Chapter 1

I sighed and leaned back into my favorite over- stuffed chair in the corner of the public library. The homework is so freaking hard tonight. Stupid Mr. Henderson gave us a whole chapter to read for Biology, and we have to take notes. Not to mention what Mrs. Henderson gave us, three worksheets, all of them Spanish. Then there’s Mr. “Strait Shirt” Cal, (Mr. “SS” Cal for short.) we have a test in his class tomorrow, and I have to study for it.
We have three subjects and five assignments to do. This night is doing wonders for my patience.
“Kim, I found the book on the Punic wars we need for “SS” Cal’s class.” Gina (the BFF of the century) said.
“Wonderful,” I moaned. “Just what we need, another excuse to do our History homework.”
Gina giggled. “I know, but we do have a test in his class either way. So anyway, what do you want to start with? The harbor or the….” Gina’s words started to fade into the background. The door to the library opened and I glanced up. Coming into the building was a tall muscular man in (probably) 18-19 or maybe in his early 20’s. He was looking in my direction. When he met my gaze he smiled at me. My heart started to race. I quickly forced my head back down at the notes I was supposed to taking.
“Gina,” I whispered, “Is a guy with light brown hair looking over here?”
“Were you even listening to me?” she asked.
“Will you just answer the question?” I screeched.
“Fine,” she glanced up. “Get your flirting smile on cause, he’s headed over here.”
“What?” I looked up, and sure enough, he was standing not even 3 feet from us.
“Hi,” The stranger said.
“Well, umm, Kim, I’ll go get the book on, umm, mitosis that we need to read for biology.” Gina said quickly. I started to say something, but she was already gone.
I turned back to the stranger. “Umm, hi.” I said.
“So your name is Kim?” He asked. I nodded. “Cool. My name’s Jack.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Jack, and I don’t mean to be rude, but I have homework to do.”
“Okay, do you need help with it?”
“Thanks, but no thanks. I’m good.”
I got up to go look for some more books that would help with my Spanish homework.
When I looked up, Jack was standing right next to me.
“Umm, would you want to go out some time?” He asked.
I thought for a second. “Maybe,” I said as I pulled a book off the shelf.
“Great, so I’ll call you later?” I just nodded. “Cool,” He turned to leave. “Oh, could I have your number so I can call you?”
I grabbed a scrap sheet of paper and wrote my phone number on it. “Here you go.”
“Okay. I’ll call you some time.” He paused. “Before I go, what’s your last name?”
“Oh. It’s Stevenson, Kim Stevenson.”
“Thanks, I’ll see you later.” He smiled and walked away. When the library door closed, I sank back into the chair.
I heard footsteps hurrying to me. “What happened?” asked Gina.
“Nothing, I might just be going out with him sometime.”
“You call that nothing! What’s wrong with you girl? Have I taught you nothing?” she shrieked at me.
“Hush, we are in a library. Are we going to finish the homework or not?” I asked.
“Fine,” Gina huffed. She placed a pile of books in front of me, and we started to work again.