FIVE YEARS EARLIER
I’m not hungry enough to eat. I’m too distracted, so I just numbly move forkfuls of food around on my tray, my eyes set on a random spot on the table and my mind in a complete trance. It’s lunch and the cafeteria is wild. It always is. The buzz of chattering, the random shrieks, the echoing laughter. I hate it. I wish everyone would just sit down and shut up.
“Hey,” I hear Jake say sharply, right as he throws an eraser across the table at me. I blink and force myself to tune back into my surroundings again, slowly lifting my head to look at Jake. He grins across the table at me, the fluorescent lighting shining against his braces. “Are you in?”
“On what?” I ask. I glance sideways at Dean for backup, but he just rolls his eyes at me and continues chewing a mouthful of food. I think they’re used to me zoning out a lot, though it’s something I wish I could stop.
“We’re gonna try out for the varsity team in high school. All three of us. Deal?” Jake says, and then holds out his fist and bumps it with Dean’s. He holds his fist out to me too, and when I only stare blankly back at him, his smile fades and he sighs. “Football, you idiot. Are you in or are you not? Everyone knows that if you want to be cool in high school, you gotta be on that varsity team.”
“You do know that high school is still two years away, right?” I ask him, furrowing my eyebrows. “And I don’t think it actually works like that in real life.”
“Sure it does!” Jake says, retracting his fist. Before he can say anything more, our conversation is cut short when Rachael Lawson appears out of nowhere and slides onto the bench alongside him.
“What are you guys talking about?” she asks, resting her elbows on the table. She glances around at the three of us from behind the smudged lenses of her glasses. Sometimes, she and her friend Meghan join us for lunch.
“Rach, why are you so obsessed with me?” Jake teases, smirking at her as he nods down at her arm brushing against his. Jake is such a joker. I wish I was like him sometimes.
“With those braces? Keep dreaming,” Rachael fires back, then dramatically shifts a few inches away from him. “Mr. Hayes has asked Meghan and me to show the new girl around, so be nice. Here they come.”
“There’s a new girl?” Dean says with curiosity, but there’s no time to get an answer.
Meghan Nguyen walks over, her dark hair swinging around her shoulders, and behind her, a girl I’ve never seen around before is following. I didn’t know we were getting a new girl, either. Meghan sits down on our side of the table next to Dean, and the new girl joins Rachael opposite us.
“Are you gonna introduce yourself?” Jake says, leaning forward to look at her over Rachael.
The new girl gives him a small, confident smile as she tucks her mousy blond hair behind her ears. Her eyes are seriously bright blue, like ice, and she studies us all one by one, her gaze shifting around the table. “I’m Tiffani. Just moved here. And you guys are?”
“Someone ain’t shy,” Jake snickers under his breath, covering his mouth with his hand, but we all hear him anyway. Then, he flashes Tiffani a smirk. “You can call me Jake, and I hate to break it to you, but Rachael and Meghan are both already in loooove with me, so hands off.”
“Shut up, you freak,” Meghan hisses across the table while Rachael digs her elbow into Jake’s ribs. The three of them do crack into laughter, though. Jake teases them all the time, and it’s only ever playful.
“Aren’t you nervous?” Dean asks quietly amid the bickering. He cocks his head to one side as he looks at Tiffani suspiciously. No new girl is ever that comfortable so quickly. Usually, they don’t even speak until at least their second week. “I’m Dean, by the way.”
“Why would I be?” Tiffani asks, blinking at him, her over-glossed lips still curved into what seems to be an innocent, gentle smile, but really isn’t. I’ve learned to read expressions more carefully than other people. Her bright blue eyes flicker over to meet mine, and she pouts at me. “What’s up with you, quiet boy? Do you have a name?”
“Tyler,” I mumble, dropping my eyes back down to my tray of untouched food. I hate strangers. The more people who know me, the more people who have the potential to figure out that there’s something wrong.
“Can I just call you Ty?”
I look up at her, my expression blank. “No.”
“Lame,” she says, rolling her eyes and turning her attention away from me as though I’m not worth it. She pulls out her class schedule and looks over it, biting down on her lower lip. “Does anyone have science with Miss Fitzgerald next?”
“Tyler does, I think,” Meghan says, and when I glare over at her, she only gives me a small shrug.
“The quiet one,” Tiffani murmurs. Her eyes lock back on mine again exactly as the bell rings out, and the noise in the cafeteria amplifies even more as everyone gets to their feet, including us. “You can walk me to class, Ty,” she says, throwing one strap of her bag over her shoulder and flicking her hair. As I walk around the table, she hooks her arm around mine. “Let’s go.” Over her shoulder, she calls, “Catch you guys around!”
I heave a sigh, but I don’t bother fighting against her. She’s new, probably trying too hard to make an impression, and is just latching onto the first group of people she can find. I do, however, mutter, “It’s Tyler.”