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I LEFT CALCULUS A MINUTE before the bell so I’d be the first to arrive at the student councilOur advisor, Ms Yates, would sit at the back of the classroo, and I wanted her vacated desk at the front of the roo, Aidan had taken her desk in a show of presidential authority But as vice president, I was the one who needed room for paperwork A better boyfriend than Aidan would have let me sit at the desk

A better girlfriend than me would have let him have it

And that pretty

The bell rang just as I reached the roo for Ms Yates to e and for her freshlanced atas if I were a celebrity I re fro up to e to be on the receiving end

As the last of the ninth graders escaped down the hall, I stepped into the room, which should have been empty

Instead, Sawyer De Luca sat behind Ms Yates’s desk He must have left his last class two minutes before the bell to beat me here

Sensingdeep blue eyes at me, the color of the September sky out thebehind him When Sawyer’s hair was combed—which I’d seen happen once or twice in the couple of years I’d known him—it looked platinum blond Today, as usual, it was aup on top, and the dark blond layers peeking out underneath He had on his favorite shirt, which he wore at least two times a week, the madras short-sleeved button-doith blue stripes that made his eyes stand out even more His khaki shorts were rumpled I couldn’t see his feet beneath the desk, but I kneore his beat-up flip-flops In short, if you’d never met Sawyer before, you’d assue beach bum

I knew better

I closed the door behind ument ere about to have I wanted that desk I suspected he understood this, which hy he’d sat there But long experience with Sawyer told ood That’s what he expected me to do

So I walked in with a bigger grin on iven Sawyer “Hi!”