Part One

Chapter One

High School, 10th Grade

"Claire! Get up, and get moving! The bus will be here, ANY MINUTE!" My dad thundered from downstairs. I picked up my pace even faster, yanking a brush through blonde hair haphazardly before shoving my books into my bag.

I ran down the stairs and straight out the door into the pouring Spring rain, ignoring my father shouting about an umbrella as I ran towards the end of our long drive. I ignored my favorite cow, Cheese, when she mooed at me from inside her pasture. I usually stopped to give her some head scratches and wildflowers from the fence line.

'That old jackass was right,' I thought to myself as the bus roared up to our mailbox, right on time. Out of breath, I tried to scramble through the crowded aisles, but Karen and Lumina bumped me hard from either side and snickered. When I turned back to glare at them, Antoinette was waiting on my other side with the open face of her sandwich ready for me to run into. The whole bus roared with laughter and I felt my whole body flush red.

With a face full of mayo, tomato seeds and mustard, I felt my way towards the empty back of the bus and sank down into a seat. I felt a poke on my left arm and heard a deep voice come from the seat across the aisle. "Here. For your face."

A crumpled bunch of tissues were dropped into my lap.

I wiped my face carefully, thankful I wasn't one of the Bratz dolls up front, covered in cheap makeup from Karen's dads grocery store.

"Thanks," I muttered, still too embarrassed to even try to guess who had given me the tissue. Probably Rock. I'd never spoken to him before, he was one of the few guys that simply left me alone. Our school was made up of all the kids from Mineral Town, Zephyr Town, and Forget-Me-Not Valley. All small, farming towns that didn't believe in modern technology such as computers, or cars. We aren't Amish, though. We have telephones, bars, and other modern things. Some people just like to live simpler around here.

I was briefly friends with Antoinette, a quiet , snobby girl from Zephyr Town, when we were in elementary school and one day at her house, she showed me pictures of her parents in the city. I gazed with awe at the modern clothes they sported, compared to the overalls and frilly dresses they wore here. They were posed in front of a shiny red car, her mother wearing a slinky black dress. I'd never seen anything like it. I wanted to take pictures like that someday.

The same deep, raspy voice yanked me out of my reverie. "That was a shitty prank for your friends to pull on you. Are you okay?" My head snapped up from my lap only to land on the deepest blue eyes I'd ever seen. I almost forgot about my sweet, brown eyed Kai for a moment. The boy was wearing worn blue jeans, a grey long sleeve work shirt and had his hands shoved in his pockets. His baseball hat was yanked down so I could just barely see his eyes. "Um, yeah, I-I'm fine," I stammered, my heart pounding. Not just because a cute boy was talking to me, but because anyone on this bus was talking to me.

"I haven't seen you before, are you new?" I asked him, hoping to make some more conversation, and make a friend before he figured out I was a social pariah. "You seriously haven't heard about me? Or are you just fucking with me?" He snapped, turning to face the window.

"Those apes up there won't let me hear the end of it on my way home every day, so I usually walk to school," I shook my head before realizing he couldn't see me. "'Heard about you'? Are you famous or something?"

He shifted in his seat, eyeing me cautiously. "Well, that's good news, I guess. I just meant - uh, well. A lot of people have gone out of their way to be an asshole to me because of my family."

"Join the club," I commented, picking at my nail nonchalantly, like I talked to people on the bus all the time. The boy blushed, his pale skin lighting up like a siren. "What grade are you in?," He muttered, clearly embarrassed, in that teenage boy way. "I should be in tenth, but I skipped a grade."

He pulled his hat even lower on his face. "I haven't seen you around very much for being in the same grade, though." I looked out the window, hating that we were almost halfway to school.

"I stick to myself. I don't get along with the girls here, obviously. Karen is the resident 'mean girl' and she takes her title seriously. If you happen to make her shit list, she'll make your life hell, for fun."

I only had two friends, Mary and Zack, the young man that shipped our crops for us. And he was barely a friend, just someone I sat on the shipping bin with sometimes and talked to when Kai wasn't in town.

He was so lucky to be sailing free off the coastline, grilling corn, of all things, to make a living. Part of me was jealous, wondering if he had a girlfriend in every town and city he went to, if he had a schedule of girls to see all year long. I shook my head, chasing away the ridiculous thought. Kai spent almost all his free time writing to me, letters while he relaxed on beaches, postcards while he toured different stores and cities, small packages of exotic candies from other snack shacks. He'd have to be crazy, because I usually had 3-4 letters coming a day, all his random thoughts he had during his days. He'd call from a restaurant or fuel station every Saturday at 7pm, like clockwork and I'd rush to the phone, snatch it from my sighing father and talk to him for as long as we could about our week.

The bus brakes screeched to a stop and the driver hollered at all of us to get off. I stood up and bumped into the boy as we both tried to exit our seats at the same time. He took off his hat and half bowed, "Ladies first," I stepped ahead of him and shuffled off the bus. I waited outside on the pavement for him to get off, before falling into step with him. "I'm Claire, by the way. Claire Foxe." I extended my hand to shake and he gripped it tightly, but not too tight. His hands were calloused, like he'd already been working for years. "I'm Gray Williams. Nice to meet you, Claire," I pulled my hand away, wondering what Kai was doing at that second, as Gray started to walk towards the building. "I'll see you around."

