Raoullooked at him closely.  You got stuff on your mind 

 Yeah, I guess.

 She doingokay  I haven t seen her around a lot lately.

 Huh Oh, Nita.  They went into the classroom together and took seats near the back wall. There was no assigned seating in Mack s class, which meant there was always a rush for the rearmost seats, everybody s desperate attempt to be somewhere that would make Machiavelli less likely to call on them  not that sitting in the back ever seemed to work.  She s okay, pretty much.  Kit paused, watching the room fill up hurriedly no surprise since Mack made the lives of latecomers a question-filled hell.  I mean, as okay as she can be under the circumstances.

Raoullooked at Kit with interest.  So if you weren t going all vague about her just now, then what s on your mind 

 Oh, just home stuff 

The bell rang.Saved ! Kit thought. With the bell came Machiavelli, moving fast, as always, five feet tall and balding, in a blue suit and wearing a red tie ornamented with the images of many tiny yellow rubberduckies . The suit never changed, but the tie changed every day, and in the few seconds of fascination it produced, Mr. Mack would always pick the unfortunate student who looked most off guard and start peppering him or her with questions.  Rodriguez,  he said, and Kit s heart sank.  You ready for our little quiz today 

Wizards do not lie; too much depends on the words they use seriously for them to play fast and loose with the less serious ones.  I don t know, Mr. M., but I think I m about to find out.

Machiavelli grinned at him. Kit restrained the urge to groan out loud, and once again wished it wasn t unethical for a wizard to use his powers to read the closed textbook in his backpack. All he could do now was pray for the bloodshed to be over with quickly.