Other than that, peace. No noise to distract him from the voice inside his head telling him how stupid he’d been—for trusting Trent, for believing Trent, for being happy when he’d thought Trent was good again. And then for feeling surprised when he’d finally realised that everything Trent had done had been for one goal—destroying Dr. O.

“Conner? Conner!”

Conner glared in the direction of the voice, wishing Kira would just go away. He hadn’t walked out here because he wanted company. He didn’t think he could stand being around anyone else.

“Conner? Oh!” He looked up as Kira appeared through gap in the trees. “There you are!”

“Go away.”

She misinterpreted it as ‘come and sit beside me’, brushing dirt off a nearby rock and dropping down to sit on it. “What’s wrong?”

“Look, it’s nice of you to come, but I really don’t want to talk to anyone just now.” Because she’d want to talk about Trent, which meant he’d have to think about it all again.

Not that it would be difficult. The problem was focusing on something else.

Kira was still watching him, so he folded his knees up to his chest, wrapping his arms around them and burying his face. She could think what she wanted. He didn’t want her here, and he wasn’t going to pretend to be polite. Maybe she’d finally take the hint and leave.

“Are you okay?” she asked, and instantly added, “Well, of course you’re not, but . . . I mean, I just didn’t think it would bother you this badly.”

She didn’t normally sound that unsure. Hopefully that was a sign she would go soon.

“I believed him too, you know. I really thought he was good . . . I guess we should feel lucky we’ve got Ethan and Dr. O to be all suspicious, huh?”

She sighed when he still refused to reply. “You know, he was my friend too. You’re not the only one who’s—”

“Kira, will you just shut up?” he snapped, lifting his head to look at her. To his surprise, her face softened instead of tensing with anger. Almost like she pitied him.

He ducked his head again. “Just go away.”

“Conner . . .”

“I don’t want to talk about it. To anyone.”

“Well, maybe . . .”

“I just want to be alone, alright?”

He heard her get up, standing on a twig as she did. “Look, Conner . . . don’t hate him, okay? Trent, I mean. What the White Ranger’s doing—it isn’t his fault. And I know you’re angry, which is fine, but . . .”

She trailed off. He heard movement, like she was fiddling with her clothes, before she repeated, “Just don’t hate him.”

And finally, left him alone.

--

The next day, he skipped school. Dr. O could think what he wanted. Missing two days would probably make most other teachers assume genuine illness; he was supposed to phone in, but the school receptionists weren’t known for their efficiency in getting the message round. He spent the day feeling depressed, not bothering to get out of bed until soccer practise.

The morning after that, he felt better. Things seemed simpler, now he’d gotten over the shock of it. Kira could say what she liked: Trent was the enemy, which meant Trent had to be treated like the enemy. Never trusted. Simple.

The fact that this enemy wore the face of someone he thought he’d liked didn’t matter. It almost made it easier. Mesogog’s monsters were usually annoying, sometimes scary, but he’d never hated them. Hating Trent made it so much easier to work out what he needed to do.

He caught up with Ethan and Kira as they were walking to their first class, ducking under a banister to join them as the climbed the stairs. He didn’t waste time with a ‘hello’.

“You guys heard from Trent yet?”

Kira jumped when he appeared, but shook her head. “No. I’m not sure I really want to.”

Ethan shook his head as well. “We need to make sure he won’t go off on some poor freshman ‘cause the kid won’t give him his lunch money.”

Trent wouldn’t do that. Way too petty. By now, he probably had minions to get lunch for him. “Yeah, you know what? I think he’s after a little more than a free grilled cheese.”

Now it was Ethan’s turn to look surprised. Apparently Conner wasn’t allowed to be in a bad mood.

“And when we know what that is maybe we can deal,” said Kira as they reached the door of their classroom. “But until then, we keep an eye on him.”

“Speaking of keeping an eye on people,” Ethan said as they went inside. “Where were you yesterday?”

“Thinking.”

Kira and Ethan exchanged a glance. Conner saw a friend from the soccer team sitting on his own, and decided that Kira and Ethan could get along without him.

“Don’t want to sit with us?” Kira called.

“Sorry.”

He frowned as he saw them lean together, probably whispering about him, and his frown grew even deeper when he heard the announcement over the loudspeaker. Did everything have to remind him of Trent?

