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P R O L O G U E
The Way It All Began
Unwritten Rules. Rules that are not written anywhere or indicated in any way. Rules that you are supposed to know naturally. People will automatically assume you are aware of them, which leads to another term I personally like to use to define unwritten rules—pain in the ass.
Don’t sit next to a stranger if there are other seats left in between, smile back to whoever smiled at you, don’t cry in public, and don’t date your friends’ exes. Pretty easy, right?
Wrong.
I spent my entire life thinking I had it all figured out. Until I met him. The unwritten rule of Riverside High.
It wasn’t like anything I’d ever seen before. This unwritten rule wasn’t a what. It was a who, and it came in the form of a blue-eyed Greek god with a bad temper and rock-hard abs.
He was feared. People quivered at the sound of his name. His footsteps echoed in the terror-filled hallways, leaving racing hearts and sweaty palms behind. Rumors and violence followed him like a shadow. He had rules. Rules that no one dared to break.
Or at least, no one but me.
Everything could’ve been different. Every wrong could’ve been right. If only someone had told me…
Welcome to Riverside High, Winter. Oh, and by the way: Never look Haze Adams in the eyes.
O N E
Everything Could Go Wrong
Dear Universe, why do you hate me?
A question we’ve all asked ourselves at least once. Why did I get out of bed this morning? What did I do to deserve this? Is it because of the time I threw sand at that annoying little boy in kindergarten? Or maybe it was the time I tossed something in the trash, missed, and didn’t bother to pick it up? It’s pretty hard to tell, especially when I’m the living proof that Karma has a sense of humor.
Nevertheless, my eighteen years of life have been a series of unfortunate events and sick twists that led me here. To this moment. To asking why me? Payback for all the times I refused to eat my veggies, I guess.
“Are you excited for your first day?” Kassidy asks.
“Excited for it to be over.” I sigh, nervously fidgeting with the strings of my hoodie. This is it. The day I’ve been obsessing about. My first day as a senior in Riverside High School. As I come to the realization that we’ll be there soon, I can’t help but wish the car ride lasted a lot longer. Twelve hours longer.
Moving to a new country and transferring schools right in the middle of my senior year wasn’t exactly on my bucket list, to say the least. Being the new girl is about as much fun as waiting for a text back after a love confession, thinking you’ve been at work for two hours but realizing it’s only been ten minutes and knocking your big toe on the table you swear wasn’t there before.
In other words, I am not having any fun right now.
“Oh, come on. Don’t be so dramatic.” Kassidy lets out a mocking laugh. “You’ll fit right in. Everything’s going to be okay.”
If someone had told me a couple of months ago that I would end up here, watching the palm trees parade past the windows of my cousin’s red car, I never would’ve believed it. My mother does not trust me to be home alone for six months while she’s away on a work trip. The crumpled note placed next to a plane ticket on the kitchen counter made that clear. She gave me a choice: either move to Florida to live with my aunt Maria and my cousins, or move in with our neighbor Ms. Davies, a retiree whose biggest regret is not having children. As kind as Ms. Davies is, she’s also the queen of “Oh, you’re not hungry anymore? Here are two more pieces of cake.”
Needless to say, I chose option number one.
And so here I am, hours away from Toronto and on my way to a whole new life. The only problem is, new isn’t exactly my thing.
