Free Miracles in Disguise (The Trampled Rose Series) by Michelle Lynn Brown

debate team, one of my best sopranos, and if I haven’t fallen lax in my eavesdropping skills, she's roped you into something too.”
    “She wants to start something of a literary club,” Kristina responded.
    “Really, like a book club?” Nathan asked, “My mom would like to get in on something like that.”
    “Well, sort of. It would be a book club that studies literature, not popular fiction.” she said as thoughts were spiraling through her mind. Turning fully toward him, she asked, “Is there not a book club at the library?”
    “No…but you could start one,” he added with a smile. “There are quite a few people around here I can think of who would really enjoy that.”
    “Really?”
    “Sure, I’d like to go.”
    “That would really be great,” she said, but then added somewhat soberly, “But I need to talk to Barbara first, it was her idea for the students. She might want to restrict it to students only.”
    “Well, you could always have one for adults and one for students.”
    “I might be able to talk Barbara into leading the group sometime down the line. She has such a profound insight when she studies a piece of literature, it’s amazing. She can even catch some of the subtle symbolism woven into the text. She has such a love for literature, she reminds me of myself at her age. I used to plague my English teachers with questions. When my friends were begging their parents to go to parties and concerts, I was begging my mom to allow me to go to book signings and poetry readings.”
    He pulled into her driveway, and she gathered her things. “Thank you for the ride, and thank you for rescuing Barbara from Bobby."
    “From the sound of things, it seemed like he was harassing you, too. Be careful around him,” Nathan warned, concern flooding his voice so much that she turned her full attention to him. “Bobby may seem like a harmless class clown, or a bully,” he continued, “but deep down, he has a heart of malice. He thinks very highly of himself, and his father owns a lot of property around town. The Swanson's are one of our wealthiest families. Bobby’s father has used his power to bail his son out of many scrapes, which makes Bobby feel like he is invincible. Bobby’s not one to get tangled alone with somewhere, especially if you are his enemy.”
    A shiver ran down her spine as she thought of the boy’s cold eyes piercing Barbara, “I’m worried about Barbara. She said that this wasn’t a onetime occurrence for her, that he is always cornering her.”
    “Bobby has been a thorn in her side since she became a cheerleader and refused to . . . ahh . . . support the quarterback,” he said, his face suffused with anger as he put the car in park and turned to Kristina. Nathan’s blue eyes turned stormy, “The only thing that holds him back is the coach, who threatened to kick him off the team if anything else happened.”
    “What do you mean anything else? Has he done something to her before?” Panic edged Kristina’s voice.
    “There was an incident last year involving a freshman girl who claimed he attacked her. We all thought he was going to be arrested, but then she dropped the charges and her family just up and moved.” He shrugged, and then said, "That’s when the coach threatened to kick him off the team if there was the slightest hint of trouble.”
    “And the police didn’t do anything?”
    “What could they do?” he answered. “Their hands were tied when she dropped the charges. This just fueled Bobby’s ego, and made him feel like he was invincible.”
    “Can’t we do anything about him?” Kristina asked, the worry etched into her features.
    “My father and I have talked with both him and his parents, but that is like talking to a brick wall. Sometimes I don’t think he’ll ever stop until he actually gets caught doing something, and then gets punished.”
    “You aren’t suggesting we just wait for something bad to happen! Barbara is so full of life, love,