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“No. Actually, I don’t want you to do that.”
His eyes widen.
“What’s your name?” I ask.
“Jake.”
“Okay, Jake. I don’t want you to do my homework for me. It’s cool.”
He blinks at me. “But your friend said…”
“I know. Just don’t do it, all right?” I smile at him. “And let me help you with that.” I bang my fist on his locker and the door swings open. “You don’t want to be late for class, man.” I clap him on the shoulder and head to biology.
I can feel him staring at my back like he can’t fathom that just happened.
What my friends and the rest of the school don’t understand is that I don’t want anyone doing my work for me. I like doing it myself. But the new and improved Colton Andersen has to put up the facade if he plans to survive high school in one piece.
I vowed to myself when I started my freshmen year that things would be different for me. Better. So far, it’s been working. I just have to be careful that no one finds out the truth about me.
Just as I enter the classroom, my phone buzzes with a text.
Hi, honey. How’s your day going?
I grit my teeth and release a heavy breath. She’s been contacting me every week, though lately it’s been twice a week. Doesn’t she understand that I don’t want to talk to her? She was the one who abandoned me. She broke up our family. She’s got no right trying to weasel her way back into my life.
“Colton Andersen,” a voice says. Looking up, I find my biology teacher, Mrs. Collins, standing in the doorway with her hands on her hips. I’m still outside the classroom. “Do you plan to join us or would you like a trip to Vice Principal Rivera’s office?”
I shoot her my signature charismatic smile. “I’d like to join your class, Mrs. Collins, if that’s all right with you.”
She shifts in her place, her hand going to her hair and her eyes flitting around the place. “Well, all right then. Take your seat.”
“Nice.” Owen holds up his hand for a high-five and I give it to him. “No one can charm teachers like you. Dude, you could get away with anything.”
I don’t want to get away with anything. I just don’t want to miss class by taking a trip to the office. But of course I won’t tell my best buddy that. I wiggle my brows and say, “You know it.”
He just chuckles. Loudly. Mrs. Collins glances at us with hard eyes, but doesn’t say anything when she realizes it’s us.
“Like magic,” Owen says under his breath.
The lesson is very interesting, but I can’t help thinking about Vanessa. We’ve only been broken up for less than a day, but I miss her like crazy. What’s even crazier? The way she flirted with other guys at lunch. Right in front of me.
The logical part of me tells me to let her go, meet someone else, to move on. But she was my first real girlfriend. Owen keeps reminding me that I can have my pick of any girl at school. I don’t just want any girl. I want someone special. I thought she was Vanessa. No, Iknowit’s Vanessa. I’m going to fight for her.
“Man, you’ve been gone all day,” Owen says. “The bell rang, dude. One more class to go and then we’re free from this prison.”
I look up at him. “Did you say something?”
He plops down in his desk. “Just forget about her.”
He doesn’t get it. Vanessa and I connected on a level that goes beyond this world. I mean, yeah, I kind of hid my true self from her, but I planned to tell her one day. And I know she’d accept me—every part of me.
“I can’t let her go, Owen,” I say. “I can’t.”
He puffs up his cheeks. “What you need is a distraction. We’re all going to Mikey’s tonight. Good thing I got that nerd to do your homework for you, eh?” He pulls me up. “You’ll have so much fun, you’ll say to yourself: Vanessa who?”
I shake my head at him, but don’t say anything.
As we leave the classroom, all heads turn in our direction. Well, in my direction. The girls stare at me like I’m Asher Park. He once came to school to give his daughter the homework she forgot at home and the girls practically climbed all over him. Now that they think I’m unattached, I guess they’re hoping for a shot with me.
