Book lover

Ch.1

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SCHOOL'S OUT!

Ugh! I had been dreading this day for 2 weeks straight while everyone else was dying for it to come.

It was winter break.

Aka 4 weeks of living with my family.

Everyone was in a hurry to get home.

Except.
Me.

I took my time. I wasn't going anywhere in a rush.

As I stood up from my desk I picked up my books and walked to Ms. Flash's desk. She was the 10th and 11th grade English teacher. (Aka my best friend) Being a young teacher, she was new to the high school.

"There's my star pupil, Elizabeth," Ms. Flash said quietly to me, with a smile, careful that none of the other kids leaving heard her favoritism.

I smiled in return.

"Are we having a book club meeting after school?" I asked while sitting on the top of the desk closest to hers and setting my books down.

"It's the first night of winter break and you already want to come over to my house and read?" she questioned, with a laugh.

"All of my friends are in that club," I said as an exscuse.

"I am the only other person in the book club," she said to me.

" Yeah, exactly," I said looking down.

"Well I'm sorry hun, but I have plans tonight."

"With who?"

"With a gentleman," She said, her voice swooning.

I rolled my eyes.

"So did you have any other plans beside book club?" she asked.

"Avoid my family, read, and sleep," I said nonchalantly.

"Hmm. Avoiding your family.. that doesn't sound fun," she commented while packing her things up to leave.

"Yeah, when they don't notice that you're gone and you feel better not being around them, then it's better to avoid them."

Of course, only she knows that.

We stayed quiet while I waited for Ms. Flash to pack up all of her papers into folders and her bag.

"Well you can grade papers for me," she told me as she attempted to zip her bag up.

Well, that didn't sound half bad.

"Okay," I replied.

She stopped and looked up at me.

" I was joking," she said, her face growing serious and concerned.

"Oh," I said, a little enbaressed.

She turned around and pulled out 2 books from the bookshelf.

"Here hun, you can get a head start in book club," she told me, placing both of the books in my hands.

"But how will everyone else in book club catch back up to me?" I asked with a smile.

"They'll manage," Ms. Flash said, grinning back.

I turned and grabbed my other books off my desk.

"Well I'll have to get going. I don't want to be late for my date!" she exclaimed.

"I guess I will get going too, even though I don't know where," I told her, heading toward the door.

"Oh hun, you never know. Your next date might be just around the corner," Ms. Flash said with a wink.

I rolled my eyes again as I walked into the hallway, around the corner, and stumbled right into Thomas Adam Mitchell.

Aka the hottest guy in the 10th grade! He's a pitcher on the Varsity baseball team and the reason they're the #1 team in the state. He's probably the most popular guy in school. But like every other cliché high school story, he never notices me.

All of my books fell out of my hands as he broke my fall. We both reached to pick them up.

"Sorry," we both mumbled at the same time.

The next thing I heard was Ms. Flash's heels as she scurried out of her room and turned the other way, not noticing the ruckus at the other end of the hallway.

"Wait! Hold up! Ms. Flash!" Thomas yelled as he ran, after giving me my books he picked up.

I gathered the rest of my things, held them close to my chest and started walking down the hall to my locker, careful not to run into anyone or anything else.

What I couldn't help was the smile appearing on my face. He actually talked to me!

I undid my lock and started packing my bag. I wasn't that far away from Thomas and Ms. Flash. So I started to eavesdrop.

"No you don't understand Ms. Flash, I have to get my grade up before the end of winter break or I won't be able to play on the school's baseball team next year!" Thomas exclaimed.

"Well I did all I could your grade is still a 56%."

"Isn't there something I can do? Book reports? Essay papers for extra credit?" Thomas asked desperately.

"Um. I honestly don't know," Ms. Flash replied, flipping through the plan book containing the curriculum she taught.

"Please," Thomas begged.

"Okay, Thomas. There's 3 things for you to do," Ms. Flash said, fingering a page in her plan book.

"First, the The 10 page semester book series report you will redo, actually trying this time. You can also redo your big English report on your 8 favorite authors and books they've wrote. Thirdly you join the book club."

I froze. Ms. Flash couldn't be serious!

"How am I supposed to get all of that done in 4 weeks? My parents are going to be out of state!" Thomas argued.

"Your parents aren't going to be doing your work," Ms. Flash replied, not accepting any exscuses.

"But I don't understand how to do those," I heard Thomas say, more quietly this time.

Ms. Flash looked at her watch nervously, shoving her plan book back in her bag.

In the midst of my eavesdropping I'd forgotten I was still at my locker. Getting all of my books and art project together in my bag, I closed my locker and started walking towards the doors.

"Okay, then my top student can be your tutor," I heard Ms. Flash say, stopping me in my tracks.

"But who's that?" Thomas asked her.

"She's a sweetheart. Her name's Elizabeth Parker."