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LOVE IN LIGHTNING
ADDISON JANE
LOVE IN LIGHTNING
Jaxon is determined to prove himself and live up to his family’s legacy.
Stella has dreams of attending one of the country’s most prestigious universities.
This is the beginning of their story.
But could it also be the end?
CHAPTER 1
STELLA
“You got in?”
Tate’s wide-open mouth and almost completely round eyes made me choke out a laugh. “I got in. I, Stella Weston, got accepted to the University of Chicago. Wild, right?”
The University of Chicago wasn’t exactly Ivy League, but it had been something I’d been dreaming of since I spent a summer there when I was in middle school. My aunt was a professor at the university, and I’d been in complete awe of the campus and classrooms. It was like walking through a Hallmark movie, which had only ever made it feel that much more unachievable.
Academics had never come naturally to me—much to the displeasure of my Harvard Medical School graduate parents. I got by fine, a long line of B’s consistently decorating my report card, but I’d never been one to excel in anything.
At least anything my parents deemed to be important.
They didn’t count on me being the cheer captain or elected to the student council—achievements I had fought for, trained for, and personally was proud as hell of.
Achievements my mom and dad found to be simply lackluster.
This is why I’d spent hours every single week this year seeing a tutor and doing volunteer work—anything that would look positive on a college application.
All of which had finally paid off.
“They even invited me to start early,” I told her, gripping the straps of my school bag a little tighter as we hurried down the path toward our chemistry class. “They have a summer program they invite a handful of freshmen to take. It starts in two weeks.”
“Two weeks!” Tate screamed, not giving a damn that every student within a hundred-foot radius who was also rushing to get to their next class suddenly paused and turned toward us. “Two weeks? You’re going to leave in two weeks? You aren’t going to be around for summer? Stella! What the fu?—”
“Miss Levine and Miss Weston, please get moving to class.” We both scrunched up our noses and turned to meet the stern glare of Principal Graft. Her signature chunky platforms should have been left in the nineties, but they gave her at least three inches on us, making me shrink back. “The last thing I want to do this morning is give a detention to a student council member.”
The woman was scary.
That was simply the honest truth.
She had this permanent scowl, and the only time I ever saw any kind of excitement on her face was when she yelled at teenagers. It was like we were living in a real-like Matilda movie, and she was Miss Trunchable.
“Yes, ma’am,” Tate and I answered in unison like trained military cadets before making a quick turn and hauling ass to our science lab.
“Look, I haven’t decided what I want to do yet,” I whispered as we stepped through the lab door. “I only got the email this morning. I haven’t even told my parents yet, and I’m starting to wonder if I should bother if I’m not even sure I want to go.”
“You’ve wanted to go to Chicago since before we became friends,” Tate pointed out, rolling her eyes. She had been my best friend since we were sophomores, and she wasn’t buying my blasé attitude. “We always talk about getting the hell out of this town and chasing our dreams. How has that suddenly changed?”
This was a dream.
A very out-there dream—but all the good ones were, weren’t they?
What was a dream if it wasn’t a little crazy? If you didn’t have to believe in a little bit of magic? Or work your ass off to make it happen.
