Page 5 of My Vows Are Sealed

“Hey. I totally forgot you were coming here this year,” she chuckled. “Lost?”

I nodded sheepishly, feeling heat rising to color my cheeks. “I came to orientation, but…”

“But they tell you absolutely nothing and throw you to the wolves. I remember. Where’s your homeroom?” she asked me.

“316.”

“Oh, Mrs. Bailey’s awesome. I had her for English in my freshman year.” She took her backpack off and pulled a notebook and a pen out. “Let me see your map and your schedule.”

I handed her both folded pieces of paper, and she put my map on her notebook and started marking all over it, glancing at my schedule every few seconds. A couple of minutes later, she handed both back to me.

“Here. I marked where we’re at now and where all your classes are,” she explained. “Come with me. I’ll walk you to your homeroom. It’s the next hall over.”

I breathed a huge sigh of relief. “Thank you so much.”

“Hey, I was a freshman once. I remember my first day. I wish I’d had someone to show me around. You know, Brendan’s going to be so jealous that I caught you before he did this morning,” she chuckled, shooting me a wink as we started to walk.

I was sure I turned the color of a tomato. Yeah…the crush on Brendan Carter that I’d been nursing since fifth grade wasn’t exactly a secret. Okay, so maybe it had grown into a little more than a crush, but it was pointless to even think about that, because he still saw me as a kid.

Don’t get me wrong, I tried to keep it a secret, but my stupid fair skin had to go betray me every time he smiled at me or talked to me. But seriously, what girl with a pulsewouldn’thave a crush on him? He was cute, nice to literally everyone, and absolutely adorable with his little brother, Nathan. What was it about cute guys being good big brothers that made girls melt into a puddle of goo? Or was that just me?

“Yeah, I doubt that,” I muttered.

“Why?” Heather asked.

“Um, because he’s a junior,” I reminded her. I might not have known much about how things worked at public schools, but one thing Ididknow was that upperclassmen didn’t hang out with freshmen.

“So? He likes you,” she said.

“He likes everyone,” I countered. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen himnotget along with anyone.”

She smiled. “Well, you’re not going to see any different here. I swear, the guy has more friends than anyone else on this campus. Doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a soft spot for you, though.”

A loud bell rang, announcing that we needed to start making our way to our homeroom classes, which made me even more grateful that Heather was showing me where I was supposed to go.

“Well, you’re right here,” she said, stopping outside a door. “I’ll tell him you said hi. I’m in homeroom with him.”

“No, don’t—” I started to say, but she just shot me another smile and walked away.

I groaned as I walked into the classroom. Oh, my gosh, this was a disaster. He was going to think…I didn’t even know what he was going to think, but it certainly wasn’t anything good.

“Hey, it’s the preacher’s kid,” I heard someone say.

I looked over and saw a kid named Ethan Smith from my youth group staring at me and snickering. We’d never gotten along at church, but he’d never been mean. Then again, it was church. He knew anything he said or did would get back to his parents there.

“No way, dude. She’s too hot to be a preacher’s kid,” one of his friends, who I didn’t know, sneered.

“Yeah, she is,” he insisted. “I go to her dad’s church. Hey, Darla! Bring yourBiblewith you?”

“No,” I mumbled.

“Of course you didn’t, because you spend all your time memorizing it instead,” he scoffed. “Surprised Daddy let you out. The big, bad world might corrupt you.”

“I’ll corrupt her,” his friend said. “Fifty bucks says I can nail her before the end of the year.”

“Not if I nail her first,” he laughed.

“Oh, it’s on.”

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