Free What's Meant To Be by Kels Barnholdt Page B

comfort me, but I wasn’t stupid, I knew he had. After I assured Alexa that I was neither blind nor that naïve, she moved onto the “Austin’s such a jerk, you don’t need a friend like that anyway” tactic.
    The thing is though, I did need a friend like that. I mean, me and Austin had gotten so close over the summer. Or so I’d thought. It was true that at first I’d figured he was just being nice to me because his mom and my mom were friends, but as the time passed, I started to let myself believe it was more than that.
    We would text each other even though we were only a few floors apart at the hotel. Our families would do things together almost every day; sometimes me, Austin, and his sister Miley would even stay up late in one of our rooms watching scary movies and ordering food.
    Then, it turned into a lot of just me and Austin. Me and Austin going to get ice cream. Me and Austin sneaking out after our parents went to sleep to sit in the hotel lobby and just talk. Me and Austin going to get lunch together when no one else was around.
    I told Austin things I didn’t tell anyone. Things it was hard for me to even talk about with Alexa. Like about my parents divorce or how I like to write short stories. And he told me things too, like how he only played soccer because he knew it made his dad happy, and how he wanted to be a journalist someday.
    Things you don’t tell someone just because you’re being nice for your mom’s sake.
    So what went wrong? What’s his deal? I’m so busy trying to figure out what Austin could possibly be thinking that it takes me a second to realize that everyone in the classroom is staring at me.
    “Young lady, you’re up,” our teacher says, his eyes locked on me. I can’t seem to remember exactly what his name is. Something that starts with the letter P?
    Nor do I have any idea what he is talking about. I’m just about to admit that I don’t really know what I’m up for when the door flies open and Karli stumbles into the the classroom, mumbling something under her breath.
    Relief washes over me as all eyes in the room turn away from me and onto her. Unlike me, Karli looks anything but upset about being the center of attention.
    “Mr. Preston!” Karli declares loudly.
    Ha! I knew his name started with a P!
    “Mr. Preston,” Karli says, this time a little bit less forcefully. “There was a mix up with my schedule, but not to worry. I went right to guidance and got it straightened out.”
    Mr. Preston seems to have a pained expression on his face when he answers. “A mix up. What type of mix up Miss Greenwood?”
    “Well, they tried to put me in Miss Gleeson’s class for Spanish II, but no way was I allowing that. I mean, Miss Gleeson? I can’t take her class, I had her for homeroom last year and she used to make me spit my gum out every morning before I was allowed in the room. She’d make me open my mouth even!” Karli delivers this statement as if a teacher asking her to spit out her gum is a violation of her human rights and not just a teacher enforcing school policy.
    “Well, technically, gum isn’t supposed to be chewed during school hours…” but Mr. Preston trails off as if he knows anything he could possibly say would go in one ear and out the other with Karli.
    “Well anyway,” Karli continues. “Once I explained to my counselor how I failed Spanish I in both 7th and 8th grade and I only passed last year ‘cause of you, well she moved me right into your class for Spanish II. So luckily it all worked out.” She waves her new schedule around as if to show Mr. Preston she isn’t lying.
    Mr. Preston gives a little bit of a sigh before he answers “Well .. this is great news. Why don’t you take a seat?”
    Karli smiles sweetly and stomps to the back of the room and takes a seat a few rows away from me. I guess Karli’s presence distracts Mr. Preston from whatever he wanted from me because suddenly he’s going over the course outline he passed out