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Prologue

The girl looked at her own flushed and excited reflection in theeyeshadow, and she was dressed in a beautiful new blue silk dress with a bow at the waist, but she knew she was no beauty

That was for sure

Her nose was too big and her mouth too broad and filled with metal She was also covered in a layer of puppy fat, at least that is what her mother had told her Glasses covered her best asset: her eyes They were enorreen liquid Not even a hint of gold or hazel to e, like the eyes of an innocent child

When she heard the roar of a sports car pulling up in the driveway she froze with sudden terror The butterflies in her sto with nerves she ran to the s, and hidden behind the net curtain looked down She nearly peed herself Holy Mother, he was getting out of the car with a bunch of flowers!

‘OMG! OMG!’ she shrieked with excitement He came He really, really had come for her Some part of her had not believed that he would stand her up

Distractedly she took off her glasses and placed them on a table filled with books She had h her suddenly blurry bedroo to do was to let her er or too desperate

‘Sky, Miko’s here,’ her mother called from the bottom of the stairs

Sky opened her door and, sucking her stoally as she could she walked slowly down the stairs Both Miko and herat the bottoot to the second last step her hter worriedly Ever since Sky’s father had died last year her htened and introverted

Shyly Sky turned toward Miko And… Wow! Just ! He was so gorgeous she lost her power of speech Her poor teenage brain felt quite overwhelmed in the presence of the aze up at hi in the whole world He could have had anyone he wanted and yet he had asked her She felt a warht

Sky had become infatuated with Miko from the first moment she had set eyes on hiirlish crush, but Sky was certain it was love She was certain she was deeply and irrevocably in love with him She doodled his name on the insides of her homework folders, and daydreamed about him for hours

It was a silly, obsessive, wonderful, exhilarating fantasy that would have co, until last week, when he had suddenly invited her to a party one of his friends was having Come to think of it, last hen a few other boys who had never noticed her before had also asked her out She had looked in theIf she was so more attractive, but the mirror said NO!

She stepped off the last step and stood grinning stupidly up at Miko

‘Well, you kids better be off then Will you bring Sky home by ten pm, Miko?’ her mother said

‘Of course, Mrs Johnson’ He turned toward Sky and sht she would ht there on the spot I think he likes me I think he really likes ainst her ribs she was sure he could hear it

Outside, he opened the door of his sleek Cobra, and courteously settled her into it

He got in, powered on one of those ine

He drove fast and silently Outside the hugeheld, he stopped under a large tree and turned off the engine She turned toward him

‘Thank you so ined you’d ever even look at me let alone invite me to a party This is the happiest day of my life,’ she blurted out suddenly, and blushed at her own daring

He frowned and then gazed at her as if seeing her for the first tiainst the back of her ear, and pushed her hair to the side, exposing her long throat

She shivered and tilted her chin upward and saw through the canopy of leaves a sky brilliantly full of stars She couldn’t see thelasses and they seeh which brilliantly white light was pouring She returned her eyes to his face to find that his eyes had left the smooth curve of her neck and were settled on herto kiss her—his face even moved toward her, and she worried about all the ed He see

‘You’re beautiful,’ he whispered softly