Page 1 of Opposites (Never) Attract
PROLOGUE
SUNSHINE
Last Hope Gulch School
Fifteen Years Ago
“Doesanyone think they can solve the proof on the board?” Mrs. Diaz, our geometry teacher, asked the class. Mrs. Diaz was the Last Hope Gulch math teacher. She taught everything from seventh grade remedial algebra to private advanced calculus. (I’d been her only student for that class, she liked to say we taught each other.)
Did I mention that Last Hope Gulch was a tiny town in nowhere Wyoming? We’re barely on a map.
To answer Mrs. Diaz, I raised my hand faster than anyone else in the classroom. The theorem was crystal clear in my mind. Everything else in my life could be blurry, but math was always razor sharp.
“Oh look, Smarty Sunshine knows the answer.” The comment came from Cheryl, who was three years older andopenly sneering at me from her seat beside mine. “Don’t you get bored always sucking up to teachers?” she hissed.
Mike Palmer, Cheryl’s neanderthal boyfriend, made kissy noises in my direction, which was hilarious to Cheryl and two other seniors in the class. So immature for someone his age. Seriously, these guys were graduating this year, they could show a little dignity.
I don’t know why I did this to myself every time a teacher asked a question. Raised my hand, shouted out the answer, volunteered to go to the board. I should just sit still and keep my mouth shut. Mrs. Diaz knew I knew the answer, but that drive to prove what I could do was impossible to control. Which inevitably led to other people, who didn’t know the answers, feeling the need to put me in my place.
I wanted to say something snarky to Cheryl and Mike.
Grow up.
You only wish you could do half of what I can do.
But I never had that kind of courage when it came to dealing with the seniors in my class. Which was most of my classes, actually. Because, while I was only fifteen, and technically considered a sophomore, all my classwork was advanced level stuff.
As advanced as the Gulch and Mrs. Diaz could provide, anyway.
That was how I’d won the argument with my mom to let me apply for college early. I’d gone through every available class the high school had to offer. The only thing that made sense next was college.
Away from here.
Finally.
I lowered my hand and kept my eyes on the board, ignoring Cheryl and Mike the way I’d been ignoring themmy whole life. But I knew from past experience, if they did not let up soon, the whole class would start staring at me.
“I think she needs a new nickname,” Mike said.
“Brace face?” Cheryl supplied. “Scarecrow?”
Mike laughed. “Yeah, Scarecrow. Want to earn some extra money and stand in my dad’s sugar beet field and scare away the birds?”
It doesn’t hurt. I don’t care what anyone from this town thinks of me. Well, maybe I care about one person’s opinion.
Tag Dunham (who I always sat behind in any class we had together so he would never catch me staring at him) turned around with a stormy expression on his face.
Oh, no. Not you too, Tag.
I tried to brace myself for him to join in, but I knew if he started teasing me it would hurt so much worse.
Tag was alwaysniceto me. Despite the fact he was best friends with my family’s mortal enemies…the McGraws.
Fun fact about Last Hope Gulch, we had feuding families. The Calloways and McGraws had been enemies for over a hundred years. It all started when the Widow Calloway refused to sell her land to Duncan McGraw, who was establishing the largest cattle ranch in the territory. After years of fighting over it, he pushed her off Widow’s Peak (back then it was just a normal edge of a butte) so he could just steal her land. However, in an incredible twist of fate, she survived the plummet, climbed back up the butte, and pushed him off instead.
Unfortunately, she was found guilty of that crime and was hanged in the center of town.
To this day, we had a gallows statue in front of our town for all to commemorate it.
