"Miss? Miss? Is there anyone who can call an ambulance?"

"Is she breathing?"

"Did she hit her head?"

"I didn't even see her in the rain-"

The voices came from far away, like the sentence game you played underwater. Strange. Did that mean I was drowning again?

"Excuse me" another voice cut through and it was clearer than the rest.

"Lu? Lewis, can you hear me?"

The voice instantly made me feel calmer, enough to where I realized I hadn't been calm a moment before. There was something off about it though, but I didn't care.

"Lu? Here, use my phone and dial nine-one-one."

Weird. If I were downing, I should be afraid, right? I wasn't. I was content, hearing that name spoken by that voice.

"Lewis..."

Then the sounds ceased altogether.

Soft material. Pillow under head. Bright lights beyond my lids. I blinked slowly, trying to clear the fog from my vision and brain.

A huge orb of light settled above me and I stared at it in awe. "Am I dead?"

"Hardly," came a voice from beside me and I looked to find my dad seated there. I tried to wave but something that felt like tape restrained me.

I tried to not look as confused as I felt. "What...uh...what...?"

"You were in an accident," Dad explained. "A car hit you."

At the mention, i distantly recalled lights and the numbers of something. I shuttered. "Oh."

"Are you feeling all right?" This voice belonged to Edith who sat on the other side of me. I jerked at the sound of ip her, surprised by it, before settling back on the bed. "Yeah, I'm okay. I..."

Oh no.

Will.

"Where's Will?" I asked her, feeling something grow in the pit of my stomach. "Did he-"

-"he made it back in time," Edith reassured me, "Right after he got news you would be okay." I relaxed back onto the pillows. Thank goodness. Those tests were vital, or so Edith had told me. They were the golden ticket to the chocolate factory of universities. They were a utensil to help in determining Will's academic fate. They were-

"Good. You guys got here."

I shot up so fast, something pounded in the back of my skull. I didn't notice until then the cast wrapped around my knee, but my attention was on Will who stood in the door of my hospital room. My jaw dropped and I felt the air go out of me.

The others suffered a similar blow.

"Will?" Edith stood and went to her son, her fluttering fingers trying to grasp the words she seemed struggling to speak. "Will, I thought you returned to class for the aptitude tests. What...what are you doing here?"

Will shrugged. That's it. He just shrugged. "I was tired, so I grabbed a coffee from downstairs."

He didn't sound furious. There was no indication he was even mad, and that made it worse. As Edith barraged him with questions, I looked down at my hands, suddenly unable to meet his eyes. I'd called Will a jerk, once to his face, and a multitude of times in my head. I thought he was uncooperative in not even trying to be nice to me, but I realized that I hadn't even given him the chance to like me as a human being, let alone a girl.

The words he spoke of me disrupting his life weren't said to spite me. He had just been pointing out the truth I hadn't seen.

"I'm really...sorry," I said lamely, my vision suddenly going blurry. Couldn't I do anything right?

"I didn't...I didn't mean for that to happen."

"It's not your fault," Edith said soothingly, rubbing my arm. But I nodded. Because yes, it was my fault. Everything since day one had been my fault. "I'm sorry."

I kept repeating that over and over, in my head and out loud. But it did nothing to help with the guilt that ran rampant, knocking me down again and again.

It was no wonder Will didn't like me. It was no wonder at all.

I kept myself in confinement. Or, borderline confinement. I felt like a walking hazard, a mine beneath my own feet. When would it go off? What would trigger it? How many causalities would there be? Fine, so there was a dose of melodrama, but it was exactly how it seemed.

I wanted to be able to predict my own damage. But I couldn't. That made it twice as likely for it to occur and my odds were bad enough already. The cordial thing to do was for me to stay somewhere else. Somewhere that wouldn't threaten any person's scholastic reputation.

