Starbound: A Starstruck Novel by Brenda Hiatt Page A

should have been more careful with it. And if you post that picture from your computer, it’ll be super easy to trace it to you.”
    “You—!” Her hand flashed out to slap my face, but I was much too quick for her and instinctively whacked her hand aside with a taekwondo block.  
    “We’re not on the playground now, Trina. Your days of beating me up are over. Or do you plan to have your posse hold me down, like you used to do in elementary school?” But the other girls had backed away, joining the loose circle that had formed around us, watching avidly.
    Trina’s eyes narrowed nastily. “I could always take you, Marsha, posse or not, and I still can.” Her pretty face distorting into something almost bestial, she aimed a punch at my nose. Though I dodged, she caught me in the shin with one of her pointy boots, then immediately lunged at me again.
    I easily danced aside, her swinging fist missing me by several inches. “Give it up, Trina. You played a really rotten trick and paid for it with your phone. Let’s call it even.”
    “Even? Not a chance! I’m sick of you getting everything I want!” She shoved her phone into her pocket and rushed me, both hands ready to claw my face. Fast as she was coming, it still seemed like she was moving in slow motion. I waited until the last possible instant to sidestep her. With no time to stop or change direction, Trina slammed so violently into the table behind me that she doubled over and smacked her face hard onto its top, scattering abandoned lunch trays.
    She screamed and whirled around, green Jell-o and blood streaming down her face. “How did you—? Where—? You broke my nose!” She flung out an accusing hand, pointing at me.
    “Me? Everybody here saw what—”
    “Girls, is there a problem?” It was vice-principal Pedersen, the “Warden.” Over his shoulder, I saw Ms. Harrigan, an Echtran who’d been posing as a student teacher to keep an eye on me since before Christmas, watching with shocked disapproval. Great.
    “Yes!” Trina cried, still pointing. “Marsha attacked me without provocation, Mr. Pedersen, and broke my nose!”
    A babble of voices broke out, some supporting Trina’s story and others denying it, but when Mr. Pedersen held up a hand it stopped.  
    “To the office, girls. Both of you.”
    Trina looked like she wanted to argue, but I followed docilely. The sight of Trina’s blood had brought me abruptly—and belatedly—to my senses.  
    What was wrong with me? I was a blue belt in Taekwondo and a Martian with extra-human reflexes and strength. I could have kept Trina from hitting me without making her hurt herself, or using abilities in public that would prove to everyone I really was a freak. When word got back to the Council—and I was sure Ms. Harrigan would see to that—I’d be in way bigger trouble than anything the school might do to me.
    When we reached the front office, Mr. Pederson made us sit down and called the school nurse over to deal with Trina’s nose.
    “Is it going to heal crooked?” she whined as the nurse mopped her up and tried to stanch the bleeding. “Will I need plastic surgery? Omigod, the cheerleading banquet is Friday night! I can’t accept my award with my nose all bandaged up!”  
    Principal Johannsen came out then to see what was going on, so Mr. Pedersen left our questioning to her and headed back to the cafeteria to talk to the students who’d witnessed the “fight.” Trina tried hard to convince the principal I’d attacked her for no reason but by now I’d recovered enough composure to give my side of the story.
    “That’s enough.” Principal Johannsen’s voice cut through our escalating accusations about who’d started it (Trina’s totally false). “You know the policy about fighting in school. Until Mr. Pedersen sorts things out, you’re both suspended from classes. Marsha, it will be up to your aunt and uncle to decide whether you may still go to Ireland. Now, go sit on