I stepped out onto our driveway just as Lockley’s car pulled up. Lockley had been Emery’s best friend for over three years, ever since Lockley’s family had moved in down the street from us five years ago and she and Emery immediately clicked. Emery used to carpool to school with Lockley, and I’d joined them when I started at the same high school—the same year Emery had died.
Emery had been a year ahead of Lockley in school, but that hadn’t diminished their friendship. We’d all dealt silently with the grief over what should’ve been Emery’s graduation last year… but this year, Lockley would be graduating, while I still had a whole year of high school to go.
I was happy for her, but also a little afraid of what would happen when she moved on, if I was honest. Lockley had been irreplaceable to our family in the weeks and months following Emery’s death. She was one of the few who felt Emery’s loss as deeply as we did. She was like part of our family herself.
Lockley’s brother, Collin, was my age and in my grade, but I honestly hadn’t spent much time with him until recently. He’d been at some swanky prep school his first two years of high school, and had transferred to our area’s public school a couple weeks ago, even though it was halfway through his junior year. I didn’t know why—Lockley had said he just wasn’t happy at the prep school anymore.
From how I could see it, though, Collin wasn’t happy anywhere.
Today, he was scowling at me from the backseat as I climbed into the front passenger side of Lockley’s car, but I wasn’t about to complain. Without Lockley giving me a ride, I’d be catching the 5AM school bus.
I chose to get my morning entertainment by acting outrageously cheerful. “Good morning!” I grinned at Collin.
He looked taken aback by my obnoxious perkiness. His scowl deepened. “Is it?” he muttered, then buried his face in his phone.
Collin’s reddish-brown hair was combed and gelled, like usual, in a style probably carried over from his strict prep-school dress code. The dark-wash jeans and button-down shirts he wore lately were an improvement over the khakis and collared polo shirts I’d seen him heading to prep school in. He used to get picked up by a friend to ride to his old school, since his parents always seemed to be working. Now, since he and Lockley shared a car, he was stuck riding with us.
Lockley smiled at me from the driver’s seat as I set my backpack on the floor and buckled my seatbelt. “Morning, Aubs.” She backed out of my driveway, then pulled out onto the street. “Radio?”
“Of course.” I switched it on while she drove, sifting my way through her saved channels until I found one playing something perky and upbeat, then pulled down the mirror overhead to apply my lip gloss. I honestly didn’t even know the song, but it was way too energetic for early morning, which made it perfect for annoying Collin.
I had to get my amusement somewhere.
Collin glared at me via his reflection, then pulled out a big pair of bulky headphones from his backpack and put them on while staring directly at me in the mirror.
Were those noise-canceling headphones? Rude.
Not for the first time, I noticed the smattering of freckles across his nose. They would’ve made him kind of adorable if not for his constant scowl, and I had to admit his green eyes were gorgeous… but it was hard to appreciate that when they were always glaring at me. I’d take it personally, except he barely knew me, and Lockley said he glared at everyone. She swore he was squishy beneath all that armor, but if so, the armor was too solid to tell. I hadn’t even seen a chink.
Lockley glanced over at me, either oblivious to Collin’s glares or choosing to ignore him. “By the way, Aubs, I have a cheerleading get-together off campus after practice, so no need to wait around for me after your radio show this afternoon. I’ll catch a ride with one of the girls from the squad. Collin said he can drive you home.”
“He did?” I gave him a questioning look in the mirror.
He looked up at my reflection and shrugged. “I have to drive home anyway, don’t I?”
Apparently, those headphones weren’t doing much, since he could still hear us.
I turned around to look at him. “You’ll have to wait about 30 minutes after school for me to finish the radio show. You don’t mind?”
“I never said that.” He went back to staring at his phone.
Lockley looked over at me and smiled. “Don’t worry. Just make sure you walk him and feed him, and he won’t bite.”
Collin’s head snapped up to glare at her.
A giggle escaped me, but then I noticed Collin’s expression. He looked annoyed. Maybe he really didn’t want to be stuck driving me home.
He caught me staring at him, and I looked away.
We rode the rest of the way in silence, except for the overly perky music and Lockley’s occasional singing along with it.
Lockley parked in the student lot.
The moment she opened her door, some of her cheerleading friends called out and waved at her from a few rows away. A couple of them were newish girls, two out of three of a tight-knit friend group who had transferred to our school this year. Those three girls had quickly become the new popular crowd at our school, and they always hung out together, regardless of who else joined them. I imagined at their last school they’d been similarly inseparable. My best friend, Chloe, had even heard a rumor they had all worked together after-school in their last town…at some kind of detective agency or private-investigator thing.
I wasn’t sure I believed that rumor, but it did make them a bit more intriguing. Not that they needed it—despite their cliquishness with each other, they always had a crowd around them.
Lockley had clicked right in with them when they got here. She could get along with anyone.
