Free Chance Of Rain by Laurel Veil Page B

with perky noses was officially history.
    Before I gave her a tour of my car, I introduced her to Trent.
    “Mom, this is Trent…my friend from school,” I clarified awkwardly. As they shook hands, I considered not introducing him to Chase; after all it should have been my father standing there and not him.
    I took a deep breath. “And this is Chase, my mom’s…
friend
.”
    As they talked about the car, I thought about how glad I was to have the whole introduction thing behind me now. I’d been dreading it for a while.
    Chase and my mom finally went back inside, and I drove Trent around like we’d talked about.
    We stopped by Bri’s so I could show her the car. We didn’t stay long, though, because Cole was there.
    Before we left, I yelled out the window, “Bri, tomorrow
I’ll
pick you up for school!”
    She gave me a thumbs-up, and Trent and I headed back to my house.
    As soon as we turned into the drive, Trent said, “I need to get going.”
    All my joy evaporated at the sound of those five little words. I didn’t want him to go, but it was getting late.
    I looked at him. “Thanks again. For everything.” He held my gaze, and I couldn’t look away. Then he leaned in slightly. I could barely breathe. I just knew he was going to kiss me. Was there any way he couldn’t be feeling what I was feeling?
    Honk! Honk! Honk! Honk! Honk!
    I jumped. The alarm on Chase’s truck was going off. He was trying to get in so he could leave.
Nice timing
!
    He waved as if to say, “Oops. Sorry.” But I couldn’t help think he’d done it on purpose.
    “I’ll see you tomorrow,” Trent blurted, and then he jumped out of my car and into his without looking back.

XI
    65 %
    T hursday was uneventful. I was thrilled when Friday finally rolled around. Bri was on the way to my car before I could even finish honking. I’d offered to drive again; I owed her.
    As she got in, I told her, “Hey, I just realized it’s Friday, and we’re not going to get to ride with the top down on the way home from school.”
    “I hadn’t thought of that,” Bri said. “Isn’t that sacrilegious or something? It’s been our tradition for so long. From now on I drive on Fridays.”
    I pulled into the parking lot a few minutes later. “It’s so beautiful today,” I said, stepping out of the car and heading toward school. I told Bri I wished we didn’t have to work that night.
    “
We
don’t.”
    “What?” I asked her, hoping I’d read the schedule wrong and we were off.
    “You do. I don’t, though. Mack said things are going to be a little different now that you have a ride of your own.”
    Angel walked up beside me. Evidently he had been behind us, listening. “Cheer up, Ash. You get to work with me tonight.” He playfully slung his arm over my shoulders.

    Our beanbags were arranged in a circle today. I sat between Bri and Angel. Trent sat across from me on the other side of the circle. And of course Laceyseized the opportunity to sit next to him. Oh, well. Maybe she’d have better luck getting him to kiss her. My stomach knotted at the thought.
    Ms. Elliott had Jason hand out the beanbag lap desks, and we took a quiz. It took more than half the period to complete, but it was easy. I knew I got all the questions right. Ms. Elliot collected our quizzes, and Jason picked up our lap desks.
    Ms. Elliott sat at the head of the circle. “I had a few more things I wanted to cover concerning Poe, but you can do that on your own this weekend.
    “Next week we’ll begin Shakespeare. With the few minutes of remaining class time, let’s talk about forbidden love—the essential theme of
Romeo and Juliet
.” She cleared her throat, and then she continued, “In this day and age, we have the freedom to love whomever we wish.
But…
what
if
, for whatever reason, you were forbidden to be with the one you love?” She paused for effect. “For example there was a time when it was taboo to marry outside of one’s race.” She looked around