"Could I stay at your place for a couple days?" I asked Liz when I returned to school on Wednesday, four days after being discharged. I just had a sprained foot and a sizable bump on the head that kept me overnight for observation, but that was the extent of my injuries.

I plunked my elbows on the lunch table.

Liz gave me a questioning look, a slice of apple impaled on the tip of her fork. "Why?" She asked.

I sighed. "Because I'm an incendiary human that's doomed to activate at any time."

She paused, the fork hovering above her lip. Her face blanked. "What?"

"Because I am the hole in Will's life-raft, okay?" I said for emphasis. "I am the eons of erosion to his pyramid. I'm the...the...skinner tool-thing to his hide."

"When did you become an analogy dispenser?" She asked, cock

ing her head to the side. "Speak English."

"I am."

"Speak coherent English. What's up with the drama? Last I checked, you frowned upon attention-seekers."

I took a calming breath, putting my hands out to illustrate my feelings as gestures. "I keep screwing up. We are talking major boo-boo's inflicted here. I am responsible for..." I instinctively lowered my voice, casting a wary glance around us. I pulled her closer. "...For Will not taking the tests."

"What?" Her eyes went round and her fork dropped. She picked it back up and pointed it at me. "You made it so he couldn't-"

"Shh!" I hissed at her, scared of the eyes she'd provoked into looking in our direction. I motioned for her to keep it down. "Accidentally."

"Oh really?" She said, voice sarcastic. "Because I was under the impression you deliberately walked in front of a car."

I smirked at her. "Can I stay at your place or not? Just for a few days."

Her blue eyes studied me and the apple finally reached her mouth. "My mom went to a convention out-of-state," Liz explained. "She told me not to have anyone over. So sure."

I felt my shoulders relax at her consent and I let out a sigh in relief.

It took time convincing my Dad to let me stay at Liz's but even we had exams approaching and school was always a soft spot for him. Or maybe it wasn't so much a soft spot as it was the terror parental figures face at the concept of their child's future and how they could succeed in it.

Clearly, Dad wished I could cram in all the study time I could get.

This would only be a temporary solution, however. Once the few days were up, I would ask dad about us moving out. Maybe find an apartment somewhere. Perhaps a cozy bridge where we could reside beneath as trolls. But until that talk came to pass, at least I could give the Trenger family some four-day-reprieve from my unpredictability.

As Will so nicely put it.

"I'll be back on Sunday," I told Dad before he left for work. I had school anyway and he hugged me before heading out.

After school ended, I walked home with Liz who had been demoted to the most-archaic way of transportation since her mother had taken the car. Once there, we went to her room where we unloaded all our books.

We stared at them.

"Hardest or easiest first?" I asked her, casting her a glance.

She crossed her arms, tapping a finger against her lower lip. "Is there an easiest?"

I shrugged. "English isn't that difficult."

"What was the grade you got on that last paper?"

"A...D," my voice faltered.

"Then that won't work."

More silence ensued and the mound of textbooks and assignments seemed to grow in size.

"Oh!" I smacked my hands together, effectively scaring Liz. "What if we write the subjects on papers and stick them in a bowl like charades or something?" I offered.

She pursed her lips, debating. "That would add an element of excitement to an otherwise stressful ordeal."

So that's what we did. I ripped up the paper and Liz wrote down the subjects. We used two bowls, one assigned to topics, the other to assignments themselves, but the momentary excitement died down the instant the first ones were pulled from the others.

"Pre Calc," Liz read from the paper, the enthusiasm gone from her voice.

Her solemn tone mirrored my expression. "Best two out of three?"

Ten minutes later, we sat around two empty bowls and bits and pieces of strewn paper. Liz lay on her back, an arm over her eyes and I sat with my head in my hands. "This is bad," I remarked.

"They say you only experience high school once," Liz said. "But it looks like we'll get to experience it all over again."

I groaned. There had to be something we could do. "We could look it up online."

"Mom took the laptop."

I groaned louder. "We're screwed."

