part0010

Maybe if I sent her an e-mail asking for a new partner, she’d agree to it. She seemed reasonable enough. But then I’d be causing problems on my first day. That seemed like a bad way to start off with a new teacher. But the thought of working with Wes made my stomach twist.

I thought about what Maby had said about him as I walked out of the classroom. Was there more to Wes than what met the eye?

“I guess it’s just you and me.” His voice drifted over my shoulder as he walked up behind me.

“I guess.” I forced myself to turn and face him. “Or we could just each do our own poems and say that we worked on them together.”

“Fi!” He gasped. “That would be dishonest, wouldn’t it?” He fluttered his long dark lashes. “I could never do something like that.”

“Sure.” I looked down at my shoes, then back up at him. “I think it would be best if we did it that way. ”

“I disagree.” He leaned against the locker beside me and stared into my eyes. “I want you, Fi—all to myself.”

His smooth voice made my skin tingle. His words made my muscles tighten.

“I’m going to ask the teacher to switch me to a different partner.” I turned away from him.

“Hey.” He caught my hand and tugged me back. “What are you so scared of?” He smiled as he met my eyes. “I was just playing around. It was just for fun.”

“I’m not having fun.” I pulled my hand away and crossed my arms. “I’m not scared of you, Wes, if that’s what you think. I just don’t think we could work together. You should be paired up with someone else.”

“I’m all you’ve got.” He spread his arms wide. “Take me or leave me, but if we don’t work together, I guarantee you Mrs. Davis will fail you.”

The word “fail” sent a shiver down my spine. I couldn’t allow my first graded assignment to be a failure. More than any other student, I needed to prove that I deserved to be here.

“Fine.” I took a deep breath. “We can meet in the common room tonight to go over the assignment.”

“I’ll be there.” He smirked as he met my eyes. “I’m looking forward to getting to know all your darkest secrets, Fi.”

“Sure, just try to come up with something more emotionally intricate than whatever you did with that girl in the small library.” I rolled my eyes, then turned and walked away from him.

“You’ve been spying on me, Fi?” he called after me and laughed.

My cheeks burned with heat as I quickened my pace to get away from him faster.

For the remainder of my classes I found it impossible to concentrate on much of what the teachers said. Instead, my thoughts kept wandering back to Wes’s stupid laugh. Every time I thought of it, it made my body tense.

After the last bell for the day, I considered my options. Was there a way around this? Maybe I could find someone to trade partners with me and leave the teacher out of it. But I hadn’t made any friends in the class yet. The other students seemed friendly enough, but they already had their friends to talk to and didn’t need to include me.

I peeked into the common room. It was crowded with people. But none of them was Wes. Relieved, I walked through the space and into the hallway that led to the girls’ dormitory. Maybe if I got my poem done first, it would make things easier. Then I would just have to endure helping him with his.

I settled on my bed and began reading over the material again.

Mrs. Davis had mentioned wanting to feel emotions in the poem.

As I read through some of the poetry, I could visualize the pain, the heartbreak, the determination that the poems portrayed. I’d had some of that in my life, though I preferred not to focus on it.

I set down the tablet and settled at my desk instead. As I began to scrawl some words onto paper, each one seemed to hang heavily from the line. I wrote about my absent father by describing the empty spaces in my life. The ball that sat in the grass, never tossed to me. The father-daughter dance fliers that I always passed to the kid behind me in class. But each word I used only made the situation seem more distant, more unreal.

Was that what really caused me pain?

I balled up the paper and tossed it into the trash can. I started a new poem about my excitement to be at Oak Brook Academy. I described the education I longed for, the opportunities I would have as a result of my attendance, and even the hope that I would make some lasting friendships.

As I read it over, it seemed as if my words were lost in a wind tunnel, with nothing to pin them down. Yes, they were grouped together, yes, they described an emotion, but they didn’t have any real meaning.

I balled the paper up and tossed it into the trash.

As I sat back in my chair and closed my eyes, the chimes that indicated it was time for dinner rang out. Immediately, I was flooded with a memory of clutching to my favorite stuffed animal as a fire alarm blared. I held onto it so tight, because I already knew what it was like to lose something and never get it back.

My mind spun from the impact of the memory.

“Fi?” Maby knocked on my bedroom door. “Are you coming to dinner?”

My chest ached from the pounding of my heart. I drew a slow and shaky breath as I got to my feet. Had that even happened? I felt so young in the memory. My mother did tell me that there was a fire in one of the apartment buildings we’d lived in when I was young, but I’d never remembered it before.

“I’m coming.” My hand curved around the cool doorknob. I took another slow breath and pushed the memory from my mind.

“I thought you were never coming out of there.” Maby’s dark eyes raked over mine as she crossed her arms. “I figured you must be busy.”

“Just working on an assignment.” I shook my head. “I got a little caught up in it.”

“Oh, Wes told me about that.” She quirked an eyebrow. “He said you couldn’t wait to work with him. But I know better than that.”

“Wes.” I frowned. “He’s the last person I would ever want to work with.”

“I know that he’s given you a pretty bad impression so far, but he’s not as terrible as he seems.” She pulled open the door to the hallway.

“Do you really believe that or are you saying that just because he’s your friend?” I followed her out into the hall.

“He wouldn’t be my friend if he was a terrible person. I know we probably all seem a little stuck up to you—spoiled, maybe even lazy. But Apple, Candy, Mick, Wes, and I—we’re all friends for a reason. And now you’re our friend too.” She brushed some of my hair back behind my shoulder. “Trust me, if Wes is willing to work on a school project, it’s because he actually wants to spend time with you.”

As we reached the door to the cafeteria she paused, then met my eyes. “Just be careful, Fi. Wes is like a brother to me, but he has his problems and I don’t want to see you caught up in them.” She pulled open the door and stepped inside.

I let the door swing closed behind her. The haunted look in her eyes made me uneasy. One minute she praised Wes, the next she warned me against him. What wasn’t she telling me?