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“And a pen?” he drawled, making her sigh as she admitted, “I didn’t have time to steal one.”
Without a word, Uncle Jason pointed to the empty desk in the front row. Biting back a wince, Mikey murmured, “Right,” with a nod as she grabbed her backpack and reluctantly headed to the front row. As soon as she sat down, Mikey cleared her throat, went for a hopeful smile, and watched as Uncle Jason grabbed a pen off his desk.
“Put it to good use, Miss Campbell,” Uncle Jason said as he placed the pen on her desk while she sat there, resigning herself to waiting until second period for that nap.
With that in mind, Mikey shifted to get more comfortable, opened her notebook before she reached down into her bag and grabbed the candy bar that was going to help her get through this and-
“Welcome to United States History,” Uncle Jason began as he plucked the candy bar out of her hand and replaced it with a syllabus. “My name is Mr. Bradford, for those of you who’ve never taken one of my classes before. There are a few things you should know about me before we start. I don’t tolerate tardiness, late assignments, excuses, or cheating. Remember that, and you’ll be fine,” he said as he finished handing out the syllabus while Mikey sat there, struggling not to panic when she saw the words midterm, final, and paper repeated several times.
Oh, this wasn’t going to end well…
Then again, she already knew that, Mikey thought, biting back a wistful sigh as she found herself drawn to the large windows to her left and releasing that wistful sigh after all when she spotted the baseball fields on the other side of campus. She’d been dreaming of those fields ever since she saw them last year.
God, the pitches she could throw on that mound…
She-
Should probably find out why her desk was suddenly moving. Afraid that she already knew the answer, Mikey turned her head to find Uncle Jason dragging her desk away from the row and turned her so that her back was to the windows. That was followed by Uncle Jason releasing a heavy sigh and a muttered, “I should have known the temptation would be too much for you to handle.”
Nodding solemnly, Mikey said, “It really was.”
* * *
She should probably be payingattention, especially since there was something written about a science project that was worth twenty-five percent of her grade written on the whiteboard, Mikey decided as she noted that it was for a group project. She really wished that Sebastian was here, but since he wasn’t, Mikey took in the occupants of the other lab tables as she considered her options. She quickly decided against asking the two girls that really seemed to hate her, mostly because they hadn’t stopped glaring at her since first period.
Still wondering about that, Mikey continued debating the rest of her options, noting that most of the tables already had partners before deciding on the teenage boy sitting in the back by himself. Wondering why all the boys in her life had to make everything difficult, Mikey grabbed her bag and headed to the table in the back and-
“No,” Braxton said as she climbed onto the stool next to him with a satisfied sigh.
While Braxton glared at her, and they really needed to work on that glare if they were going to be friends, Mikey grabbed a baseball from her backpack and began rolling it between her hands.
“I’m not working with you,” Braxton said, which was sad really.
“Because you’re ashamed of your feelings for me?” Mikey asked, blinking at the boy who really needed to smile more.
“Something like that,” Braxton said, nodding to the two girls that couldn’t seem to stop staring at her. “What’s their story?”
“They adore me,” Mikey said with a heartfelt sigh.
“I can see that,” Braxton murmured absently as he shifted his gaze back to his iPad while Mikey sat there, rolling the baseball between her hands as she found herself wondering about something.
“Why did you stop going over to Uncle Jason and Aunt Haley’s house this summer?” Mikey asked as she watched the boy, who she couldn’t quite figure out, as he glared down at his iPad.
“Why do you care?” Braxton murmured absently as he swiped his fingertips across the iPad.
“Because I’m nosey,” Mikey said, watching his lips twitch.
“I can see that,” Braxton said, sighing heavily as he reluctantly turned his iPad off and placed it on the table when the man that she was assuming was their teacher dropped two red folders on their table.
“Are you going to answer my question?” Mikey asked as she helped herself to one of the folders.
“Doesn’t look like it,” Braxton said, sighing heavily as he reached over and grabbed the other folder.
“Because admitting that you missed me would be too painful?” Mikey asked, wondering if his father had something to do with it. Probably, she thought, biting back a sigh as she found herself wondering why his father seemed to hate him so much.
CHAPTER8
He’d missed this, Sebastian thought as he walked into the large gym and took in everything from the basketball hoops to the freshly waxed floor before shifting his focus to the small teenage girl currently trying to take a nap on the bleachers.