"Wait!" Liz shot up so fast, her forehead nearly smacked against mine. I looked at her wide-eyed, an idea sparking her features to life. "What?"

"Gimme your phone!"

"Why?"

"Just do it."

I complied and handed it over. She flipped it open and scrolled through something but I knew when she found what she was looking for. Her eyes lit and a smile spread over her lips. "Hah, I knew it!"

"Knew what?"

She showed me the screen and I barely registered the contact profile before she said, "That you have Will Trenger's number in your phone."

Uh oh. Oh please no, please no, please no.

I snatched for it but my fingers grasped empty air. "You can't!" I told her, but it was too late. She pressed send.

"Hang up!" I practically screeched, launching myself at the mobile. "Hang up, now!"

"Oh, it's ringing!" She pranced out of my grip, twisting around in evasive maneuvers. "I'm sorry, but your pride or embarrassment is not worth a second tour down memory lane!"

"You can't call him!" I shouted, darting after her. I hit my leg against her desk chair.

"I'm not," she deadpanned. "You are."

"No!" I couldn't. I couldn't ask anything from Will, not after what I'd just taken from him. There was bad and then there was downright shameful. This fell into the latter category.

"Give it back!"

"Yes?"

We both froze at the masculine voice that sounded from the speaker. I shot daggers at Liz, silently threatening her well-being. I suddenly felt tongue tied, and gestured for her to answer him.

She motioned for me to do it instead.

"Hello? I'm hanging up."

Maybe he'd think this was a wrong number. But what if he knew it was me? It would be worse if I let him go thinking I'd called for no reason other than to annoy him.

"Wait!" I yelled, mentally shouting at myself. This was the exact situation I had wanted to avoid. Liz made a "go on" gesture with her hands.

My glare intensified. "H-hey, Will," I said into the phone. "It's...it's Lu."

"What do you want?"

At least he wasn't hanging up. I could consider that minuscule thing a plus in hindsight.

"Um. I'm having difficulty understanding one thing on math. Could you, uh, could you answer a question? Just one but it's...urgent." My gosh, Liz and I were going to share some words after this.

Will didn't hesitate. "What question?"

Liz pumped her fist in victory as I scrambled for the textbook. I struggled to put the equation into verbal form, but managed and Will handed us the answer in under two minutes.

"Bye." He said. Before I could thank him, the line disconnected.

"Rude," Liz mumbled but I wasn't listening. I was trying to get my heart rate under control. "There," I said. "Now we're on our own."

With a determined exhale, I pulled the textbook onto my lap, Liz's on hers, pencils held aloft over open notebooks.

Minutes ticked by.

"What answer did you get?" I asked Liz when my confidence began to spiral. She chewed on the end of her pencil and didn't meet my gaze. "What answer?"

I fell backward onto the floor and let out a growl.

"Hey," she said, voice full of enthusiasm again. "Can I see your phone?"

"Stop calling me," Will barked on the other end. I rubbed my temples with my index fingers, sitting cross-legged on the floor. The phone was on speaker, lying between my legs. Workbooks sat open around us.

"Just one more," Liz begged from a distance. "It's only on History. History must be easy for you, uh..." Her expression told me she didn't know how to address him and I just shook my head. "Mr. Genius," she settled on.

I smacked my palm against my forehead.

"All subjects are easy for me," Will stated plainly, annoyance coloring his tone. I was biting my lip so hard, I could taste the copper tang of blood. "Yes, we know. Last one and then we are done. Finished," I glared at Liz. "Content in asking nothing more."

"You have five seconds."

Liz smiled, oblivious to my glare as I read aloud: "Which U.S. President signed the immigration Reform and Control Ac-"

"Ronald Reagan," Will said. Then he hung up.

I released a breath I didn't know I'd been holding, and jotted down the answer.

"This is great," Liz said. "He's like our personal encyclopedia."

