His Last Hope | Ream Exclusive

05: Just the goon I was looking for.

I was on the verge of giving up, my patience waring thin. Maybe I had that womanly time of month to blame. Or maybe it was that my cat puked on my bed at four o'clock that morning, giving me a bad start to my day — whatever it was I agitated to no end. And the one person I wanted to hold responsible was Lincoln Pierce.

Next week's term paper was sprawled out across a table that had the capability of seating four people. For the last two days I had taken up the same location in the library and like always, my assignments were spread out in a disastrous jumble— yet all I could do was tap my ball point pen and stare into the vacant front foyer.

Ms. Scott shot looks of irritation at me from behind her desk. I was surprised the middle aged woman didn't remove me from the library, considering I could only pause my fiddling for minutes at a time before picking up the annoying habit again.

With the glare she was sending me I was sure she would end up shooting me in the face with her stapler.

Lincoln Pierce hadn't shown up since our first session last week. And to be honest it was starting to get to me. The fact that he was avoiding me like the plague, however, just irked me even more. Especially, when I had some target on my back.

The 'pranks' hadn't ceased in the slightest. I was still having invisible people chucking things at me in the hallway and booby-trapping my cafeteria lunches. Never again was I buying lemon poppyseed muffins from the cafe, not unless I was on a suicide mission.

I knew it was Lincoln behind my harassment. And I wouldn't have been the slightest bit surprised if his group of friends were in on it too. There was no way Lincoln had the brain capacity to forge a way to be drenching me with Kool-aid and freezing cotton balls to my car at the same time. There was no way.

The exaggerated stapling being done by the librarian pulled me from my thoughts. Her eyes were narrowed, her nose plagued with wrinkles as she looked at me, fastening sheets together in exaggerated motions. I dropped my pen to the table top. With my head down I returned to my assignment sheet, trying my hardest to focus.

Letting out a huff of annoyance I turned my gaze to the all-too-familiar clock that hung over the green prison-like double doors of the library. I had been reading the same line over and over — reading the words but not understanding their meaning — all because I was too preoccupied thinking about a certain brown eyed boy who wasn't going to show up.

A moving figure popped into my peripheral vision, causing my eyes to flick over. Making his way across the foyer and towards the front entrance of the school was Lincoln Pierce himself.

His hands were shoved deep in the pockets of his faded blue jeans, the muscles of his back straining against the leather of his jacket. It wasn't until he was almost out of my line of vision that I got this maddening urge.

Almost knocking my chair back I stood from my seat. My hands flew everywhere, grabbing papers, pens, books, and tossing them into my bag at lightning speed.

Pairs of eyes watched my frenzy from every direction. The attention I was receiving usually would have made me want to curl up in a hole. At this point, however, I had a certain delinquent I had to confront.

Gripping the strap of my bag I charged for the exit only to pause when the wailing of an alarm emitted throughout the library. I backtracked four feet to Ms. Scott's station and tossed the unchecked book on the wooden surface.

"I'll be back for that!" I shouted, sprinting through the detectors for the second time.

I speed over the linoleum floor, pushing through two sets of doors before I made it outside. Doing a quick survey of the front portion of the school I noticed Lincoln's heavy stature making it's way towards his outdated vehicle.