Strangely Sophomore

By Cortina Mahon

Illyria Rose is a different kind of sophomore. Black polish and skinny jeans are staples in her group of friends. She's comfortable and would change nothing about her high school life. Then he shows up and turns her world around. Danni Frost is knocked over by a late student on his first day of school and feels a connection to her instantly. He

• Language: English
• Publisher: GoldTouch Press, LLC
• Release date: May 20, 2021
• ISBN: 9781955347259

Cortina Mahon

Cortina Mahon is an author of young adult romances. She has lived her whole life in Kentucky and dreams of seeing the world. When she's not writing, you can find her baking various desserts and reading the works of other fiction authors.

Book preview

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Strangely Sophomore

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Cortina Mahon

Copyright © 2021 by Cortina Mahon.

Library of Congress Control Number:      2021908443

Paperback:    978-1-955347-24-2

eBook:             978-1-955347-25-9

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

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Printed in the United States of America

Contents

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1

C rap, crap, crap, crap, crap! I yelled as I dashed across the school parking lot. This was not a good way to start out sophomore year.

I ran inside the building and slipped rounding the first corner.

Stupid Converse. I can’t afford to fall on every curve, there’s still two more and I’m already late as it is, I mumbled as I picked myself off the ground and started running again.

I rounded the second corner and smacked right into somebody, knocking them over. I quickly glanced at them and saw a blue-haired ‘emo’ boy. He had a confused look on his face as he looked up at me with dark blue eyes rimmed with black eyeliner. He was new. Freshman, maybe.

I didn’t have time to help him, I was already twenty minutes late. I sent a quick Sorry! over my shoulder and kept running.

I could feel him watching me as I ran around the last corner and out of his sight.

The door to my first period class was just one or two yards away. I reached it in no time and burst in.

Nice of you to join us, Miss Rose, Mr. Rider said to me.

No problem, sir, I said back to him with a cocky grin on my face.

The room filled with snickers. I looked at the back row to see my best friend, Angel, shaking his head. I turned back at my English teacher.

Here, he handed me a copy of Romeo and Juliet. Have a seat next to Mr. Frost.

Yes, sir. I walked to the back of the class room and took my seat next to Angel.

Mr. Frost, please quietly explain to Miss Rose what page we are on and what has happened so far, Mr. Rider told Angel.

Yes, sir. He turned to me. Ok, Lyra, we’re on act one, scene one, page three. We laughed quietly, drawing the attention of our neighbors. The characters are just being introduced. He pulled out a piece of paper. Shall we continue this conversation in writing? I want to hear your interesting story of why you were late this morning. He gave me a huge grin.

He started writing then handed me the paper. His messy penmanship was scrawled across the page.

So tell me about this morning. Why were you so late???

I started writing.

Well, my alarm clock was late because I hit the snooze button a few extra times. I couldn’t find my shoes, so that made me even more late. When I got to school, I fell on the first corner and knocked over a freshman on the second. I couldn’t even eat breakfast.

I folded the note and passed it back to him. He read over it quickly, wrote back, and put something he had pulled from his pocket into the paper.

Not to worry. Your breakfast is covered. I packed a few of these this morning because I had a feeling that you might be needing one. =]

I took the Hershey bar that he passed me and sneakily took a bite.

Thanks, Angel. I owe you one.

No problem. Besides, what are best friends for? XD

The door opened and in walked the guy I had pushed over.

Oh my gosh! That’s the freshman I knocked over!

I hate to tell you this, but that’s no freshman. That’s my cousin. He just moved here.

No way! You never told me you had an emo cousin!

Well now you know. Go ahead and swoon over him, all my friends from the other school did. They ended up leaving me. :’(

No way I would do that to you. You and I are besties forever! The Terrible Two shall never be broken!

Miss Rose, I said to raise your hand. Mr. Rider was glaring at me.

I sighed and lifted my arm.

Thank you.

Yeah, sure, whatever.

Mr. Frost.

At the name both the new kid and Angel looked at him and said, Yeah?

Mr. Rider sighed. Not you, Angel. He turned to the new kid. "Please introduce yourself to the class.

When he spoke, he spoke directly to me. Hello, my name is Danni. I’m very happy to be here. His voice was smooth, deep-ish, and confident. I rolled my eyes while the rest of the girls in the class looked like they were under a love spell.

Very good, Mr. Rider said to him. Please have a seat next to Miss Rose.

Ah shit. I thought. Why me? Why not any of the other girls that would die to sit next to him? But of course to help a new student, Mr. Rider would sit him with the people he looked like. And he looked like Angel and me. The emos.

I looked down at my desk to see that I had a new note, but not from Angel. This was written on black paper, same as I use. Angel uses on lime green paper. I opened the note to see and unfamiliar handwriting.

Hi, I’m Danni. And you are…?

Should have known it would be him. I didn’t want to be mean, so I wrote him back.

Illyria. I would appreciate it if you didn’t talk to me.

So much for not being mean.

And how come?

I’m Angel’s best friend. You will never take me from him like you did his other friends.

So he told you about that, did he?

Yes. And I said I don’t want you talking to me.

Fine.

Thank you.

He didn’t write back, and I was thankful for it. For the rest of the class, I continued to pass notes to Angel, pretend to listen to Mr. Rider, and finish my Hershey bar.

2

My next few classes also had Danni in them. Luckily for me - and him, if he bothered me again - we sat across the room from each other. I sat in the back left corner and he sat in the front right corner. I usually don’t listen in class, so I decided to doodle on my notebook cover - give it some persona lity.

I could feel someone watching me and I looked up to see that Danni, of course, was staring right at me. He had a horrified expression on his face and I gave him a confused look. He slightly pointed to me, then tugged on his wrist band. I looked at my arm and knew why he had that expression on his face.

My cut marks were showing.

I pulled my black and white checkered wrist band down to where it covered my scars. Nobody besides my gang knew about my cutting. And now, so did Danni.

Mr. Harless? Danni asked.

Yes, Mr. Frost?

May I change seats? I’m far sighted and would see better in the back. Of course, he was lying.

Certainly. You can sit next to Miss Rose, Mr. Harless said.

Oh crap, I thought. First, I’m late and now I have to put up with Danni? Terrific way to start the school year.

I looked at my desk to see that I had a note from Danni. I could tell it was from him because of the black paper. I opened it and began to read. There was only one word in his neat handwriting.

Why?

Why what?

Don’t play dumb with me.

I don’t know you, so I won’t share my personal information with you.

Well, then, get to know me. Ask Angel about me, ask me questions, go on a date with me and find out yourself. You can trust me.

I’m not asking Angel about you. It will bring up bad memories for him. I will not ask you questions. And I will certainly not go on a date with you.

How come? I like you. I know that I’m new and I don’t know you, but I felt a connection. And you did too. There’s no way that only I felt that, it was too strong to not go on between the both of us.

I felt nothing.

He read the note and was about to write back, when Mr. Harless cam over and snatched it. Thank you, he said. He carried the note to the front of the class and read over it silently, then said, Danni you might as well give up on trying to get her to go out with you. The class erupted into laughter. "All of her friends are boys. She might be dating one