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He always sort of stood on his tippy-toes. We all knew it was a sign of sexual frustration. He continued bouncing as he said, “This is Trevor Rockman. He’s going to finish his senior year with us.”
    Hernandez handed some paperwork to Ms. Campbell, the English teacher, while Trevor kind of smiled at all of us but mostly me. Dark, shaggy hair and high cheekbones, dark olive skin, full lips, and eyes like smoldering coals. Okay, I’d read that in a romance novel and it wasn’t his eyes—I was the one smoldering. Something had definitely revved up my pheromones; I was hot and bothered, first for Walker and now this guy. I blushed and looked down. Ms. Campbell offered him the empty seat behind me and to my right. He walked down the aisle and stopped at my desk. I looked up.
    â€œWhat happened to your forehead?”
    â€œKiller crow attack.” It sounded ridiculous. I don’t know why I didn’t lie and say something awesome, like motorcycle accident.
    â€œNot going for a Harry Potter look?”
    I laughed. “Definitely not.”
    He laughed with me. “It’s kind of cute.” And continued to his seat.
    Forget whatever Ms. Campbell said after that, he was all I could think about. Right behind me. I heard every move. Every exhale. I heard his pen scratching in his notebook. When class was over, I was disappointed he rushed out of the room, but then I found him leaning against the opposite wall. He was waiting for me.
    â€œWhat’s your name?”
    â€œOctober. Really.” I added that before he could ask.
    â€œVery nice,” he said. “Really.”
    English class was right before lunch and I found myself walking with him toward the cafeteria. He wasn’t very tall, and he wasn’t drop dead gorgeous or anything, kind of thick with big feet and hands to tell the truth, but he had my motor racing. As we went down the hall, the other kids looked him over, but seemed only as interested as they would be in anyone new. I was the only one having trouble breathing.
    â€œHungry?” he asked.
    â€œNot very.”
    He took my arm and pulled me outside to the breezeway. It stretched between the classroom building and the gym and was where kids used to hang out to smoke back when smoking was allowed. Now it was just a place to gather, smoking forbidden of course, and all the little cliques had their areas. The fountain was for the popular girls so they could sit down together and the sunlight could show off their salon highlights. The corner by the gym was of course for the jocks. The stoners sort of drifted on the steps down to the parking lot. Trevor and I stopped by an empty pillar.
    â€œTell me all the school secrets,” he said. “Who are these people?”
    â€œYour companions for the next three months of your life.” I dropped my voice as I nodded at various kids. “She’s most likely to end up in jail. He’s most likely to fail 11th grade—again. That one? Most likely to be pregnant before graduation. Probably just like the kids at your last school. Why did you transfer so late in the year?”
    â€œUsual. My dad’s job.”
    â€œYou’ve moved a lot.”
    He nodded. He looked kind of sad and I wanted to say something comforting. It had to be hard to come into a school so late.
    â€œStick with me,” I said. “I belong to no cliques and no clubs. I can’t introduce you to anyone because I don’t know their names.”
    â€œSnob,” he said, but he was smiling.
    â€œThat’s me.”
    â€œThank you for allowing me to be your entourage of one.”
    â€œI may forget who you are tomorrow.”
    He gave a funny, shy, sideways look at me and said quietly, “I hope not.”
    My heart thumped. How sweet was that? I was trying to think of a great reply—I might still be trying to come up with that great reply—when Jacob the jock pushed through the double doors