𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐄 | 𝐃. 𝐃𝐈𝐕𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐄𝐍𝐙𝐎 |

CHAPTER 14.

JELENA RONELLE TOSCANO-ANDERSON
The Next Day...

Today was the day!

I had let these posters for my nature club sit and marinate in the school hallways and on bulletin boards for two weeks and now it was time to see who signed up and most importantly, how many people signed up.

I didn't even wait for my brother or my cousins, the moment we pulled up the the school, I jumped out of the car and ran down the hallway, not caring who I bumped into and ran to the first bulletin board I found, and just like that, my hopeful smile turned into a frown.

Only one person?

Moving closer to the board, I took the flyer down and looked down at it to see who that singular person to sign up for the nature club was.

Kiyan Anthony.
Oh. My. Gosh.

"It looks like fun.."

Turning around, I looked up and saw Kiyan standing there with his hands on his backpack straps and a small grin on his face as he looked down at me.

"Seems like you're the only one who thinks it'll be fun...I have to turn this in to Mr. Dubois today or there will be no nature club." I say in a discouraged tone.

Kiyan shrugged. "Did you ask your cousins?"
I shook my head. "No. I want people to join because they want to. I don't want hand-outs."

"How do you know that they don't want to join if you don't ask, JellyBean?" Kiyan asked as we began walking down the hall. "You don't always have to be so independent."

"I just don't like depending on anyone for anything." I say with a shrug, looking down at my feet.

Kiyan smirked and looked down at me. "Damn girl, who hurt you?"

Laughing, I shook my head, causing my curls to bounce around with each shake of my head, earning a soft smile from Kiyan that made my heart jump a little.

"Nobody..." I say. "I just look at my mom and see how she's so independent, and I wanna be like her. You know aside from the whole having a camera in her hand twenty-four-seven."

"That's cool that you wanna be like your mom, but you also gotta remember that your mom also doesn't do everything by herself, right?" Kiyan says. "Plus, you gotta be your own person, too."

"Yeah," I say, fighting a smile. "You're right. How come no girl has snatched you up yet?"

"Because, even though I have other females out here that want me, I know who I want," he said, looking me directly in the eye. "and the girl that I want hasn't snatched me up yet."

The eye-contact between us two caused a shy smile to form on my face. "Well, whoever she may be, she's going to be a very lucky girl."

"Nah," He said. "I think I'll be the lucky one."

Once again, Kiyan gave me that same look that caused the shy smile to form on my face once again, but this time, instead of me looking away, I maintained the eye contact and for some reason—and I don't know if I was the only one who felt it—the energy between Kiyan and I shifted.

"KIYAN!"

DJ Wagner's voice broke through the spell between Kiyan and I as he walked over to us. He looked down at me and smirked, raising an eyebrow as he licked his lips, looking me up and down.

Gross.

"What's up, Jelena?" DJ said, leaning against the locker with a grin.

Kiyan turned his head and scowled at DJ. "Aye, DJ, chill."