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“Jordan!” Alex hissed.

“What?” he asked innocently. “This way we’ll all get to know each other even better.”

“Sparker,” called one of the guys sitting further down the table. “What gives?”

“You know, an icebreaker,” Jordan repeated. “We’ll each say something random about ourselves. Something that not many people here know. Fun, right?”

No one else seemed thrilled by the idea, but in true Jordan fashion, he managed to get them all to grudgingly agree.

“I’ll start,” he said. “My name is Jordan Sparker, and when I was three years old I shoved a pea so far up my nose that it had to be surgically removed. Your turn, Alex.”

Turning to eagerly awaiting eyes, Alex’s mind suddenly blanked. “I’m Alexandra Jennings—but just ‘Alex’ is fine—and I, um, like reading?”

She wished she hadn’t made it sound like a question. In fact, she wasn’t sure why she’d said it, since she didn’t read all that much. But it wasn’t as if she could have said she was from another world.

D.C. went next, then Bear, followed by Connor and Mel O’Malley, the cousins who Alex had spent some time with in the previous school year. The introductions continued around the table and Alex had a chance to learn about some of her other classmates.

“I’m Savannah Hill, and I’m a virtual reality addict,” said a blond girl who Alex remembered from her Delta PE class last year. “The projector in the Rec Room here is way better than the one I have back home, so I’m a little obsessed with it.”

“Kelly Gleeson,” said the next girl, who had short brown hair and squinty eyes. “My favourite movie isBeyond the Crescent Moon.”

Next up was a tall, lanky, extremely tanned guy with spiky hair who, when he spoke, sounded like he’d walked straight out of a surfing commercial. “Whazzup! Friends call me ‘Blink’. I’m into extremes—extreme sports, extreme food, extreme music—anything extreme. Embrace the rush!”

The introductions continued until the names all blended together and Alex knew she wouldn’t be able to remember everyone. Chelsea Jones… Kimberly Cooke… Mathew Parker… Andrew Nickles… Tate Golde… Ruth Voran… Anna Ford… Elliott Parvie… Samuel Hortham… The names kept coming until there were only two people left.

“I’m Sean McInney,” said a bulky guy with long hair. He looked pointedly at Jordan. “I don’t like icebreakers.”

Alex grinned along with everyone else and turned to the last person who sat directly opposite her, a short girl with mousy brown hair and owlish eyes. She was so tiny that it looked like the slightest breath of wind would snap her in half.

“I’m Phillipa Squeaker,” the girl said. “I hate my name, so call me ‘Pip’ or ‘Pipsqueak’. Anything else will result in me shaving off one of your eyebrows while you sleep. You’ve been warned.” Pipsqueak glared threateningly around the table until her scowl transformed into a brilliant smile. “Oh, I forgot to mention that I love rainbow cupcakes and fluffy bunnies.”

Alex tried to turn her laughter into a cough but wasn’t very successful. Pipsqueak turned to her and Alex tried harder to steel her expression into something more serious, but it wasimpossible. Just as she managed to get rid of her smile, the small girl winked at her, and Alex couldn’t help but laugh again. At least Pipsqueak had a sense of humour. No one else at the table seemed to know how to take the diminutive girl.

“What’s the story with you anyway, Alex?” Pipsqueak asked out of the blue. “I mean, you arrive halfway through last year looking like a lost sheep in the middle of a wolf-infested forest, you get potential-tested into some pretty hard-core subjects, you end up in the Med Ward more times than most students do in their entire stay at Akarnae, and then you disappear for the summer without a trace. What’s the deal with all that?”

Alex squirmed uncomfortably in her seat, noticing that many of the others around the table were nodding in agreement at what Pipsqueak had said.

“I didn’t realise my life was so interesting to you all,” Alex said, hoping that if she seemed unconcerned then they would as well. “Would you like a copy of my diary? Perhaps that’ll give you some insight into the boring life of yours truly?”

“Yo, sweet!” Blink said with a fist pump into the air. “Count me in!”

“Blink, man, I’m pretty sure she wasn’t being serious,” Connor said from across the table, with Mel shaking her head beside him.

“Oh,” Blink said, deflating. “No fair. You just killed my vibe.”

Alex watched the interactions of her classmates and turned back to Pipsqueak who was looking at her, waiting for an answer.

“I have nothing to say that you don’t already know,” Alex said vaguely. “I transferred here partway through last year, like you said, and I’m not sure why my potential test came back as it did. Believe me when I say I wish the results had been different. My numerous trips to the Med Ward are because of those‘hard-core classes’—as you so appropriately named them. And didn’t everyone disappear over the summer when term finished for the year?”

Pipsqueak frowned but the truth of Alex’s answers rang clear, despite being somewhat evasive.

“You’re just mysterious,” the small girl said. “We were in the same classes for a good eight months, but none of us know who you are.”

Heads were nodding all around the table and Alex found herself on the defensive. “Is that entirely my fault?” she said to the group as a whole. “Did any of you make an effort to introduce yourselves to me?”

“Whoa, whoa.” Blink raised his hands in surrender. “What our Squeaking-Pippa is trying to say is that we want to get to know you better. Anyone who gets sliced and diced by a knife is, like, seriously awesome. We salute you.”

Alex was too surprised to react when he actually saluted her. She shifted nervously and repeated, “Sliced and diced?”