Chapter 1

Layna

I'm awakened by the fire alarm. Again. One day, Sharon, my stepmom, will realize she can't cook. Until then, the fire alarm functions as my wake-up call to get ready for school.

I sit up quickly, pull my hair over my shoulder, and reach up to disconnect my feeding pump. The tube comes out easily enough, leaving no sign of my illness. Other than the handful of pills I swallow down with a sip of water as I'm brushing my teeth.

Sharon's serving my stepsiblings burnt toast and rubbery scrambled eggs. One pro for the feeding tube is that I don't have to eat Sharon's cooking.

"Good morning, Layna. Is Madison picking you up?" Sharon steps away from the stove, and smiles at me a little awkwardly. She's still not used to living here; Dad only married her this summer. She's really awkward around my illness, but is awesome about almost everything else. Except for cooking.

"Yeah. She'll be here in five." I quickly grab my bag and lunch box and start the hunt for my shoes. I'm just shoving my feet into them when Madison beeps the horn from outside. I have to hop on one foot while I struggle to get the other shoe on.

Madison laughs when she sees me. I flip her off as I fall inside her car.

"Charming, Laynee." She passes me a bottle of water.

Madison's the only person who can call me Laynee. According to her mom, my Aunt Jen, it came from when we were little and she misheard my name. In her defense, she was friends with a Lainey in her preschool class, so I guess it makes sense. That Lainey has since moved to Seattle.

Madison drives like a maniac. She honks at people, makes turns way too fast, slams on her brakes, and speeds up to try to beat a red light. It's always wierded me out how comfortable I am with her behind the wheel. Also surprisingly, she hasn't gotten into an accident yet.

"Did you hear the news about La Push High?" She knows I haven't; I'd been visiting my mom for spring break.

"No. What happened?"

"Apparently, their fire sprinklers malfunctioned and flooded the place. They get to finish out the year with us." Madison grins at me. "Maybe Bryce will be in my classes."

"You really have to get over him. I don't think just switching schools is enough to make a senior notice a sophomore."

"A cute sophomore." Madison is a year younger than me, and still believes in love. I guess not seeing your parents' marriage end in a fiery divorce will do that to you.

The halls are jam packed with kids. I try to avoid running into people, but it's damn near impossible. I finally get to my locker and let out a sigh of relief. I'm not good with crowds. I get claustrophobic, and I sometimes panic a little.

I'm getting ready to walk to my social studies class when something slams into me from behind. I throw my hand out to stop myself from running face first into the locker.

"Oh, God. I'm sorry. Are you okay?" The guy who slams into me quickly reaches out to steady me. His skin is scorching, and I find myself turning to face him.

He is tall. At least 6 foot 5. He's also crazy muscular. And he has large hands.

"Yeah. I'm good." I adjust my glasses and take in more details of the guy. He has dark hair and brown eyes so dark they are almost black.

Once I meet his eyes, I can't look away. He draws me in. He smiles softly at me.

"I'm Embry."

"Layna." I find myself smiling back.

"Layna." He draws out my name like it's the most interesting thing he's heard in his life.

The bell rings and breaks the moment. I give him a smile and wave before hurrying off to social studies. I wonder who that guy was and if I'll ever see him again. He looked at me like I was something special. I wonder why.

My stepsiblings are fighting again. Lily, 8, took her 10-year-old brother Ryan's favorite comic. Those two will fight over anything. Even after Sharon makes peace, I secretly wonder if there will be any punches being thrown.

Madison FaceTimes me as I'm putting in my feeding tube. I have to insert it through my nose and down into my stomach, so I make sure I'm done with that before calling her back.

"Hey, Madi. What's up?"

"I told you Bryce would notice me!" Madison cheers, throwing her fist into the air. Her eyes catch on my tube before quickly looking away. I love Madison, but she always gets awkward around my feeding tube. Medication and hospitals she's cool with. The feeding tube freaks her out. The one time I changed it in front of her, I thought she was going to faint.

"What happened?" I grab a bag of formula to hook up to my feeding pump.

"He was my partner in Bio. We did that stupid lab Banner's always making us do? You know, the one about mitosis? Well he got confused on some of the instructions, and we had to go over it. He looked into my eyes and bam! He called me pretty!"

"You are pretty, Madi. I'm glad he noticed."

"Thanks. You wanna swing by Starbucks tomorrow? I'm sure we can find something you can eat."

"Yeah. Sure." I doubt we'll find something that won't make me sick. I can really only eat unprocessed food, and Starbucks is very heavily processed. But I can at least drink water from a Starbucks cup.

"Cool. See you tomorrow!" Madison sings before hanging up. I shake my head and slide my pump into the backpack I use to carry it around in the evenings. Dad and Sharon are going out and I have to watch the two terrors. I hope they don't end up killing each other.

A/n: Hi, guys. So I'm doing a new thing with my stories. I have posted the first chapters of two others, "From the Heart" and "Written in the Stars." The story that gets the most reviews by April 1 will be updated every Monday. The story with the second most will be updated every other Wednesday. The story with the least reviews will be updated monthly. So make sure to review if you like any of the stories. Thanks!

Lauren.