I HATE YOU, FULLER JAMES

Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Wren

Fuller sat across the table from me. He'd emptied out his backpack and surprise, surprise, he didn't have his copy of The Hate U Give. All he had was his laptop and a notebook. He literally didn't even have a pen or pencil. "Where's your book?"

He shrugged and grinned. "I must have left it at home. Hey, how did you know all of those statistics off the top of your head?"

"I'm good with numbers, and I really like basketball." My admission was simple, but Fuller still looked at me like I'd just solved the Navier-Stokes Equation.

The library was quiet. Besides us, the only other person in there was Mrs. Parsons, the librarian. She'd won some kind of grant and was unloading a huge box of new books. I'd even helped her select some of them. She knew how much I loved reading and asked for my input on new material from time to time.

"Anyway," I said, "do you want to go grab an extra book from Mrs. Brewster's classroom?"

"Nah, let's share yours." He didn't wait for an objection; instead, he got up from the table and made his way to my side.

I flinched as his leg bumped into mine. "Can you watch what you're doing?"

"My bad." Fuller pushed his dark hair off his face. His deep blue eyes locked with mine and refused to budge. "You really don't like me, huh?" He offered a lopsided smile, but it faltered.

"Not particularly." I wanted to say so much more, but the words refused to come out. Fuller James was literally the last person I'd ever choose to spend time with. He all but ruined my life five years ago, he walked around the halls of Magnolia Valley High like he was untouchable, and he never had to face any real consequences for acting like an arrogant jerk. He was always getting a free pass from one of our teachers or even the principal. Today was probably the only time he'd ever been forced to do something he didn't want to while in the halls of our school.

"Ouch." He held his hands to his chest and grimaced. "That hurt." But instead of being serious, he laughed it off. Everything was a joke to him and his dumb friends. "Now, what do I need to do to get you to write my paper?"

"I knew this was a stupid idea. I'd rather take the suspension and lose my spot at STEM camp." I picked up my backpack and slung it over my shoulder.

Fuller's cheeks turned dark red and his mouth opened, but nothing came out. For the first time since getting beat by our rivals last year, he actually looked shocked. "I was just kidding, Wren. Hold up."

Mrs. Parsons looked over at us and held a finger to her lips. "This is the library, not the playground."

I expected Fuller to burst out laughing at the notion that we were behaving like we were at a playground, but he immediately stopped talking. It didn't matter though; I'd had enough.