Free Ultimatum (Dirty Secrets #1) by Mercy Amare Page A

day of school?” Jace asks, looking at my legs.
    My dress is short. Way shorter than the school handbook allows. “I won’t get in trouble,” I tell him confidently. It’s the truth. My teachers all love me, and even if I were sent to the principal’s office, I would sweet talk him into letting me wear whatever I want. Mr. Holbrook is in his late forties, and he’s going through some kind of midlife crisis. He lets the pretty girls get away with almost anything.
    “Of course you won’t,” Jace says. I can hear the irritation in his voice.
    “What’s wrong? Is this dress making you hot for me?” I joke. I drop my bag onto the floor and bend over slowly to pick it up.
    “So hot,” he says once I stand back up. He looks at his phone. “We have about ten minutes before we leave… just enough time for a quickie.”
    I roll my eyes like I’m annoyed, but my heart skips a beat. I might have a tiny little crush on Jace. Okay, okay… I definitely do have a crush. And it’s actually not tiny. I’ve kind of been in love with him since I was four years old. He had just moved in next door, and I was in my tree-climbing phase. I climbed up higher than I meant to, and I got scared. Jace saw me up in the tree and I asked him to go get my dad. He refused, so after about an hour of arguing with Jace, I finally climbed down. It’s because of him that I’m fearless. He pushes me to go to the extreme and do stuff I wouldn’t normally do.
    “You so wish,” I say and then walk past him toward the door. “See you around.”
    “Later.”
    As I’m about to shut the door, I look back and see that Jace is watching me. He smiles, and for a moment I think maybe he’s in love with me too. But I’ll never know, because I will so never admit it to him.
    We pretend to hate each other.
    We flirt.
    We joke about sex.
    But that’s it. It’s all a joke. And I don’t want to be the one to admit I’m not joking. He has to admit it first, and unfortunately, Jace is the only person who is as stubborn as I am.

    English
    You know you want me.

    I love my car.
    I drive an orange Camaro that has white racing strips. It’s a convertible, and it’s a 6-speed. I like driving a stick shift because most of the people I know have no clue how to drive it. I like to be different in every way that I can.
    When my dad died, he left enough money for all three of his kids to get a car and to pay for college. Trey and I got to go to the lot on our sixteenth birthday and get a brand new car. It was awesome, but I would gladly give it up to have my dad back. I’d much rather have him than this car.
    Hailee is my youngest sister. She’s thirteen now, but she was only three when our dad died. I’m sad that she didn’t have the chance to get to know him better. She hardly even remembers him, which makes me sad. I’m thankful for the memories that I had with him.
    When I get to school, Lexie Sharp is waiting for me.
    Lexie is a really good friend. She’s in drama club with me, and we perform well together… or so our drama teacher says. He always casts me as the lead and her as my sidekick. I kind of feel bad for her, always coming in second, but she doesn’t mind. I definitely would. I have had the female lead in every school play since I was a freshman. I love the spotlight.
    Lexie is beautiful in her own subtle way. She has natural cherry brown hair and big brown eyes. I know she has a nice body, because I’ve seen her in a bikini, but she hides it under baggy t-shirts and skirts that are one size too big for her. It’s like she enjoys sliding under the radar instead of standing out. Today, she’s wearing a jean skirt that hangs awkwardly to the bottom of her calves and is somehow four inches higher in the back. She’s also wearing a shirt that says “Virgin — you ain’t getting any”. She has on a pair of fake pink frame glasses, which is weird considering she has to wear contacts to see five feet in front of her face. Why not just