Read Online MILA Origins 2.0 - The Fire by Debra Driza - Free Book Online
Authors: Debra Driza
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was, I was pretty sure I had closed the barn door. But as we ran from the barn back to the house, the tiny lie felt worth it. There was no sense in making Mom worry unnecessarily. I mean, despite her obvious jitters, we were in Clearwater. What could possibly happen here?
The question I should have been asking myself was, how had I possibly heard Maisey banging her feed bucket from so far away? But the thought didn’t even occur to me. Not until it was way too late.
SIX
T he next morning, I felt the happiest I had in weeks. My newfound camaraderie with Mom made my smiles come easier and the hallways seem less overwhelming. Kaylee snapped her fingers just as we reached her locker. “Shoot, I left my economics book in the car—I wanted to try to study for that quiz during homeroom.”
Yesterday’s weirdness seemed to have blown over. I hadn’t mentioned her little freakout, and in return, she hadn’t brought up mine.
“Do you want me to go with you?” I said, just as the warning bell rang.
She speed-walked toward the main door, fast as her two-inch heels would allow. “No, you go ahead,” she called over her shoulder. “I’ll only be a second.”
I settled into my usual spot in homeroom. Even though I purposely tried to ignore the students already in class, apparently that was too big a challenge for my analytical brain. Five boys, three girls. None of them Hunter.
I smiled at all of them anyway.
I busied myself digging a notebook out of my backpack. Still, I sensed Hunter’s presence several seconds before he dropped into Kaylee’s spot next to me.
“Hey,” he said in his soft voice, those blue eyes fixed on me beneath a sweep of messy hair.
“Hi.” Nervous flutters kicked up inside me. Silly. He was just a boy. Okay, not entirely true. He was a boy who Kaylee happened to like.
Kaylee, who’d be back any second, expecting to sit in her spot.
Nervous flutters or not, the boy had to sit somewhere else.
Just then, Hunter dropped his backpack on the desk and laid his head against it. Closed his eyes.
My heart softened into what felt like a big, mushy pile of goo. He looked so tired, young even, with his dark eyelashes fanning across the tops of his cheeks. His mouth softened, too. I had a sudden yearning to trace that lopsided top lip with my finger.
Whoa.
I was so caught up in that crazy thought that the footstepsI’d heard clanking in the hall didn’t register at first. The kind of clanking made by high-heeled shoes.
Oh, no.
I straightened. “Hunter, you need to—” The final bell cut me off, as did the tiny gasp I heard from the open doorway behind me.
Kaylee stood there, freshly glossed lips parted in surprise. She took two steps toward her occupied desk before pausing to smooth her purple tunic dress uncertainly, gaze flitting from Hunter to me.
“Kaylee, hey! Hunter was just hanging out here for a sec—” I started only to be cut off again, this time by Mrs. Stegmeyer.
“Ms. Daniels, please take an empty seat if you don’t want to be marked tardy,” our homeroom teacher said over the top of her magazine.
Kaylee’s gaze lingered on her usual spot for a millisecond longer, prompting me into action. “Hunter,” I whispered. His eyelashes swept open. The task of kicking him out of the seat became a hundred times harder under that sleepy blue stare. “Um, would you mind moving? This is where Kaylee sits.”
He sat up, glanced at Kaylee like he was seeing her for the first time, then swooped up his backpack and stood. “Yeah. Sorry,” he said. His sheepish grin was the best parting gift he could give, because I could tell it practically melted heron the spot. He loped over to the empty desk he’d sat in last time.
She slid into the vacated seat with a huge sigh, while Mrs. Stegmeyer tapped her nails on the desk impatiently. “He warmed it up for me,” she whispered, pretending to fan herself with a notebook. “At this very moment, I’m being warmed by Hunter Lowe’s
The question I should have been asking myself was, how had I possibly heard Maisey banging her feed bucket from so far away? But the thought didn’t even occur to me. Not until it was way too late.
SIX
T he next morning, I felt the happiest I had in weeks. My newfound camaraderie with Mom made my smiles come easier and the hallways seem less overwhelming. Kaylee snapped her fingers just as we reached her locker. “Shoot, I left my economics book in the car—I wanted to try to study for that quiz during homeroom.”
Yesterday’s weirdness seemed to have blown over. I hadn’t mentioned her little freakout, and in return, she hadn’t brought up mine.
“Do you want me to go with you?” I said, just as the warning bell rang.
She speed-walked toward the main door, fast as her two-inch heels would allow. “No, you go ahead,” she called over her shoulder. “I’ll only be a second.”
I settled into my usual spot in homeroom. Even though I purposely tried to ignore the students already in class, apparently that was too big a challenge for my analytical brain. Five boys, three girls. None of them Hunter.
I smiled at all of them anyway.
I busied myself digging a notebook out of my backpack. Still, I sensed Hunter’s presence several seconds before he dropped into Kaylee’s spot next to me.
“Hey,” he said in his soft voice, those blue eyes fixed on me beneath a sweep of messy hair.
“Hi.” Nervous flutters kicked up inside me. Silly. He was just a boy. Okay, not entirely true. He was a boy who Kaylee happened to like.
Kaylee, who’d be back any second, expecting to sit in her spot.
Nervous flutters or not, the boy had to sit somewhere else.
Just then, Hunter dropped his backpack on the desk and laid his head against it. Closed his eyes.
My heart softened into what felt like a big, mushy pile of goo. He looked so tired, young even, with his dark eyelashes fanning across the tops of his cheeks. His mouth softened, too. I had a sudden yearning to trace that lopsided top lip with my finger.
Whoa.
I was so caught up in that crazy thought that the footstepsI’d heard clanking in the hall didn’t register at first. The kind of clanking made by high-heeled shoes.
Oh, no.
I straightened. “Hunter, you need to—” The final bell cut me off, as did the tiny gasp I heard from the open doorway behind me.
Kaylee stood there, freshly glossed lips parted in surprise. She took two steps toward her occupied desk before pausing to smooth her purple tunic dress uncertainly, gaze flitting from Hunter to me.
“Kaylee, hey! Hunter was just hanging out here for a sec—” I started only to be cut off again, this time by Mrs. Stegmeyer.
“Ms. Daniels, please take an empty seat if you don’t want to be marked tardy,” our homeroom teacher said over the top of her magazine.
Kaylee’s gaze lingered on her usual spot for a millisecond longer, prompting me into action. “Hunter,” I whispered. His eyelashes swept open. The task of kicking him out of the seat became a hundred times harder under that sleepy blue stare. “Um, would you mind moving? This is where Kaylee sits.”
He sat up, glanced at Kaylee like he was seeing her for the first time, then swooped up his backpack and stood. “Yeah. Sorry,” he said. His sheepish grin was the best parting gift he could give, because I could tell it practically melted heron the spot. He loped over to the empty desk he’d sat in last time.
She slid into the vacated seat with a huge sigh, while Mrs. Stegmeyer tapped her nails on the desk impatiently. “He warmed it up for me,” she whispered, pretending to fan herself with a notebook. “At this very moment, I’m being warmed by Hunter Lowe’s
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