Life Blood: Cora's Choice Book 1

"That's it! Last final!" Lisette let out a whoop and slammed her textbook into the nearest trash can. "Take that, econometrics!"

"You know you could have sold that back," I pointed out. "And anyway, it's not like you even hated the course."

She grinned. "A new edition was published two months ago, and now the university bookstore and Amazon won't pay jack for this one. I've been wanting to do that for three and a half years, but this is the first time one of my textbooks became obsolete the same semester I was using it."

"That kind of defeats the purpose of a grand gesture," Geoff said. "I mean, if it's trash, anyway...."

"Shut up," she said cheerfully. "Let's celebrate." She spied someone else across the green. "Hey, Ross! Sabrina! Come on, let's celebrate!"

Sabrina waved, and they crossed over. "You guys done?" Sabrina asked. Ross Myo had been an economics major, too, before switching to statistics his sophomore year. He'd met Sabrina, a bio major, in the taekwondo club, and she'd become a fixture in our group when we got together.

"They are-until next semester," Geoff said, nodding at me and Lisette. "I've still got a history final in three hours. It's no biggie, though. 100-level core course that I saved for my senior year slack-off."

"When are you guys taking off for break?" Lisette asked.

"Our plane doesn't leave until tomorrow." Sabrina cast a look at Ross. "I'm meeting the 'rents."

"'Rents? Who the heck says 'rents?" Lisette said cheerfully. "I've got to be home by dinner, but my car's already packed, so I've got..." She checked her watch. "Two and a half hours to burn." Lisette lived just outside of Baltimore, in the tony suburb of Ellicott City.

"So what do you want to do?" I asked.

"I don't know. What do young people do these days?" Lisette said, rolling her eyes.

"You know that we're just going to end up playing ping pong at the Stamp," Geoff said.

"Table tennis, please," said Ross in a pained voice.

"You just want it to sound cooler because you always beat us," I said.

"Freaking Asians and their table tennis," Sabrina said, grinning at her Korean boyfriend as they linked arms.

Lisette let out a huff of air. "Fine, then. Be boring. It's not like I have hours to burn figuring out what we're going to do." She stalked toward the Adele H. Stamp Student Union with exaggerated exasperation.

Sabrina chuckled, brushing her thick, straight blonde hair back out of her face. "She's full of something today."

"Final high," I said. "She aced everything. Makes her kind of slap-happy."