Chapter One
Artemis
“Are you seriously staring at the new guy? Again?”
I look away from his beautiful shiny black hair, to my best friend Jenna. “Me and the rest of the female population at school.”
She follows my gaze to the table at the left side of the cafeteria. Ryan Rogers, the prettiest guy I have ever laid eyes upon. He transferred to River Spring High two weeks ago, and has been a mystery ever since. I’ve been—obsessively—watching him since day one and haven’t seen him utter more than a few words to anyone. He’s always sitting alone, drawing in his sketchpad or on his phone.
Jenna plops down next to me with her lunch tray, tossing her strawberry blonde hair over her shoulder. “You’re hopeless.”
I bang my head on the table. “I know,” I groan. Is it too much to want a boyfriend? I’m sixteen and have never been kissed. Not even for fun, like all the other kids in elementary school. Nope. Guys stay away from me like the plague.
It’s not that I’m disgusting or anything. I just…well, I guess you can say all the guys in my tiny town of River Spring, Georgia are scared of my dad, who happens to be the mayor. Once when I was thirteen, a guy looked at me a certain way and Dad chased him off like he was some criminal. So yeah, guys hesitate to ask me out. Thanks a lot, Dad.
But Ryan Rogers just moved here. He doesn’t know me or my dad. Maybe that’s why I’m so obsessed with getting him to notice me.
I stand. “I’m going to talk to him.”
Jenna rolls her brown eyes. “Would that be the third time this week?”
I drop back down. “I didn’t reallytalkto him. It was just ‘Hey, you dropped your pencil’ or ‘Are we having a test today?’”
She rolls her eyes again. “And he totally ignored you.”
I bang my head again. “I know. Maybe he’s so cold and distant because he has agirlfriend.”
“Who has a girlfriend?” a voice asks.
Lifting my head, I find my older brother Jason sliding in next to Jenna and kissing her. Ugh. Those two have been together for nearly three years and they’re super crazy in love. Is it too much to want the same?
Why is it that Dad drives guys away, but Jason has never had that problem? So unfair.
“Artemis is staring at the new guy,” Jenna tells him.
“Again?”
I scowl at both of them.
My brother and best friend giggle before bending closer, pretty much eating each other’s faces up.
“Get a room,” I mutter. Not that they can hear me. When they’re like this, even a speeding train can’t break them apart.
But wait, one thing can.
“VP Miller’s coming this way,” I lie.
They repel from one another like they’ve got opposite charges. Jenna’s eyes flit across the room and as soon as she realizes I’m kidding, she flares her nostrils. “Not cool, Art.”
“Oh, but it’s cool to make out right in front of me when I’m so desperate for a boyfriend? And not just any boyfriend. Him.” I let my gaze wander to the table on the left, where the star of my dreams is scribbling in his sketchpad. What’s he drawing? What wonders go on in that beautiful head of his?
Jason follows my gaze, frowning. “You really like him, don’t you?”
“Yeah.”
His frown deepens. “But you don’t know him.”
“It’s called a crush, babe, and she’s got a huge one. The size of Jupiter.”
