"So what are you going to do?" the Valkyrie asked again, opening her laptop once more.
I stared up at the ceiling. What was I going to do?
Despite everything that had happened tonight, I stil had a crazy, crazy crush on Logan. But nothing was ever going to come of it. For starters, he was dating another girl. Sure, Logan said that he cared about me, but he stil had this big, bad secret he wanted to hide from me, something that just wasn't possible given my Gypsy gift. As soon as I touched him, my psychometry would kick in and show me his secret whether I wanted to see it or not. I didn't even have to kiss him-just holding his hand long enough would do the trick.
Kind of hard to date a guy when you couldn't risk even touching him, especial y when that guy was Logan, who I so badly wanted to touch-in al sorts of ways.
And then there was Preston. Before Logan had interrupted us, we'd been having fun getting to know each other. I liked Preston, and I thought he liked me, too- at least enough to want to hang out with me this weekend. He had asked me to meet him for lunch tomorrow.
Maybe-maybe Preston could be my rebound guy.
Someone to help me get over this stupid, hopeless crush I had on Logan. In fact, Preston would be a perfect rebound guy, since I wouldn't see him after the weekend and the Winter Carnival were over. He'd go back to the New York academy, and I'd go back to Mythos. So why not have a little fun while we were both here together?
I raised myself up on my elbows. "What am I going to do?
I'm going to have lunch with Preston tomorrow like he asked me to and forget Logan even exists." Daphne grinned. "Now you're talking. You'l have to introduce me to Preston. I real y want to see for myself how gorgeous he is."
"You didn't see him tonight? We were sitting right outside the coffee shop."
Daphne shook her head. "Nope, I was too busy dancing with Carson and then keeping this trashy Amazon from getting her hands on him. She was total y making do-me eyes at Carson from across the room, and she tried to horn in on us while we were dancing. Slut. She's going to be sorry she did that, especial y since she kept on even after I told her that Carson was taken."
The Valkyrie hit some more keys on her laptop, her black eyes glittering with anger. Pink sparks of magic shot out of her fingertips, like mini streaks of lightning.
I frowned. "Is that what you're doing? Looking up that other girl online?"
Daphne nodded. "The New York academy has a Web site, just like we do, where students can blog and post photos and stuff.
Which is why you need to introduce me to your mystery guy. I looked, but there are no Pres-tons listed on the site. Apparently, your guy decided not to post his photo and set up his online student profile. Ah, there's the Amazon. Calinda Lopez."
Daphne's fingers picked up speed, and she started muttering under her breath. "Come on, baby. We can crack that pesky firewal ... ."
In addition to being a Valkyrie, Daphne also had some major computer skil s. She was in the Tech Club at Mythos, which was real y just an after-school group for al the budding hackers at the academy. In fact, Daphne had used her skil s to help me break the password on Jasmine Ashton's laptop, back when I'd been investigating Jasmine's fake murder. That was how we'd become friends. Of course, I'd blackmailed Daphne into helping me to start with, but I thought it had al worked out okay in the end.
"Uh, what are you doing?"
Daphne shrugged. "Nothing much. Just erasing al of Calinda's good grades and replacing them with incompletes.
Eventual y, the administrators wil figure out what happened, but I'm making it look like a computer error. Stil , I imagine she'l get some nasty lectures from her profs and parents in the meantime."
I shook my head. "Remind me not to piss you off, because you're a total vindictive bitch when you're angry.
There are supervil ains in my comic books who could learn a thing or two from you."
The Valkyrie stuck out her tongue, then gave me a maniacal grin. "You'd better believe it, Gypsy." Daphne focused on her laptop and went back to her Internet stalking, hacking, and general mayhem. I crawled under the covers and tucked my pil ow underneath my head.
Preston, I thought. Tomorrow, I'd have lunch with Preston, and we'd have a great time together. We'd hang out and laugh and talk and just have fun. I thought about him then, about his blue eyes, his white blond hair, his cute dimples.
But no matter how much I tried to hold on to the image, no matter how hard I concentrated, Preston's face melted into Logan's the second I closed my eyes.
Chapter 12
The next day, Saturday, was the part of the weekend when there was actual y a carnival set up as part of the Winter Carnival.
Go figure.
Daphne yanked off the covers and pul ed me out of bed way, way too early. Literal y, she grabbed my ankle and used her Valkyrie strength to throw me over her shoulder and haul me into the shower. Sometimes, it real y sucked having a best friend who could give the Hulk a run for his money in the weight-lifting department. Especial y at seven in the morning.
I'd barely stepped out of the shower when Daphne threw some clothes at me and barked at me to get dressed-or else.
Apparently, the carnival was her favorite part of the whole weekend, and she didn't want to miss a second of it, not even to get a few more hours of sleep. And she thought I was a freak.
Grumbling, I threw on some clothes, topped with a clean pair of ski pants and a matching jacket, both in a bright silver that Daphne had picked out for me at the shop yesterday. Boots, gloves, and a cute gray toboggan covered with tiny snowflakes completed my outfit. For once, Daphne actual y decided to wear another color besides pink. Her ski suit was a powder blue that made her look like a real ice princess.
We met Carson downstairs in the one of the hotel restaurants.
Apparently, the hotel didn't take breakfast quite as seriously as it did the other meals because there was actual y some normal food set out as part of a massive buffet: tal stacks of buttermilk pancakes drizzled with apricot syrup, thick slabs of Canadian bacon, enormous omelets stuffed with cheese and colorful veggies. Yum. We washed everything down with spiced apple cider that was the perfect blend of sweet and tart. Then, just after nine, one of the chair lifts whisked us up the mountain and let us off at the carnival.
The Winter Carnival had been set up on a wide, level plateau situated between two of the ski slopes, about three-quarters of the way up the mountain. Ring tosses, duck shooting, milk bottle throws, even a couple of polar bear dunk tanks fil ed with ice water. Every kind of carnival game you could imagine was featured in the dozens of wooden booths that had been erected on the plateau for the day's event.