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Zoe
Too-hot-for-words Jason spread his arms wide. “This is my home away from home.”
He’d started his tour of her new school in the gym, which was a considerable distance from the main office. But he’d said he would start at the best spot and then work his way back to the English classrooms. She looked around the dark gym. It looked cavernous.
“Actually”—he dropped his arms— “I prefer this home to my other one.”
She looked at him quickly.
“Not that I’m an abused child or anything. I’m not.” He laughed uncomfortably. “My home is fine. I just like it here better.”
Zoe didn’t. She had no use for gyms and was ready to continue the tour.
“You don’t play basketball?”
She shook her head.
“You should. You’re so tall.”
People had been saying this since she popped out of the womb, and every time she heard it, it increased her resolve to never touch a basketball. She shrugged. “Don’t really like sports.”
He stepped closer to her, looking appalled. “We should fix that.” He studied her, and she was glad to notice she was only a hair taller than him. She wished she wasn’t taller at all, but at least she didn’t tower over him. “Was your last school big?”
She shrugged again. “Medium. Couple thousand kids.”
He snorted. “Couple thousand? Only a couple hundred here.”
Oh boy.
“And most of them play sports.” He put his hands on his hips and looked around. “It’s all right. I have a month or so to convince you.” He looked at her and winked. “You could be a star.”
Yeah right. She pointed her chin to a dark hallway on the other side of the gym. “What’s over there?”
He wrinkled up his nose. “Nothing much. Just locker rooms. Come on, I’ll show you the weight room.”
Awesome.
She followed him up some stairs and into another carpeted room. This one didn’t smell like carpet cleaner. It smelled much, much worse. She stepped through the doorway and jumped, surprised to see two more kids. They wore gym clothes and were all sweaty.
“Hey! This is Zoe. She’s new. Zoe, this is Chevon and Hype.”
She glanced at Jason to see if he was joking. Those were the weirdest names she’d ever heard. Didn’t the word Chevon mean goat meat? “Hype?” she asked, not wanting to be rude to the girl.
The boy named Hype laughed too loudly. “Yeah, as in, is that guy really worth all the hype?”
She raised an eyebrow. “There’s a lot of hype about you?”
Jason laughed. “Not really. Because he wasn’t worth it.”
“You didn’t wash off the bench.” Chevon wrinkled up her nose. “I had to do it.”
“I did it!” Jason protested.
“No, you didn’t.” Chevon put her hands on her hips. “It was all wet.”
“Okay, sorry.” He opened the door behind them and then held it open for her.
She had to duck under his arm to get out, and the action felt oddly intimate. It wasn’t lost on her that she’d met a guy who could reach over her shoulder. She stepped out into the hallway and took a long breath. “It was really stinky in there.”
He laughed. “Yes, yes, it is.”
They started walking. “Is that why you’re here so early?”
“Yep. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I’m here at about six. You’re welcome to join us anytime.”
“I can’t believe they just let you in here unsupervised.”
He looked at her, surprised. “Why wouldn’t they?”
She heard voices and the banging of lockers, and her stomach tightened. This was getting real.
He pointed toward another door. “That’s the special ed room.” He kept walking and they came into another oversized room. “This is the cafeteria.”
“It’s huge.”
“Yeah. I have no idea why it’s so big. I think this whole place was built with the idea that the paper mill would never go out of business, and papermakers would keep making babies.”
She snickered. She followed him through the cafeteria and back into the carpeted hallways, where they ran into a couple holding hands.
Jason stopped and introduced them. This couple was less friendly.
“You don’t have to introduce me to everyone,” she said when they were out of earshot. “I’m kind of antisocial.”
He laughed. “All right.” He stopped in front of a lit trophy case. “Here is our pride display.”
The case was packed full of trophies, plaques, gold basketballs, and framed photos. One of the most prominent ones featured Jason himself with a basketball net around his neck. “Is that you?”
“Yeah. When me and Hype were freshmen. We were Class C state champs.”
“So Hype is pretty good at basketball?” She didn’t care, but she liked it when Jason talked.
“Yeah, he’s good, but maybe not as good as he thinks he is.”
