“You and your partner can decide between one week of taking care of your child…” He held the baby up and we all gaped at the creepy lifelike toy. “Or you can write a paper on the topic of my choosing. No less than twenty pages. I expect those of you who choose the latter to present your findings in front of the class and provide a list of at least ten sources…”
He kept talking about what sounded like a torturous assignment but I was only half listening. This was a no-brainer. Obviously I’d take the baby. I mean, I’d been babysitting for years, and if it meant not having to write a paper then sign me up.
Of course, I’d have to discuss it with my partner…
Mr. McClusky had moved on to divvying up the class into groups of two and names were being shouted out as our teacher read from a roster.
I crossed my fingers under the desk. Please don’t pair me with a moron. Please don’t pair me with a jerk.
“Hazel Topher and Allison Hayes.” Hazel gave the shy girl in the back a little smile and I tried not to pout again over the fact that I hadn’t gotten paired with Hazel.
Of course Mr. McClusky wouldn’t pair me with a friend. That would be too nice, and everyone knew Mr. Mclusky—
“Avery Townsend and Alex Luven.”
The world stopped spinning. I couldn’t hear anything over the crazy pounding of my heart. The air rushed into my lungs so quickly, the oxygen went straight to my head and made me dizzy.
That was it. The moment that the universe had finally granted me my wish.
I’d been paired with Alex Luven.
I grinned across the room in Alex’s direction but he wasn’t looking my way. I wasn’t entirely sure he’d heard.
I turned back to the front as Hazel nudged my elbow beside me. She knew what this meant. This was everything I’d been waiting for.
For weeks now, I’d been looking for a way to get close to Alex, something for us to bond over, and now...this.
I beamed at Mr. McClusky. Our health teacher was a god among men. He was a saint and a mensch and… It was official.
Me and Alex?
We were totally meant to be. I mean, I knew that already. Obviously. But this was the proverbial writing on the wall. The sign from above that me and Alex were fated to fall in love.
“For the last…” Mr. McClusky looked up at the clock on the wall. “Five minutes of class, I expect you all to talk to your partner, decide which option you’re choosing and let me know.”
I didn’t need to be told twice. In a heartbeat, I was out of my seat, grinning at Hazel as she murmured “Good luck” and heading over to the other side of the room, sliding into the seat beside Alex that some poor girl who probably wanted to be paired with him had abandoned.
“Hi,” I said, hating how breathless I sounded but also...gah!
This was it! I’d been reading articles for weeks now on how to catch your crush and they all said the same thing. Find a common activity, discover a mutual interest, invent a reason to spend time together.
I grinned at the Alex’s perfect profile. Done, done, and done! And it was all thanks to Mr. McClusky. I leaned forward, resting my cheek on my fist as I waited for Alex to finish typing something on his phone.
Maybe we’d name our baby McClusky. Our real baby, obviously. The one that would be coming along in six or seven years after we graduated college and got married.
Obviously.
I studied Alex’s chiseled jawline, his aquiline nose, his perfect wavy blond hair. McClusky… I pursed my lips. Not the cutest baby name I’d ever heard.
Maybe I ought to learn Mr. McClusky’s first name.
Satisfied by this, I was smiling once more when Alex looked over at me, his wide lips curving up into that brilliant smile I loved so much.
He was a smiler, like me. “So, what do you think?” he asked as he leaned forward. He was close. So close. “We’ll do the paper, right?”
He looked back at his phone when it dinged, which was good because he missed the fact that my own smile fell. “Actually,” I started. “I was thinking we should do the baby.”
He blinked down at the screen he was staring at. “Yeah?”
I nodded quickly, tucking a lock of my own blonde hair behind my ear. And yeah, there was a little part of me that was imagining how adorably tow-headed our baby would be.
Okay, a big part of me.
When he looked up again, he seemed distracted, but a smile still hovered on his lips. “Sorry, what were you saying?”
Before I could respond, his friend Trey interrupted. “Hey, Alex, can you give me a lift after practice?”
Alex’s smile shifted into a sneer. “Can’t, man. My brother’s got my car.”
I winced in sympathy, but Alex missed it. I was an only child so I couldn’t imagine how tough it would be to have an older sibling who was such a…
Well, I wouldn’t say a jerk, but he was a bad seed. Everybody knew that, even though he graduated two years ago. He’d transferred to Lakeview High as a senior and while I’d never actually talked to him that one year he’d gone to school here, I had a vivid memory of a big hulking guy with muscles to spare, tattoos, too-long hair, a growl of a voice.
“Cristian’s home from school?” his friend said.
Alex rolled his eyes as an answer. “He says they have a break, but how much do you want to bet he’s failed out and just hasn’t told my dad yet?”
His friends snickered but I frowned down at the desk. Lakeview High was small enough that, if you paid attention, you could figure out what was going on in some people’s lives. And when it came to Alex Luven?
I paid attention.
He and his brother had never gotten along. I remember seeing
