Page 76 of The Way the Heart Breaks: Jade’s Story

We've perfected that conversation over the years.

You good?

Yeah.

Cool.

Back to more important things.

I give Jade's shoulder a squeeze. “So...” I nod toward Alex. “What do I have to do to win your cousin over?”

“Good luck,” Jade says, laughing.

Tessa snorts. “No one will be worthy of Jade. She's the princess.”

I look at Jade. “Princess, huh?” I lower my voice as I glance at the glare directed at me by Brooks. “I guess I’d better start showing you I’m not interested in being one of your knights.”

She turns fully in her seat, so her back is to them, and arches a brow. “Oh, no?”

Allowing my smirk to play on my lips as I look between hers and those gorgeous eyes and answer, “I’m going to be your Prince.”

Lucas and I head upstairs, weaving through the crowded hallway until we step into Advanced Calculus. Alex and Ryan are in this class too. Perfect.

Ryan looks up first. “Well, this should be interesting.”

I grin as I drop into the desk behind Alex. “Good to see you too.”

“You know you're in the wrong class, right?” Ryan huffs.

I glance around. “Nah. Looks like Calculus.”

Ryan snorts. “I meant intellectually.”

Alex sighs, already pulling out his notebook. “Don't encourage him.”

“I wasn't planning on it,” Ryan mutters.

Mr. Benson starts class before either of them can say anything else, and honestly, it's probably for the best. Ten minutes later, we're halfway through derivatives, and I finish the first page before Ryan.

He notices.

“So...” He leans back in his chair. “You actually know what you're doing?”

I shrug. “Usually.”

“I figured you'd spend all your time lifting weights.”

“Nah., I let Lucas do that.”

“I heard that,” Links says.

“I wanted you to.”

A couple kids laugh, including Alex, though he tries to hide it by looking back down at his paper.

Ryan isn't giving up. “You ever do homework?”

“When I remember.”