Lucky Penny

Chapter One

Everyone around me is so stressed out that they're sweating, yet I'm leaning back in my chair, checking out my nails. That's not something you see often in a PSAT testing room, but I'm pretty confident in my answers. I'm no genius, but when you have a vision of yourself filling out the right answers, there's no other option than to be confident. There are still fifteen minutes left in the test and I've already filled out everything, leaving a few blank or wrong so it doesn't look suspicious. I've even checked five times to make sure I've bubbled Scarlett Sandfield in correctly.

Finally, the administrator says the test is over and lets us go. As I walk to the lobby, I don't even bother looking for or talking to anyone. I already know where the one person I want to talk to will be. Of course, not everyone has gotten the memo. "Hey, Penny, did you think that test was easy?" Ian Christensen asks me. I freeze. I had been so caught up in my determination to get to the lobby that I hadn't even noticed him walking next to me. Which is odd because normally I know where Ian is at all times. How could I not when he has such dreamy blue eyes?

He clears his throat, bringing me back down to Earth. "Oh yeah, it was a cinch," I lie, "Problem two in the first math section gave me a little bit of trouble, but other than that, it was easy."

Ian raises an eyebrow. I swoon a little inside. "You mean the one about the perimeter of a square?"

Crap. The harder ones are toward the end, not the beginning. "Hey, cut me some slack. That was a tricky square." I giggle. It's a nervous giggle, but I hope he doesn't notice.

He stares at me like I'm crazy. Double crap. "Yeah, okay, Miss Valedictorian." I resist the urge to point out that actually he's current valedictorian of the junior class. If I followed the Whispers exactly, I could be valedictorian, but I fudge stuff up on purpose to give those dreamy eyes the advantage.

As we make our way into the lobby, I can see a petite blonde girl at the vending machine. She's wearing a cute little polka-dotted dress with tights and ballet flats. Meanwhile, I'm in a free t-shirt from my mom's restaurant and jeans, my dark hair up in a messy bun. The only thing that makes my outfit look even slightly put-together is my combat boots. I roll my eyes. "Why so dressy, Sadie?" I call out to her.

She punches the machine once and then turns to face me with an innocent look on her face. "I always dress like this." She's right. Sadie Karmine always dresses like she's going to a party. It's one of the perks of having a fashion designer as a mother.

A bottle of water falls to the bottom of the machine. I grab it before Sadie can. "You did not just get another bottle of flavored water," I say.

"What did Christensen want?" she asks nonchalantly as she pulls the bottle back out of my hand.

"He was just wondering how I thought the test went."

"You upset that he wasn't asking you out?" She grins.

"No, now stop distracting me. I am trying to cut off your flavored water addiction." I swipe the bottle back out of her hand. This is where being tall comes in handy.

"I'm just trying to stay hydrated!" Sadie tries to protest. It's too late, though. I've already taken a big gulp of her Very Extraordi-Berry. I wipe my mouth triumphantly. "Ew, now I can't drink it."

As we walk to the parking lot, Sadie and I chat all about the test and our plans for the rest of the weekend. The plans all include both of us. That's how it's been ever since I saw a ball of light hovering over Sadie's head in Geometry freshman year.

The balls of light are the other form of Whispers, aside from the visions. Sometimes, they appear in front of me in a sequence, like a path, should I choose to follow it. Sometimes, they just hover above something or someone. My Gram, who's full-blooded Irish, called them will-o-the-wisps when I first told her I saw them. My little mind turned that phrase into 'Whispers'. She's the only one who truly believes the Whispers are real. She's both really superstitious and really religious, so I've heard her attribute them both to the Little People and the Devil's Work.

When we reach our cars, Sadie is just finishing up listing off all the movies she wants to watch at our movie marathon on Sunday. After I promise her I'll finally sit through all of Titanic this time, she gets in her brand new Porsche. I'm just about to open the door to my beat-up Civic when she says, "Bye, Penny."

No, Penny is not a nickname you would be able to get easily out of Scarlett Nicole Sandfield, but Lucky Scarlett just doesn't have the same ring as Lucky Penny, now does it?