Read Hello LAlaland (Lost in LAlaland) for Free Online Page B

out of his way like a scared kitten. Chuckling, the boy reached for the locker, pressed his left hand on the top of the metal while he lifted and pulled on the latch with his right, and the door swung open.
    With a sigh of relief, I threw my books inside when he stepped back, and then I turned to him. “Thank you very much for your assistance today,” I told him. The amused look on his face and the way his eyes twinkled told me that I’d done something wrong.
    “What school are you transferring from?” he asked, letting his eyes roam over my conservative, but brand-name clothing.
    “St. Margaret’s . . .” I trailed off softly, watching as his eyes sparkled with humor and understanding. Something else flickered in them, like a fire igniting.
    “Did you have to wear those little plaid skirts?” he asked, leaning in closer to me as his eyes glazed over.
    Wait, what? “Excuse me?” I asked. “Everyone had to wear uniforms.”
    He blinked heavily and pulled himself from wherever his mind had gone, and cleared his throat. “Well, I guess that explains the formality then.” Offering only a shrug, I shut my locker and began to make my way down the crowded hallway. “I’m Anthony, by the way,” the boy said, introducing himself. I hadn’t realized that he’d followed along behind me. “Anthony Ricci. What’s your name?”
    I sighed. This was the part that I was terrible at, getting to know people—especially boys. Spending years in an all-girls school hadn’t exactly made it easy for me to get comfortable around members of the opposite sex. But I reminded myself that he wasn’t actually taking an interest in me. He was just being nice and helpful.
    Finally, when we arrived at my homeroom class, I turned back toward Anthony with a tight-lipped smile. “Winifred Chapman.”
    A bright, gorgeous smirk illuminated his face. He was close enough that I could see his braces were navy instead of the black that I’d first assumed. “Wini Chapman,” he said, addressing me with a nickname that I’d never used before. My family had always called me Winifred, and my closest friends referred to me as Winn. Only moments after meeting him, Anthony had claimed a new name for me.
    “It’s like the Wonder Years. It’s great to meet you, Wini,” Anthony said with his navy-braced smile. “You let me know if that locker gives you anymore trouble, okay?” When my hesitant nod confirmed that I had indeed heard and registered his orders, he shot me a wink and turned around. I stared after him until he disappeared into another classroom.
    Though we very rarely spoke to each other, Anthony always seemed to be around during the rest of the school year. At one point, he’d been going out with one of the girls I was friends with. I was completely jealous of her and had acted cold toward Anthony whenever he tried to speak to me.
    The next time I saw him after summer break had been our first day of high school. Anthony no longer had his braces, and his teeth were perfectly straight and white. He’d also grown at least five inches and was no longer eye-to-eye with me—a fact I became quickly aware of when he stepped into my path before I could enter the school building. I craned my neck to look up at him as I felt my cheeks bloom with color.
    “Hello, there,” he said with a cocky smirk. Dang. His voice had dropped an octave, maybe two, and there was a very light shadow of newfound whiskers on his jawline. My entire body tingled from just being near him. Darn puberty.
    “Hi,” I mumbled, trying to ignore the way my heart was racing and my body was floating and fluttering inside.
    Crooked grin still in place, Anthony pulled a folded piece of paper out of his back pocket and held it up. “What’s your first class, Wini?” I was taken aback at the easy way my name rolled off his tongue. Sure, we’d seen each other every day in the eighth grade, but that had been three months ago, and I didn’t expect someone like him to