My first mistake, I realize almost immediately, was assuming that even with the designer exterior, this high school would be essentially like any other. Boy, was I ever wrong. The school is as high-end on the inside as it appears on the outside. Almost all of the classrooms have tall ceilings and floor-to-ceiling windows with mountain views. The cafeteria is a cross between the inside of a ski lodge and an art museum. There are paintings, murals, and collages in practically every nook and cranny of the place. It even smells better than regular schools: pine and chalk and a fragrant mix of expensive perfumes. My old cinder-block school in California seems like a prison in comparison.
I’ve stumbled into the land of pretty people. And here I thought I’d come from the land of pretty people. You know how sometimes on TV they’ll show you a picture of a celebrity from high school, and that person looks perfectly normal, not really any more attractive than anyone else? And you think, what happened? Why is Jennifer Garner so hot now? I’ll tell you: money happened. Facials, fancy haircuts, designer clothes, and personal trainers happened. And the kids at Jackson Hole High had that celebrity polish, except for the few here and there who looked like genuine cowboys, complete with Stetsons, pearl buttons on their western-style plaid shirts, too-tight Wranglers, and scuffed cowboy boots.
Plus, the curriculum is fancy. Sure, you can take an art class, if you feel like learning to draw, but you can also take AP Studio Art, which prepares you to enter Jackson Hole’s lively art scene. There’s a class called Power Sports, which teaches you how to tune up your motorcycle, ATV, or snowmobile. You can learn how to start your own business, draft your dream house, develop your passion for French cuisine, or take your first steps toward becoming an engineer. Just in case you want to get your pilot’s license, the school offers a couple courses in aerodynamics. The world is your oyster at Jackson Hole High.
It’s definitely going to take some getting used to.
I thought the other students would be excited to see me, or curious at the very least. I’m fresh meat, after all, and from California, and maybe I have some big-city wisdom to offer the natives. Wrong again. For the most part, they completely ignore me. After I make it through three periods (trigonometry, French III, College Prep Chemistry) where nobody even bothers with a simple howdy, I’m ready to dash for my car and drive straight back to California, where I’ve known everybody for forever and they’ve known me, where right this minute my friends and I would be dishing about our holidays and comparing schedules, and I’d be pretty and popular. Where life is ordinary.
But then I see him.
He’s standing with his back to me near my locker. A surge of electricity zings through me as I recognize his shoulders, his hair, the shape of his head. In a flash I’m in the vision, seeing him both in the black fleece jacket among the trees and for real, just down the hall simultaneously, like the vision is a thin veil laid on top of reality.
I take a step toward him, my mouth opening to call his name. Then I remember that I don’t know it. Like always, it’s as if he hears me anyway and starts to turn, and my heart skips a beat when I don’t wake up but see his face now, his mouth curling up in a half smile as he jokes with the guy next to him.
He glances up and his eyes meet mine. The hallway melts away. It’s only him and me now, in the forest. The vision comes from behind him, the fire on the hillside roaring toward us, faster than it could ever possibly happen.
I have to save him, I think.
That’s when I faint.
I wake to a girl with long, golden brown hair sitting on the floor next to me, her hand on my forehead, talking in a low voice like she’s trying to calm an animal.
“What happened?” I look around for the boy, but he’s gone. Something hard pokes into my back, and I realize I’m lying on my chemistry book.
“You fell,” says the girl, as if that isn’t obvious. “Do you have epilepsy or something? It looked like you were having some kind of seizure.”
People are staring. I feel the heat rising in my cheeks.
“I’m okay,” I say, sitting up.
“Easy.” The girl jumps up and reaches down to help me. I take her hand and let her haul me to my feet.
“I’m kind of a klutz,” I say, like that explains it.
“She’s okay. Go to class,” the girl says to the kids who are still gawking. “Did you eat this morning?” she asks me.
“What?”
“Could be a blood sugar thing.” She puts her arm around me and steers me down the hallway. “What’s your name?”
“Clara.”
“Wendy,” she says in response.
“Where are we going?”
“The nurse.”
“No,” I object, breaking free of her arm. I straighten and attempt to smile. “I’m fine, really.”
The bell rings. Suddenly the hallway’s deserted. Then from around the corner bustles a plump, yellow-haired woman wearing blue nursing scrubs, walking fast. Behind her is the boy. My boy.
“There she goes again,” Wendy says as I wobble into her.
“Christian,” orders the nurse quickly as they rush toward me.
Christian. His name.
His arm comes under my knees, and he lifts me. My arm is around his shoulder, my fingers inches away from the spot where his neck meets his hair. His smell, a mixture of Ivory soap and some wonderful, spicy cologne, washes over me. I look up into his green eyes, so close that I can see flecks of gold in them.
“Hi,” he says.
Heaven help me, I think as he smiles. It’s just too much.
“Hi,” I murmur, looking away, flushing to the roots of my loose, very-orange hair.
“Hold on to me,” he says, and then he’s carrying me down the hall. Over his shoulder I see Wendy watching me, before she turns and walks the other way.
When we reach the nurse’s office he puts me down gently onto a cot. I do my best not to gape at him.
“Thank you,” I stammer.
“No problem.” He smiles again in a way that makes me glad I’m sitting down. “You’re pretty light.”
My jumbled brain tries to make sense of these three words and put them in order, with little success.
“Thank you,” I say again, lamely.
“Yes, thank you, Mr. Prescott,” says the nurse. “Now get to class.”
Christian Prescott. His name is Christian Prescott.
“See ya,” he says, and just like that, he’s walking away.