The typical last day of school before summer break: Simmering heat overpowering the antique AC. Everyone antsy, twitchy; legs bouncing, fingers fiddling, ready to be out. Teachers nearly as excited as the students. Lessons, if there were any, half-assed, rushed. Jacob figured there were heavier things on the teachers' minds than teaching students. Things like trips to Baja, or tanning by the public pool, or simply relaxing out on the back deck with a pack of cold ones and watching the sunset.

Jacob was as anxious as the rest of them, but he wasn't thinking about his summer plans, or lack thereof. The only thing he could think about was that tiger, and Camilla, and the fact that he had to go talk to her.

The lunch bell rang.

Jacob joined the throng of students squeezing out the door. He headed to his usual spot in a little alcove by the stairs where there was an old rickety table and a few chairs deemed unfit for classroom use. Him, Luke, and Thiago usually chilled there at lunch with a few others on the fringe of their friend group because it was quiet and out of the way. He sat down and pulled out his lunch. Luke was already away, and Thiago hadn't shown up. So for the time being it was just him. He unzipped his lunchbox but stopped himself half way.

He was avoiding Camilla.

He knew he was. The whole morning he hadn't been able to think about anything else but his determination the night before to confront her. What better time to do that then lunch? It wasn't like he was going to burst into her classroom this afternoon. Even the idea made him shudder.

Lunch was the perfect time, and the longer he put it off the harder it would be to find her. This was his last chance. After this it was summer break and he wouldn't see her for two months.

He couldn't chicken out. He wouldn't let himself. He needed answers or he might go bananas.

Jacob zipped the lunchbox back up, dragged himself out of the chair and started down the hallway. He made his way down the halls, peeking into classrooms, eyeing people as they passed, but didn't see her.

She was probably in the cafeteria. He groaned. He hated the cafeteria. Too loud. Too many people.

He rounded a corner and stopped. The cafeteria spread out from him, a big open space with tall glass windows and bright overhead lights. It stank of sweat, grease, and adolescence. To the right was the lunch counter, where a short line of people waited to get their food. Hundreds of students ate and talked at long tables. From where he stood he could see the groups and cliques that naturally formed in such a space, like miniature ecosystems within the greater biome of high school. If he hadn't been totally absorbed in his task he might have taken a moment to grin at that observation and see if he couldn't pick out certain animals. The popular girls in their colourful clothes, like brightly coloured jungle birds strutting their feathers. The sports teams slouching in their chairs, like lazy lizards sunning on rocks, eyeing those around them with reptilian arrogance, ready to lash out at any moment. The geeks playing chess and card games, like squirrels and voles, taking up what territory they could, but always twitchily aware of their surroundings and ready to bolt at the first shadow of danger.

It didn't take him long to spot Camilla.

He groaned.

She was sitting with a small group of other popular girls right near the centre of the cafeteria. What he thought was a group of guys from the hockey team were sitting a little ways down the same table, but he couldn't be sure. He'd never really cared about school sports. Camilla chatted away, an innocent smile on her face. She wore Lulu leggings and a black leather jacket with some brand label in gold on the lapel that looked too heavy for the early summer heat. The girls around her wore outfits they clearly had spent a lot of time and money on, with all sorts of jewelry and accessories and colour-coded tops and bottoms. It made him ultra conscious about his sweatpants and hoodie. Not just popular girls. Rich girls, and if they were anything like Camilla then they had nasty streaks too. Oh, brother.

Jacob silently wished yesterday had been just a normal day. A boring summer wasn't the worst thing in the world. But chickening out wasn't an option. He needed to know what the hell had happened yesterday. What if that tiger came back? What if someone started shooting fireballs at him?

Christ, Camilla had used magic. And here she was, twitting away, pretending she was a normal high school girl. Did her friends know?

He wanted to just run in and get it over with, but he forced himself to walk slowly towards her, extra nonchalant, looking around at other people pretending he was looking for a place to sit.

When he was a few tables away she looked up at him, met his eyes, then looked away again as if she hadn't recognized him. She continued talking in a giggly falsetto that was a total contrast to the hissing and cursing from yesterday.

Jacob approached the table. A few of Camilla's friends frowned at him, but Camilla pointedly did not look at him. For one dumb, silent moment he stood next to the table. Camilla's friends had stopped talking. One of them, a blonde girl he thought was named Paige, cleared her throat.

"Um, who are you?" Paige asked. She looked him up and down. Another girl snickered.

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Jacob hardly noticed them.

Camilla's face had gone beet red, and Jacob could see her jaw clenching and unclenching. She took a pear off her plate, her hands shaking, and bit into it.

"Camilla." Jacob squawked.

Her friends' eyes widened. They looked at Camilla, then back at him.

Camilla slowly put the pear down on her plate. She swallowed, took a deep breath. If steam could have come out of her ears, it would have.

"I need to talk to you about... uh, that homework." Jacob said. He figured if he mentioned anything remotely close to what had actually happened he'd be barbecued brisket within the next ten seconds.

Camilla cleared her throat. "Give me a moment, please." Her voice was light and airy, but each word sounded as if it were strained through a hydraulic press.

"Okay." Jacob said. He scuttled as quickly as he could out of the cafeteria. Behind him, he heard Paige's voice.

