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he’d inquired.
    Megan’s vocal chords had quivered. “Who are
you talking about?”
    Adam nodded in the girl’s direction. “The
girl standing in the middle of the parking lot.”
    Megan laughed. Inside, Adam’s stomach
lurched. The sound of Megan’s laugh made him sick. “Oh that’s
Ellory Graham.”
    Adam snuck in another peek over his shoulder.
“Is there something wrong with her? She’s been standing there for
the last five minutes.”
    Megan threw her head back. “Yeah, lots of
things. That girl is a train wreck.”
    Adam tuned Megan out when she said something
else, but he pretended to find whatever she said hilarious.
    This girl Ellory was interesting and Adam
intended to find out more about her.

Chapter 5: Small Town Life

    Thanks to Wren, I arrive at school early for
the first time in months. After a brief trip to my locker, I enter
my first period English Lit class, slide into my desk with a quirky
grin, and let out an elated sigh.
    Wren walks in and looks at me puzzled. “I
don’t know what’s with you today. The Ellory Graham I know would
never be excited to be in school.”
    “The Ellory Graham you know spent eleven
hours in a field yesterday, farming. School is like heaven compared
to that,” I fire back.
    “That sucks that Mr. Anderson called your
mom.”
    “I kind of had a feeling he would.” No I
didn’t. I’d hoped that he wouldn’t. But, unfortunately for me,
nothing ever goes my way.
    Wren’s eyes shift toward the door and I
follow her gaze. Katie eyes the room warily then walks in. She
takes small cautious steps and turns her body, like I have some
rare infectious disease as she breezes past me. “Hey Katie!” I get
her attention. “Love the make-over. Black and blue looks good on
you.”
    Katie drops her head and mutters, “Shut up.”
Then she plops down in her seat.
    Students whisper amongst each other. The
sound of the pencil sharpener grinds and hums, shaving away bits
and pieces of wood. Paper rustles as everyone flips through pages
of their notes. Footsteps thud and echo and I spin around dreading
the expected arrival of Mrs. Winkle. But that’s not who’s standing
in the door.
    An enticing scent creeps up my nostrils. I’m
shrouded by a haze of Aqua di Gio bliss and I don’t mind drowning
in it for a while. Adam stifles a look around the room.
    I’m staring at him. At his blue-green eyes.
His long dark lashes. His profound clenched jawline. I’ve never
seen a boy that looks like him. He’s beautiful.
    I catch myself staring. He probably thinks
I’m a creeper.
    Don’t look at him. Don’t look at him.
    Dropping my gaze, my eyes burn into the empty
desk next to my left.
    Do not sit there. Do not sit there.
    He sits there.
    Turning away, I inhale him again. His smell
is intoxicating and overwhelming and I have to talk myself out of
planting my nose on his shirt to inhale him further.

    Then he speaks to me. “Do you have a pen I
can borrow?”
    His voice is deep, yet eloquent. I replay his
question over and over again in my mind before I get a hold of
myself. What am I thinking? I don’t even like this kid. After
pulling out my supplies I keep my vision glued to the chalkboard.
“No,” I tell him.
    He’s shocked. “What?”
    “I said no. Would you like me to repeat it?
No.”
    Adam’s eyes study my face and then he glares
at my desk. “But you have two on your desk,” he says, a hike of
curiosity in his tone.
    I snatch the pens and hold them. “So they’re
mine.”
    If this guy is as big of a genius as Wren
says he is, don’t you think he’d remember to bring his own supplies
to class?
    A loud shuffling catches my attention and
Adam and I turn in unison as Katie frantically digs through her
purse. She whips out a pen and holds it up like its Excalibur and
she’s just plucked from the rock. “I have one, Adam,” she gushes.
“I have a pen.”
    I face Adam as he rises from the desk. “I
wouldn’t touch that if I were you,” I tell him.