REMINDER THAT THIS IS ONLY A FIRST CHAPTER PREVIEW, THIS BOOK IS PUBLISHED
"Freshman are so cute. Look at them, they're so tiny. Like walking, talking examples of why to use condoms."
I snorted and glanced up at my best friend. I'd met Lacey Parker in fourth grade, when she'd very seriously told me that I was allowed to be her friend because I was pretty. In retrospect, that was likely the type of toxic shit parents told their daughters to stay away from, but Lacey could pull it off like collecting attractive friends was no different than collecting cute erasers.
"They're not that much younger than us," I pointed out.
Lacey hummed. "It's not the age that matters, babe. It's the maturity."
"Where'd you get that line," I asked. "Your latest college pedo case?"
"I can't help that I look 21," Lacey defended.
"Actually, you can," I pointed out, but Lacey chose to ignore me, just like I chose to not really get on her case about the company she kept. Lacey was beautiful, dark skinned and curvy, with a smile that looked like it belonged in a dentist commercial. Her mother had braided her hair for the first day of school - I was silently making funeral preperations for anyone stupid enough to ask to touch it.
"Whoa," Lacey muttered, in a shocked tone that pulled me out of my own head. "What the hell. Is that a new kid?"
My brows furrowed. Grant wasn't exactly a small school, but it wasn't normal for anyone to transfer during their senior year. I followed Lacey's gaze, but it wasn't hard to figure out exactly who she was talking about.
The girl had to be new. She was taking advantage of Grant's lax dress code like her life depended on it. Thigh high boots, ripped up leggings, wearing just an oversized Sex Pistols T-shirt like it qualified as a dress. Her hair was beautiful. Long enough it draped down her back in a shade of blonde that actually looked natural.
"Huh," I said. "She's pretty."
Lacey looked at me like I'd lost my mind, but I ignored her. "Hey, you're on the welcoming committee. You should go say hi."
"Whatever," Lacey replied. "The committee is for the Freshman."
I rolled my eyes and slid off of the table I'd been sitting on. "Fine. I'll go say hi." I snagged one of the pamphlets reserved for the incoming newbies on my way across the cafeteria.
The new girl was texting when I approached, but she looked up when she realized I was headed her way, and I almost stopped walking. I'd thought she was pretty from across the room, but I hadn't realized how pretty. Unlike her style, her features were simple, symmetric, probably belonged on a statue, and -
"H-hi," I stuttered out, when I realized I was staring.
"Hi," She said back, a little warily, although she was smiling. I didn't say anything, my stupid mouth had gone dry. She shifted, tucking her phone away, and gestured slightly to my chest. "Is it Lee-na or Len-ah?"
I'd almost forgotten I'd taken one of the committees name tags in a fit of boredom, and she wasn't just some kind of witch that could guess my name from my tits. "Uh, Len-ah. Most people usually go with the first."
She lifted a shoulder. "It's more common."
"It's short for Helena," I explained. "I was named after my great-grandmother."
"I'm Juliet," she said, holding out a hand. "Named after Capulet."
"Your parents big fans of dramatic thirteen year olds?" I asked.
Juliet cracked a smile. "Not really. My mother was in theater, she was playing Juliet when she met my father. I guess it meant something to them."
I nodded, and we found ourselves in that awkward situation where there wasn't enough to talk about, so I turned my attention to the pamphlet I'd brought. "Oh, um, these are usually for Freshman but, since you're new and all, I figured you could use it."
"Thanks," Juliet said as she took it from me. She gave it a quick flip through, then studied the map for a moment.
"Where are you from?" I asked.
"Just Bridgewood," she said.
My eyebrows rose. "Oh shit, did you go to BA?"
"Yeah," she answered. Bridgewood was a rich city, and it was mostly known for Bridgewood Academy. It was a good school, even kids from Grant often made the drive to attend. She glanced at me and shrugged. "Needed a change of scenery."
The bell rang, causing a shift in the cafeteria. I had left my bag over by Lacey, which meant I had to cut the conversation off. Probably for the best, before I shoved my own foot in my mouth. "Well, hey, I gotta run but, um, feel free to find me if you need any help."
