Forever Mine (The Moreno Brothers)

FOREVER MINE - Prologue & Chapter 1

They'd been dropped off together by her aunt, but Sarah had to go to the counselor's office. Since she'd enrolled so late, her schedule hadn't come in the mail like Valerie's. No sooner than the moment they had walked into school together had Valerie started socializing, promising she'd be right there when she got back from the office.

The bell rang, and Sarah tried not to panic. She glanced at her schedule but had no idea where her first class was. She backed up slowly until her back was against a wall. Had Valerie really abandoned her? No, she wouldn't. She took in some of the faces around her and wondered if she should just ask someone for directions to her first class.

High-pitched squealing got her attention, and she turned to the front entrance to find some girl had her arms wrapped around one of the guys that had just walked in. Sarah rolled her eyes. She'd always hated those types of girls. The guy was obviously a jock because he wore a letterman's jacket and so did his two friends.

Deciding she was on her own, she walked back toward the office and frowned when she realized a map of the school had been just outside the office the entire time. There were a few kids standing in front of it, examining their schedules and then looking up at the map. Apparently, she wasn't the only newbie at this school—not much of a consolation. Sarah looked around for Valerie, feeling more than a little annoyed at her.

Male laughter erupted just behind her, and she turned to find the same jocks she'd seen walk in earlier with a few more guys horsing around. The tall one who had been greeted at the door by the squealing girl was smiling when their eyes met. The smile on his face seemed to dissolve slowly. She stood there frozen, her lips slightly opened. For a moment, she thought he might say something, and then she heard Valerie.

"There you are!"

Sarah snapped out of her daze and watched as Valerie, who'd already taken Sarah's schedule, smiled wickedly. "We have two classes together!"

"We do?" Sarah's cheeks still felt warm, but she quickly walked alongside of Valerie, incredibly grateful for her timing.

Valerie talked about the classes just until they were far enough away and around the corner of the building. "Oh, my God, Sarah, do you know who that was staring at you?"

Surprised, and not sure why, Sarah pretended not to understand. "Who?"

Valerie gasped. "That was Angel Moreno! Don't you remember? I've told you about him and his brothers."

"No," Sarah lied. Of course she remembered, that was part of the reason she could hardly breathe when she recognized him.

The bell rang again.

"Oh, shit," Valerie looked at her watch. "We're gonna be late on our first day."She grabbed Sarah's arm, and they were off on a foot race to their first class.

TWO WEEKS LATER

Angel took long, rapid strides around the science building. His stomach tensed up as the bell rang. He was late to practice again, and he knew his coach wouldn't be happy. It was the second time this week, but he had to stay after class to get the extra credit assignment. He was failing Spanish II, again. Spanish! His parents owned a Mexican restaurant, for crying out loud. The only reason he had taken it was because he needed two years of a foreign language to even have a prayer of getting into a four-year college. And now it may cost him time on the field.

Apparently, he was only good at the curse words, and the teacher called his Spanish, Spanglish. It was a Catch 22 though, if he didn't stay late to get the extra credit assignments, he wouldn't be able to make up some of the lousy scores he'd been getting on the quizzes. If he didn't make them up, he wouldn't have the grades to play on the team. Not picking up his grade also meant staying after school for tutoring. Just the thought made him groan.