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And now the future Mr Ashley Johnson was turned around in his chair, leaning around John Davis, staring atforit wanted was another confrontation and allowed embarrassment to overwhelm me I dropped my eyes as my face turned a brilliant shade of toh the rest of the hour with my eyes fixed steadfastly on my desk I tried to take so, but it all basically boiled down to hi impossibly hard I was pretty sure I could remember that without a written reatheredto uyʼs chest

"Sorry," I et to the door Instead ofto the side to let uy just stood there

"Excuse h clenched teeth He finallyme clear access to the door, and the blissful anonyh of relief as I sank into the seat next to my best friend, Talley Matthews, in the schoolʼs dilapidated theater The seats orn and threadbare, the thick velvet curtain had faded froht fixtures wereheavily in the air Despite its ruinous state, I was looking forward to the ti the schoolʼs new Shakespeare class

"How is your last first day of high school going?" Talley asked, without even a hint of irony in her voice

"It has sucked, big ti Then, he insisted on picking up Nikki Anderson, who made us wait fifteen minutes in the car while she painted on her perfect face And, of course, Jase then made me ride in the back seat of our car so that he could stare at her unnaturally perky boobs as he drove us to school Ashley Johnson is in lish class, and Mr Beck is a couy I told you about from The Strip? Mr Tall, Dark and Insane? His brother is the new guy"

"Thereʼs a new guy?" Talley was always oblivious to the schoolʼs latest gossip "Whatʼs his name?"

"His last nah Soeneric

"A" name Alan? Andrew?"

"Alex," an unfamiliar uy, apparently na had he been there?

"Should I call you Scout or Miss Donovan?" he asked with a slowered "Scout will be fine"

"Iʼ around to stretch her hand out towards Alex

What was she doing? Was she going to shake his hand like they were closing a bank deal or so?

To his credit, Alex didnʼt look at Talley as though she was breaking soh school code, and extended his own hand to her "Nice to rey eyes seerin on his face revealed perfectly straight white teeth and a pair of honest-to-goodness dimples