I smiled, and as I walked away said, “Then you better pick it up. Maybe you’ll get lucky.” Did I really just say that to the guy Amelia liked? I hadn’t meant for it to sound so flirty. Maybe it hadn’t. I needed to stop.

Five minutes before the bell rang the next morning, I walked into class to find Jackson sitting at my desk. “You have information,” he said when I stood beside him, waiting for him to move. “And I need it.”

“You need my notes for algebra? I have horrible handwriting, but they’re yours if you want them.”

“No, I don’t need your notes for algebra. What do I look like, a slacker?”

I tilted my head and evaluated him. He had on a red polo shirt and his hair was combed for once . . . or at least the curls were a bit more tamed. He actually looked like he was ready to deliver a speech.

“Fine. I already know you think I’m a slacker, but that’s not the information I need.”

“Well, spit it out, Holt. The bell is about to ring, and Mr. Kingston does not like your style of humor.”

“He belongs to your Jack-haters club?”

“Membership information is confidential.”

His eyes twinkled with a smile that didn’t reach his lips. “Cider. Where did you get it?”

I laughed under my breath. “That’s the information you want? Well, you’re out of luck. That’s a secret I’m taking to the grave. Now out of my chair.” For some reason, I didn’t want to tell him about the seedy shop just outside of town. It was like I had some sort of leverage over him and I was hanging on to that.

He stood, then kind of whined the words, “Why? You don’t even like cider.”

“Because now I own you.”

It had been a joke, but the way he raised his eyebrows made me blush.

I shoved him and said, “Oh, stop. If you can joke around, so can I.”

“People expect it from me. Things like that from you sound like an invitation.”

I blushed even more.

“See?” he said. “I can deliver a joke.” He leaned close, then said, “You will tell me where to find that cider eventually.”

When he left, I looked around and realized practically everybody was in their seats and staring at me. I quickly sat down. Kendra, the girl who sat next to me said, “When did you two get together?”

“We’re not together.”

“That was a lot of flirting.”

“Jackson is like that with everyone.”

“I wasn’t talking about Jackson.”

Right. She was talking about my behavior, not his. That shut me up.

Twenty-Four

Amelia sat at our normal lunch table with a stack of papers.

“Are you doing homework?”

“Our homework, yes.”

“We have homework?”