richellemead-vampireacademy01-vampireacademy-110824015328-phpapp02

And more importantly, everyone knew she wasn't speaking to me.
Just like that, whatever social headway I'd made plummeted. She didn't outright condemn me,
but her silence spoke legions, and people behaved accordingly.
The whole day, I walked around the Academy like a ghost. People watched and occasionally
spoke to me, but few made much more effort than that. They followed Lissa's lead, imitating
her silence. No one was openly mean to me—they probably didn't want to risk it in case she
and I patched things up. Still, I heard "blood whore" whispered here and there when someone
thought I wasn't listening.
Mason would have welcomed me to his lunch table, but some of his friends might not have
been so nice. I didn't want to be the cause of any fights between him and them. So I chose
Natalie instead.
"I heard Lissa tried to run away again, and you stopped her," Natalie said. No one had a clue
why she'd been in the clinic yet. I hoped it stayed that way.
Running away? Where in the world had that come from? "Why would she do that?”
"I don't know." She lowered her voice. "Why'd she leave before? It's just what I heard.”
That story raged on as the day passed, as did all sorts of rumors about why Lissa might have
gone to the med clinic. Pregnancy and abortion theories were eternally popular. Some
whispered she might have gotten Victor's disease. No one even came close to guessing the
truth.
Leaving our last class as quickly as possible, I was astonished when Mia started walking toward
me.
"What do you want?" I demanded. "I can't come out and play today, little girl.”
"You sure have an attitude for someone who doesn't exist right now.”
"As opposed to you?" I asked. Remembering what Christian had said, I did feel a little sorry for
her. That guilt disappeared after I took one look at her face. She might have been a victim, but
now she was a monster. There was a cold, cunning look about her, very different from the