Chapter 1: Lust or Love

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The Stranger at Bloody Savage

Welcome to the sunny slopes of **Spirit Falls**, a town where everything looks peaceful from a distance.

Up close, it's a different story.

Around here, we have the jocks, the popular kids, the prissy social queens, and the people who think the school belongs to them. Everyone has their place.

Me?

I'm Quinn Wilson.

Most people call me **Cypress**.

I'm nineteen, five-foot-two, and a half-adult at best. I'm an African American and Mexican guy with soft black hair streaked with red, dark brown eyes, and pigmentation that has slowly changed my complexion over the years.

I've lived in Spirit Falls for almost seventeen years.

Except for the two years I spent in Arizona with my biological father.

When I finally came home, I thought things would be different.

They weren't.

And this is the story of how everything changed.

---

### **Monday Morning**

**BELL! BELL! BELL!**

"Good morning, students of Spirit Falls College! This morning, we will be attending a new social academic-"

The principal's voice echoed through the speakers.

I stopped listening.

I stepped through the front doors with my headphones covering my ears, my black hood pulled over my head, and my skateboard beneath my feet.

Push.

Glide.

Push.

The wheels rolled across the hallway floor as students moved out of my way.

For about thirty seconds, everything was peaceful.

Then I reached my locker.

I pulled it open and started grabbing my books.

That's when someone slammed it shut.

My fingers barely escaped.

I already knew who it was.

**Tanner Reed.**

Football player.

Professional idiot.

And, unfortunately, my third-grade bully.

"Quinn."

I sighed.

"Go away, Tanner."

"Come on, Quinney Boy. We haven't talked in forever."

I turned to leave.

Two of his friends grabbed me.

Before I could react, they shoved me toward the locker room.

Tanner followed, laughing.

"You still have that mouth, huh?"

I looked up at him.

"Still have that ego, huh?"

His smile disappeared.

A few seconds later, I was on the floor.

The three of them surrounded me.

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