Read Online How I Fall by Anne Eliot - Free Book Online
Authors: Anne Eliot
Tags: best friends, family issues, kindle bestselling authors, Anne Eliot, Ann Elliott, dating your best friend coming of age romance with digital photograpy project and Canada Great Lakes, Football player book boyfriend, teen young adult contempoary sweet high school romance, Children's literature issue young adult literature suitable for younger teens, teen with disability, football player quarterback boyfriend, young adult with CP and cerebral palsy, hemi kids including spastic and mixed, first love story, growing up with wheelchairs and crutches, CP and Cerebral palsy, Author of Almost and Unmaking Hunter Kennedy, friendships and school live with childhood hemiparesis, Countdown Deals, Issue YA Author, friends to dating story, Summer Read
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seat. “You two won’t leave me all alone for lunch on me first day, will you?” The smile falls off her face.
Cam’s arms loosen around me as though he’s already looking for a way to escape.
Before he hurts Laura’s feelings I say, “It’s just that I—I never eat lunch. No time. I work in the digital photo classroom instead. It’s like—my job. The teacher—Miss Brown—she trades me out for my time. It pays for my monthly student version of the Adobe Creative Cloud membership.”
“A-what cloud?” She frowns.
“They’re digital design and editing tools. Software apps. Awesome, best ever. Miss Brown got me the student version and…yeah.”
“Oh…well, then. Cam? How about you?”
I shrug and let my gaze skate away from both of them pretending to look out the window. I’m sure as heck not going to watch Cam Campbell’s face crumple and shift with obvious lies while he explains his own way out of Laura’s lunch suggestion.
Unlike me, the guy seems to have zero poker face.
“Sorry, Ireland. I’ve got a pre-calculus test to make up today. It’s going to take the whole lunch period, but I could try to find you after…if I get finished in time.”
He’s said it gently and I wonder if he also feels guilty. He unwinds one of his arms off me and reaches into the coat pocket on the side nearest him and pulls out his phone. “Which reminds me. I’ve got to text my dad about calling me in to be excused for the one I missed. Sorry about lunch, though, Ireland. Truly.”
“Oh. Tomorrow, then…maybe?” Laura asks, very faintly.
“Maybe,” Cam answers, already lost in his phone.
I smile, but don’t respond. She will find out the truth soon enough. At our school, the popular, rich, football jocks don’t hang out with the town’s token handicapped girl. And exchange students—which is where Laura will fit—have their own clique that includes only other, hyper-intelligent scholarship kids.
The laughter creeps back up behind us. Whispers. And then more laughter.
And just like that, it’s over. Back to normal.
Cam’s suddenly back to the untouchable jock staring down at his phone. Laura’s the new girl in the wrong outfit, staring at the ice bits melting in the bus aisle, and I’m the water-logged handicapped girl, causing a fresh round of gossip, who just one-upped her last snowy-day fall by 200%.
I lay my ice-cold cheek against one of the sleeves of Cam’s jacket that’s been wrapped like a scarf around my neck. I’m left wondering if the warm caramel smell might be something I’d made up because even that’s disappeared. I check the status of my bad leg, testing weight on it to see if it’s going to hold me when the bus arrives at school. Thanks to the blasting heat coming from the vents at our feet, all appears fine now.
I risk a glance at Cam who’s staring down at his phone in extreme concentration. That’s when I get that he’s not staring at his phone. He’s taken my phone out of his pocket! He’s staring at my photo album!
Worse, he’s stopped on the photo I took of him leaning on the bus stop!
*Remembers all the times Mom and Nash told me to add a security code to my iPhone screen. Dies. Dies. Dies.*
My neck is growing warmer and warmer. The bus takes the sharp corner at the end of Lakeshore and Cam tightens the remaining arm that’s holding me from falling over while he leans to the side again and gives me a long look.
I’ve got nothing to say.
Nothing.
