Page 5 of Falling Too Late

“No,” I said quickly. “I’ll just leave school with you. You don’t have to pick me up.”??

“Cool,”?Jon said, shoving Chance and giving him a look.

We headed into the building’s commons area. I glanced at the lost and found bins, one blue and one pink for girls and guys, that sat next to the trophy case, which displayed years of awards the sports teams had won.??

The girl was there, shoving her things into a backpack.

I smiled to myself, glad she’d found one. Nothing worse than displayingI am poorto the rest of the school by using a plastic bag.??

From where I was standing, it looked like a few new things had showed up that I would have to look at when I could.??

School ended but I didn’t leave. I paced around the building, buying time till I started to head home. I was waiting Ma out. She had to leave no later than four to make it to work on time for her shift. If I left now, she would probably catch me and lay into me for this morning.??

It wasn’t one of my finer moments; I knew better than to do that to her. My dad would have had my ass, but he was dead and there was no point in yelling.

What did she think getting good grades were going to do? It wasn’t going to open any doors for me. As soon as I hit eighteen, I was going to get a job so I could start paying some of the bills. Ma hadn’t had a day off in years. She was overworked and still, we barely made ends meet.

I had tried getting a job before, but no one wanted to hire a kid, so I was waiting it out.??

I looked through the lost and found bins, finding a hoodie that looked like it would fit okay.

I made my way out of the school when the janitor came out, picking up trash from the hallways. I crossed the yard and decided to head home the back way again. There was no way my mom could miss work, so I wasn’t worried about her staying home.

I kept walking and saw, up ahead, a familiar figure standing by the canal. I shoved my hands in my pockets as I approached her.

“Hey.” I stopped in front of her. She was holding the biology book to her chest. “Nice backpack.” I nodded to it. It was a dark blue one with black Sharpie stains on it. I had seen it in there for a while.

“Thanks.” A small smile formed at the corner of her mouth. “Here.” She tried handing me the book.??

“No, seriously, keep it.”??

“You need it to get today’s homework done.”

I shrugged my shoulders. “I’m not doing the homework.” Her brow furrowed, but she opened the book up and pulled some papers out of it, handing it to me. I took it. “What’s this?”

“The homework,” she stated. I looked down at it and it had her handwriting on it. The top of it where we were supposed to write our name on it was blank. “I’ll keep the book, but I’ll give you the answers.”

“I’m not trying to cheat off of you.” I tried handing it back to her.?

“I know, but I’m already doing the homework. It doesn’t bother me to write the answers down twice.” She shucked her backpack off and put the book insideit.?

“I’m Alex,”I said finally.

“Wren.”?

She put her backpack on, and we stood there for a minute. She dipped her head, scuffing her worn shoes in the dirt, like she was waiting for permission to leave. The canal rushed under the road, drowning out all the other sounds around us.

“Well, I better start heading home,” I said, starting to walk along the sidewalk, turning to look backwards as she still stood there.

She peeked up at me through her lashes as I walked away from her, then turned to take the path along the canal bank.

CHAPTER 4

WREN, 16 YEARS OLD

I tossedmy new-to-me backpack over the fence and squeezed myself through the gap where the fence went from wood slats to chain link. Dusting it off, I put it on, following the path I made for myself to get to and from school.

Living in Poverty Flats meant having weirdos on every corner. Not everyone was like that, but I had found out I could slip through the fence and walk along the canal to avoid most people. There was never anyone back there. The city combed through this part consistently enough to keep the homeless from setting up camp here. We were already an embarrassment to the town of Ashwood. It didn’t bother me much; I got to walk the canal and be left alone. No one whistled or hollered at me.

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