Page 52 of The Tattered Gloves
Good, bad, and everything in between?
I didn’t want to remember everything. I only wanted to remember my life starting when I’d first arrived in Sugar Tree.
Everything else wasn’t worth remembering.
Shewasn’t worth remembering.
I’d found a new life, a new home… and finally, someone who cared for me.
Nothing else mattered, did it?
I was still deep in thought as we all waited in line just before the bell rang to pick up our graded papers. I didn’t notice him staring until we were near the front.
“How was your break?” Sam asked, his deep green eyes giving me a startle.
“Fine. And yours?” I asked, trying not to fiddle with the straps on my backpack.
“Decent, I guess. My sister has been trying to teach herself how to cook, so she can move out and be a grown-up or whatever, so our turkey was a little burned, and everything else was cold. But it was food, so can’t complain.”
I wanted to tell him that complaining was actually what he’d just done, but he was talking to me.
Actual words.
So, I just nodded and tried not to say anything stupid.
“My aunt is teaching me; it’s not easy. Cooking, I mean,” I clarified.
“I grew up with a single father who hated the stove, so I’m pretty impressed with anything that’s not frozen or microwaved.” He shrugged.
“Me, too,” I admitted.
His eyes held mine for the briefest moment before my knees hit the front of Mrs. Landers’s desk. Caught off guard, I turned and saw her smiling at us.
“Glad to see both of you. Your papers were excellent,” she said, keeping it brief.
From the look on Sam’s face, he was decently pleased with himself. Looking down, I found myself grinning when a solidAin bright red was written across my paper.
“Oh, and, Willow?” Mrs. Landers said as I stepped to the side to allow everyone else through.
“Yes?”
“Can you return this to your aunt and thank her for the leftovers? It was very thoughtful of her to send me home with food the other night,” she said, holding out a clean Tupperware container toward me.
I looked around, noticing Sam’s curious eyes move between us.
“Um, sure,” I answered quietly, quickly taking the container.
The bell thankfully chose that moment to ring, disrupting the awkward silence that had fallen between Sam and me. I took it as a cue to gracefully exit and move on to my last class.
But, of course, that was never how things worked in my favor.
“Hanging out with teachers, huh?” a snarky female voice said to my back.
I turned around to see Katie, the girl Allison had described as the meanest girl on the planet, carrying a smug look on her face, standing in between two of her friends. Everything about her was over the top. From the overly complicated outfit she wore to the dozen accessories, including a gold necklace around her neck that saidScrew U.
“She just came over to my house to spend some time with my aunt,” I said, hating that I had to defend myself to someone like her.
“No need to explain yourself, Willow. We all knew you were a freak anyway.” She grinned, making a point to glance down at my gloves.
