Single-handed

Single-handed

By 

Veronica Blade

Crush Publishing, Inc. 

Sunland, CA

Single-handed

Copyright © 2012 by Veronica Blade. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be used or reproduced in any form or by any means whatsoever without the prior written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

Crush Publishing, Inc. 

8209 Foothill Blvd., Suite A124 

Sunland, CA 91040 

www.CrushPublishing.com

Crush Publishing, Inc name and logo are trademarks of Crush Publishing, Inc and are used only with its permission.

The places, characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by author.

Cover design by Rose Nomura

Edited by Sara Billington & Robin Haseltine

Printed in the United States of America

For Ashley, for all that you do

Note from the Publisher

Immediately following the end of this story, please turn the page for sneak peeks of other books by Veronica Blade.

Chapter One 

Every day at lunch, weather permitting, Laynie, Brittany and I claimed the same table against the outside wall of the school building. The three of us shared the bench since it had the best view to watch everyone else. Today, my two best friends insisted on matchmaking for me. I'd given up on getting asked to prom, but they still had hope for me. 

"You're so lucky, Alex." Laynie's gaze landed on a head of short, dark blond hair. She planted her elbows on the lunch table, rested her chin in her palms and sighed. "Tommy's dreamy."  

"Lucky? He doesn't like me that way. Trust me," I said, taking a sip of my soda. "You guys are wasting your time." 

"Yeah, he does." Laynie craned her neck to see past Brittany who sat between us, then turned to refocus on Tommy. "He can't resist your Latina hotness." 

I choked on a gulp of my drink and coughed. "You're delusional." 

"He's got this scholarly kind of deliciousness about him." Laynie said, still staring at Tommy. "Don't you think?" 

Brittany flipped her blond hair over her shoulder and snuck another peek at Tommy. "Doesn't matter how cute he is, you can still kick his ass, Alex."  

Yep, I probably could. That was exactly why he'd never ask me to prom. Since last year, guys saw me coming and detoured. It was as if Caution! was stamped on a big orange sign on my forehead. I mean, geez, I saved a boy from being ganged up on by Wes Hampton and his posse. Sure, Wes had ended up face down on the concrete with his arms behind him and my knee in his back, but I hadn't hurt him. No bruises or anything.  

Incidents didn't happen often, but it only needed to happen once and it spread though school faster than Mr. Fargo could write an 'F' on my calculus quiz. 

My single-handed defense of weaker kids had brought our school violence down to almost nothing. The upside was how well the other kids treated me - none who I felt were prospects for prom though.