Page 3 of His Reckless Freshman

She left so suddenly and wouldn’t tell me why.

I even tried to blame myself to see if that would get the truth out of her. “Did I do something wrong? How can I fix it?”

“You can’t fix it.” That was the last thing she said to me before she slipped out the door, pulling her suitcase behind her.

I know I can be annoying. I’m kind of hyper sometimes, I talk too much, I interrupt people, I’m useless at staying still. One of my high school teachers suggested to my parents that I might have ADHD, but my parents didn’t feel like my symptoms were bad enough to warrant the cost of getting tested. I’ve done a little of my own research, and I think I definitely have a few signs that might indicate I’m a hyperactive ADHD girl. There’s not much I can do about it, and I swear I try to curb those impulses when I can.

But… I obviously don’t do enough.

I drove Julia away, didn’t I?

I’m pretty good at putting people off. And I proved myself once again this afternoon when I managed to alienate the entire basketball team!

Resting my back against the wood with a defeated sigh, I cross my arms and gaze at my desk.

I’m supposed to sit at that thing and study or write this article.

But what article?

What am I supposed to tell Jax?

She’ll probably just give me that smug smile of hers. “Oh well, I tried to include you, but… maybe you’re just not ready.”

I don’t know what I ever did to make her not like me, but ever since I walked into the Nolan U Star office and went around introducing myself to everyone, she’s had her nose out of joint about me.

Maybe I’m just too enthusiastic for her.

I know some people don’t like that about me.

Shoot. I just can’t get anything right, can I?

Closing my eyes, I shake my body with a whine, then slap a hand over my face.

Did I actually tell Darian he played for the worst team in the school?

Like… out loud?

I whimper, trying not to relive every harrowing second of my afternoon.

Do-do-do-do-do-do—do-do.

My phone sings to me, and I wrestle it out of my bag, hoping it’s not a text from anyone at the paper.

“Come on,” I whine, struggling to find the damn thing.

It sings again, alerting me to the fact that yes, I have a text, and I haven’t checked it yet.

Finally finding it, I pull it out and check the screen.

It’s from Caroline.

Cinnamon: Hey cuz. Just checking in. Hope you’re doing okay after the weekend. I can see you’re in your dorm. That’s great! You didn’t get lost today. Woohoo!

I let out a self-deprecating laugh, still grateful that she can track me on my phone. I got lost so many times my first week here that we set up Life360 on our devices so that I could easily find her and—more likely—so she could find me.

Ugh.

I was so excited to leave home and go to college, but I didn’t expect it to be this big and scary and… hard.