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

make next. It would leave them eventually. People started to blend together in college and do more of their own thing instead of the stereotypical thing, which made things much better, in my opinion. Of course, there were always bound to be people, like Ashley, who thought that cliques never really died and drama and popularity were the most important things in the world. Sometimes I felt sorry for those people.
    I grabbed a coffee during my break and decided to head to the Human Intimacy classr oom early to start reading the Psych homework. The more that got done in between classes, the less I actually had to do at home. The room was empty, and I sat down in a seat towards the back. I always liked sitting towards the back, leaving a few rows behind me for the people who really don’t pay attention. That way I wasn’t a total slacker and I wasn’t up front sucking up. I was right in the middle where students tended to be left alone. I had worked that out my freshman year after being called on for answers quite a bit by teachers for answers when I sat in the back corners of the classrooms.
    The room started filling up with students slowly trickling in, probably from having been let out early from their first classes. I didn’t recognize anyone. None of my friends had mentioned being interested in this course, so I wasn’t expecting to see anyone I knew walking in. I looked over to the door, then back at my book a couple of times when people would walk in, but then stopped as I zoned everything out to read. I am extremely good at focusing.
    A voice towards the front of the room snapped my concentration in an instant, though. I noticed the professor had come in and was standing at the podium. The voice had come from the student he was talking to. The voice melted me from the inside out. It was James. Only James was speaking in a different tone and the professor was staring at him, dumbfounded. What was wrong with him?
    James voice was lower now and I couldn’t really hear what he was saying specifically. The professor nodded his head and started writing something down without even looking at the paper his pen was moving on. James stood for a mome nt longer, and then backed away.
    I jerked my head back to the paper in front of me. What had that been all about? I tried to sneak a peek back towards the professor and noticed that he was shaking his head slightly, but was continuing to rummage through his papers.
    My eyes scanned the aisle to see if James was going to actually be in the class or not. We made eye contact from across the room and he grinned at me. Sure enough, he was surrounded by girls fawning over him, just as I’d predicted he would be. He smiled kindly at them and looked like he was excusing himself, then started heading my way. Well, this was certainly a surprise.
    “Hey,” he said softy, sitting in an open seat next to me. “Do you mind if I sit here?”
    “It would probably be a bit awkward for me to say no and make you scoot around all these people to find a new seat at this point.” I smiled over at him. He leaned back , looking at me and shaking his head.
    “Your kindness is astounding.” He flashed me a sex-on-a-stick like grin.
    Today, he was wearing a gray shirt with a black zip up and jeans. It was unfair how handsome he was. He had been in dark colors each time I had seen him and it definitely suited him. Did he know that?
    “Do you know the professor?”
    “What?” He looked at me like I was crazy.
    “Oh, I mean , I saw you talking to him at the beginning of class. It seemed like you all were having an in-depth conversation.” I shrugged.
    “I was just making sure I was on his list. I got in last minute.” H e smiled over at me again.
    “I was on a wait- list for a year. You’re lucky.” I beamed back at him.
    James didn’t respond to that , but just kept the smile on his face and turned towards the front of the room. I was sure he wasn’t lying about knowing the professor, but