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One

September 2007

I survived Day One without puking or crying

Do they an? They must I can’t be the only person to head back to school after su if I wore that T-shirt I did cry today; I just didn’t do it in public I ducked into a restroom stall as the first fat tear rolled down my cheek and then spent my entire lunch period withto irls streamed in and out, oblivious

And all it took was one look from Shane Beckett to cause that reaction Or rather, the lack of a look A passing glance as we crossed paths in the hallway between third and fourth period, when his beautiful whiskey-colored eyes touchedaway, as if the momentary connection was accidental

As if the seventeen-year-old, six-foot star quarterback for the Polson Falls Panthers and I hadn’t spent the summer in a semipermanent lip-lock

As if last night, sitting in his father’s car outsidetoo serious, too fast, and he couldn’t handle a relationship right now, that he needed to focus on football, and I was too much of a distraction

That one vacant, less look fro else he could have done, and it sentmy obliterated spirit behind me

The rest of the day has been a painful blur, within the sa to avoid the crowd I foreseean occupied sign and declare it mine for the school year

“Hey, Scarlet” Becca Thompson, her stride buoyant, flashes a sympathetic smile as she passes h

“Hey,” Idown the sidewalk, no glance backward, alh, but I shouldn’t be surprised by the lukewarm friendliness We’ve never traveled in the sa the reticent s away at the local drive-in, despite our ether at the hair salon for years

Couple that with the fact that Becca is best friends with Penelope Rhodes—aka the Red Devil, otherwise known as the worst human to walk these dank halls—ay in Italy all suain