"Milla? Who the hell was that?" Followed by a couple giggles.

Jacob reached the hallway and let out a tense sigh. See? That hadn't been so bad.

Something slammed him into the locker.

"What are you doing?" Camilla hissed. "Do you have a death wish?" Her eyes shot daggers at him.

Jacob put his hands up defensively. "I need to know what happened yesterday, please!"

She raised a finger and pointed it at him, hard. She practically vibrated with anger. Then, miraculously, she sighed, glanced around, took his arm at the elbow and dragged him along the corridor.

"What? What are you doing?" He cried.

"We're going to the stairwell so we can talk about this." She said.

She dragged him down to the stairwell and threw open the doors. They slammed shut behind them. For a second they both stood there, listening for the thud of footsteps above them.

"We could just go to the washroom." Jacob whispered.

"No, we can't, moron! Ugh! If you get caught in the girls' bathroom you will be killed on sight and if I get caught in the boys' bathroom with you there will be rumours." She raised a finger, "I am not dealing with those. I already have enough to deal with. You see this?" She pointed at the bandaid on her forehead. "You know how many times my girlfriends asked me about this today? 'Milla! What happened to you?'" She raised her voice an octave and giggled. "Oh, that? Haha, silly me, I bumped it cooking last night. Ugh!" She shuddered. "Disgusting! And this?" She gestured to the black leather jacket. "This is LV. And I'm- You don't even know what that means, do you? Louis Vuitton, moron!"

"Oh." Was all he could manage.

"Louis fucking V, and I'm sweating through it in this disgusting heat. Ruining it!" She rolled up her sleeve. An ugly, purply bruise ran up the outer side of her forearm. "But I can't exactly go walking around with this hanging out, now can I? More questions. More 'lala hehe' bullshit! Ugh! And then you had to come and talk to me in front of Paige and the others like a moron. I swear, boys are so clueless! Do you know how hard it is to keep up my persona here? To hide the fact that I'm a mage? Do you? I just want a normal high school life, totally separate from magic, but no, you have to blunder along and nearly ruin it. With the amount of hassle you've caused me I should put your head in that wall."

Jacob was stunned. "Me? What- I- Me? How is any of this my fault?"

Camilla looked at him as if he were crazy. "I had to save your lousy ass from that Dream Tiger."

"Yeah because a giant blue tiger jumped out of nowhere and attacked me!" He practically screamed. It was finally out. He'd said it. That made it real. And Camilla had the nerve to say it was his fault? "My fault? MY-"

"A what now?" A deep voice asked.

Jacob and Camilla both froze.

An older student in a hoodie with dark hair hanging over his face stood on the last step of the stairwell. He looked like he favoured heavy metal over social interaction.

"Nothing. Don't worry about it." Camilla said.

"We were just talking about our DnD campaign." Jacob blurted.

The guy's face lit up. "Oh, no way! I love DnD! What edition were you guys playing? I've never heard of a blue tiger before."

"We make our own rules." Jacob said.

"Oh, sweet. Would you mind if I-"

"Exclusive club members only, sorry." Camilla cut in.

"Aw, darn." The guy turned and walked dejectedly away.

They waited until his footsteps faded and the stairwell door slammed shut behind him.

"You-"

"I-"

Camilla grabbed him and shook him by the collar, though not with nearly as much force as yesterday.

"Shut up. Shut up! Okay? We can't talk here. We got lucky with that guy, but anyone not from the high school reject squad will start rumours, which I am not having. I'll already be answering texts about 'that nerdy guy at lunch' the whole summer." She released him but raised a finger to shush him, then lowered her voice. "All I will tell you now is that I followed you because you were giving off a magical signature."

What the hell are you talking about? Was almost out of his mouth, but he thought back to the blue tiger, the fireballs, Camilla's gravity defying leaps.

"A what?"

"No. Not important. It's just like a magical sound wave you give off when you have the ability." Her face grew grave. "But if I could sense it and follow you, that means other people could too. And..." Her face scrunched up, "When we were fighting the Dream Tiger I sensed another signature, not mine or yours, but by the time the fight was over it was gone. I think whoever or whatever it was may have been following you."

Jacob didn't know if he should be scared or excited. Someone following him couldn't be good, but why would anyone with a magical signature be following him? It didn't make any sense.

"It might be nothing to worry about, but weird things have been happening lately. That Dream Tiger shouldn't have gone unchecked."

"Dream Tiger? Why do you keep saying that?"

"That's what the thing we fought was, you moron! I can't believe you don't know any of this."

"What is this!"

She looked at him for a long time. He swallowed and shifted on his feet, uncomfortable.

Camilla threw her hands up in the air. "I swear to God, I should just leave you alone. I should just not bother. It's only more trouble I do not need." She scrunched her face up. "Ugh... Fine. We can't talk here, so we need a safe place to talk." She looked at him sharply. "Your parents aren't mages, are they?"

"What?" Jacob paused to consider the image of his dad in his business slacks and googly-eye glasses leaping around throwing fireballs and fighting monsters. He laughed.

"No. At least, not that I know of. What do you mean by mage-"

"No. No questions. After school you wait for me at the East entrance. We're going to a safe space where I can explain everything to you."