(Book One) Do you ever feel as if your life has yet to begin? I've been alive for almost seventeen years now and absolutely nothing has ever happened to me. Not until I met a girl who kick-started my life. She introduced me to love, sex, scandal, ex...
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The next day at school, the buzz of yesterday's scandal had already passed. No one cared Ari had been caught making out with a college boy, in a questionable state of dress, smoking questionable substances. Everyone had moved on and were on to new exciting gossip. Ari and James had been seen riding to school together again. Whatever problems they'd had for the last month were now patched up.
The rumor was they were finally dating. By the second period, students were already declaring their votes for the new couple as junior prom king and queen. If you asked one of these students for their reason, they'd say "It only felt right after what the couple had been through."
You might be asking yourself. For someone not into gossip you sure know a lot. Three words, two people. Kris and Katie. Today it was all they cared to talk about. Katie was super salty about the prom queen development, despite my reassurance of the unlikelihood. Running and campaigning for prom queen wasn't Ari's style. She chose to ignore my reassurances and continued to question me for details every time we ran into each other.
We are sitting at lunch and they're still pressing me for insider information. But my lips are sealed. Believe me, I want to tell them. I've never been good at keeping secrets, and I know they'd die to know what I do. It puts me on edge.
My legs bounce up and down uncontrollably under the table. But despite my silence, they continue to interrogate me. It's as if they're aware I know more then I'm letting on. I'm on the edge of cracking.
I sit slumped in my seat and try my darndest to be as inconspicuous as possible. If I don't move, and I don't look at them, Kris and Katie couldn't see me. Nothing would slip out. I fear if I say a single word it will all come spilling out in the words of Cady from Mean Girls "word vomit". I concentrate intently on the lunch in front of me.
Suddenly the table goes silent. I look up from my food and everyone is staring behind me with a strange expression on their faces. Katie's boyfriend's mouth is slightly ajar, and bits of cheese pizza is hanging out. Gross. Then the empty seat between me and Katie's boyfriend slides back. I turn to see Ari sitting down next to me.
I have a momentary lapse in judgment or what's scientifically diagnosed as a brain fart. Perhaps I'm focusing so hard on trying to be somewhere else that I forget where I am. Or maybe I'm so relieved she has saved me from the interrogation, I forget she is the reason they're interrogating me. Either way, I slip up.
I give her the brightest of smiles.
"Hey, Ari! What's up?" I say.
Ari gives me a quick half hug which I return. Then she slides over a couple sheets of paper.
"I wanted to show you. I'm too excited to wait."
I look down at the schematic and list of materials. "No way. You figured it out?"
