“So, I was going to sit by you at lunch, but your boyfriend beat me to it.”

“Who? My what?” The boyfriend statement threw me. “Do you mean Jase?” Joi, who had been listening intently to our conversation, looked even more shocked than Talley had earlier. “You and Jase have lunch together? But I thought that there had been a royal decree that the Donovan Twins werenʼt allowed within 500 feet of each other on school grounds since the Ms. Tubbs incident.”

Good grief. So you make one teacher have a mental breakdown in elementary school. Was it really that big of a deal?

“Twins?”

“Jase is my brother.”

“No, heʼs not,” Alex said with absolute conviction.

I was about to tell Alex exactly what I thought about him and his presumptuous arrogance when Joi decided to be helpful.

“Oh, we just call them twins. Jaseʼs mom married Scoutʼs dad when they were babies. They donʼt look anything alike, and Jase is technically a couple of months older, but they act like twins.”

“Five weeks to the day,” I corrected automatically.

“Thatʼs quite the distinction, Scout, ” Meg said. After watching an episode of Law and Order in the fifth grade, Meg Jamison decided she wanted nothing more in life than to be a lawyer.

She had been speaking like one ever since. I tried imagining her using “hottie” or “yummy newbie” to describe Alex, but my imagination wasnʼt that good.

“Do you have any siblings, Alex?” she asked, steering the conversation away from Jase, who she loathed with a passion since a brief stint as his flavor-of-the-month last year.

I eventually came to know that Alexʼs brother was named Liam, and he served as Alexʼs legal guardian. (“Heʼs two years, ten months, and four days older,” Alex told me with a wink.) They moved from Libby, Montana, a town about 75 miles from the Canadian border, to Kentucky the first week in July.

There was no mention of Liamʼs habit of terrifying random strangers for fun.

It quickly became apparent that Alex was one of those naturally outgoing people that could coax even the most aloof individuals into a group discussion. Thanks to him, the entire class was debating the best zombie survival tactics when school was dismissed for the day. I was so intent on making sure he understood the advantages of owning a blimp I never considered how Jase would react to seeing the two of us strolling through the parking lot together. It was, without question, one of my more remarkable errors.

Chapter 3

My senior year was off to a spectacular start. I had Beelzebub as a Calculus teacher, half of my classes came with first day homework, and the new guy had managed to completely disrupt my peaceful, structured world. I was so distracted by the time I got home, I didnʼt notice the boy sleeping in my bed until I almost sat on him.

Charlie Hagan isnʼt handsome in the classic sense - his features are a little too sharp and his lips a little too full - but he was unmistakably attractive. Itʼs not so much his physical appearance as his personality. Although, his athletic body, piercing green eyes, and curly hair with natural high-lights arenʼt to be ignored.

I wanted to go lie down next to him. I wanted to feel his arms wrapped around me and discover what his lips taste like. I wanted to tell him I had been secretly in love with him since I was two years old. So, I did the only thing I could do. I hit him in the head with Guido, my sock monkey.

“Ow, Scout.” He yawned and stretched out, causing the bottom of his T-shirt to ride up and reveal a sliver of bare stomach.

I seriously considered passing out.

“Charlie, what are you doing in my bed?”

“Jaseʼs room smells funky and Angelʼs room is too pink. Your bed, on the other hand, is just right.”

Well, if he felt that way about it...

No, Scout. Bad. Think of something else.

“Shouldnʼt you be home packing?”

Charlie was Jaseʼs best friend and paternal cousin. He lived with the rest of the Hagan clan near the Army Base, but spent as much time at our house as possible. On Friday, he was going to break my heart by moving three hundred miles away.

“Pack, shmack. Iʼll do it later. I wanted to see how your first day of school went.” I plopped down on the bed. Although my heart accelerated slightly at being so close to Charlie, I knew that he thought nothing of it. To him I was just like a sister. Or, at least, a cousin.

“School sucks. Iʼm dropping out and becoming a truck stop waitress. I think Iʼll change my name to Flo and get a really bad perm. Flo the truck stop waitress with a bad perm doesnʼt need high school. She lives off the knowledge of life.” Charlie reached over and put a consoling arm around my shoulders. I had trouble hearing his words over my pounding heart. “Was it Goat Girl? Do you need me to kick her ass for you?

I mean, I donʼt normally like the idea of hitting girls, but Iʼll make an exception.” Goat Girl was what Charlie and I called Ashley Johnson. It was because when you actually took the time to look at her face, she really did look like a goat with her little mouth, long face, and oddly placed eyes.

“No,” I grumbled. “Sheʼs not the problem. Although, having two classes plus lunch with her doesnʼt add up to happy, happy fun.”

“Then what is the problem?”

Before I could answer, my bedroom door swung open and in marched the very definition of a little girl: pink skirt, pink top, pink sandals, and a pink bow keeping her bouncy, blond curls pulled back from her little, round face.

“Found him!” Angel yelled at the top of her lungs. “Heʼs in bed with Scout!” My parents adore my six year old sister, positive that she is the most perfect child to have ever been born. Jase and I mostly just manage not to kill her.

“Why are you in bed together?” Angel asked, shooting Charlie and me a disapproving look.

“Because itʼs the most comfortable place in the room to sit,” I explained, refusing to feel guilty.

“Why is his arm around you?”

“Because my first day of school sucked.”

“You shouldnʼt say ʻsuckedʼ. Itʼs a bad word.”

“Iʼm seventeen. I will say ʻsuckedʼ if I want to.”

“Iʼm gonna tell Mom.”

“Go ahead. See if I care.” These little talks with my sister always brought out the best in me. We could have gone on for hours, but Jase came into the room with a plate of Oreos and a glass of milk.

“Good work, Munchkin,” he said, handing the snack over to Angel. “Hereʼs your reward.