Free Seeker (The Seeker Series Book 1) by Amy Reece Page B

And tonight there had definitely been some flirting going on. Okay, fine. There had also been some rather unattractive jealousy on my part. I admit that too. Happy? I sighed as I realized I had probably totally tipped my hand to Jack. He probably knew now that I was feeling very friendly indeed toward him. All right, calm down. Let’s take a moment to analyze the situation. On the plus side, he had not run screaming into the night. Instead, he had driven me to pick up a new cell phone—we had insurance, so it didn’t cost anything. My mom says that not buying the insurance for a teenager’s cell phone is insane. He had also made sure we now had each other’s numbers. On the minus side, he had totally backed off when he found out I was only 16. Now, so you understand, an 18 year old dating a 16 year old is not illegal in New Mexico. I googled it to be sure. But there was still the issue of his probation, about which I couldn’t find very much information online. I fell asleep still pondering this conundrum.
     
    ***
     
    The rest of the week was fairly uneventful. Jack and I continued to work together in physics, he ate lunch with Tara, Travis, and me, and we sat next to each other in English, but there had been very little progress made in the relationship department, if you know what I mean. By Friday, I was beginning to think I had imagined any flirting on his part. Tara was sympathetic yet practical, figuring he had backed off because of the age difference.
    “But it’s not even a full two years’ difference,” I complained as I gathered books from my locker before school.
    “Yeah, but he’s 18, which means he’s a legal adult and you, little missy, are still 16 for another month. You’re jailbait, sweetheart, and he’s already got trouble with the law. Why don’t we find you a nice, safe 17 year old guy around here, huh?”
    “I don’t want a nice, safe 17 year old.” I slammed my locker with more force than strictly necessary. “I want Jack.”
    “Well, then…” Tara gave me a look up and down my entire body. “Stop whining and do something about it. Maybe we could start with a makeover so you don’t look quite so much like an eighth grader. I mean, my God, Ally, are those the same jeans you wore in middle school? I know you haven’t grown since then.”
    “Remind me again why you’re my best friend.”
    “Because I’m not afraid to tell you the painful truth?” She hugged me to her side briefly. “Come on, it’ll be fun! You need him to look at you as a woman, not a little girl.”
    “Fine,” I said. “But you need to show some restraint. I don’t want to look like I’m playing dress up. And absolutely no heels! I have to be able to walk. And I can’t pull off a ton a of makeup, either.”
    “Yay!” she squeaked. Tara loved nothing more than playing dress up with me, but it had been quite a while since I had been a willing victim.
    “You really think he’ll look at me differently?”
    “No, I think he’s already looking at you in the naughtiest way possible, but I’m going to make you irresistible. His inconveniently noble character will be no match for my deviousness,” she said proudly and marched off to her first period class.
    The other major issue in my life, the whole psychic vision thing, also seemed to be giving it a rest. There was, however, one positive outcome of Monday’s afternoon adventure and that was that Veronica was now speaking to me. It’s not like we were suddenly BFFs or anything, but she did say “hey” to me on Tuesday as she sat down in English. And on Wednesday, she said, “What’s up?” as she passed me in the hallway, only it sounded more like “wuz up.” On Thursday she asked me if she could see my homework. See? We were really working at a quality relationship. At least she wasn’t glaring at me anymore. She still seemed nervous and edgy, though. I hadn’t had a vision in more than a week and I was starting to wonder if I’d lost my