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“I guess I’ll see you after school then, Miss Hunter,” he said. He reached out to take his pen, but he was staring at my face instead of my hand, and his fingers brushed against mine again.

Maybe by mistake.

But I was pretty sure it was on purpose.

“You’re going to be late for your next class,” he said.

Right. And the last thing I wanted was detention when I had a date with Mr. Halifax. “I’ll see you later.” I somehow managed to walk away from him. I didn’t turn around. I really hoped he was staring at my butt as I left.

***

I thought the day had gone by agonizingly slowly in calculus. But time was going by even slower now. I was in my last class of the day. And Uncle James was droning on and on about...who knew. I wasn’t paying attention. I was staring at the clock.

“Are you even listening to the assignment that’s due next week?” Jacob whispered in my ear.

I turned around to look at him. “That’s why I have you.”

He chuckled and leaned back in his seat. We both knew I had no interest in coding. I was lucky he was my partner or I would have been so screwed.

The bell finally rang.

Scarlett squealed and turned toward me. “It’s time.”

“I know.” I stood up.

“Time for what?” her dad asked as he walked over to us.

“Time for me to go to Axel’s?” She smiled sweetly up at her dad.

“Will you be home for dinner?” he asked.

Scarlett turned to Axel.

“She can eat at my place,” Axel said. “I’ll have her home by curfew.”

My dad nodded and turned back to Scarlett. “See you later, pumpkin.”

“Later, Uncle James,” I said and grabbed my books.

He gave me a weird look.

“What?” I asked.

“I was talking to Scarlett,” Uncle James said. “But I guess I probably will be seeing you at some point this weekend.”

I laughed, as my mind registered what he’d just said. I’d weirdly answered when he called Scarlett pumpkin. But I was very distracted. “Great. See you then.” I slapped his arm and hurried out of the room.

I didn’t wait up for my friends. I didn’t want to give them any time to try to talk me out of this. I walked right into Mr. Halifax’s classroom without even stopping at my locker.

He was packing up his satchel when he saw me come in.

“I hope you haven’t forgotten about me, Mr. Halifax.”

“I haven’t, Miss Hunter.”

I tried to hide my smile as I closed the distance between us.

He shoved a stack of papers in his satchel and latched it closed. “But I only have a few minutes to spare.”