Second Sight by Maria Rachel Hooley Page A

there are the other two. The guy, all
six-foot-four of him, towers over both girls. His dark brown hair
hangs in his eyes, and he’s dressed in a yellow t-shirt and denim
shorts. He wears a braided necklace with shells on it, and as he
enters, he sees me and smiles. The other girl has long hair colored
of caramel with blond streaks running through. Her skin is also
fair, and I think she’s probably the most beautiful girl I’ve ever
seen. She, too, looks at me and smiles.
    “ You were at the center,
weren’t you?” Sarah asks, taking a seat in the row next to mine.
She sets down her notebook and looks at me. “Hope you enjoyed it
more than I did.”
    “ Not really.”
    “ So why go, then?” she
asks, watching as the guy sits next to me, and the beautiful girl
behind him.
    “ My guardian seems to think
it’s good for me.”
    All three of them exchange glances. “I’ve
been going for six months,” Sarah says. “Hasn’t done a bit of good.
By the way, I’m Sarah Warren. This is Jayvee Reynard.” She points
to the other girl, who nods at me. “And this is Kane Bristow.”
    Kane also nods. “Nice to see a new face. So
where are you from?” He ignores the fact that more students pour
into the room and take their seats.
    “ Hauser’s Landing.
Massachusetts.”
    The tardy bell rings, cutting off any further
conversation as my teacher, Ms. Monroe, begins going over her
“expectations” for this class in a low, monotone voice. Considering
how my first day at a new school went last year, I’m so not falling
asleep this time.
    Although I’m not any more thrilled with Brit
Lit than anyone else, I manage to focus on what the teacher tells
me, despite feeling Kane watching me intently. His dark eyes seem
more attuned to me than getting through this class, and finally,
when Monroe turns to the board and scribbles a quote by Eleanor
Roosevelt, I look at him. He’s so tall he has to stretch his long
legs in the aisle. Of course, this makes him look like he’s
constantly slouching.
    “ What are you staring
at?”
    “ You.” He grins. “I figured
you knew that by now.”
    Blushing, I peer back at the board, suddenly
feeling emotionally groundless. I start to jot the quote in my
notebook, but my fingers twitch, and I end up scratching it out. In
short, Kane is everything Lev wasn’t, which should make being
around him easier, but it doesn’t. It doesn’t matter that he has
dark hair and reminds me of a typical teenage guy instead of an
angel. He’s not Lev. That’s the trouble.
    My shoulders stiffen, and I make another
mistake while trying to copy the quote. I scribble the quote again
and try it a third time, which works, but I know if he keeps
watching me, I’m probably going to rub holes in this paper with all
the mistakes.
    “ Shouldn’t you be watching
her instead?” I nod to Ms. Monroe. Granted, she’s old enough to be
our mother, but then again, she’s giving us the grade for senior
English, not me.
    “ I will. When I need to.
Right now, she isn’t telling me anything I don’t already know.” His
voice sounds amused, which matches the devious grin making me
wonder what he’s up to. A strand of his hair slips into his eyes,
and he brushes it back.
    “ So what were you at the
center for?”
    It’s an innocent enough question, but that
doesn’t mean I don’t react. My back stiffens, and my stomach sucks
in as though it’s been punched. He hears the sharp intake of breath
and frowns.
    “ Nothing. I don’t really
want to talk about, okay?” I flip to the next page in my notebook
and keep writing. It’s better than facing him—or anyone—right now.
“Aren’t you taking notes?” It’s all I can think of to distract
him.
    “ Guess I could.” He opens
his binder and begins copying the lines from the board, but even
so, he still gazes at me from time to time, his pencil stalling in
its slow scrawl.
    We pass most of the hour taking notes, which
keeps Kane from asking any other difficult