#ratgrindlr

Kipperlilly's own spring break had been eventful—Porter's knife against her throat while she knelt in front of an alter to another long dead god. She'd had help coming back, but at the end of the day, it'd been her that welcomed in the rage that burned within her chest. Soon she'd bring back a god herself. Soon she'd kill that god and christen Porter the new ruler of her domain.

“You could always talk to her.” Lucy said from her place at Kipperlilly's side.

She kicked Lucy under the table. Her glare remained glued to Kristen Applebees. “Please explain to me why I would ever talk to Kristen Appleebees.”

“Well, you have been staring at her for a while.”

From across the table, Ivy snorted. “Pretty sure she's calling you gay, Kip.”

“If any of you are deluded enough to think that I have any sort of attraction to Kristen fucking Appleebees I suggest you go talk to Jawbone before you hurt yourself.” For the first time since lunch started, Kipperlilly turned away from Kristen Appleebees.

“I believe you, Lilly, don't worry.” Lucy said, and Kipperlilly focused her glare on Lucy.

Lucy pressed her hand to her mouth, poorly suppressing a laugh. “What? Why are you glaring at me now?”

“Really Kipperlilly, you need to learn about to talk to the girls you like without pulling their pigtails. We aren't in middle school anymore.” Oisin added.

***

Kipperlilly glared at Kristen Applebees from across the room. Another Seacaster party raged around her. Music thrummed from the speakers. The scents of milk and vodka and sweat mixed into a truly horrible combination. And the body heat of a hundred or so teenagers crammed into one house left Kipperlilly coated in a thin layer of sweat.

Not very becoming of a presidential candidate. Not that anyone could see Kipperlilly's anyway. She'd kept up invisibility since she slipped into the party, easy to keep tabs on her opponent then. She watched Kristen Applebees with the intensity of the sun that her the unnamed goddess of rage once ruled over.

Her eyes lingered on the sliver of exposed skin where Kristen's tracksuit jacket had slipped off her shoulder, the purple of the sports bra stark against her skin. She blinked, focused back on Kristen Appleebees in the abstract, and not the reality of her across the room.

In the month or so since the start of the school year, Kristen Appleebees's hair had grown a bit more unkempt than it already was. Her bangs were long enough to get into her eyes, and she raised a hand to tuck a few of the worst offenders behind her ear. Kipperlilly's heart rate spiked. It was so horribly presidential, she thought.

She leaned closer to Adaine, whispered something in her ear, but as she leaned closer, some of that horrible milk and vodka combination sloshed out of the red plastic cup and onto her hand. Kristen raised her hand to her mouth and licked the split drink off her hand before it dripped onto the floor. Kipperlilly blinked again.

Kristen Applebees walked away from Adaine then, waved as she walked towards the kitchen.

Kipperlilly pushed herself off the wall and followed. She re-upped her invisibility, just in case. In that moment, in that horribly inopportune moment, Lucy Frostblade haunted Kipperlilly.

You could talk to her. Lucy's words from last spring rattled around in her skull as she followed the path Kristen Appleebees took. She remembered Lucy's hidden laugh, rage bubbled within her chest.

If she saw a flash of blue in the corner of her eye,startled so abruptly that her invisibility dropped, and then realized it was nothing more than a painting of the Hangman on the sea, that was her business

“Didn't take you for the sort to admire art.”

At the sound of Kristen Appleebees's voice, rage grounded Kipperlilly back in Seacaster Manor. “I highly doubt you understand the nuances of admiring art.”

Kristen opened her mouth, shut it as quickly as she opened it, and then downed the rest of her drink. “Fuck it, do you want to make out?”

Kipperlilly clenched her fists, turned to glare at Kristen. Her eyes caught on her lips. “If you tell anyone about this I will bury you, Applebees.”