CHAPTER TWELVE: Ally and I walked to our next class, which we actually had together, Spanish. We waited by the door with the little crowd of other students while she caught me up on how ridiculous our Spanish teacher apparently was. Mr. Hall was supposedly a horrible teacher in that he waved his master’s degree around and demanded that the class respect him for it. He also supposedly had terrible class management skills but most of the class’ nonsense faded away on its own already because the class was just totally over him. Fun. “Oh crap! I almost forgot!” Ally exclaimed, a huge grin on her face. She whispered, “Sean is in this class.” She wiggled her eyebrows and I laughed so hard I nearly snorted when none other than Sean himself showed up. “Ladies,” he greeted. He just stood there next to us, like he has been our friend for years. He leaned over to me, “You didn’t say you were in this class. Might make it actually worth going to.” “I, uh, didn’t realize. Still getting my fi

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: I watched from a safe distance as she crossed the next street. Something had made her smile. I wanted it to be me, who made her smile. I felt anger rising. It better not have been that giant clumsy fool she was just speaking to. She couldn’t be interested in him. Could she? Why couldn’t she just know it was me. I’m the one she has to be with. I need her. I continue to follow from across the street, using the cars along the way to block her view of me. I wouldn’t want to startle her. I need to know her. I need to study her without her knowing before I reveal myself. The real me. She looks up again from her phone to cross the next street. Smart girl. For a normal human she seems to be pretty aware of her surroundings. Almost at the elementary school now. I should be able to blend in with the crowd. I did that on our last walk. I have to stay calm though, if I get too comfortable she might sense me like yesterday. She nearly looked right at me from the bottom of the st

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: “Hey, um, Rachel?” I slowed down my charge and turned to see Kyle looking at me with… hope or something close to it in his eyes. “Oh hey” I said back. “Were you still up for the grand tour at some point? I figure you’ve already been around pretty much the whole place - but maybe?” He asked as we kept walking. We approached the courtyard and were hit with direct sunlight. “Yeah, sure, I’m still up for it. When were you thinking?” I asked back. I was very curious about this very odd guy. We slowed our walk to a crawling pace. “Great!” He exclaimed. “Maybe, after school today? Can we meet right back here?” “Rachel,” Sean said from a few paces away, beckoning me over. I turned back to Kyle, “Sorry, I’ve got some plans off campus after school. Maybe tomorrow, like Break?” Kyle seemed to just notice Sean’s approach and quickly said, “Okay, see yeah,” before retreating back the way we came. Sean walked up to me, uneasy. “That’s not him right? The guy who was givin

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: He held my hand all the way to his car and opened the front passenger side door for me. It felt really intimate and old school. But really sweet. We were now driving down, out of the student parking lot. He had his signal on to make a left turn, and after a break in traffic we turned onto the street. He glanced over and smiled at me. My palms started to sweat, I had been so excited for this and now suddenly I was overcome with nervousness. He made another turn and turned up the radio in the car, some song by The Weeknd was playing and he started singing along to it. Scratch that, belting along to it. And his voice was awful! It somehow made him more real to me, like not everything about it was totally perfect. His comfort singing like this in front of me, not holding back was really endearing. It made me smile, and I tried to hold in a chuckle. “Excuse me?” Sean asked, in a teasing tone, “Are you laughing at moi?” I just laughed him off and started singing along

CHAPTER TWENTY: Jake didn’t try talking or messaging me back the whole ride to Pacific. I relaxed a little in my seat. I glanced over at him a few times over the course of the drive, but he always seemed to be looking elsewhere, shoulders down like a guilty puppy. When we pulled up to Pacific, he got up first and took a step towards the back of the bus to let me pass, not saying a word or giving me a single glance. I led the group off the bus and into the school. Once inside Melanie caught up to Angela, June and I. “So, how is Anthony this morning? Positively glowing now that you finally gave in?” Angela teased, elbowing Melanie gently. Melanie turned pink all over, the blush immediately contrasting with her dark almond eyes. She playfully swatted Angela away. “You are the one who is to blame for all this you know,” June pointed out to Angela. “She probably would’ve never spoken to him again if it weren’t for that party you dragged us to last weekend. They’ve been texting for days