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But he wasn’t done yet.Clearing his throat, he continued with his extremely dubious effort at poetry.

“Cheeks as white and fine as linen,

Between the sheets, we’ll soon be sinnin’

An ass so cute I want to squeeze,

A gorgeous guy I want to please!”

At this point I wanted to point out that you really couldn’t rhyme “linen” with “sinning” but I was too horrified to do anything but watch as Juan went plowing on while the class sat in stunned silence, all eyes fixed on the way he was kneeling before me.At any rate, I had a feeling we were about to reach the grand finale.And sure enough, Juan seemed to be winding down.He threw out his arms and looked me right in the eyes as he recited,

“Skin that needs my soft caress,

A body I will soon undress.

Lips as red as berry wine,

Avery Connor, will you be mine?”

At that point, the entire class broke up into hysterical laughter.Jeering and hooting could be heard coming from every direction and people were pointing and whispering and talking behind their hands.They were also taking pictures on their cell phones of Juan kneeling there.Castle Nocturne messes with most technology but the Study Hall room happens to be one of the classrooms with the least magical interference.I wouldn’t be surprised if someone had captured the entire poetic performance, which they would probably post all over social media as soon as they could.

I sat there, feeling almost as embarrassed as Juan—well, no, probably not.Hewas going to be completely humiliated by this little stunt and once the spell came off himIwas going to be in trouble.

“Excuse me, Mr.Gonzales—is this a joke?”Ms.Yasmine demanded at last, when some of the laughter died down and she could be heard.“Because if so, it’s not a very funny one.”

“No joke!”Juan insisted.Rising from his knees, he looked down at me.“I’m in love with Avery and he’s gonna be my boyfriend,” he announced.

This caused the class to break into fresh laughter while I winced inwardly.Goddess, this was going from bad to worse!I’d be lucky if Juan didn’tmurderme after this little performance!

“Mr.Connor, do you know anything about this?”Ms.Yasmeen asked, frowning in my direction.

Mutely, I shook my head.I didn’t want to get Megan in trouble, though of course she had certainly gottenmeinto it.

“Mr.Gonzales, I think you’d better go,” Ms.Yasmeen said sternly.

Juan got a mutinous look on his face.

“Nuh-uh!”he insisted.“Not until Avery says he’ll be mine!”He looked down at me.“Will you, Avery?Can I be your boyfriend?”

“This has gone far enough!”Ms.Yasmeen stood up and thumped on her desk with one hand.She pointed a finger at the door.“Mr.Gonzales, leaveimmediatelyor face the consequences, which I assure you willnotbe pretty.”

Finally, Juan turned away, an angry look on his lumpish face.He was almost through the doorway when he turned back for a moment to look at me.

“I love you, Avery!”he said, which caused a fresh burst of giggles in the room.

Then, mercifully, he stepped out the door of Study Hall and was gone.

16

AVERY

“Megan, I don’t know what you did to that Good Manners spell but it iscompletelyout of control!”I said tightly, the moment she got to the table at Suppertime.

Her face went pale.

“Oh no—I thought I fixed it!What happened?”

“You turned it into some kind of a love spell!”I exclaimed.“Every Drake I meet has been propositioning me all afternoon!”I ticked them off on my fingers.“I’ve been given candy, flowers, balloons, andverybad homemade chocolate chip cookies with lumps in them!”