Broken

Chapter 17

"Adri, who's that?"

It was obviously one of those leading questions designed to see whether or not I'd try to lie. I shrugged. "His name is Brandon; he picks me up sometimes in the morning."

I was saved from dealing with her response by Brandon's knock.

"Hello, Adriana, Mrs. Paige."

I never thought I'd see the like. Mom's face lost its stern 'I'm doing this for your own good' look, and instead transformed into something not very different from what I saw every time I watched the girls my age look at Brandon.

"Well hello. You're Brandon?"

**

Fifteen minutes later, I was still trying to believe things had gone so well. I'd expected mom to put her foot down and tell Brandon I'd be riding the bus to school every morning, starting today. Instead, she'd shaken Brandon's hand, smiled way more than usual, and hurried us out the door so we wouldn't be late for school.

"I don't know what kind of magic you just used on my mom, but whatever it was, you should do it again. Heck, use your powers on her every time you stop by. That was amazing!"

Brandon chuckled and reached over to run a finger across my palm. "I didn't do anything special. Your mom seems like a very sensible person."

I almost choked. "I love my mom, but she's the least sensible person ever. She spends half of her time in a different universe entirely, and only occasionally worries about the same kinds of things as other parents."

"Ah, a dreamer, but one that still freaks out when it comes to her daughter and boys. Maybe she was just struck by my obvious good nature."

I shook my head as we pulled into the parking lot. "Please. You're just about everything she's worried about in a guy. Rich, handsome, popular. The only thing you could change to scare her worse would be to join the football team and be the star quarterback."

His smile was so beautiful it made my heart ache. "Well, in that case I'm glad I never tried out for the varsity team. I'd hate to make things any more difficult for you."

Brandon gently captured my arm as we slipped inside the school. "Speaking of stars, I happened to read them last night and they told me a secret."

"Oh, really? Do tell, I always love to hear a good secret."

There was a new twinkle in his eye as he shook his head. "Oh, it wasn't a secret from you, just one you hadn't shared with me. Happy birthday. I've got a multi-part present in the works, but it's taking a bit longer to wrap it all up, so you may have to wait a little."

As quickly as that, he winked and turned to catch up with Cassie, leaving me in a state of near shock. He'd been inside the house, but hadn't been able to see the kitchen, so he hadn't seen the cupcake and candle. I'd done web searches on my name and birth date before and never had it return anything legit, so he couldn't have found it out that way. Even that would've been an unheard of level of effort coming from a guy, but however he really had learned it was my birthday must have been even harder than that.

I felt like I was floating on a cloud as I hurried off to Biology. The feeling lasted exactly as long as it took me to sit down, listen to Mrs. Sorenson tell us all that she'd finished grading our tests, and then see the big, self-satisfied 'D' sitting at the top of my paper.

For a second it felt as though my heart had stopped beating. I'd never done worse than a 'B' on any assignment or test since I'd finished up Kindergarten. I couldn't take this home and show my mom. Head in the clouds half of the time or not, she'd still freak out. Heck, I was already freaking out enough for the both of us. This was going on my high school transcript. The one colleges would be looking at. The one that might have gotten me a scholarship. Only now I'd be lucky to pull a 'C' out of the class.