So I blink stupidly at him because: Navy Blue. Gray. Beautiful.
Because: Proof of how I stalked him is front and center.
Finally he goes first, whispering under a soft, startlingly kind and non-judgmental smile. “I didn’t mean to pry into your phone. We’ve got exactly the same Otter Box. And I’ve never set a background photo or a screen-lock code, either. Though we should have our screens locked…not safe and all that.” He blinks twice over my silence before going on. “Does your mom get on
Cam’s arms loosen around me as though he’s already looking for a way to escape.
Before he hurts Laura’s feelings I say, “It’s just that I—I never eat lunch. No time. I work in the digital photo classroom instead. It’s like—my job. The teacher—Miss Brown—she trades me out for my time. It pays for my monthly student version of the Adobe Creative Cloud membership.”
“A-what cloud?” She frowns.
“They’re digital design and editing tools. Software apps. Awesome, best ever. Miss Brown got me the student version and…yeah.”
“Oh…well, then. Cam? How about you?”
I shrug and let my gaze skate away from both of them pretending to look out the window. I’m sure as heck not going to watch Cam Campbell’s face crumple and shift with obvious lies while he explains his own way out of Laura’s lunch suggestion.
Unlike me, the guy seems to have zero poker face.
“Sorry, Ireland. I’ve got a pre-calculus test to make up today. It’s going to take the whole lunch period, but I could try to find you after…if I get finished in time.”
He’s said it gently and I wonder if he also feels guilty. He unwinds one of his arms off me and reaches into the coat pocket on the side nearest him and pulls out his phone. “Which reminds me. I’ve got to text my dad about calling me in to be excused for the one I missed. Sorry about lunch, though, Ireland. Truly.”
“Oh. Tomorrow, then…maybe?” Laura asks, very faintly.
“Maybe,” Cam answers, already lost in his phone.
I smile, but don’t respond. She will find out the truth soon enough. At our school, the popular, rich, football jocks don’t hang out with the town’s token handicapped girl. And exchange students—which is where Laura will fit—have their own clique that includes only other, hyper-intelligent scholarship kids.
The laughter creeps back up behind us. Whispers. And then more laughter.
And just like that, it’s over. Back to normal.
Cam’s suddenly back to the untouchable jock staring down at his phone. Laura’s the new girl in the wrong outfit, staring at the ice bits melting in the bus aisle, and I’m the water-logged handicapped girl, causing a fresh round of gossip, who just one-upped her last snowy-day fall by 200%.
I lay my ice-cold cheek against one of the sleeves of Cam’s jacket that’s been wrapped like a scarf around my neck. I’m left wondering if the warm caramel smell might be something I’d made up because even that’s disappeared. I check the status of my bad leg, testing weight on it to see if it’s going to hold me when the bus arrives at school. Thanks to the blasting heat coming from the vents at our feet, all appears fine now.
I risk a glance at Cam who’s staring down at his phone in extreme concentration. That’s when I get that he’s not staring at his phone. He’s taken my phone out of his pocket! He’s staring at my photo album!
Worse, he’s stopped on the photo I took of him leaning on the bus stop!
*Remembers all the times Mom and Nash told me to add a security code to my iPhone screen. Dies. Dies. Dies.*
My neck is growing warmer and warmer. The bus takes the sharp corner at the end of Lakeshore and Cam tightens the remaining arm that’s holding me from falling over while he leans to the side again and gives me a long look.
I’ve got nothing to say.
Nothing.
So I blink stupidly at him because: Navy Blue. Gray. Beautiful.
Because: Proof of how I stalked him is front and center.
Finally he goes first, whispering under a soft, startlingly kind and non-judgmental smile. “I didn’t mean to pry into your phone. We’ve got exactly the same Otter Box. And I’ve never set a background photo or a screen-lock code, either. Though we should have our screens locked…not safe and all that.” He blinks twice over my silence before going on. “Does your mom get on
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