"Ah, man," says Whitney. "I haven't even thought about mom. She's probably freaking about what happened at the school."

She doesn't, however, suggest calling her. She's smarter than that. She rolls her eyes and flips her bangs, takes another sip of her mocha, seemingly lost in thought for a moment.

"Planetary was a big help," she says, after a long pause. "Although sometimes I wasn't sure of he just dumped me here to deal with the vampires situation, or if I was a lab rat, or what. Tell the truth, we never heard from them again once we were settled."

She stops and thinks about it.

"But I guess he was watching, or else you wouldn't have been here when the bad guys showed up. Who were they, anyway?"

Another sip of mocha.

"I'm sorry about your friend. You think he's OK?"