Page 15 of Steel & Jenna
Her heart skipped a beat, because she knew damn well that ‘thanking’ her meant ‘kissing’ her. Jenna had never been kissed before in her life. She hadn’t realized she’d been holding out for someone special until this moment. Jack. She wanted Jack to be her first kiss.
She wanted Jack to be her first…everything. And they barely knew each other.
Stepping back, Jack gave her a second to catch her bearings. “We both have Mr. Finley first period. He’s okay, but there’s a reason most of the students have nicknamed him Sandman. It’s very difficult to stay awake with him for first period or directly after lunch.”
Jenna stepped away from the lockers. She shook her head slightly to clear the residual fog of his closeness. “What does he teach?”
“Biology.” He tipped his head down the hallway. “This way.”
Jenna started after him, catching up so they were shoulder to shoulder. Barely three steps later, he took her hand in his. Without asking or hesitating. Like it was the most natural thing in the world. They continued down the hall in companionable silence.
Directly outside the door, Jack dropped her hand. Then reached to open the door for her. Giving him a smile of appreciation, Jennastepped inside—and then froze when she saw every eye in the room was on her. That hand reappeared at the small of her back as Jack stepped into the room. She heard the click of the door behind them.
“You’re late!” the teacher, Mr. Finley, announced with an annoyed expression on his face.
Jack guided her forward to the front of the classroom. “Apologies, Mr. Finley. We were with Principal Foote.” They turned the corner towards the chalkboard. “This is Jenna Scanlon. She’s a new student.” He handed Mr. Finley Jenna’s schedule like it was proof they were where they were meant to be.
Mr. Finley looked at the schedule and then at Jenna. “I heard we were getting a new student. Welcome to Port Townsend, Jenna.”
“Thank you.” Her eyes kept flicking between the classroom full of students and her new teacher. But that hand on the small of her back kept her steady.
Mr. Finley gestured to the rear of the class, where two seats were still available next to each other. Both had unclaimed books sitting on top of the connected desk. “Take a seat, both of you. We were just about to get started.”
CHAPTER 5
Third period, and the last before lunch, was the first class Jenna had without Jack. He’d been in Biology and English-10 with her, but she was in a higher level math class than him. He was taking Trigonometry that afternoon and had P.E. while she was taking Precalculus. Jack had gone through Jenna’s schedule during their first period and had confirmed that they only had third and seventh periods separate.
It made Jenna feel a lot better to see the same disappointment she felt on Jack’s face at this knowledge.
She was surprised to see she was in with mostly eleventh graders for Precalculus. They hadn’t even put her in with her own grade level. Not that she minded, per se, but she felt a bit out of place. In her old school, she’d been with the same people for the entire nine years of her education thus far. Eleven, if she included preschool and kindergarten.
Apparently public schools, even in a small town, liked to mix things up.
A girl with extremely curly blonde hair, jeans, a baggie shirt that hung off one shoulder, and enough makeup to rival a circus clown sat down next to Jenna in Precalculus. Other than the lack of a schooluniform, she immediately reminded Jenna of the popular girls in her old school. She even had that same hip swaying walk Jenna had always envied.
Despite who her father was and that she came from one of the most prominent families in Seattle, Jenna had never been one of the popular girls. She was too awkward, too shy. The coordination it took to walk in high heels was not something she’d inherited, unlike Carolyn. Her older sister wasn’t just one of the popular girls, she’d beenthepopular girl. Still was—or she had been before their father had moved them to this small town on the upper Olympic Peninsula.
Jenna had had her friends, sure, but they had been more like fellow book acquaintances. No one she truly missed once she was away from them.
Yet, she felt like a piece of her soul was currently missing. Attached to a boy she’d just met who was across the school in the gymnasium. Was she going insane? Only just that morning, she’d thought he was standing her up and was staring down from one of the school windows, making fun of her.
No, she corrected herself. She’dfearedthat was what was happening, but she hadn’t actually believed it. That was more lack of confidence in herself than him.
“You’re Jenna Scanlon, right?”
Jenna’s head snapped up. Despite that their teacher had already started introductions and class, the blonde girl beside her was not paying attention. She was looking directly at Jenna with her leg crossed over her knee in the middle of the walkway between the desks.
“As in Scanlon Enterprises, the Scanlon Theatre and Opera House, the Scanlon-Drayer Arena, and Scanlon Eastside Hospital?”
Jenna blinked. The girl listed Jenna’s father’s businesses like Jenna needed a reminder of what her family owned. While the list was impressive, and also a bit mind boggling coming from a stranger, it wasn’t even half of her father’s true holdings. He had businesses outside of Seattle too, including Portland and Vancouver. There was even talkabout him building a subsidiary in New York City, but that was kept hush-hush. The only reason Jenna knew about it was because she liked to read in her father’s home office by the fireplace. She tended to be quiet enough that he either forgot she was there or thought she was too engrossed in her books to be paying attention to his conversations.
The girl stared at Jenna, her face screaming impatience. From her outfit, Jenna placed her to be high middle-class. Probably one of the richer families in this town. Her hair also had enough product in it to feed a family for a week.
Her mind went to Jack. He was certainly lean for his height, but didn’t look like he was starving. She hadn’t gotten that impression off of Lilly either. In fact, his little sister had a bit of chubbiness to her, but that could also be her young age and not a byproduct of overeating.
Before Jenna’s mind completely wandered off, she nodded to her neighbor. There was no point in lying, not in this small town. No doubt, half the school knew who she was and who her father was prior to her arrival. Her father had not made any secret of the fact that he was moving his family to their summer home so his daughters could experience life outside the city—or at least, that was the reasoning he gave the reporters and his stockholders.
The ideal family man. That was the image her father upheld.
