At First Sight: A Timber Wolves Companion Read Online Free Page B

Cole.”
    I glanced up to share a knowing look with Scout - because despite her not knowing me yet, I knew her well enough to know she would find Ashley’s growing breasts as disturbing as I did - but she had already turned back around. I was disappointed, and a little annoyed with Ashley for letting Scout get away from me, but I tried to be polite as Ashley quizzed me on my past. It was one of the tricks I learned long ago. If you’re sullen and don’t give out many details about your parents or where you went to school last, people become intrigued. And intrigued people get nosey. I couldn’t let people get nosey, so I made every effort to seem like a guy who would tell you anything. When you’re that guy, people take whatever you say as fact and leave the rest alone. I’ve tried to explain this concept to Liam, but he prefers intimidating people to actually talking to them. For the most part, it was a process that worked exceedingly well for him.
    For a class about a dead guy obsessed with poetry, the next hour flew by. The teacher was one of those energetic artsy types who spoke in exclamation points and wild hand gestures. Her outfit was so ridiculous it was cool, and she was young and pretty enough to make you forget she was a teacher. If I could have concentrated on her for more than thirty seconds at a time, I probably would’ve found more virtues to name, but my attention was very much elsewhere.
    Having Scout sitting in front of me instead of behind me was a fresh new torture. I got to watch her for an entire hour. I matched every memory I had of her with the real girl, surprised to find the dreams hadn’t exaggerated anything. Her hair really was that silvery white color that seemed to glow, and her skin reminded me of a set of white satin sheets my mother had when I was little. She chewed on the inside of her lip like it was gum. Every once in awhile her teeth would freeze, and then she would turn her head just slightly to the right and peek over her shoulder. At me.
    Two points to Team Cole.
    Less than ten minutes before Shakespeare was over, the phone in my pocket vibrated. Thirty seconds later, it vibrated again. Liam waited an entire minute and a half before texting me a third time.
    I’ve attended a grand total of six schools in my high school career, but Lake County High had the most oppressive cell phone policy of all of them. The first time you were caught with one in a classroom it was taken away and given back to your parent or guardian at the end of the week. The second time? The school kept it until the end of the year. I’m sure a lot of kids risked it knowing their folks would buy them a new one. Some kids probably got caught on purpose just so they would have an excuse to get whatever the newest shiny gadget Steve Jobs’s team had wheeled out. I, however, didn’t have parents and couldn’t afford a new phone. If this one got taken away I was screwed, and Liam knew it.
    I waited until the teacher began doing a dramatic dance interpretation of a sonnet or something before I pulled my phone out of my pocket. Hiding it between my leg and the chair, I clicked on the text messages.
    “What is the situation?”
    “Tell me you’re not being stupid.”
    “Why aren’t you answering me?”
    For a complete know-it-all, Liam could be exceptionally stupid.
    “In class,” I sent back, praying the teacher didn’t look my way as I fumbled with the keys.
    Liam’s response was almost immediate. “Check in the moment you get out,” came through at almost the same second the bomb alert/dismissal bell sounded. Calling my brother every name that didn’t insult my mother, I grabbed my phone and headed towards the hallway, which was a cell phone safe zone.
    “Checking in.”
    “And…?”
    “And Scout is beautiful, smart, and beautiful. I’m going to make her fall in love with me.”
    “Oh good. It’s the Alex Cole Comedy Hour.”
    “You’ll be my best man at the wedding, right?”
    “Gotta