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I opened my mouth to speak, but my father put his finger up to signal me to stop. “This is not up for debate.”
I grabbed my bag from the floor next to me and pulled it over my head so it draped across my body. I looked back, wanting so desperately to stand my ground, to make my life on my own terms, but when my mother lowered her paper slowly with a stern scowl, I simply walked out the door.
When I arrived at school, Avery grabbed my arm and pulled me over. She had her plaid, pleated skirt rolled up, showing more of her thigh than we were allowed to. She would surely be in trouble by Dean Prescott when word got out—not like it would be the first time.
“Oh my God, Violet, everyone is talking about it!” Avery whisper-screamed to me as she tucked us both away in a hall.
“Talking about what?” I asked her, hoping it wasn’t what I thought it was, but knowing after the conversation this morning, that it probably was.
“You’re going out with Theo this coming weekend!” Avery clasped her hands in front of herself and stomped her feet excitedly.
I sighed and lowered my head for only a moment before pulling on a smile and looking up at her. “I guess I am.”
Avery placed her arm around my shoulder and we began walking to class. “I’m so jealous. You have to tell me everything! This is the perfect opportunity to ask him to the debutante ball in September. I know it’s only June, but you have to snag him before someone else does. I’ve already asked Fletcher Marsh, and he’s agreed.”
The only person I would hate to be escorted by more than Theo would be Fletcher Marsh, but I merely nodded.
I didn’t want to keep talking about anything that had to do with Stellarbrook Academy.
Avery continued, “Also, who spends all Saturday night at the library? I called to see what you were doing and your parents said you were planning to be there until curfew.” Avery and I had just made it into our classroom and taken our seats in the respective places we’d been sitting in all year.
I swallowed hard, knowing there was no way I was going to let Avery in on the secret of Aveline and certainly not of Tuck. She would never understand. Avery would find Aveline astoundingly boring, and the moment she saw Tuck with his unkempt hair and his baggy cargo shorts, she would scowl. She would tell me I have lost my mind, that Theo Martin has more to offer than a boy from a town in the middle of nowhere.
What she didn’t know was that I wanted nothing of what Theo had to offer. I didn’t want a replica of the life our parents were living. I didn’t want parties and balls and uniforms. I wanted to pave my own way, have my own life, but Avery’s mind didn’t work that way. She would be pleased to follow in whatever plan her family had for her and marry whichever guy would offer her the most money while she could do the least amount of work possible.
I pulled out my notebook. “Finals are coming up, Avery.Youshould have been in the library as well!”
She stuck out her tongue, and we both turned forward as our teacher entered the room. I locked eyes with Theo—who sat diagonally from me two rows ahead—and he winked at me. I lowered my head and began picking at my fingernails. I waited a moment, hoping my aversion to his gaze would prompt him to turn around, and yet I was disappointed to find him still staring when I briefly looked up .
I did the only thing I could think of to ensure he would turn around.
I stuck my pointer finger straight up my nose.
TWENTY-FIVE
TUCK
School was overand summer had begun in Aveline. I had officially graduated and would be gone in a few months, trying to make a better life for myself. If someone had asked me a week ago if I was ready to leave, I would have said yes without hesitation. I would have been counting down the weeks when I could put my past behind me, but now, it felt more like a “not quite.”
The reason for the change was simple.
Lettie.
I tossed all the papers from my locker into the recycling on my way to the bakery when I heard someone yell behind me.
“Tuck!” I turned around and saw Beau and his twin sister, Darcy, trailing behind me. “Wait up! We’re all going to Hidden Hollow, you want to go?”
“Yeah, sounds good. I need to stop by the bakery first—” I started, but Darcy cut me off.
“We know. Mrs. Burton always makes you one of those chocolate-filled thingy-ma-bobbers for the last day of school. We all know you’re her favorite.”
I grabbed Darcy’s arm and pulled her into me, wrapping my arm around her before I ran my hand quickly over the top of her head.
“Hey! You’re messing up my hair!” Darcy squealed as she tried to cover her head.
A lot of people in Aveline thought the two of us would end up together, but Darcy and I knew it would never happen. We didn’t see each other like that, and we never had. She might as well have been my sister as much as she was Beau’s, and while I was protective of her, I never saw her as anything other than family.
And she had gagged on multiple occasions when someone suggested the two of us date, so I had an idea that the feeling was mutual. Besides, she’d had her eye on Conrad Taylor since the first grade.
