I snatched my bag off the floor and followed Knox out to the field. The three laps went by faster than usual. My thoughts were on Bay, on capturing that frown on paper and hearing her song again.

10

Bay

There were holes in the drop ceiling overhead. This classroom doubled as the detention classroom and most mornings we started the day with a pencil left by a disgruntled detention dweller clattering onto someone’s desk.

Mrs. Franklin stood at the front of the class calling ten minutes for us to get started on our group project.

I’d never hated school. It wasn’t my favorite place, but I didn’t hate learning, stage crew and hanging out with Piper. Some things were unpleasant, like the cold snap that had ripped through town, leaving me nearly frozen to my bike this morning. Wasn’t spring supposed to be just around the corner?

The whole being invisible thing got to me initially, but then I got used to it. I faded into the background. Most people didn’t care enough to learn my real name—I was The New Girl even though others had joined the school after me.

So, it was decidedly disconcerting to be the center of someone’s attention. Dare, in particular. He kept staring.

Third period history had become the most dreaded period of my life. Was he slipping cash under the table to Mrs. Turner?

After going over our final project for the class before our exam, she stood up front and read out the names of our groups. We’d have ten minutes at the end of class to rearrange our desks and go over the paper and presentation work due in two weeks. Which is how I ended up in the unfortunate position of being seated, not ten feet away from Dare, but less than ten inches from him.

In his desk this close, he was larger than life. His jeans hugged his powerful legs. He felt barely contained in the classroom and for the first time I felt a spark of what all those other girls probably felt watching him on the field and in the hallways. My body shifted, leaning in, imperceptibly closer.

I squeezed my hands under my desk and dropped my head, shaking it. No, I wasn’t going to become one of those girls. I wasn’t going to start fawning and getting tongue-tied around him, blushing and giggling.

Dare, Michelle, Brian and I were stuck working together, and from the faces in our square of silence, no one was happy about it.

Michelle took charge as she always did. It’s what valedictorians do.

“We can meet in the library to work together.”

“I have play practice.”

“Shirking your educational responsibilities.” Dare tsked and rocked back in his chair, balancing on the back two legs of the desk. His gaze locked onto me like we were the only two people in the room. This time, though, my stomach wasn’t doing the butterfly flutter. It was knotted and tight, a churning volcano pre-eruption.