As one, the class drew a breath and reached for the papers on the edge of their desk. Crinkling sounds filled the room, and then sighs and shouts of triumph and the sullen stuffing of papers in backpacks.
I stared at the red number at the top of my essay, immune to the scuttle of chairs and voices around me. Even the buzzing of Holly’s phone against my leg didn’t register.
Ten.
I’d gotten a ten. My first double-digit score.
After a few seconds, Holly said my name. “Mitch, what’d you get?”
I looked up as she tipped the paper so she could see it.
“Good job, Mitch!” she said, truly happy for me. She held her paper toward me.
Fourteen.
I found the disappointment in her face, though she was trying to hide it. She wanted to be the first to get a perfect score, and now she hadn’t been. Finding the person who had wasn’t hard. Halfway across the room, Stephanie Lawrence waved her paper, tears flowing down her face. Crying. I did not understand girls and grades.
“You’ll get it next week,” I said. “And every week after that.”
Holly smiled and slid her paper in her bag before extracting her new essay from her folder. “Want me to turn in yours?”
“Sure.” I handed it to her and checked her phone as she went to deliver our weekly essays to the A-1 tray.
Both messages were from Greg. The first read Mitch, if you have this phone, give it back to Holly, and the second said Mitch, give it back! I didn’t read the thread that came before those messages and exited back to her home screen.
When she returned to her seat I passed back her phone with a single word: “Greg.”
She took it, already punching in a message as Mr. Thompson started the lecture. When class ended, Holly left without saying goodbye, or looking at me, or giving my phone back.
I wish I could say I didn’t feel like I’d been abandoned.
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About Elana
A speculative fiction author and USA Today bestseller under the name Elana Johnson and an inspirational adult romance author under the pen name of Liz Isaacson, her work includes the young adult dystopian romance series Possession, published by Simon Pulse (Simon & Schuster), Elevated, the Elemental series, the Songs of Life fantasy series, the Redwood Bay romance series, and the #1 bestselling Three Rivers Ranch Romance series. She lives in Utah, where she teaches elementary school, taxis her daughter to dance several times a week, and eats a lot of Ferrero Rocher while writing.
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TO BE YOURS
by Elana Johnson
Copyright © 2018 by Elana Johnson
Published by AEJ Creative Works
All Rights Reserved
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. No part of this book can be reproduced in any form or by electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without the express written permission of the author. The only exception is by a reviewer who may quote short excerpts in a review. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in, or encourage, the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.
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Interior Design by AEJ Creative Works
Elana Johnson, To Be Yours_A YA Contemporary Romance Novel
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