Some girls do

Chapter 2: Kazuha

"Do you have everything?"

"Yes!"

"Do you have lunch money?"

"Yes, I have lunch money."

"Your track schedule? Practice goes until at least five thirty most days, they said."

"Yes, and then I'm gonna jog or walk to the apartment after."

"Okay, I'm usually at the shop until about six thirty, so if you beat me home, don't worry."

"Oh my god, I'm not worried. I can handle being home alone."

"I just want this to be good for you. You deserve it after—"

"Can we not talk about that? Fresh start and all?"

"Okay, well, what would Mom say?"

"I don't know. 'I love you'? 'Have a good day'?"

Bangchan smiles, a serious look in his eyes. "I love you. Have a good day."

"Holy crap, Chan, (a) your impression of Mom needs work, and (b) you're taking this 'in loco parentis' thing a little too seriously."

"I just don't want to screw anything up," he says. "Mom and Dad will kill me if I break you or lose you or whatever you do with kids."

"Dude, I'm seventeen." I groan, pulling my long brown hair up into a ponytail.

The car behind us beeps, and someone shouts, "The drop-off lane is for drop-offs. Get out or get moving."

"Yikes," Bangchan says, looking into the rearview mirror.

"Yeah, hell hath no fury like a suburban mom late for her latte," I say. "But don't worry, I'm going to be fine. And you need to go." I give him a quick one-armed hug and then dart out of the car before he can stop me.

But despite what I told Bangchan, I have no clue what I'm doing. A bunch of kids bustle past me, laughing with their friends, completely oblivious to the fact that I'm new. I shift my backpack higher on my shoulders—or at least I try to, which is exactly when I realize it's missing. Crap.

"Chan!" I call, but of course he can't hear me on the other side of the parking lot with his windows up. So I do what I do best: I run, fast. I fly through the parking lot, weaving between rows, hoping to cut him off as he moves slowly through the traffic jam that's formed in front of the school entrance. I'm just about there, one more row to go, when a loud horn and the screech of brakes makes me freeze in my tracks.

And there, a foot away from my hip, is the bumper of a very shiny blue car.

Seriously? I look back to Bangchan's car just in time to see it pull out and disappear down the road.

"Dammit!" If it weren't for this stupid car, I would have made it. I wouldn't be standing in the middle of the parking lot of a new school without my schedule, a notebook, or even a friggin' pencil. "What is wrong with you?!" I spin around, slapping my hands on the hood of the car. "Watch where you're going!"

I look up to glare at the no doubt macho asshole driving this stupid muscle car and am struck with the brightest pair of brown eyes I've ever seen—which promptly narrow and glare back at me.

"You're the one running through the middle of a parking lot," she says, hopping out of her car and shoving me out of the way to inspect her car hood. "If you so much as put a scratch in this—"

"You could have killed me!"

"It would have been your fault if I did," she says, straightening up so we're nearly nose to nose. "Where were you even going? School's the other way, if you haven't noticed."