In Your Dreams - By Amy Martin Page 0,3

to the back collars of my long sleeved shirt and the short sleeved one that I’m wearing over it. Good—my usually wayward hair is as tame as it’s going to get and my tags aren’t sticking up. I smile at myself for being so stupid. New Guy probably isn’t paying any attention to me. If anything, he’s reading, trying to get caught up. Part of me wants to turn around, while part of me is afraid that if I do, he’ll catch me looking to make sure he isn’t looking at me and he’ll think I’m totally lame.

“Okay, everyone—pair up,” Mrs. Harvey commands.

I hate this part, and today, with two new people to throw off the dynamic, pairing up is more of a pain than usual. Janie Masters, who’s sitting next to me, turns her desk away to work with Corey Souther on her other side before I can ask to be her partner. I lean forward to tap Rick Matthews on the back, but before I can, a hand on my shoulder prompts me to turn around. New Guy’s smiling at me, and when I glance over at Rick, he’s already scooted his desk closer to Debbie Solomon and is lost to me as a partner, at least for today.

“I’ve read the book a million times. It’s one of my favorites,” New Guy tells me when I turn my desk around, as if he feels the need to convince me that he’ll be a worthy discussion partner. I crane my neck to find he’s written a paragraph in his notebook, the margins decorated with several little sunburst doodles, beams snaking from the round suns like Medusa’s hair.

“Yeah. I love it, too. I read it for the first time when I was, like, eleven, I think.”

“Don’t most schools read To Kill a Mockingbird around eighth or ninth grade or something?” New Guy asks, keeping his voice low as if he’s afraid he’ll be insulting Mrs. Harvey, the school district, and the entire town of Titusville if anyone else hears him.

“Well, that’s Titusville for you. We’re always at least two years behind on everything, Advanced Junior English included. In fact, our town motto is ‘Titusville—just a little less advanced than everywhere else’.” I intend to crack a smile so he knows I’m sort of kidding, but he’s already laughing before I can, revealing a set of teeth even whiter than his pale skin.

“Good to know. And your name is…?”

“Zip McKee.”

His brow wrinkles, forcing his nose to scrunch up towards his eyes. “Zip? Your name is Zip?”

Okay—this is different. With so few newbies around here, I don’t remember having to explain my nickname to anyone before.

“It’s…it’s not my real name,” I stammer.

“I figured. Either that, or your parents are really interesting people.”

“My parents are pretty interesting, actually,” I say, recovering from my embarrassment. “But ‘Zip’ is what everyone’s always called me.”

“Because of your great love of zippers, of course.”

Now it’s my turn to laugh. “No. Because I’m fast.”

“So you’re a runner?” He leans forward to rest his elbows on my desk.

“Sort of. I play basketball, so I run a lot. I’m not on the track team, though—not that they haven’t tried to talk me into it. But I’ve always been a ‘one sport only’ kind of girl.”

“Kayla’s a runner,” he says, nodding toward the front of the room where his sister has paired up with Cathy Davie. Their desks are angled sideways just enough so Kayla can keep an eye on her brother. She sends me a forced smile and leans back in her desk to glance at Kieran, her face relaxing a bit once she’s caught sight of him.

“Sprint or long distance?” I ask when I turn to him again.

“Distance.”

“Cool,” I say. “The track team starts working out in late February if she’s interested.”

“I’ll let her know.” He flashes a crooked grin, the left side of his mouth slightly higher than the right, and shifts the conversation away from his sister. “So, Zip McKee, what aspect of the reading did you find particularly interesting?”

“Should I just read what I wrote or—”

“Yeah,” he says, eyeing my notebook scrawl. “Entertain me.”

“Okay.” I take a deep breath and begin revealing my not-quite masterpiece. “The aspect of last night’s reading that I found most interesting was how Maycomb’s educational system fails its students, but in different ways. Miss Caroline shows her inability to understand her students through her dealings with Walter Cunningham and Burris Ewell, but her behavior toward Scout also displays…”

Knowing that when you