Where The Ice Gives Way (Charlotte and Blake) novel Chapter 226

Chapter 226 The New, New Girl

Charlotte

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I pretend not to notice how tightly Emily’s fingers curl around the papers from the office, because I know that feeling,too w

Being the new kid is never easy. Everyone thinks the hard part is finding classrooms and remembering teachers’ names, but more than that. It is walking into spaces where everyone else already knows where to stand, who to sit with, which stairs get

crowded, which teachers smile, and which ones make you wish you had faked being sick.

So I keep my arm linked through hers and lead her into the hallway like this is the most normal thing in the world.

Because it is, or it should be.

I am really surprised by how well she adapts.

We get through homeroom and first period easily enough. She is introduced as the new student and doesn’t shrink when every turns to look at her. Even when our homeroom teacher makes her “share a fun fact,” which should be illegal in every school acr the country, Emily only hesitates for a second before saying she learned to ice skate yesterday and only almost died once.

Annabelle claps like this is a grand achievement, Jessica laughs, and I grin so hard my cheeks hurt.

By third period, Emily manages to find her locker without looking at the map once, which is more than I can say for half the students who have been here for years. When I ask her to lead the way to science, she takes only two wrong turns before catching herself, and she looks so proud about it that I don’t have the heart to point out one of those turns led us directly toward the boys

bathrooms.

The day slips by in the strange, crowded rhythm of school.

Bells. Lockers. Teachers. Notes passed across desks. Students moving in waves from one room to another. Emily learns faces, places, names, systems. The best staircase to use after English. The vending machine that steals coins. The canteen line that looks shorter

but somehow takes twice as long.

I will admit, she is a little rusty on science, and her Spanish is non-existent. And when the maths teacher starts talking about equations, she looks at me with the quiet horror of someone who has just realised numbers can become letters.

But the girl said she wanted normal, and this is normal. Messy, loud, confusing, and occasionally requiring a sacrifice to the gods of

algebra.

She handles it all better than I expected. Better than Theo, honestly.

Every time I catch sight of him between classes, he is looking for her. His eyes scan the hallway until they find her, and then his shoulders loosen like his whole body has been waiting for proof she’s still alive.

By fourth period, she corrects him when he tries to walk her to a classroom three doors away. I watch from my locket as she touches

11:08 Thu, Jul 23 TdO

Chapter 226 The New, New Girl

his arm and says something too quiet for me to hear.

Charlie is not much better today, though his problem has nothing to do with mate bonds and everything to do with Jessica.

He is a quiet disaster.

Jessica walks beside him between classes, and Charlie looks like every thought he owns has been shaken loose and scattered a the floor. He opens the wrong locker. Drops his pen twice. Nearly walks into a rubbish bin because jessica laughs at/something

says and Charlie turns his head too fast.

I should be laughing. I mean, I am laughing. But beneath it, something softer twists in my chest, because Jessica is human, and

Charlie is very much not.

It’s one thing for him to have a crush. It is another thing entirely for that crush to start smiling back at him like that. Our world complicated enough when everyone involved knows the rules. But humans do not know about mate bonds, wolves, pack law, instincts, the moon, or the thousand little truths we tuck beneath our skin every day.

What happens if he really falls for her?

What happens if she falls back?

What happens if the universe has a different plan waiting somewhere neither of them can see?

I have so many conflicting thoughts, but he looks happy. Really happy. And after everything my brother has carried, I don’t have it in me to question something out loud when it puts that look on his face.

Lunch finally comes, and we all decide to eat outside and enjoy the sunshine.

The boys are already at one of the outdoor tables near the edge of the oval, bags dropped in a messy pile beneath it.

Theo sits sideways on the bench with Blake beside him, and I see Charlie pretend very hard not to notice Jessica approaching, but

not hard enough.

Jessica sits beside him, and he moves to make room for her.

I slide onto the bench beside Blake, and he leans over to kiss my temple before stealing one of my chips.

“Hey,” I scold him.

“You love me.”

“I love my chips.”.

He grins and steals another one.

Emily sits between Theo and me, and he rests his hand behind her on the bench, fingers brushing the back of her blazer,

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Chapter 226 The New, New Girl

Annabelle launches into a dramatic retelling of our maths teacher losing his whiteboard marker and blaming the entire cl

we had organised a marker heist. Jessica laughs around her drink, and Emily listens with bright eyes, her shoulders finally

smile coming easier now.

It hits me then, sharp and sweet, that this is what we fought so hard to reach. This ordinary little mess. A lunch break with

chips and bad jokes and Charlie going red because Jessica’s knee keeps brushing his beneath the table.

Theo says something to Blake about training after school, and Charlie groans about hockey practice. The boys fall into their conversation, all schedules and drills and who is apparently going to destroy who on the ice later.

The girls drift into ours.

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