I jolted internally, realizing my massive slip. Ms. Ask Me Anything knew about a variety of places to get birth control sans a parent’s consent. The virgin Amber whose mom picks up her pills for her shouldn’t have a clue. “You legit just had it up on your phone,” I said, trying to sound nonchalant about it even though I couldn’t have possibly read the entire post in the brief time she had it up.

“Duh.” She narrowed her gaze. “And whoever Ask Me Anything is, she’s been on point so far, right?”

“I don’t know. I don’t follow her religiously.”

“You should!” Hannah waggled her eyebrows. “She’s legit amazing.” She glanced around the hallway, the place thin with students since school had ended. “I keep wondering who she is.”

My skin tightened, like the jolt to my senses could somehow shrink me so much she wouldn’t be able to see what I was hiding.

“You know Regent Academy ran a piece about the blog in their paper?”

“What?” I snapped.

“Yeah,” she said, adjusting her bag on her shoulder. “Jake and I saw it when we went to Carla’s party Friday night.”

The same night I was having the best non-date of my life, Hannah was reading about my blog from another school’s paper.

“The girl who wrote the piece was showing it off on her iPad. Said her principal lost her shit over it. Tried to get the journalism professor to take it down, but he refused. Said it was an insightful piece about the ways the peer-led blog is helping students or something.”

A warm petal of pride bloomed in my chest, a small smile shaping my lips. “That’s awesome,” I said, then quickly added, “that a teacher was willing to back his student.”

“Right?” She nodded. “That’s what I said to Jake. There are a lot of cool teachers here, but most of them are terrified of Tanner.” She glanced around like he might pop up at any moment. “Rightfully so. Am I awful when I say I wouldn’t be sad if the board finally pushed him out?”

“No, I completely agree,” I said. “But Ms. Howard is legit.”

“Totally.” Hannah waved enthusiastically as she spied something over my shoulder, and I didn’t need to check to know Jake was headed our way. The sappy look in her eyes said it all. The same one I’m sure happened to me whenever Dean opened his mouth to say…words.

“Hi, Jake,” I said before he’d rounded me to get to Hannah.

“Amber,” he said, scooping Hannah in a hug that lifted her off her feet. “Gorgeous,” he said to her, rubbing his nose along her jaw like he wanted to bathe in her scent.

Maybe if it was something like cedar, Red Bull, and soap.

Dean’s scent.