Out of nowhere, a giant kid jumped on Jason from behind. “DeGrave! What’s up?” The kid was really loud.
Zoe stepped away from him and saw that he was being trailed by a dainty little snot who was looking Zoe up and down. The girl wore a shirt Zoe had seen in Ellsworth, and Zoe realized that every kid she’d seen had been wearing box store clothes—even Jason.
“Who’s this, DeGrave?” The tiny girl sounded like a chew toy.
“This is my friend Zoe. She’s new here.” Jason stepped closer to her. The gesture felt almost protective. Or was that her imagination?
Totally ignoring this, the big kid once again invaded Jason’s personal space. He lowered his voice. “Hey, full moon tonight. We’re all going to the Cove. You in?”
Jason inched back. “Maybe.”
“Maybe?” he cried. He looked at his girl. “That’s probably a no.” Then he looked back to Jason. “Come on, man, it’ll be awesome. How often is there a full moon?”
“Every twenty-nine and a half days,” Jason muttered, but they didn’t seem to hear him.
“She can come too,” the girl said, making it clear she didn’t want that to happen.
The boy shoved Jason in the chest and swore. “Come on, DeGrave. Don’t be such a—”
“Fine!” Jason gently guided Zoe around them. “Maybe.” He kept walking, and Zoe was grateful. Those two had been obnoxious.
“That was Nelson and June. They’re not as bad as they seem.”
Zoe doubted that. She thought they were probably even worse than they’d seemed.
The hallway was filling up now, and Zoe’s anxiety worsened.
“This is the library.” His tone suggested he had no use for the library. “And obviously, these are the classrooms. When you get your schedule, I can show you where your classes are.” He stopped walking and looked at her. “What year are you?”
“Junior.”
“Me too. Cool. We’ll probably be in some classes together.”
This was getting to be too much. Why was he being so nice to her? Was this some elaborate hoax? Was she being punked? No way was the too-hot-for-words junior basketball star this friendly. Something was up.
“Mrs. Chesney is probably here by now. I’ll show you her office.”
Zoe didn’t know who Mrs. Chesney was.
“The guidance counselor.”
“Oh. Yeah. Thanks.”
A blond girl came running down the hallway, and Zoe braced herself for what she knew was coming. This girl was gorgeous. She had perfect, long, wavy locks. She was petite yet athletic looking. This was her. This was Miss Jason.
For a second, Zoe thought she might have been wrong. It appeared that the alleged Miss Jason was going to go screaming right past them, but she caught Jason’s arm on the fly and swung to a stop, a giant, entirely-too-peppy grin on her face.
“Who’s this?”
“This is Zoe. She’s new.”
The girl tightened her grip on Jason’s arm and leaned into him. “Is this the girl from church?” She spoke the word church as if it tasted bad in her mouth, and she spoke it entirely too loudly.
“Yes.”
Miss Jason turned her eyes on Zoe. Her smile stayed in place, but there was absolute menace in her eyes. “Jason has been so weird since all this Jesus stuff. He’s bringing home strays all the time now.”
“Alita!” Jason said. His smile was gone. He looked angry and even more than that, embarrassed.
She ignored his reproof and started tugging on his arm. “Come on, we’re going to be late.” She dragged out the word late, making it an obnoxious three syllables.
Jason yanked his arm out of her grasp. “I have to show Zoe where Mrs. Chesney’s office is.”
“Oh, I’ll go with you.” She tried to grab his arm again, but he pulled it away—more subtly this time.
“I’ll meet you in homeroom.” He looked at Zoe. “Come on. We’re almost there.” He turned and walked away.
Avoiding looking at Alita—what kind of a name was Alita, and why did so many kids in this school have a weird name—she followed him.
He reached an open doorway and turned to wait for her.
“She seemed nice,” Zoe said. Jason flinched, and Zoe felt awful. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to—”
“No, it’s fine.” But it was clear that it wasn’t. He swung his arm through the open doorway. “This is guidance. Let me know if you want help finding anything.” He started to leave.
“Thanks, Jason,” she called after him, but he didn’t reply. She wanted to kick herself. Why had she been sarcastic with him? Why was she always doing that?
