**TEASER** Bully | The King of Castleton High #1 (Ellie Meadows)

Chapter 1.

"My hair is fine." I pushed my mom's hands away. She'd spent the entire drive over to Castleton High twisting my curls into better shape.

"You hair is so pretty, Tarryn. Are you using that curling stuff I grabbed from Aunt Dee?" Mom persisted, twiddling with a particularly-perfect length of twisting strands. She leaned forward, and sniffed my hair deeply. It was loud and ridiculous and, though I was annoyed with her, I couldn't help but laugh. "Yep, you're using it. Orange blossoms!" She trilled in triumph.

"Yes, yes. I'm using it." This time, I didn't push her away. Instead, I grabbed her hand and gave it a fast kiss. "Now stop being so annoying! You're driving me nuts."

"I'm just worried about your first day at a new school. I hate we've had to move. You should be enjoying junior year with your best friends, not starting all over half-way across the country with a bunch of strangers." Mom looked over at Dad, who was his typical quiet self as he steered the station wagon down the streets of our new town. "We could have at least gone shopping, picked up some new clothes and maybe had your hair done." Once again, she picked up some of my hair and played with it between her fingers; it slipped over her skin smoothly, falling into waves of mousey-brown silk.

"She's not dyeing her hair, Tish," my dad spoke up firmly.

"Oh, hon. All the kids do it." My mom pouted, finally abandoning my hair and crossing her arms in the front seat of our outdated station wagon.

"Just because all the kids are doing it..." Dad's voice trailed off as he sighed. "You want her to do drugs too? How about smoke and drink?"

"Well... no... I mean, of course not." Mom only stuttered when she knew she wasn't going to win an argument. Point of fact, she'd never won an argument with my stoic, rational father.

"Then stop pushing her to dye her hair. Her hair is perfectly-fine the way it is. My mother had that exact color and she's still not gone gray." Dad smiled, maybe thinking about Nan. Dad smiling wasn't a frequent occurrence and I liked the way it made his face softer.

"You always bring up your mother." Mom sighed and looked out her window at the passing buildings. "Twenty-two years of marriage and everything is still all about your mother. It gets tiresome, Greg."

Dad's face went blank again, like someone wiping away colored words from a dry erase board. If I were any other kid, in any other family, I might worry that Mom and Dad were heading towards divorce. But, honestly? They'd been this way ever since I could remember. Mom whined and picked fights. Dad shut them down with a few words. Somehow... they worked. The biggest thing my parents have taught me is what I did and didn't want out of a marriage. If I ever did get married. Seventeen years old, and I'd been on exactly three unsuccessful dates.

Simon Wei, who'd been more interested in explaining binary code to me than he'd been in holding my hand or watching the rom-com movie. Dennis Hogan, who'd started 'supplements' early on in his athletic career... so flexing his oversized muscles was more important than flexing his underdeveloped brain. There were only so many times a girl could be asked to 'check out these guns' before she gave up the ghost and asked to go home.

And then there'd been Mitch Henderson. Absolutely gorgeous. Ridiculously smart. And had a secret girlfriend in Canada his mom—who'd set up the date—didn't know about because the Canadian hottie was five years older than him and in a rock band. I wasn't going to be any guy's cover story.

Three crappy dates in the 2 years since Dad and Mom had finally let me start dating. This year, that was going to change. I was going to like a guy, a good... no great...guy, and he was going to like me. He'd ask about my interests, and he'd actually listen. And he had to be incredibly kissable. Because, dammit, I was ready for my first real, foot-popping kiss. I'd been a lip virgin long enough.