All in

Chapter 1

Jason's POV

The only thing worse than being stuck in Sun City for the summer without my best buddy, Alex, is being stuck in Sun City for the summer and having to spend most of it with Catherine Moss. She's the person my guidance counselor assigned as my tutor. Don't get me wrong, the girl is cute as hell, but I have zero in common with her. And from what I remember, her nose is stuck so far up in the air I'm pretty sure it's in a different time zone.

Jesus. It's Catherine Moss.

Her reputation is that she is straight as an arrow. Again, no judging. I just like a bit more of an edge to the people I hang with. Besides, during freshman year, Alex and I "borrowed" my cousin's truck for the weekend and got caught. To our classmates the stunt elevated us to a weird sort of celebrity status, but that year in English class, Catherine had done a speech on the dangers of dereliction. Damn. Dangers of Dereliction. At the time I thought I was nowhere near her radar, but I'd been wrong. That day she was talking to me. I knew it. Everyone knew it. And of course, I'd acted like it didn't matter. I mean, who the heck cares about dereliction when you're fifteen? But the truth of it was that I didn't like being under her microscope. Didn't like the thought of her judging me

And yet here I was again. About to be analyzed and probably found wanting.

I pulled Dad's old rusted Chevy to the curb and cut the engine. It ran on for a bit, chugging and jerking as if it still had somewhere to go, and I made a mental note to tell him the carburetor was screwed.

I snorted. Mental note. What a joke.

It was the second Monday of June, and the disaster that had been my senior year was almost behind me. I had one more hurdle to jump, and I could finally call an end to the worst year of my life so far. All I had to do was pass my economics test and I could finally end this all and move on. I hoped that, with Catherine's help, I'd get it done.

I tapped the steering wheel, eyes on Catherine's house, and tried to remember the las time I'd had an actual conversation with her but came up with nothing.

That didn't mean it didn't happen. Sometimes my memory was a little hazy, and as I stared across the lawn, I gave up trying. What was the point? It's not as if I was going to chat her up about the new Gibson Les Paul's I'd seen online or the bush party everyone was talking about, the one in the woods behind the drive in.

I sighed and focused. Come on, Jay. Get your shit together.

Her house was white, and like everything else about Catherine Moss, it was picture perfect. There was the picket fence. The expertly trimmed hedge and the greenest grass I'd seen all summer. A miracle in itself considering our spring had been the driest in a long time. Heck, event he hanging baskets on her porch looked good: I wouldn't be surprised if they were fake.

Catherine Mosses place looked nothing like mine. Not that I lived in a dump or anything, but the grass had always been the least of my dad's worries and my mum didn't exactly have a green thumb.

I smiled for the first time today. God, my mum. She'd even managed to kill a plastic planter because she'd put it too close to the fireplace. It had been a fake poinsettia, and we'd woken up Christmas morning to find the red leaves melted all over the floor. My dad still kidded her about that one.

I groaned and closed my eyes, pushing back the long hair that fell over my brow. It was still early. Not even noon, and I was already tired. That familiar throb was there, just behind my eyes, and I prayed like hell a headache wasn't on the way.

They wiped me out, and it was exhausting trying to pretend I was fine when all I wanted to do was close my eyes and block everything out.

I heard a door slam shut and spied Catherine on the front porch.