So I sit in the M-through-R homeroom, and in front of me is Diana Ramsey, and behind me is nobody. Do you have any idea how boring it is to always be the last of the line? Because it is super boring. And Diana’s a nice enough girl, but she is super serious about everything. She wants to be a doctor, which is awesome, of course, but I am totally bewildered by anyone who is just starting junior year of high school and has any idea about the future. Because I have no idea. I know that Jupiter is in my constellation, and that’s it. I can read the stars and deal a tarot deck, but that doesn’t mean I have any idea what to do with my life.
And there’s a new person. There is a new person. Diana is sitting at her desk, looking as grave and serious as she usually does, as if homeroom is important to her future medical career. But there are two desks behind her instead of just one, and in the one immediately behind her is a boy, looking bored. Except that he is twiddling a pencil between his fingers, and I think that he’s really not bored; he’s tense and anxious and nervous, because he’s new and it’s his first day, and I almost skip my way over to the desk where the teacher has put up a name card for me (yes, like we are in kindergarten). Jupiter is in my constellation. It’s going to be a good year!
“Hi,” I say brightly as I take my seat.
He’s cute but not absurdly so. His hair is like wheat fields in Idaho. I’ve never been to Idaho. I think they have wheat, right? Anyway, it’s golden, but not obnoxiously golden, not surfer-boy golden—a nice, earthy golden, wheat fields and sunshine and straw, I think. I didn’t get a good look at his eyes on my way past, but I did notice that he has freckles, and I like freckles. Who doesn’t like freckles on a nose, right? His twiddling pencil pauses momentarily before starting back up again. “Hi,” he responds. He doesn’t sound surly, but he doesn’t exactly sound welcoming.
But he’s nervous, I think. He probably doesn’t know what to do. “I’m Merrow,” I inform him and hope I don’t sound too crazy enthusiastic (even though I am). “I am Merrow Rodriguez-Chance and I am super excited to meet a fellow R last name.”
The pencil stops again. He twists a bit in his seat so that he can see me better, and I try to think of what he’s going to see. I dyed my hair the colors of the rainbow at the very beginning of the summer, but I haven’t re-dyed it, so the red and blue and purple and green and orange and yellow all start a few inches down, with my natural blond at the roots. I have chosen to do my hair in six knots on my head today. Because why not? And I am wearing my very favorite outfit, my favorite because I like to say it’s a combination of my two mothers: it’s a white button-down shirt and yoga pants. Not going to lie, I look pretty awesome today.
And his eyes are hazel. I’ve never really met someone with hazel eyes before. I feel like people are always trying to pretend their eyes are hazel, and I look at them and nope, they’re just brown. Nothing wrong with brown eyes, people. Own your brown eyes. But New Boy has genuine hazel eyes. They aren’t brown, and they aren’t green, and they aren’t blue. They are all of them, and it’s impressive.
He’s kind of impressive, I think, but not in a way that most girls are going to notice, if their current pick for World’s Most Desirable Guy (Tucker Beaton) is any indication.
New Boy takes me all in and gives me a quizzical sort of smile. He’s got kind of a harsh mouth, actually. Like he’s more used to frowning, or not doing anything at all. Th smile flickers across at it and then is gone. I think of what my mom says when we’re doing particularly tricky and painful yoga poses. Make your face soft, she says. New Boy looks like he’s in the middle of a particularly tricky and painful yoga pose, and a soft face complete with a smile would be too much to ask.
Nervous, I think. Of course. He’s nervous.
“Okay,” he says, like he doesn’t really know what to make of me.
Chapter One
Start from the beginning