“Trent Fernandez, please report to the principal’s office. Trent Fernandez.”

--

Conner tried to ignore the tapping of Ethan’s pencil, concentrating on reading the book they’d been set for English. He almost wished Kira was there, to back him up in making Ethan be quiet . . . but then, Kira was the whole reason Ethan had started the tapping.

He shot another glance at his friend. Yep. Still staring at Kira.

Who, okay, had been a little snappy at the museum. But girls could get like that. Hadn’t Ethan ever heard of PMS? Not that he would dare say that in Kira’s hearing, but . . .

Besides, there could be plenty of other reasons. Conner had felt on edge all yesterday, until he’d finally seen Trent in science. Proving to himself he could act naturally around Trent, rather than trying to attack him in the middle of the classroom, had been a bit of a relief. And he had totally proved to Trent how little he cared. That is, if Trent had been watching him have fun as nosily as he could. He had checked a few times, and once seen Trent looking . . .

He shook his head, realising he was thinking about Trent again. He needed something to distract himself. Maybe a movie?

He poked Ethan, who thankfully stopped tapping the pencil. “Hey. Do you want to go see a movie?”

Ethan jabbed the pencil at Conner’s book. Conner resisted the urge to grab and snap it. “I thought you had to finish that and be ready to discuss it for tomorrow?”

Conner looked down at the book, which he had no chance of finishing. “I’ll just agree with you. Are you doing anything else? We can ask Kira too.”

Ethan looked over at Kira, who was apparently arguing with Hayley. Conner frowned in surprise. No one argued with Hayley. Not sane people, anyway. But when Hayley turned to leave, she definitely looked annoyed.

Conner got up and headed over, Ethan behind him. “Hey, you want to go to a movie tonight?”

Kira didn’t look up from her book, the same one Conner had been trying to read. At least she was nearing the end. “No.”

Conner blinked in surprise. “You know, when someone doesn’t want to hang out with someone, they usually come up with some sort of excuse.”

Kira looked up, face irritated. “Look, I just don’t feel like spending any more time with you guys than I really have to, okay?” She started to gather up her things, closing the book without checking the page and shoving it into her bag. “I have to go. I have something to do.”

Conner stared after her in shock. Maybe Ethan had a point.

--

Kira didn’t look happy when she slumped against the locker next to his. “Okay, how many people did I snap at yesterday? People have been glaring at me all day.”

Conner grinned. He supposed it wasn’t funny—Kira had told him several times it wasn’t funny, sometimes hitting him to emphasise the point—but he couldn’t help but laugh. “That’s what you get for playing with old bones you find lying around in museums.”

“Yeah, not exactly what happened.” Her eyes widened as she saw something behind him, and Conner spun round automatically.

Trent grinned, leaning against the lockers. “Hello, Conner.”

“What do you want?” Conner snapped, feeling himself tense. His locker door dug into his hand where he was gripping it, and he made himself loosen his grip.

“Just to make conversation. That’s what friends do, right?”

Conner couldn’t believe he’d been fooled before. There were some similarities between this Trent and the Trent he’d known before, but everything seemed . . . harsher. The amusement that had been gentle now seemed mocking, the smile looked cruel, and even relaxing against the lockers he looked dangerous.

“We’re not your friends.”

“Really?” Trent raised an eyebrow. “I thought we had quite a nice conversation the other day. Granted, you were under some . . . misconceptions, but I still enjoyed what we…discussed.”

Conner felt his face flame. Kira looked between them, obviously confused. Trent turned his smile on her. “Oh, didn’t Conner tell you? We—”

“Shut up!” Conner lunged at Trent, but the other boy was too quick, dancing away out of reach.

Conner took a deep breath as people turned to stare, and Trent laughed in obvious amusement.

“Careful. You wouldn’t want to get in trouble.”

Conner grabbed Kira’s arm, ignoring her yelp of protest, and dragged her away from Trent down the hall. Trent’s voice echoed after them. “Never mind. We can talk later—I’m looking forward to math!”

Conner froze. Kira used his distraction to pry his fingers off her arm, glaring harder at him than she had at Trent. “Conner, what is your problem?”

“I’m not going to math.”