"Who we will not be utilizing any further," I added with a warning edge in my voice. She shrugged and flipped to the next page. I followed suit but when my eyes fell to the question, I resisted the urge apply my coping technique of screaming into a pillow.

"Call him one more time."

"No!" I shouted at her, grabbing at my Spanish book. Again, on the first question, I was stumped.

"Cmon," Liz begged, clasping her hands together and rising to her knees. "If he didn't want to answer, he wouldn't have picked up the last five times."

I gave her a stern look."No."

"Please!"

"No."

"High school repeat."

"No."

"Gym for another year."

"Stop."

"McDonald's uniform."

Ouch. Now that one did hurt. But I wouldn't budge. I wouldn't. I was already embarrassed enough. Mere desperation had clouded my judgement in calling him, but now it was clear. And I was going to do no such thing again.

Seeing my resolve, Liz stood and left the room but returned a few minutes later. "You brought me to this," she said.

I looked up, suddenly wary. "Brought you to what?"

In her hand, she held her own phone and punched in a number.

"What are you doing?" I asked, feeling myself rise to my feet.

She nibbled on her nail, poised in a defiant stance. "Calling Will."

"But...but...how?"

Liz rolled her eyes. "I remembered his number."

Twenty minutes later, I stood in the front of Liz's house, waiting for Edith to pick me up. I thought this was going to help Will, but thanks to my nosy friend, I was doing the exact opposite of what I'd originally intended to do. If I remained here while Liz continued to badger and glean whatever answers she could from Will's brain, it wouldn't be good. The best I could do was stay somewhere else. That bridge was beginning to look more and more appealing.

Edith wasn't the one to pick me up, but Calvin. Which was okay with me; Calvin was less likely to question me on my sudden desire to be brought back, whereas Edith would somehow discover Will's assistance and then pressure him to assist more and the last thing I wanted to give Will was pressure. And inconvenience.

It was an overall quiet trip back to the house for which I was comfortable with. However, It was short lived.

When I walked through the door, someone instantly groaned. My eyes fell over to the living room couch, and the youngest Trenger that sat there. "No," Lucas whined, tossing his head back against the cushions. "I thought you were supposed to be gone for a couple days."

"Nice to see you, too," I replied, hoisting my bag over my shoulder before ascending the stairs. I wouldn't be unpacking it, though. I had a plan. It wasn't the best plan, but it was a plan nonetheless.

To my imminent relief, I didn't run into Will between the first floor and my room. Which is where I stayed until my plan was implemented a few hours later. Luckily, I hadn't elaborated on why Id returned, other than that Liz had postponed our get together until the evening. It was a painfully transparent lie, but I doubted the Trenger parents were accustomed to lying children. Their two prodigies had no reason to conjure such falsities to avoid hardships. Because they had none.

My plan centered around my allowance and a reservation held in a nearby hotel. This was the reputation teenagers got nowadays; sneaking out to go lounge in hotels with that of the opposite sex, but that was just a flawed misperception of what was otherwise a young girl trying to spare a family of anymore unneeded trouble.

I tried to come down from my room as quietly as I could, careful not to fall, but since when did my caution ever oblige? Halfway down the flight I tripped, unable to see well through the poor lighting. I heard something crash however, and guessed Id knocked down one of Edith's candles.

I squeezed my eyes shut, waiting for the lights to flicker on. But they didn't. I relaxed and came down the remaining stairs.

I could vaguely see the outline of the door against the black backdrop and I moved toward it, recalling the layout of the floor to lessen my chances of face-planting onto the hardwood.

"Did that car knock any sense of self-preservation out of you?" Will's voice made my heart take up residency in my throat and I felt my body jump a few inches into the air.

"Or are you just naturally reckless?"

I tried to see him but the struggle became unnecessary when he clicked on the kitchen light. There he came through the swinging door, arms crossed, hair unruffled which told me he hadn't yet slept.

