These Thorn Kisses (St. Mary’s Rebels 3)

A sketch.

All my girls gather around and take turns admiring the image I’ve created.

It’s a testament to how deep my friendship is with them that I’m able to show off my work without a hitch in my breath or my palms getting sweaty. Before St. Mary’s, I’d hidden my passion and my work for so long — only showing it to my art teachers — that putting my sketches on the table like this for someone else to admire would’ve been unthinkable for me.

Not anymore though.

Especially when Callie looks up at me, tears shining in her eyes. “This is beautiful. She is beautiful.”

I smile too. “Well, duh. She’s yours. Of course she’s beautiful.”

A happy tear streams down her cheek and she swats it off, giving me a hug. “Thank you. Ugh. I’m so emotional all the time. Being pregnant is freaking draining.”

It is.

We can all see it on her exhausted but beautiful face.

So we only just found out that our best friend is pregnant. And as she said, being pregnant is freaking draining. But when you’re pregnant while you’re a senior in high school, it’s more than that.

It’s scary and complicated.

Especially when the high school you go to is a reform school known to rehabilitate girls and getting pregnant is a sure-shot way to get expelled.

Which up until a few days ago we all thought was going to happen.

Only it didn’t. Because someone came to her rescue: the guy whose baby she’s pregnant with.

Her ex-boyfriend.

So remember the girl who stole her ex-boyfriend’s car and drowned it in the lake for revenge? That’s Callie. She did it because Reed Jackson, her sort of ex-boyfriend — long story there — broke her heart two years ago and she wanted to hurt him back. But now she’s pregnant with his baby — another long story about how it all came about and how it doesn’t mean that they’re back together.

But anyway, because of him — and his influential last name — Callie not only gets to stay here, she’s also the very first girl in the entire history of St. Mary’s who gets to live off campus. Reed pulled all the strings and managed to get her that exception as well.

“And today’s the worst,” Callie continues, sticking her finger in the peanut butter and licking it off. “I’m so nervous.”

Ah, yes.

Today.

Monday after Thanksgiving.

I knew today would be amazing for some of my friends — Poe and Salem — and not so amazing for others — Callie.

Salem’s the first one to console Callie, squeezing her hand on the table. “It’s going to be fine. You’re worrying for no reason. Trust me. In fact, I think it’s going to be epic. We’re getting a new soccer coach. I honestly can’t wait. I’m so excited to see him.”

Callie bites her lip. “Yeah, but you don’t know how girls are here. You only got here this year. Girls here always, always give new teachers a hard time.” She waves a hand at her stomach even though she’s not showing yet. “Plus I’m pregnant. I’m a laughingstock. Girls are bound to give him a hard time because of this. Because of me.”

Okay so, Callie is right about one thing: girls here do give new teachers a hard time.

Because girls hate this place. They hate the rules and the fact that their freedom has been taken away.

And of course the teachers.

So whenever we get a new one, tensions are always high.

Fights break out in the hallways or in the cafeteria. There’s always bound to be a girl or two who starts an argument with the new teacher, just to test their limits. There are more instances of girls getting their privileges revoked in one day when a new teacher starts than in a normal week.

Our group hasn’t really cared about that before, but today things are different.

Because the new teacher, new soccer coach, who’s starting at St. Mary’s is Callie’s big brother. Or one of her big brothers, anyway; she’s got four.

Conrad Thorne.

But I also get Salem’s excitement because she’s a big soccer fiend. She actually has a very deep connection with the game. Not only does she play the sport herself, and very beautifully I might add, she’s also in love with a soccer player, Arrow Carlisle.

Yup.

Callie isn’t the only one in our group of friends with a complicated love story, Salem has one as well. In fact, her now-boyfriend, Arrow, was our soccer coach — a temporary one — until he had to leave for California. Where he plays for a pro soccer team, the LA Galaxy.

I’m not going to go into the whole thing about Salem and Arrow but I will definitely say that they had a bumpy and a complicated road, given that Arrow is our principal’s son, Principal Carlisle. Almost as complicated as what Callie is going through right now, and I’m so happy that Salem found her happy ending.