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into the cool, morning air. The sun was just beginning to touch the tops of the golden trees; a few birds chirped its arrival. I didn’t bother stretching. My leg muscles knew what was coming, and they hummed beneath my skin.
    Across the street, my overweight neighbor suddenly opened his door. His tattered robe gaped open, revealing saggy man boobs that fell nearly to his navy blue boxers. As he bent over to grab a newspaper, the two flaps of skin hung from his chest like slabs of beef. I couldn’t help but stare. Distracted, I took my first step, but when my foot came down it pressed upon something other than flat concrete. My ankle twisted, and I fell to the ground.
    Lying on the porch, only a foot from my front door, was a woman’s shoe. And not one I recognized. It was far too nice to belong to me. It was red with at least three-inch heels, and extremely narrow. It definitely wasn’t my shoe. Even if I bound my feet in Chinese foot wrappings for months, permanently deforming them, my brick-like stubs wouldn’t ever fit into such a shoe.
    I placed the dainty high heel to the side of the porch, wondering where it had come from. I knew it didn’t belong to any lady friend of Jake’s—as if he had any. No woman would tolerate a man who woke up at noon and played video games all day, breaking only for food and the bathroom.
    I stood up and brushed dirt from the back of my sweats. Maybe it would be gone when I returned later. I hoped so. I didn’t know what to do with the thing. I felt guilty throwing away such an expensive shoe.
    My legs jumped. “All right. I’m going,” I said to no one.
    After pulling my jacket hood over my head, I took off in a sprint, not stopping for anything. It felt exhilarating running at full speed, and not getting the least bit winded. I leapt over fences, slid over parked cars, sidestepped traffic. At one point, to turn a corner sharply, I ran up the side of a brick wall and then twirled in the air, completing a perfect 360. I felt like a freerunner.
    The people up this early, the dog walkers, joggers, or other kids on their way to school, stared in awe as if I weren’t human. I didn’t stop to think how I was drawing attention to myself until I heard a little boy cry, “Look, Mommy—Supergirl!”
    I stopped in my tracks, suddenly frightened by my behavior. What was I thinking?
    After collecting myself, I forced my somewhat relaxed body back onto the sidewalk. My muscles received the burst of energy they required, but I knew it was only a matter of hours, if not minutes, before they’d need it again. I removed my hood and smoothed my hair into a neat ponytail. Casually, I proceeded down the street as if I was nothing more than an average seventeen-year-old girl on her way to high school.
    At Highland High the halls were beginning to fill. The first bell wouldn’t ring for another fifteen minutes. I’d arrived too early. Now what was I going to do?
    I was about to close my locker and head to the library when all of a sudden Christian appeared. Why? Why? Why? I closed my eyes and wished him away. When I opened them back up, he was still there, wearing a blue shirt and black suit jacket. I wanted to pretend I hadn’t seen him, but that would’ve been very difficult to do seeing how he was standing directly in front of me.
    “Hey, Llona.”
    “Hey.” I looked past him down the hall. Maybe if I appeared like I was waiting for someone, he’d leave me alone. His sudden interest in me the last few weeks made me nervous.
    Accidentally, my eyes passed over his. A lone speck of brown in his right, blue eye stood out like my uncle Jake at a Celine Dion concert. Inwardly, I groaned. Why did I have to see that speck?
    “So basketball tryouts are today, right?” he asked.
    “That’s what I hear.” Act casual.
    “Weren’t you on the team last year?”
    “Much to everyone’s dismay.”
    “What does that mean?”
    “Oh, I’ll make it all right, but give it two weeks and the coach