Upgrade (Augmented Duology Book 2) by Heather Hayden (best reads .TXT) 📗

had passed notes with someone? Maybe last year, before things happened and Neela stopped talking with me.

I caught a glimpse of her, sitting on Dan’s other side, watching the note I had returned. The unmasked curiosity in her eyes was worth the chance of being caught by Mr. Brown, although, honestly, I probably could have stood up and done a jig on my desk without him blinking an eye.

Dan poked my arm with a pencil, making me jump. He smiled and nodded, then looked down and scribbled in his notebook, as though he hadn’t done anything.

The bell finally rang, and Dan waited for me at the door. Neela stayed close as well, edging her way between us as we headed for the cafeteria.

“What are you doing later?” she asked. “Would you like to check out the mall today?”

Though the question was obviously directed at Dan, I took the opportunity to shake my head. “I have plans this afternoon.”

She tossed a frown in my direction. “That’s too bad.” Liquid brown eyes blinked up through her bangs at Dan. “How about you? I know Mel and Annabeth are busy, too, but we could go. Just the two of us. It would be fun.”

“I have plans, too,” Dan said. “Maybe tomorrow?”

“More unpacking?” Neela pouted.

He shook his head and moved past her to join the lunch line. She shot a glare at me, but I simply shrugged and gave her an innocent smile. We collected our trays and joined Mel and Annabeth at our usual table. Neela dragged Dan into a conversation about their Advanced Ceramics class. Mel tried to join in at first, but Neela cut her off at every opportunity, and eventually Mel slumped in her seat and poked at her fruit salad. Annabeth rolled her eyes at me and sank her teeth into a sandwich. Neela dominating the conversation was nothing new, but it rankled seeing her treat Mel like that. Should I say something? Nothing came to mind, so I focused on eating instead.

Eventually the conversation lulled, and Mel took the chance to jump in. “Dan, you said you want to be a scientist. Are your parents scientists?”

His mouth was full of salad, so he nodded.

Neela latched onto the new topic. “What kind of work do they do?”

Dan swallowed. “I’m not sure. It’s classified.”

“What field of research are they in?”

“That’s classified, too.” Dan looked across the table at Annabeth and me. “We have practice for track after school today, right?”

“Yes,” Annabeth answered. “Only for an hour, though.”

“Good. I can do that.”

I shook my head, unable to believe I’d forgotten track practice. “I can’t. Something came up.”

Annabeth patted my shoulder. “No worries. I’ll tell Betty Jean you’ll do extra training this weekend to make up for it.”

I laughed. “Great, thanks.”

After lunch, Dan, Mel, and I headed to English class. I caught Mel’s arm as we reached the door.

“Can I ask you something?” I said quietly.

Eyebrows raised, she nodded.

Dan glanced at us, and I waved him in. “We’ll be just a minute.”

“What is it?” Mel’s mouth twisted down. “Do you want me to switch seats?”

“What? No!” Where did she get that idea? “I wanted to ask you about Neela. She was really rude during lunch—”

“Oh, that?” Mel shrugged and fiddled with the strap of her backpack. “Don’t worry about it. She’s just having a rough time. Her boyfriend dumped her early in the summer, called her a…” she mumbled the word too quietly for me to catch “…and she’s been single since. She’s never had much trouble finding a new fling before, so I think she’s feeling a bit desperate. And Dan’s so nice…” A wistful look brushed across her face for a moment. “He’s clearly not interested, but she doesn’t want to see that. She’s convinced herself he’s playing hard to get.”

“That’s no excuse for the way she treated you.” My voice rose without my intention, and several students glanced our way as they headed into the classroom. I lowered it again. “I’ve seen her chase guys before, but this is crazy. She’s never let it affect friendships before.”

Mel half-smiled. “Actually, that’s not true. You’ve never noticed because you always saw her as your best friend. She couldn’t do any wrong. And that’s how she saw you too. Sweet Viki, who has no interest in romance and wasn’t any threat to her. That’s why the whole augment thing,” she winced, “upset her so much. You were the perfect friend, and suddenly you weren’t.”

My jaw dropped. This was a side of Neela I’d never heard of. “I thought she was upset because of her uncle—”

“That’s part of it. And part of it is our parents’ fault, too. There were a lot of lectures about the dangers of mixing augments with upgrades, choosing our friends wisely, etc.” Mel sighed. “It was easier to just fall back into our old routine. Friends since birth.”

“Is that why you and Annabeth still hang out with her?” The question slipped out before I could stop it, drawing a second, unspoken query after it. When did I decide I didn’t want to keep trying to be Neela’s friend? I wasn’t sure I knew the answer, but that conviction grew stronger the longer I considered it. I don’t want to be friends with someone who would treat their friends like that. Was I just trying to fall back into the old routine, too? If I hadn’t met Dan, would we have eventually patched things up?

“We’ve had arguments before.” Mel shifted her weight from one foot to the other. “We’ve always made up after them. At least until…”

“…until last spring,” I finished for her, my heart sinking.

Mel nodded. “She was away most of the summer, but she didn’t chat with us as often as she usually would. We thought she was just busy, and when