Starting school three days after your dad was plastered all over the news as Juniper Shores’ most wanted was, um, not the greatest. It was like all the girls’ moms had specifically told them not to mention it, so they walked around like, “Oh, hey, Iris,” in these really squeaky, high-pitched voices and then ran off to their corners to be awkward. I mean, whatever. I can handle it. My only real friend in first-period Honors English was Ben, anyway. I loved my girls, but they were in English 1. Plus, if I had to choose one friend for right now, it would be Ben.

“Hey, girl,” he said in a faux high-pitched voice, sauntering over to me in his Peter Millar khakis and matching collared shirt, our school uniform, the uniform that I was wearing for the fourth year, which seemed hard to believe. Ben was cute. Like, really cute. He was taller than most of the boys in our class and had soft brown hair that got blondish and surfer-like in the summer. He had to cut it during the year because boys’ hair can’t touch their collars here at this prison they call school that basically serves to completely subvert our individuality. Subvert was one of our summer vocab words, and I was super into it.

Anyway, Ben was cool. And I know how that sounds, but I didn’t like him. Not like that. Or maybe sometimes I thought I did? But I’d seen enough movies to know that making out with your best friend meant he wasn’t your best friend anymore. I mean, sure, on TV it’s because he was destined to be your great love who had been there all along and you lived happily ever after. But we were in ninth grade, so happily ever after seemed unlikely.

“Hey,” I said to Ben, dropping my shiny, happy, everything-is-great-even-though-we-lost-all-our-money-and-my-dad’s-in-prison act. He hugged me. He smelled like the ocean and the woods and something a little spicy. If I thought about it, he was obviously wearing cologne. But I liked it better when that was just the smell of Ben.

“I’ll pay for your cookie in the lunchroom from now on,” he said, grinning at me. “Because I know that was your primary concern.”

We both laughed. I was surprised I could think something was funny, but I really did. I think because I knew Ben loved me no matter what.

“For real. You okay?”