Then he starts calling on people and writing down pairs of names.

“Anna, who would you like to work with?”

“With?” I ask, and I can feel my eyes growing wide and my face getting red.

“Yes, this is a group project.”

“I don’t know anyone,” I say quickly.

“I’ll work with her,” I hear someone say. I don’t know who; my mind is kind of fuzzy. As stupid as this is, it’s freaking me out.

Mr. Harkins nods and writes down two names. “Anna” and “Jackson.”

Oh boy.

What the hell am I going to do with Jackson? Not that I don’t want to work with him, but I don’t see how we’re supposed to make something that shows how both of us feel. I’m dark, he’s happy. We have nothing in common.

The bell rings, and I start out of the room before Jackson can talk to me. Maybe I can buy some time.

But he calls to me before I get out of the room.

“It’s you and me, partner,” he says.

I smile. Maybe it’ll show him I’m okay. But really, I’m so nervous I’m shaking.

“I’ll see you later,” I tell him, and then I go into the hallway and escape into the crowd.

I’m running down the steps when someone reaches out their foot, and I trip and crash into three kids in front of me. I roll, not so gracefully, onto the landing between floors.

I wipe the hair from my face and look up to see Marissa, smiling at me with a glare in her eye. Yeah, she totally did that on purpose.

“It’s okay, you’re better off down there. Bitch.”

I blink. What?

I open my mouth to say something, adrenaline pumping. Girlfriend doesn’t know how pissed she just made me.

Someone runs past her and leans down to me. “You okay?” Jackson asks.

I tear my eyes from the nastiest girl I’ve ever seen (which is saying something) to look at the sincere worry in Jackson’s eyes. “I’m fine,” I say.

He stands. “Get a life,” he says to Marissa, and I smile. I don’t need his help, but it’s kind of nice to have it.

“I’d say he was just trying to get in your pants,” Marissa says. “But we all know that’s not true. He wouldn’t know what to do when he got there.”

Jackson’s face gets blood red, which makes me even more furious. It’s one thing to trash-talk me. But him?

I stand, having no idea what I’d say to the girl, but I’m pretty damn close to pulling out my earrings and taking the bitch down with me.

Except she’s already backing away, a smirk on her face, like she knows she’s gotten away with it.

“Coward,” I whisper.

I start after her, but Jackson touches my arm.

“Not worth it,” he says.

I watch as the girl disappears into the crowd, disappointed I’m not following. If it were anyone else, I wouldn’t care, wouldn’t listen. But I guess respecting what Jackson wants is more important than making a point.

The crowd disperses, leaving just Jackson and me alone.

“You okay?” he asks me again.

“Fine,” I say. On top of what happened earlier, now what happened with Marissa, my face feels like it’s on fire. I can’t let him see me like this.

“Please talk to me,” he says.

“How can you let her get away with that?”

“Marissa?” He shakes his head. “Waste of time.”

I cross my arms and say nothing. Why do I care? Why do I want to go after her? It’s not like I haven’t been in his exact spot before and done nothing to defend myself. But maybe that’s why I have to be there for him. No one ever stood up for me, and I won’t just stand here and do nothing.

He’s actually proven a damn good friend. I’m just not sure I can handle having a friend like him. A real friend.

“I don’t know if I can do this,” I say.

“Oh.” He pauses. “Does that mean you don’t want to do the art project with me?”

“No, it’s not—”

“Because we can go back and tell Mr. Harkins. I’m sure he’d reassign you.”

My stomach drops, but I don’t want him to see my disappointment. He’s taking this the wrong way. It’s not him, it’s me. “Then who would I work with? I don’t know anyone.”

“So then can you forget about Marissa and friends and whatever else is bothering you, and work with me on this? I think it might be fun.” He looks me in the eyes, a hopeful gleam in his.

“Fun?” I roll my eyes, but my stomach gives a new kind of twist, one I kind of like. “Fine, I’ll give it a shot. What do we do?”

“Come to my house after school,” he says. Just like that. As though he’s a normal boy and I’m a normal girl, and there’s nothing more to this.

I try to imagine this boy in New York City. Confident. Self-assured. But too willing to take a chance on people he barely knows. He wouldn’t last a minute.

“We can talk about how we want to do the project,” he says. “We’re so different, so we’ll need to makes some decisions.”

He’s right about that.

“I can’t,” I say, and I think about Marissa saying that about her boyfriend.

“Oh,” he says, and I’m afraid he thinks I’m just blowing him off.

“It’s just… Jen tutors me after school. My last few years…haven’t left me very well off in the school area.”

“Oh,” he says. “Well, what about after that?”

I shrug. “She leaves at four.”

He smiles, big and bright, and I almost—almost—smile back.

“’Kay,” he says. “I’ll come to your house, then.”

I nod and do everything in my power to hide that I’m actually excited about it.

Chapter Seventeen

I sit with Alex and Jen at lunch again, and this time, I invite Jackson to join us.

Alex and Jackson make up basically all the conversation. Jen and I just listen and laugh as they argue over some of the strangest things.

“Luigi is so much better than Mario,” Jackson says.

“Are you kidding me?” Alex says, a look so full of shock I have to hold back a laugh.

I shake my head as Jackson gives his way-too-thought-out explanation as to why Luigi is better than Mario. “Seriously, Mario is just typical. And boring!” he says, leaning in, his face red like this is one serious debate.

“But Luigi is a wuss!”

“No! I mean, okay, a little,” Jackson says, and I laugh, awarding Alex a debate point. “But that’s part of what makes him awesome. He has so much more to overcome. He’s insecure, but he’s always there for his brother. Besides…” He holds his hands out and moves them up and down like a scale. “Green”—he lifts one hand high—“versus red.” The other hand dips below the table.

Alex shakes her head, and I can’t help but agree with her. Jackson’s weirder than I ever thought, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t kind of like it. He’s the cutest geek I’ve ever met.

“You’re impossible,” Alex says.

I don’t even notice the stink-eye the “cool” kids are giving us the whole time until I notice Jen staring absently at them.

What can I do about it? Not like I expected to be beloved here. I’m just happy to actually have some friends.

Jackson turns to me. “Star Crunch or Fudge Round?”

I blink. “What?”

“Which do you like better?”

“I don’t know what either of those things are.”

He opens his mouth in exaggerated shock. “Wait a second.”

He runs, seriously runs, up to the lunch line and then comes back with two chocolate treats. One looks like a Rice Krispies Treat covered in chocolate, and the other is a thin sandwich kind of thing with frosting in the middle.

I try both and find that the crispy treat has caramel on the inside, and it definitely earns my vote. “That one,” I say, then lick my fingers.

“Ha!” Alex says, pointing at Jackson, who puts his head in his hands.

I guess he lost the bet on which one I’d choose, but he doesn’t seem too broken up about it. In fact, he shares a laugh with Alex as I take another bite of the Star Crunch.

Never in my life have I felt so completely normal.