Page 42 (1/2)

CHAPTER 1

The thrill of having a suan started working She’d had two customers all day The sports complex was such a joke No wonder she hadn’t had any competition for this job

It wasn’t even a sports coolf that no one wanted to play when it was a hundred degrees outside Batting cages that no one would use until school started up in the fall She probably wouldn’t see another soul until after five, when the white-collar dads showed up to use the driving range in a last-ditch effort to avoid going ho kids

Even then, in this heat, she’d be lucky if there were many

Ugh, her hair was already plastered to her neck Days like these, she wished she had enough power to do entle breeze

Then she choked off that thought

She knehat happened to kids with power

Besides, sitting here wasn’t so bad She worked the shop alone, so she could blast the entire sound tracks to Rent and Les Mis and sing along, and no one would give a crap She didn’t have to watch her brother Tyler light insects on fire with a lass and a sunbeam, like he’d done last suue

She could count the days until she turned eighteen

Until she could get away from her family

The shop door creaked and rattled, sticking in the huhtened, excited for a customer, for someone—anyone —to break up this cruel monotony

Anyone but Michael Merrick

For a second, she entertained the thought of diving behind the counter

Real mature, Em

But her hands were slick against the glass casing