The Last Boy and Girl in the World by Siobhan Vivian

Author:Siobhan Vivian
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

20

* * *

Thursday, May 19

Breezy in the afternoon, 66°F

* * *

The rest of that day was so strange. It was as if two simultaneous universes were beginning to exist inside Aberdeen High. Half of us, me included, kept to the schedule. We went to our classes when the bells rang, we handed in homework assigned before any of this happened and took notes on the lectures, we locked our lockers. Elise, Morgan, and I sat at our normal lunch table and had our usual, chicken fingers and fries. By then, Elise had mostly stopped crying.

The other half seemed immediately able to break through the artifice. For them, the rules, the structure, the hierarchy gave way like the sandbags we’d stacked to protect us. Those kids roamed the halls at will, used their cell phones blatantly. Or they went outside and sat in the bleachers and stared at the dim lights of the scoreboard, or they slept across pushed-together desks in class, or they spent the day in the library hanging out with friends on the beanbag chairs, or they went home. The teachers were too preoccupied to care. Actually, some of the teachers let go just as quickly, took attendance after the bell but then excused themselves to the teachers’ lounge and didn’t come back.

I ran into Levi talking to one of the guidance counselors in the hallway. Though he didn’t pause their conversation, he held up a hand to me, asking me to wait a minute.

Mrs. Jergins said,“I know you want to stay and work, dear, but don’t let it get in the way of any of your great opportunities. Precollege classes are an excellent way to get yourself oriented to your new surroundings.”

Levi saw me waiting like he’d asked, but he still didn’t try to hurry out of the conversation. “Well, the thing is that there’s a lot of important work that needs to be done. And the guys at the station, they just don’t have the manpower. I’d feel terrible if someone got hurt or injured because there wasn’t enough time to put the safety precautions in place.”

It was only when I was about to walk away that he glanced over at me and said, “Meet you after school near the bike rack.”

“Wait. We start working today?”

Levi nodded like I was an idiot.

I realized then that he and I were on two different sides of this battle.

He looked me up and down. “Do you have anything else you can wear besides a dress?”

I did. In my gym locker. But because he was being such a jerk, I said, “Nope,” and popped that p like a big old piece of Bubblicious.

He sighed and turned back to Mrs. Jergins.

• • •

After the last bell, I ran to my locker to grab my things. When I opened it, Jesse Ford came tumbling out like a zombie lying in wait. I screamed and pushed him off until I realized he wasn’t trying to eat my brains so much as kiss me.

He closed his eyes and pursed his lips and waited for me to lean in.

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