“See ya tomorrow, Aubs.” Lockley smiled a goodbye at me, then tossed Collin the keys in the backseat and got out to go greet her friends.
I climbed out of the front passenger seat, but felt a sudden prickle of something looking at me. I glanced up.
A small, brown hawk was watching the parking lot from one of the light poles.
As soon as I glanced up, it took flight, circling over the parking lot. It seemed to be staring intently down at the cars, and if I didn’t know better, I’d have sworn it had been looking right at me before I caught it staring.
I didn’t recognize the species and wasn’t sure I’d seen one like that around there before, but then I also wasn’t a hawk expert. It was probably looking for rats to eat. I was sure the school had plenty.
The sound of Collin’s car door shutting interrupted my focus on the hawk.
I turned to head toward the school building, but Collin intercepted me at the end of the car.
“Listen, it’s fine, okay? The ride, I mean. I’ll meet you at the car after your radio show,” he said all in a rush, then walked off without even giving me time to respond.
I stared after him in confusion. The fact that he had bothered to stop and reassure me was honestly a little baffling, but it was nice of him. Maybe there was some squishiness under all that armor, after all.
Or maybe it was a fluke.
My first class was on the far-right end of the building, but the student parking lot was near the media center—our school’s fancy name for the library since it also hosted the morning TV show and the afternoon radio broadcasts—so before heading to class, I veered left toward the media center to drop off my notes for this afternoon’s radio show. Mr. Pierce always had to approve my show plans before we aired.
I pulled open one of the double doors at that end of the building, then slipped past the noise of students chatting and slamming locker doors and into the quiet of the media center.
When I entered, Mr. Pierce looked up from the front desk, where he was organizing piles of books. He was middle-aged, probably the same age as my dad, but unlike my dad’s strange combo of suit-wearing business man with cheesy dad jokes, Mr. Pierce had glasses and a solid Mr. Rogers vibe, right down to the gentle smile and sweater.
“Aubrey.” He smiled at me. “Right on time. Got a stellar show for us today?”
I swung my backpack off to pull out my papers. “That depends on whom you ask. Most people say my shows put them to sleep.”
Mr. Pierce chuckled as he took my notes from me, then glanced over them and nodded. “Pride and Prejudice today. Good choice. I like your idea of comparing the social interactions in the story to today’s social media landscape. Some of the lessons from that book are surprisingly timely, aren’t they?” He looked up at me.
“Lessons from well-written literature always are, Mr. Pierce.”
He smiled again. “Indeed. Your teaser for next week says it’s another Poe episode?”
I nodded. “This one’s got a new spin, I promise.”
He handed my notes back. “I trust you.” He studied me for a moment. “You know, the end of the school year is coming up. After three years of broadcasting your show, it’s now steadily gaining in the local ratings—you’ve done a remarkable job here, Aubrey. Would any of your friends like to join you for a party here in the media center next week to celebrate your hard work? Cake and pizza will be on me.”
A party for my radio show? Given that Chloe was the only friend I had other than Lockley—who was actually Emery’s friend—I didn’t think so. Being the school’s token literature nerd hadn’t done me many favors in the popularity department… and losing my sister just months into moving to a new school hadn’t helped, either. Not many people wanted to make friends with the sad girl having weekly panic attacks.
Mr. Pierce was watching me with a kind gaze, waiting for my answer.
I hedged my response. “Yeah, maybe. I’ll ask around.”
“Okay. Just let me know.” He smiled. “You’ve got a solid show plan for today. Looking forward to hearing it.”
He heard all my shows—only a teacher was allowed to run the broadcasting equipment, and no other teachers ever volunteered.
“Thanks,” I said.
Mr. Pierce turned back to organizing his books.
The radio show had become my saving light after Emery died—it was one of the few ways I could still feel close to my sister. Geeking out about literature had always been our thing, even if our taste in material occasionally differed, and even now, so many of my show ideas and notes came from conversations we’d had in the past or from books I read because she had loved them. It didn’t matter to me that only a handful of people even got this AM radio station, and Mr. Pierce’s declaration of supposed growth probably meant we’d gone from three listeners to four. For me, it wasn’t about who listened, it was about the doing of it… because this whole show had been Emery’s idea, and doing it, somehow, felt a bit like keeping her with me.
I knelt down and carefully returned my radio show notes to their folder in the backpack, then collected my first-period book and notebooks from my backpack, too, so I wouldn’t have to dig them out at my desk with people bumping into me as they squeezed up and down the aisle to get to their seats.
The warning bell for first period rang.
I zipped my backpack and slung it over my shoulder.
Mr. Pierce looked up at me. “See you this afternoon, Aubrey.”
“See you, Mr. Pierce.”
I slid back out into the chaos of the hallway, looking forward to lunch period when I could actually sit with and talk to my one friend. Lunch was the only period Chloe and I had together, although for some reason, I had three classes with Collin.
Having a school tell you what to do and where to be all day kind of sucked.
***
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