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“Okay, I like it. You shouldn’t shorten such a nice name. Nicholas, why don’t you tell the class something about yourself?”
Jesus Christ.I reached up, rubbing the back of my neck. My shirt felt itchy, and heat crept up along my spine. There was nothing I could tell that classroom about my life that wasn’t straight out of a horror story for most of them.Let’s see, I grew up on a ranch with a crazy-ass blind leader who made us drink blood because God told him it would show us the way.
Maybe it wouldn’t have been horrifying to everyone if I had told the truth. Maybe some would act horrified and wonder where the ranch was so they could go there. The zealots would find me, eventually.
I went with the stomach-able version. The one myAuntValerie was peddling.
“Well, uh. California isn’t all big city lights and all that. There are farms and ranches. That’s where I grew up. A cattle ranch. But, my aunt and I moved out here for a change.”
The teacher cleared his throat. “And this is the first time you’re in a real classroom, is that right?”
Thank you, Captain Asshole, for telling the entire class I may or may not be stupid. It didn’t matter that I wasn’t—or that I was likely smarter than half the students in there. He’d put a target on my back. Did he know nothing about teenagers?
I gave a tight-lipped smile. “I’ve been going to public school for the past two years. And yeah. Ranch life was more … life learning, I guess.”
“That’s okay, Nick. We’ll make sure you’re up to speed in no time.”
Nick.Nick …I saw a few students in the back corner snickering, and a guy leaned over to whisper in a girl’s ear. “Who let the Crypt Keeper in?”
The girl watching me had wide green eyes and long legs. I watched back, waiting for her to smile at the idiot’s joke. She didn’t, and instead, she slowly opened her knees. My first day and some girl was trying to give me a peep show. The Midwest was awfully welcoming.
Mr. Pitts waved a hand for me to take a seat, and I grabbed my backpack from the floor, walking from the front of the room. I could hear whispers and cursed my hearing.
Sometimes I wished I were deaf.
The empty seat left for me was next to a girl in a pretty dress. She watched me the entire time I walked down the aisle, then casually looked away when I sat down.
I could hear the teacher talking about what to expect from the school year and informing us of his office hours. I listened as I got out my new school supplies, and the girl next to me in the pretty dress leaned over, offering a hand. “Hi. I’m Kyrie.”
I reached for her hand, finding it warm. I didn’t want to touch her, but I didn’t want to draw attention to my touch aversion just yet. “Nich—”
“—olas.” She laughed softly. “Yeah, I know. We all know. You’re the fresh meat.”
“What’s that mean?” I asked, leaning toward her. Past her, the girl who’d spread her legs for me glared at Kyrie.
Kyrie smiled, and her eyes told me she was blushing, but her skin was too dark for me to tell. “People don’t move to Hart Hollow. They leave. They leave without a word. So, anyone who comes here is fresh meat.” She pointed to the guy in front of her. “I’ve known him since preschool.” Then, she said of the girl behind her. “Known her since 1st grade.”
I smiled widely at her. “Ah, I see. So what do I get for being fresh meat?”
Kyrie smiled, the corner of her mouth turning up. “You’ll find out. You go to church?”
I shook my head.Don’t invite me to one.“No. We didn’t have a church on the ranch.” Lie. The ranchwasa church. The kind you can’t escape.
“Well, my daddy is Pastor Davis, and he preaches out at First Baptist on South Street. You and your aunt should come this Sunday. We’re always looking for fellow worshippers.”
“I’ll run it by her,” I lied. I had no intention of continuing my relationship withThe Lord. It had brought me a life of pain and mornings spent begging for forgiveness for sins I never asked to take part in. I could still feel their hands on me when I slept. Which is why I rarely slept. I hoped that would change in Hart Hollow, but the memory of the red-haired girl had kept me up the week leading up to my first day.
“Good,” Kyrie said, smiling like she’d won a prize. It almost made me want to visit her father’s church. But there was nothing I could offer this pretty girl that she needed.
I offered my hand again, pretending to be normal, and Kyrie took it. “Friends?”
Her eyes dimmed a little, and behind her, I could see the guy who had been whispering in the peep show girl’s ear, eyeing us. “Friends,” Kyrie agreed.
The class went by slowly, and I focused the rest of my attention on the teacher and our first lesson. I’d taken history classes in the other schools, so I felt confident I could pass the class.
Ten minutes before class let out, a man came to the door, knocking on the frame.
“Principal Garrison, what can I do for you?” Mr. Pitts asked.
