GUTTER GIRL

Chapter Four

Chapter Four

Jace

"I'm late!" Mom hollered as she slipped on her jacket. "Your dad should be home any time. Show him where the leftovers are."

"I got it, Mom." I held out her purse and she gave me an exasperated grin. "Thanks, kiddo."

She kissed my cheek, then hoisted my five-year-old sister Lily into her arms. "Jace is in charge. You mind him." "I always do." Lily put her tiny hands on Mom's cheeks and grinned. "I'm a perfect angel."

Mom laughed and touched a kiss to Lily's nose, then set her to her feet. "Love you two!"

And then she was gone. She'd started working the third shift at the hospital a few years ago. Great money, but she sure wasn't around much anymore.

"Tag." Lily slapped my butt. "You're it!"

I turned to face her and playfully roared.

She screeched and took off running down the hall toward her bedroom. I laughed as I stomped toward her, growling, "I'm going to get you!"

She darted out of her room and threw a stuffed bear at me, then sped into the sunken living room. "The couch is home base!"

I leaped onto the couch, pretending I was going to attack her, and she squealed.

"This is home base! No fair!"

I hugged her instead and blew raspberries on her neck. She swatted at me and fell into a fit of giggles.

It was those giggles that took my mind off the fact that McKenna Storm still had my KOS notebook. Took my mind off Dad's looming pressure to get perfect grades, get into college, to be the perfect son...

An image of McKenna's face flashed through my mind. When she'd first bumped into me in the hallway, she'd been flustered, which had flustered me. Her bright green eyes had kind of caught me off guard. She mostly looked down when she was walking, so I rarely saw them. Nobody did. But being that close to her, I got a great view.

She was hot.

And what she'd done for me today...it didn't make sense. I was thankful for sure, but it was weird. We never talked, not since grade school, and even then, we hadn't hung out. Then again, she talked to only one person, her friend Ernie.

I didn't have McKenna's phone number to text her to get my notebook back. Joel had tackled me into the locker room directly after the hallway incident today, giving me shit about Kingdom of Swords, McKenna, and anything else he could dig into me about.

If he found out I was really the author, I'd never live it down. He would absolutely torture me with it.

"I'm home!" Dad hollered from the garage door just off the kitchen.

"We're in the living room," I said as Lily leaped off the couch and ran in the direction of the kitchen. "Daddy!"

"Hey, pumpkin."

I clicked on the TV and loaded one of Lily's favorite cartoons. I needed to get her calmed down if there was any hope of getting her to lie down for bedtime anytime soon.

"Hey Jace," Dad said as he walked in, holding Lily. "Hey."
He paused in the entryway to the room and glanced around. We were the same height at five-eleven, but I'd gotten my stockiness from my grandpa.

"How are the college apps going today?" he asked.
"I'll get one done tonight." I settled into the cushions. "You've been applying, though? One college a week, that was our deal for this month."