Free Protected (Book 1 in the Ariya Adams trilogy) by Anna Applegate

following day. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I only had two classes. One class was Psychology and the other was Human Intimacy. While I wasn’t in a relationship, it didn’t hurt to learn some things for the future. Plus, I heard it was a fun class and hard to get into since so many people took it as an elective. I was finished with almost all my major classes and really just had electives left and some general education classes left that I’d pushed back as much as possible, hence the Psychology class when I was a senior.
    Psychology was at 9 and Human Intimacy was at 11. I needed to see when our group lunch date was going to be. We ’d started doing group lunch Mondays to kick off our week back at the beginning of our first year. I had a feeling this year, since the work load was lighter on everyone, that it would be more often than that eventually, but for now, tradition couldn’t be broken. I’d kept noon open for that exact reason. Plus, James seemed to know about the lunch tradition already, and that meant he’d probably be there.
    No, wait. Rewind , I thought to myself. I don’t care if James is there. Yes, I was going to focus on myself and what I needed, and it was going to be a great year.
    Caroline got home late that night. We ate dinner and plopped down onto the c ouch to catch up for a little bit before hitting the sack.
    “How was the weekend with Nick?” I as ked.
    “Magical as always,” s he said, dramatically. I threw my pillow at her.
    “So , is he transferring for sure?”
    “ Mmhmm, it looks that way. He picked up some paperwork and is going to apply. Hopefully he’ll hear soon. I heard it is pretty easy to transfer in. Apparently, not many people want to transfer in, especially as seniors, most transfer out. He was talking to James about the process yesterday at the party since he’d just done it. James seemed to think it wouldn’t take long at all.“
    “Caroline , that’s awesome! Senior year sweethearts!” I winked at her.
    “How was hanging out with James last night?”
    “Fine. Nothing happened that you’d find worthwhile.” I grinned at her.
    “Nothing? Wait, nothing at all? What did you do all night?”
    “We went on a walk and then came back here for a drink and he left. That was it. What?”
    Caroline was frowning as if she were confused by something. “I just assumed that he would have tried something. Huh. Oh well, give it some time. It’ll work out.”
    Ever since we met him, Caroline had acted strange every time James had been brought up. I wasn’t following it, but then again, this was the first time we’d been in a situation where I actually had a crush on someone without having to be coerced into liking them. This could be how it normally was with friends.
    We brought up plans to meet for lunch the next day, and I headed to bed. I had been tired all weekend. My body must just be adjusting to staying up late again. I felt like I had slept a lot with all the naps I’d taken. It could be that the stress of coming back had gotten to me. I’m glad everything was worked out in my head after a day to myself. It was so much easier to make decisions when I had my thoughts straight. I was asleep quickly again for the third night in a row.
     
    Psychology the next day made me feel old. That’s what I get for waiting until my senior year to take a freshman class. At least it seemed like it was going to be pretty easy. I did enjoy the people watching I got to do. It was fun to watch the eager young students who were just coming to college. They were scattered throughout the classroom.
    I could tell who had been in what cliques in high school , and it was quite entertaining to witness. Each person sat in their seat, still holding on to the persona they had from wherever home had been. There were the book smart girls, the jocks who just sat leaning back in their chairs, still thinking they were all that, the clowns who planned out what joke they were going to try and