"Thank you," Juliet said, and she looked a little amused as she watched me go.
***
"How was your first day," my mother asked, when I got home that evening. She was sitting at the kitchen table with a whole mess of shit in front of her. My mother fancied herself an inventor. Sometimes she was, sometimes she wasn't.
"Still high school, still a waste of time," I said. "What are you making?"
Mom sat back and stared at her collection, like she wasn't sure herself. "I think it's a . . . well, I don't really know what it is."
I grinned at her and went to fish a snack out of the cabinets. "What were you aiming for?"
"A toaster," she said. "But, larger. For more toast, and maybe other things."
"So a toaster oven?" I asked.
She sighed and pushed her glasses up into her messy curls. I wasn't sure how she'd put her hair up either. It seemed to be defying gravity. "How is Quinton?"
"Still my ex, mom," I said. He'd been the longest relationship I'd managed, which didn't mean much, just that he'd lasted through the entire summer. Well, most of it anyway.
"Shame," Mom sighed. "He's nice to look at."
I shrugged and stuck a spoon into a jar of Nutella before sitting across from her. There were pieces of what looked like used to be a toaster on the table.
"You could put that on a plate or something," my mother said.
"You could get over Quinton," I shot back.
"Fair enough," she concluded, and slid her glasses back down low on her nose so she could go back to tinkering with things.
"We have a new girl," I brought up. "In our year. We share some classes. She's kind of . . . interesting."
"Oh?" Mom asked. "How so?"
"I don't really know," I said, popping a spoonful of hazelnut goodness in my mouth. "Lacey doesn't like her."
"Does Lacey like anyone?"
"She likes me!" I protested.
My mother chuckled. "How, I have no idea."
"You hush." I grabbed my snack and headed to the living room. "I'm going to spend the rest of the night watching bad reality tv, if you want to join me!"
***
The third day of school it rained so hard there was a black out, so they sent us home. It seemed unreasonable in my mind to throw out a bunch of teenagers in cars if the storm was bad enough to knock out the power. But an early release was an early release, and I wasn't going to argue.
Lacey leaned against my locker and I frowned at her, sensing a bad idea on the horizon. "What?"
"Want to come to Aaron's with me?" she asked. "They're having a black out party in his dorm. There will be booze and sex, I'm sure."
"And STD's, I'm sure," I replied mockingly.
"You're so boring," she said, pushing herself away. "Why am I even friends with you. I'll catch you later."
I shook my head at her and opened my locker to grab my stuff before leaving the building. The sky was dark and angry looking, pouring down water, but it was oddly calming in a movie scene type of way. If I wasn't at school I might have enjoyed it.
I was about to make a run for it when I noticed someone familiar perched on the half wall under the awning. Juliet was drawing on a sketchpad, completely ignoring the rush of people around her, in her own little world.
We hadn't talked much since her first day. She'd asked me a couple of times where things were, and waved at me in the hall, but that was about it. I wanted to know more about her, maybe even be friends, but I wasn't sure how.
Before I even knew what I was doing, I was standing next to her, gently tapping her shoulder to get her attention. Her hands subconsciously fell over whatever she was working on as she looked up with me, then she smiled. "Lena, right?"
"Yeah," I said. "Aren't you going home?"
"No car," she replied. "I'm waiting on my brother, he's gonna drive in from Bridgewood if he can get off work."
If. I wondered what she was going to do if he couldn't. The busses wouldn't stick around forever. "You shouldn't have to wait out here. Come on, I'll give you a lift."
Juliet looked surprised, probably because I was still technically a stranger. Great, I was weird.
"I don't wanna be a burden," she said.
I rolled my eyes. "I wouldn't have offered if it was going to be a problem."
She considered me for a moment, likely weighing the chances of me murdering her or something, then flipped her sketchpad closed and tucked it into her bag before sliding off the wall.
I grinned at her and we both faced the parking lot. The rain was still coming down hard, so she squared her shoulders and slid her hand in mine. "Lead the way."
I held onto her tightly, and took the first step.
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