesn’t feel he fits in with them,’ I say absently, then wonder where that thought came from. ‘What does he read?’ I ask, remembering the books he bought from Bobby.
    â€˜Who cares?’ Cora says. ‘I hate it when he takes the slider tutorials. I’m not very good and he makes me so nervous.’
    â€˜I’m sure you’re not that bad,’ I say.
    Cora snorts. ‘I don’t slide fast enough, so I can’t travel very far and he’s really mean about it.’
    â€˜Shadow sliding sounds like a pretty amazing skill,’ I say.
    â€˜I guess.’ Cora doesn’t sound convinced. ‘I hate it though. You always need deep shadow to step into the slipstream. I don’t relish the idea of living half my life bumbling around in the dark.’ Her eyebrows rise. ‘Do you remember much about your slide with Blake?’
    â€˜How do you know about that?’ I ask, frowning. Was it public knowledge how I’d arrived at Helios? I wasn’t sure I liked that.
    Cora flushes. ‘I might have taken a little peek of your file and read what happened with him.’
    I shrug, sipping my cola. ‘I had no idea what I’d done, or where I was. I felt like I was falling …