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Quickly grabbing a bottle of water and a bag of chips, Alyssa made her way outside. There were groups of students scattered about, sitting under the overhang laughing and chatting away. They were in their own worlds, and she felt like an outsider peeking in.
Alyssa sighed when she found her new lunch spot—a thigh high wall of red bricks other students were sitting on. She sat down near the corner and leaned back against the brick wall staring up at the cloudless sky for a moment.
Georgia was a much slower pace than in California, but she was slowly finding that she liked that aspect. Bringing up her legs, she uncapped her water and took a sip, then pulled out a map along with her schedule. Alyssa had gotten lost on her way to another class earlier in the day and walked in late. She wanted to try and avoid that if she could, so she began studying the map, trying to memorize a route.
* * *
Most days John left in between classes to grab lunch with his friends, Jace and Ford. They would pick up fast food and bring it back to the dining hall to eat or wherever they felt. Parking his truck, they jumped out and made their way to the courtyard as Ford was telling him and Jace about a prank Ford’s little brother wanted help with.
“Just hear me out before you say no. We round up a bunch of cows, like twenty cows, and sneak them into the school. Gather as many frogs as we can and dump them in there. Some stray cats and dogs, drop some dead fish in the air vents, too. Then we wait and watch from a distance the next morning.”
“Where the fuck are we going to get twenty cows from? And no offense or anything, but I don’t want to get rabies as we’re trying to catch some stray animals for your brother.” Jace deadpanned. “Seriously, how many do you think we could find in our small town?”
Ford ignored him and continued. “We could use some Gorilla Glue on all the locks except for one door so no one can get in that day.”
“You gave this some serious thought, haven’t you,” Jace asked Ford, and he nodded.
“You guys are crazy. There’s no way this could work. Not to mention, Ford, your brother could get expelled. You guys are on your own with this one.” As fun as it sounded, John was going to sit this one out.
“My parents have so many cows that they would never notice, say, ten missing,” Ford chimed in. “We can pluck a few from all the farms my parents have and the rest we could probably buy.”
John sipped his Coke and actually gave some thought to Ford’s crazy ass idea. It could possibly work, but before he could think about it further, he spotted a pretty blonde with legs for days.
John didn’t know what had gotten into him, but there was something about Alyssa that made him want to get to know her. The instant he saw her he had to go to her. She looked alone and down sitting by herself.
Jace’s hand flew back and smacked John in the stomach pulling him out of his thoughts. “What the hell, bro?”
“I asked you a question.”
“And clearly I didn’t hear you, asshole. What did you ask me?”
“Want to go muddin’ sometime? We haven’t been in a while.”
When had the conversation moved to another topic? “Yeah, sure.” John was still focused on Alyssa. “Have you met the new girl yet, Ford? She actually lives near us.”
“I call dibs!” Ford exclaimed.
John turned his head, bemused. “You call dibs? What are you? Fucking ten? First of all, no one says dibs anymore, dipshit. And second, you haven’t even seen her yet. For all you know, she could be wearing braces, pimply faced, with some nappy looking hair, all skin and bones. And we all know how you like ‘em thick and younger than you. You still gonna call dibs then?”
Jace barked out a laugh at Ford’s expression and John found himself laughing, too. “I can’t help it if I like a little meat on my girls’ bones. More cushion for the pushin’.”
“Oh, my God.”
“Whatever, douche bag.”
John guided his friends toward Alyssa. “There she is.”
“I think I just saw hearts in John’s eyes,” Jace joked. John gave him the middle finger and a friendly smile.
“Well, hey there, sugar,” John drawled, stopping in front of Alyssa.
Alyssa’s head snapped up to see three guys standing in front of her. The blinding sun shined in her eyes and she blocked it with her hand, then looked at each one and finished at John.
“Johnny. Still can’t remember my name, I see.”
“Johnny?” Jace retorted.
“Alyssa,” he drew out her name, ignoring Jace. “This is Ford. You met Jace already the other day . . .”
