“Lucky you,” I croaked, shaking off images of Saxon pulling one finger down me. What was wrong with my brain today?

He shook his head. “It’s a curse.” I frowned, he shrugged. “It feels like my brain won’t turn off.”

I raised one eyebrow, still unbelieving, and he snatched the book out of my hands. He flicked his eyes up and down the page and then snapped the book shut. “An incumbent’s chances for success are magnified by three important factors. The first is…”

Saxon kept talking, his voice smooth and fluid. I grabbed the book, flipped it open, and fumbled for the page. When I had it, I found that he was reading along, word for word. The entire page. He stopped mid-sentence. Which made sense, since that’s how the page ended. I shook my head.

“So that page from our government book is in your head forever?” I looked from his gorgeous face to the boring black-and-white print.

“Yep.” His mouth was set in a grim, unhappy line.

“So if we meet up in an old peoples’ home in seventy years and I say, ‘Saxon, tell me about page twenty-one in our high school government book,’ you’ll be able to?”

He laughed at my old lady voice and nodded. “Sure will.”

“I guess I wouldn’t pay attention to much then either. I’d want to have some say over what stuck in my head.” I traced my finger down the same path his had traveled on the page.

He looked at me like I was an algebra problem with no solution for x. “Exactly.”

“What about things you listen to or hear? Are you a lyrics brainiac too?” I joked to clear the air that had gotten serious and intense fast.

He smiled, but this time his smile was different. It was happy, not made to provoke anyone or mask anything. And it was so beautiful my breath caught in my throat. “No. I’m really bad with lyrics. You know that band from Ireland, The Cranberries?” he asked.

“Love ‘em.” I did love The Cranberries. They were amazing, and I had deep respect for post grunge female-led bands from Ireland on principle.

“They had this song, ‘Zombie,’right? And when I was a kid, I thought it was ‘Tommy.’ So, I’m belting it out, eyes closed, all serious and deep when my dad stops me and says, ‘Idiot! You’re singing the whole thing wrong!’” He laughed.

It was the kind of laugh that pulled at my lips and coaxed my own laugh up and out of my mouth. “Funny.” Our eyes locked, really locked, like they talk about in books and movies. I had a fluttery feeling in my stomach, like I was going to chuck all of that oatmeal I had been so hungry for. The scream of the school bell shocked me out of my trance.

“Tomorrow!” Sanotoni bellowed. “We finish tomorrow!”

Everyone groaned, and I saw Lynn march up to the front of the room to talk with lots of hissing and hand waving as Sanotoni listened with half an ear, then finally barked, “So go with the Independents, but it’s up to you to catch up.”

“Looks like the bitch ditched us.” Saxon picked up my book and handed it to me. “Just me and you, Blixen.”

I had never been on a date, and it’s not like I considered AP Government class the definition of one, but something like anticipation rippled through me, exactly the way I imagined it would if I was going on a date.

“Yeah, okay. Tomorrow. Um, try to not intentionally suck something useless into your brain.”

He stopped in his tracks and looked at me from head to toe, so I looked right back at him. He had on a tightish black t-shirt, dark wash jeans with just a tiny bit of whiskering that actually looked genuinely worn out that way, and some kind of color block Nike’s that no one would have been wearing last year. He didn’t carry a backpack. He had one notebook rolled up and one pen stuck in it.

“Like what?” His voice clicked me out of my eyeball assault.

“Like the ingredient list off of a cereal box. Or the instructions on a conditioner bottle.” I bumped my shoulder against his and we grinned like two grinning fools. Was this flirting? Was I, Brenna Blixen, flirting?

I stressed over our good-bye, but managed to hijack a few more seconds when Saxon walked backwards the same direction I was headed.

“Going this way, Blix?” He crooked his finger at me and smiled at my eye-roll.

“Yep. Crafts.” I knew I should walk away from that crooked finger, but I wanted one more look at the gold flecks in his eyes.

“Oh, good. I have to meet someone over there anyway. I’ll walk you.” He waved to a few guys down the hall and when his arm dropped, he skimmed his hand over my hip. A thousand electric jolts ran straight up my side and left my skin tingling.

“So you really think I’ll never need to know every single chemical in my Cocoa Puffs?” His hand closed over my elbow as he steered me around a herd of chattering girls, and I leaned closer to drag the moment out as long as possible.

“Is that what you eat?” I scrunched my nose in disgust. “That’s a nasty breakfast.”

“What do you have? Half a grapefruit? Isn’t that the official girl breakfast?”

“Not this girl.” I jabbed a thumb in my chest. “I have a bowl of oatmeal.”

His dark eyes gleamed with interest. “What are you, a pioneer?”

“What are you? A third grader? Cocoa Puffs,” I sneered.

He was still laughing when we turned the corner to the art rooms. “Man, I haven’t laughed that hard in a while, Blix. You’re a good sort, for a trailblazer.”

“Yeah, okay, and I hope you enjoy Spongebob with your cereal tomorrow.” I rolled my eyes.

I could feel it the minute his attention dropped from me. It was like he was a dog that had caught the scent of something it wanted, and that was all it could focus on. I looked in the direction his eyes were pointed.

“Kelsie,” he said in a gravelly voice.

I don’t care what my mom said, that butt of hers attracted guys like a magnet. She smiled warmly and gave him a careless hug, her bracelets clicking together softly. “Oh, hey Saxon,” she said, then turned to me. “Brenna! I’m so excited we have crafts together. I hope we start with clay.”

“You know each other?” Saxon’s eyebrows knit together in the center of his forehead.

I looked at his face, and felt infinitesimal cracks begin to pulverize my heart. As soon as I had that thought I shook my head. My heart! What was I thinking? I didn’t love this guy! More like my ego was getting a beating. Because somehow I knew that he was concerned that I knew Kelsie because he liked to keep girls he flirted with separated. I read it clear as day in his expression.

“Brenna and I went through school together.” Kelsie swung an arm around my waist and squeezed, her rings biting into my side before she let go. “Then she moved to Sweden for a year and now she’s back.”