When Brooklyn told Rennie that she was moving, they cried together. Best friends since kindergarten, there hadn’t been a first day of school they hadn’t walked in together until now. Rennie had begged her parents to let Brooklyn live with them, and Brooklyn had done the same when she realized she didn’t want to leave her friends behind. Neither set of parents would agree, leaving the girls no choice but to say goodbye.
Rennie would already be in class, moving on without Brooklyn by her side. She tried not to have those thoughts, but it was too hard to ignore. To make her mother happy, she had made herself miserable.
“Are you going to stand outside all day?”
She turned to her left to find a boy standing there with his hand clutching the shoulder strap of his backpack. The first thing she noticed about him was his height. He towered over her, making her five-foot-six frame seem small instead of average. He tilted his head to the side and smiled. Her eyes instantly caught the bright red line across his chin.
“What happened?” she asked him, pointing to the scar.
His hand rubbed against the spot, and he winced. Almost as if he forgot he had hurt himself. “Bad casting.”
“Casting? Are you in a movie?” His comment confused her, and she was sure her face showed him as much. He laughed, and his hand went back to holding the strap of his bag.
“No, a fishing hook caught my chin.”
She covered her mouth. Even though she had grown up near the ocean, she had never been fishing. It wasn’t a hobby of her dad’s, nor any of her friends’. Brooklyn reached out to touch the mark, her fingers coming close, until she dropped her hand. She had no right touching this boy, a complete stranger. She cleared her throat and asked, “Did it hurt?”
“Hell yeah, thirty stitches later and I’m good as new.”
“Oh.” She briefly wondered if her father had been the one to stitch up his chin. She leaned closer as if she were admiring the precision it took to put the boy’s skin back together. His scar was healing nicely and probably wouldn’t show if he grew a beard later in life.
“I’m Austin Woods, local fisherman, resident heartthrob, and late for his first day of junior year.” He smiled and stuck his hand out to shake hers.
Brooklyn giggled and quickly covered her mouth. She hadn’t meant to do that, but he’d made her laugh, and she thought he was cute with his russet-colored hair and rich brown eyes. She caught him staring and felt her body temperature rise. She took a step forward and placed her hand in his. “I’m Brooklyn Hewett, new girl and late for her first day as well.”
Austin stepped toward her, holding on to her hand a bit longer than what would be deemed socially acceptable for two people who just met. Brooklyn didn’t mind, though. She liked the way her hand felt in his. In Seattle, she’d had guy friends and had never given them a second thought. Yet, in a matter of minutes, she had developed a crush on this boy, the self-proclaimed resident heartthrob who liked to fish.
“What do you say I walk you in? I’d love to be your tour guide.”
“What if we don’t have the same classes?”
He chuckled, shook his head, and turned to stand in front of her. Her heart raced, the beats thundering in her chest as Austin stared down at her. “There’s like eighteen kids per class. You’ll be easy to find. Besides, now that I’ve found you, I’m never letting go.”
Inside, he showed her where her locker was, which as luck would have it, was right next to his. This excited her. She told herself it was because he was a familiar face in a sea of peers looking at her, wondering who she was and where she came from. At her former school, when someone new came, you heard about it through the rumor mill, unless the new person was in your class. Here, you were front and center, like you were on display.
By lunch, she was frazzled. Peppered with questions throughout her first set of classes, she walked cautiously into the cafeteria, clutching the orange plastic tray that held some semblance of food. She decided she would ask her mom to make her lunch from here on out, especially since leaving campus wasn’t allowed.
“Brooklyn!”
She looked around for the source calling her name. She had met a few other classmates earlier and was surprised when Austin wasn’t at his locker when the lunch bell rang. She’d fully expected him to be there, waiting. At least, she had hoped he would be.
When she spotted him standing on a chair with his arms waving wildly in the air, she smiled. She hadn’t meant to, but it was like her heart had taken over her senses. Love at first sight was what Rennie would say if she were here. Brooklyn wanted to agree.