I bit my lower lip, suddenly feeling like a burglar caught red-handed. "Um...I...am leaving," I said dumbly, mentally chastising myself. I wasn't lying. This was true. I just needed to stay between the borders of truth and I'd be fine.

"To West Wing Hotel?"

I froze. How did he possibly-

"Word of advice," he said, stepping towards me. "When you make a reservation, use your own phone and not the home line."

Well I would have, I thought, bitter resentment expanding over me. Had my phone not died.

"Okay, fine," I said, but still kept face. Somewhat. "But I'm not doing anything wrong or inappropriate. I'm taking...a temporary leave of absence."

"Well then you have to leave in order for there to be absence."

I paused, trying to gauge his reaction. He didn't look mad or concerned or disapproving. He looked perfectly stoic, an impeccable expression carved from stone. "Wait, you aren't going to stop me?"

He smirked, leaning his shoulder against the wall. "Why would I try to stop you? I assume you have your reasons; they're none of my business."

Huh. "I won't be gone for long," I said, "just until my Dad is able to move out. I'm tired of being a..." Burden sounded a little too melodramatic. I decided on, "nuisance."

"That's a bit of an understatement," he said acerbically. "Since you crash-landed into my life, I've been in situations I never thought I'd be in."

I waved my hand hurriedly. "Yes. Yes, I know. I've caused trouble and rumors and inconvenience for which I'm sorry for. But I honestly didn't do any of it on purpose. Except for the...blackmail with the photo...but that was it!"

His lip quirked up in that ghost of a smile he so rarely revealed. "But that's my point. You don't even have to try."

"Hence me leaving," I motioned to the door. "I can't do damage if I'm not here. And you know, maybe you're cold and cynical and brooding and a bit arrogant-"

His eyes narrowed.

-"but I was in the wrong with the tests. I mean those were important, but I screwed it up. And I didn't just jeprodize your college opportunities but your future career endeavors and who knows what you could've done or where you could have gone if it hadn't been for me. So not only have I deprived you of something, but the fields you could have benefitted as well."

Plainly put, that's exactly what plagued me.

Will watched me with those speculative green eyes, black hair casting his cheekbones in shadow. "It wasn't just because of you, you know," he finally said.

I stared back, confused.

He rolled to the side until it was his back pressed against the wall and his eyes broke from mine to stare somewhere else. "I had time to make it back for the tests. But I didn't. It was my choice, in the end. Your accident just gave me the final push."

"So," I hesitated, still partially confounded. "So you...you don't want to go to a real upscale college?" He had to be kidding.

Will tilted his head until he was looking at me again. "That's none of your concern. However, I was considering attending the local college."

I let his words sink in. And then I let out a small gasp, eyes going round as disks. "Hold on. You're telling me that you...are willing to go to the same college I plan to go to?" Because that would be ridiculous. After all, he did...he did..."Don't you hate me?"

Will sighed, chest moving just slightly. "You're a troublemaker," he stated simply. "You cause a ruckus and leave a mess in your wake. But I don't dislike you."

I heard my mouth pop open and something between my chest and throat constricted. "Does that mean...you...like me?" I dove into the question feet-first.

He pushed off the wall and came closer. He raised his hand and tapped an index finger against my temple. "Don't let that go to your head. I'm saying you make things interesting. No need to read too much into it."

"So you wouldn't mind if I stayed?" I asked, watching as he passed me, headed up the stairs.

He shoved his hands in his pockets. "Not really. As I said, you make things interesting. Bothersome, yes, but interesting." He cast me a glance over his shoulder. "You have capability. I won't pretend I don't see that."

Then he started up the flight, completely unaware of the beating sensation that was nearly pounding its way from my chest.

"Turn on the lights before you come up," he added, "or you'll wake the entire house."

I bit my lip again, trying to get my sudden smile under control. That was as close to a confession as I was going to get from Will. I heeded his warning, though, and didn't let it go to my head. But I couldn't speak so much for the heart.

It did what it wanted.