The girl beside him was named Jennifer—she didn’t tell him her name but Stacy found out when Darian went through the roll. Already he didn’t like her. She didn’t look at him, didn’t speak to him, didn’t even acknowledge his existence, and that bothered the s**t out of him. But most of the other desks were full and Stacy didn’t want to interrupt Darian to move.
“Here’s the way it works,” the teacher was saying, leaning over his desk and looking around at his students. Stacy felt warmth flood through him when he was caught in the spotlight of that gaze. “I’ll be upfront with you guys. I’m a carpenter, not a teacher. I have my own shop down on Crater Road and I do all the work there myself, so this class is going to take a big chunk out of my time. I’m only doing it because the school asked
