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That had not been a good thing to let slip. Jace drew up a chair, tired of looming, and turned it around so that she was straddling it from behind. "Because Irelia," she said, "is my best friend, okay, so I want to know what the damn hell you just meant by that."

Wow. Having a best friend meant you could heavy up other people on their behalf. That was great. Attempt to heavy, anyway, as Antony was a brick wall of un-heavied. When she was grown up she was going to kickbox him into oblivion and get his stupid shiny hair all muddy.

"Okay," said Jace. Antony had just given her carte blanche to turn up at his room at midnight, jump on him when he was in the men's bathrooms or generally turn up whenever she wanted so long as it wasn't in public, so that was great. She could accept that.

"It was pretty cool." She tilted her head, letting her hair fall over her face. "Once I stopped, you know, coughing my lungs out. We had mambas in our garden. I killed like twenty of them. No offence to your snake."

"Do you think she's going to graduate to, like, hamsters?" Not the greatest biology student, it was obvious to Jace that hopefully Polk Sally would one day reach python-like proportions and could eat people. "Or cats -- "

"Jaaa~aaace," another voice sang out, "here's your lunch!"

A pretty little blonde girl appeared out of nowhere and scrubbed at Jace's hair: Jace immediately looked murderous and pissed-off, though she took the brown paper bag that Wisp was proffering and immediately took the BLT sandwich out of it. "Oh, hey, Antony," she said, and she stuck out her hand in greeting. "Wow, you've grown. Nice one! Do you recognise me?"

"How could he not, retard," said her sister. "You're the only person in school who looks like you lost a fight with a paint bucket. Get lost."

"Wow, really?" Wisp seemed as surprised as she was impressed. "Well, she talks about you all the time, so I guess you're her favourite student!"

Even as Jace made vomiting noises, Wisp hopped from foot to foot. "Anyway, what I wanted to say is," she said, "I was talking to the caretaker in the cafeteria, and HE said -- "

"THE GYM IS OPEN! WHO WANTS TO PLAY SARDINES?!"

This was shouted in a voice that echoed off Mars: Wisp had cupped her hand over her mouth and addressed every child attending Liberty school, and possibly every child attending every school in the vicinity. Jace groaned: sardines was a seriously lame game, and why everyone liked playing it was beyond her. One person was chosen to go and hide -- and the nooks, crannies, ropes, hidey-holes and general layout of the gym and assorted five storage rooms around it made it perfect for the game -- and then everyone went to look for them. Rather than tag the person out once they were found, the person had to squish into the hiding place with the hidee, and so it went on until there was nobody left.

Wisp smiled angelically, as though she hadn't just bellowed so loudly it could be heard from space. "Sardines is way more fun than basketball," she said, "even if Chris wins all the time at basketball. Do you want to come play, Antony? Though I suppose you're totally too grown up for that now!"