Classes went normally, and before I knew it, the people were springing out of their seats for lunch. In line, I grabbed a bottle of juice and a container of yogurt. "Not hungry, honey?" asked Vesta, the lunch lady. "Mmm, not really, sorry Ms. Vesta," She shook a white plate full of vegetable curry at me enticingly. "Oh, c'mon! I made my famous Green Curry today, hon! We have some homemade kimchi left, too! Your loss!"

Shaking my head at her antics, I looked for a seat at the table closest to the bathrooms. Mary was already seated, nose deep in a book, her sandwich from home half eaten and discarded for the most recent fantasy novel from the library. A nasally voice from behind me snickered, "What? You're too good to eat the food you grow? God, I would hate to be you, Cara."

I turned around with my lunch tray in my hands. "My name is Claire, and why do you care so much about my farm?" Karen rolled her eyes and snapped her gum at me before she spoke. "It's not that. It's you. It's that you took Kai from me. Everyone knows I called dibs on him, but you pretending to be his little helper really won his stupid ass over," she put her hands on her hips and leered at me. "Don't talk about him like that," I snapped at her, slamming my tray back down on the lunch counter.

Vesta started to step out from behind her counter into the cafeteria. "Okay, ladies, let's keep it moving. School is almost out, and I know you don't want no summer school," I grabbed my tray a little too forcefully and knocked my juice onto the ground. Karen giggled. "Getting really heated about your little boyfriend, huh?" I took a deep breath and reminded myself that I only had two more weeks of high school left in my life. "At least I have one." I mumbled, just loud enough that only Karen could hear it. She hurled insults at my back as I stalked over to my table and sat down. I waited about 5 minutes for Mary to notice me, when she didn't, I shook her book a little. She jumped and gasped quietly. I chuckled and set her book face-down.

"Did you see the new guy? Gray? Over there in the hat," Mary groaned. "People say I have my head in the clouds? God, Claire, he's been going here since mid-Fall," I wrinkled my nose. That couldn't be possible. "Huh. I don't know how I didn't notice him."

It was Mary's turn to laugh, and I stared at her until she stopped giggling. "You don't notice a THING after Kai leaves, I swear. You get so stuck in your self pity pit," I pushed her book back at her face. "Okay, okay, just keep reading. Forget I said anything."

She dog-eared her page as she looked at me interestedly and pushed her silky black bangs out of her face. "Why're you asking about Gray? Is it because of how cute he is? What about Kai?" I rolled my eyes at her and opened the foil lid of my yogurt. I grimaced when I saw 'Foxe Farms' on the label. This must be the big, new client Dad was so excited about. I can't even escape thinking about the farm at lunch now.

"I'm still with Kai. I was just wondering because he helped me out after Karen and her goonies smashed a sandwich in my face on the bus this morning," Mary winked at me. "Oooh, okayyy," she drew her words out. "He has quite the story, huh?"

I cackled. "Being new is a story?" Mary's eyes got wide. "Of course you don't know. Ugh. Well…" she leaned in close and took a breath. "So, his mom grew up here. Saibara's daughter, Helene. She got pregnant by Duke when she was 18, who was only a few years older, and dropped out of school her senior year, and Manna harassed Helene until she left town. Aja found out a few years ago and left town because of it. Gray got here this Fall, after his mom went missing. People in town have been avoiding him like the Plague, and Karen's been on his ass."

It must suck for Mary, being Karen's next door neighbor, but it meant I got all the gossip first hand. For being the quietest girl in town, who was known to be at the library in all her spare time, she was the biggest gossip I had ever met. "They're so conservative over here. They barely even use phones. And they dress like it's the 40's in Switzerland, too," I looked pointedly to my left, at Gretl, Ivan and Dirk, who were literally wearing lederhosen.

"Well, it gives her no license to treat Gray like shit. She's been rude to him all summer," Mary huffed and pushed her glasses up on her nose in defiance. I was baffled by this change, she was usually so quiet and mousy. Maybe…

"I think you have a crush on the new boy," I announced, looking her dead in her eyes. She turned incredibly pink, and started squirming in her seat, a tell tale sign I was right. "Shut up, Claire! He's not new! And no, I don't. I have to focus on school, and get ready for college. You know that. I want to get out of here just as bad as you do, and since I don't have a tan, high school dropout to whisk me away, studying will have to do."

I moaned loudly. "I wish Kai would whisk me away right now. I wish I could drop out and just get a job somewhere…" I put my head in between my fists and looked at Mary with puppy dog eyes. "If I ran away, you wouldn't crack and tell my dad where I am, right?" She snorted and brushed her hair out of her eyes again. "If you ran away, everyone would know where you were immediately." I let my head drop to the table as the bell rang for our last double class of the day.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Claire, I might call you tonight about the math homework. Love you," Mary said quickly as she grabbed her books and her milk carton and hustled away with the rest of the school. I remained in place until the sound of shuffling slowed down. I started to lift it up when I heard the sound of footsteps behind me. I didn't turn around, knowing it was going to be Karen or one of her friends, ready to torment me for something that had nothing to do with me.

"Hey, I don't know if you're new here, but lunch is over," Gray said. I looked at him and grinned. "Good one. Wanna just skip? We can walk back to town and by the time we get there, people will just be getting off the bus. Nobody will notice." Gray looked at me dubiously. "Except teachers. And everyone who goes here." I rolled my eyes and started walking towards the emergency exit. "Are you gonna come?"