“Yes, Miss Rattcliff?” she said, frowning and wiping her hands on the long white apron she wore as she got to us. “What is it? Is there a problem?”
“There certainly is, Mrs. Hornsby.” Nancy widened her eyes innocently. “I was just walking by this table and I saw that new girl’s hair getting into their cake batter.” She pointed at me and made a face, as though what she’d seen had thoroughly disgusted her.
“That’s a lie!” Megan said immediately. “Kaitlyn is very careful to keep her hair out of the way.”
“Not from what I saw, she’s not!” Nancy exclaimed dramatically. “I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s more hair than flour in that batter. Ugh!”
“Mrs. Hornsby, Nancy is just trying to get us in trouble,” Megan insisted.
“No, I’m not!” Nancy looked at the teacher with wide, innocent eyes. “Mrs. Hornsby, I’m not trying to make trouble—I’m only thinking of you. I know you have to taste all our projects to give us a grade, and I didn’t think you’d want to end up with a big wad of hair in your mouth.”
“I most certainly do not.” Mrs. Hornsby glared at Megan and me. “Both of you girls have extremely long hair—you really should be wearing hairnets.”
I felt frozen inside. A hairnet? As in something that would pull my hair completely away from my face and show off my scars? This was as bad as the awful PE class where Coach Vasquez had forced me to put my hair back into a ponytail. Worse, maybe, because everyone in the class would be staring at me while I did it, curious to see what I had been hiding behind my concealing curtain of hair.
“Mrs. Hornsby, this is really unfair to Kaitlyn,” Megan said quickly. “I’ll put my hair back so I can finish the batter and putting the pans in the oven and she can just help with frosting the cake.”
“So that she can shed her nasty hair in the frosting too?” Nancy exclaimed loudly. “Disgusting! Poor Mrs. Hornsby is going to be choking up a hairball like a cat when she gets a bite of your nasty little cake!”
“That will be enough, Miss Rattcliff,” Mrs. Hornsby said sharply, but I could tell Nancy’s words had had an effect on her. “Miss Latimer, get two hairnets from the supply shelf behind you,” she directed Megan. “Both of you are to wear them as long as we are baking and working with food.”
Megan looked like she wanted to protest again, but I gave her a tiny shake of my head. No good could come of making a bigger scene than Nancy already had. Maybe if we just complied quietly, everything would blow over and all the students could go back to working on their baking projects.
Nancy walked back to her own table, a smug smirk on her face and Megan went silently back to the supply shelf and got two hairnets—one for each of us. She handed one to me and then began tucking her own, long auburn hair, into the other one.
I did the same, keeping my eyes down and trying to keep the right side of my face to the room at large while hiding the left side in the shadows. Megan tried to help me by standing in front of me while I tucked my hair up into the net, both of us waiting for everyone else to turn back around and get back to their baking.
Mrs. Hornsby got a look at my scarred face, however. I knew because I heard her catch her breath in what sounded like a horrified gasp. I hoped for a moment that she might let me out of wearing the hairnet after all, but she only paused to gather herself for a moment, then clapped her hands loudly and went back to the front of the class.
“All right, class—eyes on your own baking,” she said firmly. “If your projects aren’t already in the oven, they ought to be going there very soon. Remember, this counts for fifty percent of your grade and I am not inclined to be lenient. You’d better impress me or don’t expect to pass this unit!”
That got everyone’s attention. Faces that were turned towards me in morbid curiosity faced quickly front, their attention back at their own tables. I breathed a minimal sigh of relief, though I still tried to keep my face turned away so that only my right side was clearly visible.
“Kaitlyn, I’m so sorry,” Megan whispered as soon as the teacher was gone and the rest of the class was busy with their own work again. “I never meant for that to happen!”
“It’s okay,” I whispered back, wishing my voice didn’t sound so shaky. “It’s just Nancy being a bitch, as usual.”
“It just goes to prove she doesn’t need magic to be cruel,” Megan said grimly. “Oh, I wish I could use some Blood Magic to get back at her!”
“You can’t though,” I said quickly. “I don’t want you getting into trouble on my account, Megan. Please promise me you won’t.”
“All right then,” she grumbled, looking irritated. “But I still think something ought to be done. Nancy is a horrible excuse for a human being!”
I wanted to tell her she didn’t know the half of it but of course I couldn’t. I knew that if Megan found out what other evil deeds Nancy Rattcliff had been up to, she would certainly retaliate. So I just kept my head down and my face turned away as we slid our cake pans into the closest oven and set the timer.
Somehow, I was going to get through this class, I told myself. And I wasn’t going to let Nancy drive me out of it. Wearing a hairnet was bad, but since this was the end of the baking unit and we were supposed to do sewing next, I shouldn’t have to worry about it
