Chapter 1

“Addie! Come on, class is over and I don’t want to be late to lunch.” Addie blinked rapidly as the daydream ended, leaving her with only a vague sense of dejavu. She made a sound of question, glancing up at Sam who was now tugging on her arm impatiently. Addie stood and began stuffing papers and pencils into her bag while her best friend chatted animatedly about the latest school gossip. Quickly donning the heavy book bag, she headed towards lunch. While Sam continued to ramble, Addie let her mind wander back to her latest daydream. She felt like she should remember it, but like all the others, it stayed stubbornly just on the tip of her tongue. The blurry figures made it impossible to know who was in it, but she was dying to know. She felt like it was vital she find out.

      “Addie!” Sam’s raised voice snapped her back to reality. Addie quickly realized she had stopped and was staring blankly at the wall outside of the cafeteria.  

      “What has you so entranced? You’ve never stared off into space like this before,” Sam’s blue eyes bore into her green ones, demanding an answer. Addie fidgeted nervously under her intense gaze before blowing off the question with what she hoped was a casual shrug and entered the doors of the cafeteria. She felt Sam stare at her retreating back for a few moments before hurriedly catching up. They went out the back doors and sat down at their table. Addie unpacked her peanut banana sandwich, enjoying the warmth from the sunshine.

      “Did you hear,” Sam asked excitedly, almost bouncing up and down on the bench.

      “Hear what?”

      “There’s gonna be a new kid on Monday. He’s in our grade.” Normally Addie would ignore Sam’s gossip talk, but this subject piqued her curiosity.

      “What’s he coming here for? It’s the middle of the semester of his senior year.” Sam waved her hand dismissively.  “Probably his mom or dad has a job that makes them move around a lot. I can’t wait to see him. I wonder if he’s hot, or has a hot brother, or maybe he’s rich…” Sam’s voice faded into the background as the hairs on the back of Addie’s neck rose. Her head snapped up, searching around for the source of the feeling. She glanced warily at the woods lining the edges of the courtyard, but the search came up empty and the tingling began to recede. Addie focused back on her friend’s rambling.

      “Maybe he has black hair. Like a bad boy type. Blonde? Brunette?” She scrunched up her nose in thought.

      “We’ll find out on Monday Sam. Lunch is ending.” Right as Addie finished saying that, the bell thankfully rang, saving her from listening to more of Sam’s romantic ponderings.

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                The weekend passed in a whirlwind. Addie had to complete a list compiled of what had to be a million chores: everything from cleaning the house to mowing the lawn to scrubbing the tile floors in the kitchen where a stain that looked strangely like vomit had seeped stubbornly into the grout. By Monday, her arms were loudly protesting every movement. She rolled her shoulders several times by the end of first period to relieve the tension built up there. Rounding the corner of the hallway as she was rolling her neck around, she slammed into something very solid causing books to go in every which direction.

      “Sorry!” The instinctual apology escaped her lips before she had a chance to see who she ran into. Looking up, the sight made her mouth gape open slightly and another sorry to mumble out as she gazed in awe. The hottest guy she had ever seen stood before her. Everything from his dark hair to his strong, masculine face screamed hot. He had on a black shirt with dark blue jeans. He had high cheek bones and a nice straight nose settled above a nice pair of full lips that were at the moment pulled up into a snarl. Addie quickly looked into his eyes, noticing vaguely that they were as dark as his hair.

     His eyes held hers with an intensity that seemed to pull her into their depths with every passing second. She couldn’t have looked away if she wanted to. His lips parted to talk to her, and Addie felt her hopes crash as he spoke.

      “Watch where you’re going clumsy.”