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doesn’t have anything to do with you.”
    “She’s not interested. So you either walk away, or deal with me.”
    Eddie stopped moving and growled at the other boy. “What’s your problem, Wilson? You want to fight?”
    Jennifer took a deep breath. “Ah, the pungent scent of testosterone…”
    Both of them gave her a look, but Skip’s dissolved into a smirk quickly enough. He turned his back on Eddie and put his hand on her shoulder. “All right, Scales. You made your point. Let’s just get out of—”
    He lurched forward as Eddie shoved him in the back.
    “I was talking to you, Wilson! I said, do you want to fight?”
    Jennifer bit her lip. Skip knew Eddie and his family were beaststalkers, because Jennifer had told him weeks ago. But she was pretty sure Eddie had no idea about Skip or his family—or what Skip would become someday.
    So why the hostility?
    Skip turned with a hiss and straightened up. He was a full two or three inches taller than Eddie, though both of them were wiry enough that height didn’t make a whole lot of difference. But there was something in Skip’s stance—the way he positioned himself to spring upon the other boy, like predator upon prey—that made Jennifer shudder.
    “Please, Skip.” She touched his elbow lightly. “Let’s just go. He’s not worth it.”
    Slowly and reluctantly, Skip took two steps back. When his opponent didn’t move, he allowed himself to turn around again and put his hand in hers. “Okay.”
    “Jennifer, you’d better listen to me!” Eddie didn’t seem to be following, but she didn’t turn around as they walked away. “You’ll be sorry if you don’t!”
    Without looking back or slowing down, Skip called out, “If you threaten her again, Blacktooth, I’ll flatten you.”
    They nearly ran into Principal Mouton as he came out of his office to see what was going on. The principal was a good enough man who had acted a bit pompously in Jennifer’s only run-in with him: When her family had to get her off the hook for fighting Bob Jarkmand last year.
    He squinted at Jennifer and Skip, and then down the hall at Eddie. “Am I hearing a problem out here, gentlemen?”
    “No problem, sir,” Skip said with a bit of edge. Eddie didn’t answer at all. Instead, he turned and walked away.
    Seeing the problem resolve itself, Mr. Mouton gave Jennifer a wry hint of a smile. “Ms. Scales, you’ll help me keep these two under control, I hope?”
    She chewed her tongue thoughtfully. “I think I can manage it.”
     
    As it turned out, Skip was horrifically sick on her fifteenth birthday, so their plans to go to the Mall of America fell through. Instead, Jennifer had Susan come over, and they hung out in her room.
    “It’s a school night anyway,” Susan sympathized as she fiddled with the small portable stereo on Jennifer’s nightstand. “Ugh, this radio station sucks. Let’s try…no…how about…geez, I’m so sick of this song!”
    “Yeah, me, too. Like, back in August.”
    Susan left it on for a while anyway. It was a catchy song, by their favorite artist. But they had grooved to it all summer long.
    “Okay, that’s enough! Just flip it to disc; I’ve got a good mix in there. I guess you’re right about the mall—it’ll be better to do on a weekend.”
    “Of course, your family goes up to your grandpa’s cabin an awful lot of weekends,” Susan pointed out, flipping the stereo switch. “You sure you’ll be able to make the time for him?” There was a bit of regret in her voice, and Jennifer wasn’t entirely certain they were talking about Skip anymore.
    “We are up at the cabin a lot,” she admitted. Her mother preferred to do beaststalker training up there—partly for privacy, Jennifer guessed; and partly because she imagined it bothered her grandfather a great deal. Of course, she couldn’t explain this to Susan yet, much less invite her along.
    Why not ?
    Susan interrupted her reverie with a glance out the window. “Oooh, pretty