Chapter 1-THE NEW GIRL
The first thing I learned about Westbridge Academy was that everyone stared.
The second thing I learned was that I hated it.
I stood beside my mother’s car staring at her as she conversed with the principal
Westbridge looked less like a school and more like a castle.
Three floors of gray stone. Tall windows. Perfect green lawns. Students walking around in expensive-looking uniforms as though they had been born knowing exactly where they belonged.
I suddenly wished I were anywhere else.
“Amanda”
I looked at my mother.
She was standing beside the trunk, trying to smile.
“You’ll be okay.”
I’d heard those words too many times over the past month.
You’ll be okay.
Everything will be fine.
You’ll make new friends.
I wasn’t convinced.
“Right,” I muttered.
My mother walked over and fixed the collar of my uniform.
“You’ll call me tonight?”
“Of course.”
“And if you need anything—”
“I know.”
She smiled sadly.
I knew why she was looking at me like that.
She felt guilty.
Ever since my parents’ divorce, she’d been trying to make up for the fact that my entire life had changed.
New apartment.
New city.
New school.
New everything.
“Go,” she said softly. “Before I start crying.”
I laughed despite myself.
“Love you, Mum.”
“Love you too.”
I grabbed my suitcase and walked toward the school.
The moment I entered the main building, I knew I was in trouble.
Students filled the hallway.
Some glanced at me.
Others openly stared.
A girl whispered something to her friend, who immediately looked in my direction.
Great.
I pulled my timetable from my pocket and tried to figure out where I was supposed to go.
“You’re new.”
I looked up.
A girl with long braids and a bright smile was standing in front of me.
“Is it that obvious?”
She laughed.
“You’re holding the timetable upside down.”
I looked down.
She was right.
I quickly turned it around.
“Okay. Maybe a little.”
“I’m Chloe.”
“Amanda”
“Nice to meet you, Amanda”
She pointed down the hallway.
“What’s your first class?”
I showed her the timetable.
“English.”
“Same. Come on.”
For the first time that morning, I relaxed.
Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.
We walked together, Chloe talking the entire time.
She explained which teachers were strict, which cafeteria food was terrible and which students I should avoid.
Then she suddenly stopped.
I almost walked into her.
“What?”
She pointed toward the courtyard.
A group of students stood beneath a large tree.
Everyone seemed to know them.
At the center was a boy.
Tall.
Dark-haired.
Confident.
He was laughing with his friends, looking completely at home.
“That’s Daniel Carter,” Chloe said.
“So?”
She looked at me.
“You don’t know who he is?”
“No.”
“Give it five minutes.”
I rolled my eyes.
“He can’t be that important.”
Chloe laughed.
“You’ll see.”
We continued walking.
I wasn’t interested.
At least, that’s what I told myself.
Until I accidentally collided with someone turning the corner.
My books fell everywhere.
“Oh, come on.”
I crouched down, already annoyed.
A hand reached down and picked up one of my books.
“New here?”
I froze.
I knew that voice.
I looked up.
Daniel Carter.
He held my notebook in one hand.
There was a faint smile on his face.
“Apparently.”
He glanced at the notebook.
Then back at me.
“You might want to watch where you’re going.”
I stood up and snatched my notebook from his hand.
“You might want to stop standing in people’s way.”
His eyebrows lifted.
Behind him, his friends laughed.
Daniel smiled.
“Interesting.”
“What?”
“Nothing.”
He walked past me.
I watched him disappear down the hallway.
Chloe stared at me.
“What?”
She shook her head.
“You have no idea what you’ve just done.”
I frowned.
“What did I do?”
She lowered her voice.
“You just crossed Daniel Carter.”
I shrugged.
“So?”
She looked almost horrified.
“So?”
I smiled.
“He’s just a boy.”
But as I walked into English class, I couldn’t stop thinking about his stupid smile.
And I had no idea that by the end of the school year, Daniel Carter would become the one person I wished I’d never met.
Because falling for him would be the easiest mistake I’d ever make.
Finding out who our families really were?
That would be the dangerous part.
