It was finally Friday. The day Tameka Phillips would meet Rayne’s mysterious guardian. Three nights ago, Rayne had called up her besties and told them everything. During the part of the story where the stranger knew the girls by name, Tameka had gotten chills.

Who could he be? And could he be trusted?

Tameka appreciated they were meeting him in a crowded venue, albeit not the best lit one, but at least the girls would meet him together.

Cinder.

Alien vampires.

Despite the twinges of pain, Tameka couldn’t get it off her mind the entire bus ride to school. At fifteen years old, she was the oldest of their freshman crew, but between the three girls, Tameka would admit Rayne was their leader. If only because she’d dragged them in and out of the most impossible situations since they were twelve.

Driving off course at the go-cart track into the woods. Filling up water guns with Pepto Bismol to prank stingy adults during trick or treating. And that one time with the tiger at the zoo.

Tameka and Sagan would never let Rayne have a frappuccino again.

Now here they were. Meeting with some handsome mystery man much older than themselves.

Guardian.

The word felt ladened with significance.

“Hey, if you frown any harder, you’ll get wrinkles. And then how will you get a date for homecoming?”

The voice from behind Tameka wasn’t exactly a welcome one. With a lot of sass and a hint of frustration, Tameka said, “Kyle, it’s not really any of your business who I date since we broke up a month ago.” She turned and faced her ex-boyfriend.

They were filing out of the buses and into J. A. Fair’s cafeteria. More of a bunker than a center for education, there were no windows in the vast space built to accommodate the nine hundred plus student body. Someone without taste or imagination had coated the cinder block walls in beige and stickered the floor with ugly white linoleum tiles. Six long tables, with attached stools, furnished the room. It smelled of canned vegetables and frozen patties.

Which still smelled better than Kyle Roberts’ attitude.

He tossed his bag in their corner of the standing-room only space and leaned against a wall. Sulking. “Well, since you broke up with me a few weeks before my first high school dance, I guess I’m a little bitter.”

Kyle was cute. His jawline could cut glass. Those forest green eyes really popped against the last remnants of his summer tan. And even though Kyle didn’t take good care of it, the curly brown mess of his hair always fell in his a face in a way that made Tameka want to brush it back.

But the boy had one major flaw of which Tameka respected herself too much to overlook.

Rayne rushed into the cafeteria, “Hey, guys!”

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And Kyle perked right up at the first sight of their best friend’s big blue eyes. “Hey, Rayne. Are you going to the skating rink tonight?”

Yup. Kyle was obsessed with Rayne.

Tameka sighed and dropped her bag, saying, “We’re all going.”

Sagan Sterling came around the corner, and they all stopped to stare at her. She beamed and fluffed her hair. Yesterday, she’d been a brunette. Now, she was sporting a blond bob. It suited her violet eyes and tiny nose.

“Love the hair.” Tameka meant the compliment as she pulled Sagan in for a side hug. While doing so, Tameka couldn’t help but notice the slight blush on Rayne’s cheeks as she admired the newly blond girl.

Kyle gestured up and down, assessing Sagan before saying, “See now this is how you get a date to homecoming. Take notes, Tameka.”

Rayne and Sagan snickered while Tameka opened her mouth to chew him out—

The morning bell rang.

Perfect timing.

Tameka took a deep breath and exhaled all her irritation. She was not about to let Kyle ruin this day for her. There was something momentous about the stranger—this guardian.

Cinder.

With a wince at her headache, Tameka headed out to get this boring day over with before the excitement of tonight. As they filed through the hub of the school with the cafeteria, gym, and administrative offices, Tameka considered the risks of listening to the mysterious stranger’s story. All along the walk, she maneuvered through the crowded North Hall lined with old-fashioned wooden lockers and segmented by riot gates—metal grates which security rolled up to the ceiling every morning. They were a necessary precaution to isolate fights in the halls.

Bleak.

That’s the word Tameka would use to describe J. A. Fair High School.

At the junctions of intersecting corridors, security guards and staff discouraged students from lingering at their lockers. Mrs. Mendax was the loudest among them. “Expeditiously! Move expeditiously!” Tameka supposed their principal’s volume made up for her tiny stature. At five foot, five inches in heels, Rebecca Mendax demonstrated little command over her adolescent charges.

With Sagan buffering between Tameka and Kyle, he mused, “It sounds like Mrs. Mendax ate a thesaurus for breakfast this morning.”

Beside Tameka, Rayne snickered which made the teen boy light up. Tameka rolled her eyes and changed the subject. “So, about tonight, Kyle. It’ll be a girl’s night.”

He frowned at her and pressed, “Meaning…?”

Sagan took Tameka’s hint and went with it. “Meaning we’ll be talking about boys and clothes. And maybe you won’t want to hang around for it.”

Kyle scoffed. “Oh, you mean you three are planning on getting into trouble, and I’m not invited. Is that how it is, Rayne?”

Ah… Puppy dog eyes.

Even Tameka was weak to them.

But Rayne didn’t buckle under pressure. Instead, she compromised. “We’ll hang with you until around eight, and then we’ll dump you off on Andrew for the rest of the night.”

After dark.

Tameka glimpsed the same realization on Sagan’s face. They shared a nod before Tameka dug in the spurs. “Who knows? Maybe you and Andrew can make it into a date?”

Andrew Holt was their fifth bestie. He went to Hall High across town, but they all met together at the skating rink on Friday nights. The mysterious guardian hadn’t invited either boy, so while it sucked to leave them out of it—maybe not so much Kyle—it was probably for the best.

“Fuck off,” Kyle grumbled and parted ways into a history classroom.

A puzzled frown crossed Rayne’s face as she pondered aloud, “I didn’t think he had history on ‘A’ days.”

Tameka sighed. “He doesn’t.”

Sagan snickered into her hand.

The girl trio walked the rest of the way to their lockers at the end of the hall. They were silent, no doubt lost in the same thoughts.

Anticipation.

Nerves.

And something familiar about Cinder.

Tameka tried to imagine a sky without stars, and the thought left her melancholy. How could people dream without them? Or fall in love?

With her head in the clouds and nursing a slight headache, Tameka wandered into English, waving ‘later’ to Rayne and Sagan. Did alien vampires have emotions? Were they barbaric people or were they civilized?

Well, in order to travel to other planets, surely they were more advanced than humans. As a thought occurred to Tameka, she blinked at her completed homework from the night before. What if the aliens weren’t friendly, and this guardian was here to warn them?

As agony lanced through Tameka’s temples, she pushed the notion aside.

For now.