The next morning, for the first time in my life, I was actually excited to go to school. When I ran out of my room my skirt was on backwards, my tie was on inside out and half of my shirt wasn't buttoned.

"You look all..." Amanda looked for a word to describe my beautiful outfit.

"Slovenly?"

"What?"

I rolled my eyes. "Eighth grade. Vocab word. Whatever."

"You've always been better with words babe." She went back to her copy of the New York times and sipped at her coffee.

I fixed myself up, and pulled my knee high white socks higher up my knees before slipping my feet into a pair white high top converse.

Then, I walked over to the counter where Amanda had packed my lunch. She truly is a G-d send. She knows how much I hate their fishsticks, and she didn't even need reminding.

Mindlessly I grabbed the red sack and stuffed into my backpack, my eyes tracing the words of the text I had just recieved.

"Me and luke will are here. com down?"

"Mandy, I'm heading out!" I yelled, grabbing two gatorades from the fridge and stuffed them into my bag as well.

"Please be safe! Your butterfly knife is back on your backpacks zipper!" She yelled back from her bedroom.

"I will, mom!" I smiled to myself, emphasizing the word "mom" for the fun of it.

She didn't respond, so I slung the strap over my left shoulder and ran down the stairs. I mean, of course we had to live in an apartment without an elavator, because that was a smart idea.

Getting down the seven flights of stairs, I got out the door and found Luke and Eve pushing each other, laughing.

"Okay, boys and girls, break it up." I joked, getting in the middle of the two. "How is this going to help the situation?"

"Of course it will, he'll have to give me my earbuds back!" She pushed my away lightly and jumped onto Luke's back.

I rolled my eyes. "Evenagiline Ruth Katz! Get off of him this instant!"

She looked at me with big eyes. "I told you about my real name?"

I raised my eyebrows. "Of course."

She jumped off of Luke's back. "I totally didn't remember."

I shrugged. "We have to get to school though, we'll be late."

Luke groaned. "Do we have to?"

"Do you want Amanda to kill us all?" I asked, starting to head in the direction of our private school. "Whether or not you're her siblings or children, she'd probably slap you both upside the head and scold you immensly."

"I'd believe it." Luke nodded. "Does she do that to you?"

"I don't skip school." I laughed.

Eve gasped. "Really? I skip all the time."

"Believable." I nodded.

"Rude." She pushed my shoulders, I felt my stomach tense, my face flushed red.

Luke intertwined his fingers into mine. "Don't listen to her." He kissed my cheek.

My stomach tensed, once again. Oh no.


"Anasatasia, can you stay back for me?" My English teacher, Mr. Grimes, announced.

My whole class ooh'ed and aww'ed.

"Girls, and boys. You're fifteen, no need for that." He announced once again.

My class shut up, and hurried out the door.

"Yeah?" I stammered, stepping up to the front desk.

"Can I ask you a question?" He asked, sitting on the edge of the desk.

"You just did." I pointed out.

"I'll take that as a yes." He smiled. "Are you okay?"

I furrowed my eyebrows, using that in itself as a question.

"Your writing," he mumbled, flipping through the papers of my most recent work. "is absolutely beautiful. You have the writing of a fourty year old author, Anasatasia. But it's..."

"Depressing? Morbid? Sad?"

"All of those." He slipped the portfolio onto his desk.

I nodded. "Writing is my escape haven. It's how I deal with things..."

"I know. Which is why I'm worried about you." He said.

"I'm okay..."

"I heard about the trial. I'm glad all went well. I'm also glad you and Eve are friends." He mumbled. "I know things were bad between the two of you."

"How?" I asked, my eyes returning to look at the tips of my shoes.

"Well, she always used to glare at you in the halls." He pointed out, "And your writing clearly pointed out that something was happening between you and a close friend."

"You should be in the FBI. You can analyze like a pro." I joked.

He smiled. "I want you to know you can come to me with absolutely anything, okay? But that's not why I pulled you over here. Have you ever considered writing a book?"

I shook my head. "No."

"Well you should." He grinned, "Because you could do something great. You know...I was considering actually writing another novel myself. As you know, I'm a published author."

"I'm aware."

"I want you to write it with me." He said.

"What?" I gasped.

"You heard me." He laughed.

"But...I'm just a kid. I don't know the first thing about writing a book!" I pointed out, my eyes buldging.

"Your writing," he picked up the portfolio and hit my head forehead lightly with it, a loving gesture. "says otherwise."

Taking a deep breath, I took a moment to absorb all he had just said.

"Here's my email." He took my hand, writing down a bunch of letters with his pen he carried around in his front pocket. "Tell me what you want to do. Tonight."

"Okay." I mumbled, breathless.

He smiled. "Now get outta here. Don't want Ms. Matthews to have a fit."

I laughed.


"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait." Amanda flailed her arms back and forth. "Hold up. Ronnie Grimes wants you, my baby sister, to write a novel with him. A renowned author?"

"That sounds about right." Eve pointed out, eating a piece of pizza as she swiped through her phone.

She had come over to my house so we could hang out, and I had just told Amanda about what happened in English.

"Woah." Amanda breathed. "No joke?"

"No joke." I answered.

"Do you want to do it?" She asked excitedly.

"I'm not sure. I have to email him tonight." I looked at my left hand, tracing lightly over the words so I wouldn't smudge it.

"Say yes." Amanda pushed.

And I did. That very night, I sent my English teacher an email.

'I'll do it, Mr. Grimes.'

Thank you, everyone, that's been reviewing! It means the world! Also, I'm sorry I haven't been updating as much lately. I actually just started a job, and I've been super busy. But I've been finding time to write here and there, so thanks guys for the patience. And also, this story will be coming to an end very soon. (I know, super depressing. I'm sad too.) But I will be writing another story, and I'll give you an update about that soon. But for now, keep enjoying Broken Voices while it's still here.

Thank you,

Sam.