Cami

Camille LaRue glanced up at the clock in her last period class. She exhaled with relief. Five minutes left. She drew a dramatic X through the date in her day planner. Three more months of school remained. Or sixty-six actual school days if you wanted to be technical. And Camille did. She was a habitual planner. Ticking boxes and keeping track of her self-inflicted countdown was soothing to her. She liked to know the exact amount of time she had left, so she could make the most of it.

Camille had a lot to accomplish and not a whole lot of time. She flipped to the back of her planner and glanced at her bucket list with determination—only a few items remained unchecked. That was a good thing since there were only a few months of high school left to pull them off.

She closed her eyes, fighting exhaustion. Today was not a good day. You’ve got this, Cami. One foot in front of the other. She mentally repeated her mantra while drumming her fingers impatiently on her desk, waiting for the bell to ring. School was the last place she wanted to be. It was a complete waste of her time—literally.

Only sixty-six days of her senior year of high school remained. And that miniscule number was her driving force.

Nate

Skateboard tucked under his arm, Nathan Hawthorne meandered through the bright hallways of his new high school trying to keep his awe contained. But it was nearly impossible not to gawk at the rich accommodations. The posh New Orleans prep school was a stark difference from his old California public school. He couldn’t believe he’d actually convinced his mom to let him come to New Orleans Academy. It had to be costing her a fortune in tuition.

Nate let out a low whistle while admiring the expansive view of campus from the floor-to-ceiling gothic windows in the student lounge. A student lounge for God’s sake! His old school in Cali didn’t even have a real gym, only a glorified rec room that doubled as the cafeteria. Therefore the makeshift gym always smelled like tater tots and the cafeteria smelled like sweat. Neither combination was something Nate particularly cared to remember about his old school, but it sort of stuck with him anyway.

But this place . . . well, Nate was pretty sure he was gonna like it here. There was a freaking Starbucks on campus! What was not to like?

It was unreal to Nate that people lived like this. It’s not that he was poor by any means—his mom was a doctor. But she had a thing about living large, always telling Nate that honesty and modesty would serve him better than anything else in life. And he’d agreed with her. But he was starting to wonder if maybe his mom hadn’t ever seen NOLA Academy.

The elite prep school looked more like a castle than a school. Nate’s mom must’ve been feeling pretty guilty about ditching him his senior year to send him to a place like this. He didn’t blame her for uprooting their life. She’d gotten an incredible job offer with a medical program in London. Nate was happy for her. He knew the past few years hadn’t been easy on her. It was time for her to take her life back. It was time Nate did, too.

He pulled out the class schedule he’d just picked up from the Dean’s Office. Technically, Nate didn’t start classes until tomorrow, but he wanted to get the lay of the land. This was the first school he’d ever attended where a map was necessary for getting around. And he didn’t want to look like the idiot, new guy showing up late for class because he’d gotten lost.

Nate studied the map, figuring he’d pick up his uniform and do a dry run of his schedule while he was on campus. He still couldn’t quite believe he was in New Orleans. He’d begged his mom to let him come visit ever since his dad had moved back, but her answer was always the same. “Your dad doesn’t understand adult supervision. He only speaks booze, music and women.”

To Nate, it didn’t seem like such a bad language to speak. But then again, he was a hormone-crazed eighteen-year-old boy who played the violin and hadn’t been known to turn down a beer when it was offered. He could see his mom’s point though. Nate’s dad hadn’t been the best role model lately. Then again, Nate’s mom had a pretty jaded opinion of his dad after their divorce.

Nate tried to remain neutral during the whole thing. He loved both his parents, and didn’t see the point in picking sides. Now that he was technically an adult, he really just needed a place to crash while he finished up his last semester of high school. He could’ve stayed in Cali. He had plenty of great friends out there who offered to let him stay. But Nate planned to go to Tulane in the fall, and was eager to get a jump on his future. God knew he was ready for it.

Nate was ready for a change of scenery. He’d only been to New Orleans a few times. But the city stayed with him. The brief time Nate had spent in the resilient city always left him hopeful. And now that he was back, he clung to the notion that New Orleans would help him move on. And NOLA Academy seemed like a pretty great place to start.

Nate stepped into the pool of sunlight bathing the student lounge. He let the warmth seep in, recharging him. He sighed with relief. It was already easier to breathe without being surrounded by the suffocating sadness of his past. Nate exhaled and repeated his mantra to himself—life is good.

He was in a beautiful city, at a great school, with his whole life ahead of him. He was good at focusing on the positive, and as he looked around at the sea of faces spilling out of the classrooms as the bell rang, he saw a lot to be optimistic about. But maybe nothing as much as the girl with the purple hair and studded combat boots who caught his eye.

She poured out of classroom 214 like a rainbow. She wore a scowl on her pretty porcelain face and a shiny black backpack. Time slowed when she walked past Nate through a sliver of sunlight. The light illuminated her features, making her eyes glow pale gray. They were the exact color of the Pacific Ocean at dawn, and Nate felt homesick when he looked into them. His heart filled like helium, spreading heat through his body. And all he knew, was that he had to know her.