Book 1: Sparks Fly (Leo Valdez x OC)

Chapter 1: Dylan Is an Airhead

Even before I got electrocuted, I was having a rotten day.

I wake up in the backseat of a school bus, not sure where I am, holding hands with a boy I don't know. That isn't necessarily the rotten part. The boy is cute, but I can't figure out who he is or what I'm doing there. I sit up and rub my eyes, trying to think.

A few dozen kids sprawl on the seats in front of me, listening to iPods, talking, or sleeping. They all look around my age...fifteen? Sixteen? Okay, that's scary. I don't know my own age.

The bus rumbles along a bumpy road. Out the windows, desert rolls by under a bright blue sky. I'm pretty sure I don't live in the desert. I try to think back...the last thing I remember...

The boy squeezes my hand. "Jackie, you okay?"

He's wearing faded jeans and a fatigue army jacket. His curly brown hair sits in a tuft on his head. His eyes are chocolatey brown, the type of color that would be absolutely stunning in the sun.

I let go of his hand. "Um, I don't—"

In the front of the bus, a teacher shouts, "All right, cupcakes, listen up!"

The guy is obviously a coach. His baseball cap is pulled low over his hair, so you can just see his beady eyes. He has a wispy goatee and a sour face, like he's eaten something moldy. His buff arms and chest push against a bright orange polo shirt. His nylon workout pants and Nikes are spotless white. A whistle hangs from his neck, and a megaphone is clipped to his belt. He would've looked pretty scary if he wasn't five feet zero. When he stands up in the aisle, one of the students calls, "Stand up, Coach Hedge!"

"I heard that!" The coach scans the bus for the offender. Then his eyes fix on someone in the row across from me, and his scowl deepens. He looks at me, and his brows crease even further.

A jolt goes down my spine. I'm sure the coach knows I don't belong here. He's going to call me out and demand to know what I'm doing on the bus—and I won't have a clue what to say.

But Coach Hedge looks away and clears his throat. "We'll arrive in five minutes! Stay with your partner. Don't lose your worksheet. And if any of you precious little cupcakes causes any trouble on this trip, I will personally send you back to campus the hard way."

He picks up his baseball bat and makes like he's hitting a homer.

I hear a boy's voice in the seat next to me say, "Can he talk to us that way?"

I turn as the girl next to him replies, "Always does. This is the Wilderness School. 'Where kids are the animals'." She has pretty brown hair and colorful eyes that remind me of kaleidoscopes.

She says it like it's a joke they've shared before, but the boy looks incredibly confused.

"This is some kind of mistake," the boy says. His hair is a shock of platinum blond against his tan skin, even from the side. "I'm not supposed to be here."

The boy on the other side of me leans forward to talk to them and laughs. "Yeah, right, Jason. We've all been framed! I didn't run away six times. Piper didn't steal a BMW."

The girl, Piper, blushes. "I didn't steal that car, Leo!"

"Oh, I forgot, Piper. What was your story? You 'talked' the dealer into lending it to you?" He raises his eyebrows at me like, Can you believe her?

"Anyway," Leo says, "I hope you've got your worksheet, Jackie, 'cause I used mine for spit wads days ago. Why are you looking at me like that? Somebody draw on my face again?"

"I...don't know you," I say.

Leo gives me a crocodile grin. "Sure. I'm not your boyfriend. I'm his evil clone."