The moment Everly Harrison had walked into the classroom, Jack had felt his heart rattling around in his chest again, just like at the grocery store. He’d been smelling her all day, like some sort of baked good, walking down the hallway spreading her tasty goodness all through the school. So far, he’d been able to avoid her.But here she was, literally falling right into his lap.Okay, not his lap, but his arms.While he knew it was actually a good thing that they had a class together, that didn’t make him any more excited about it. How he’d gotten the good fortune of getting her to sit right next to him, too, he couldn’t say, but his friend Tim who usually sat there and was home sick was going to get an earful, especially if he came back the next day to find his seat had been taken. Mr. Donald wasn’t one for letting them pick their own seats on a regular basis, so he’d likely tell Tim to take the last empty chair in the

Everly was having a hard time believing what she’d just heard Alyson say. “Jack? Is your brother?”“Yeah, that’s right,” Alyson said as if it made perfect sense that the person in the school who had been the nicest to her and the person in the world who had been the meanest to her could be related.Still thinking about how strange that was, Everly went to her locker to get her schedule and realized she had choir next, so that was a relief. She loved choir and was glad she wouldn’t need to take anything with her, except for the paper that she needed to have signed by the teacher, Ms. Vander.It wasn’t too hard to find the music room. She’d seen signs for it earlier. When she walked in and saw Alyson sitting with a couple of other girls Everly didn’t know, she was relieved to see a familiar face. She waited for the teacher to finish the conversation she was having with some other students and then look ov

“How was school?” Jim asked over dinner. He had run into town to buy something to cook once the movers left, while Everly unpacked the kitchen boxes. When her dad came back with a box of Hamburger Helper and the meat it was supposed to help, as well as a little container of milk since they’d need that to make it, too, she’d taken her chances with the stove. The propane tank had been filled earlier that day while they were both gone. She had been a little afraid that the whole cabin was about to go up in flames, but thankfully the stove had worked well enough. It was just a little dusty.“It was… fine,” Everly said. She’d wanted to say good. She’d wanted to try and convince her dad that she’d had a good day at school so he wouldn’t worry or feel guilty about making her come there. But the lie wouldn’t quite stretch that far. It wasn’t true that she’d had a “fine” day at school eith

Lying on her bed with Toby at her feet, Everly thought about her second day of school. She’d gone in that day resolved to prevent Jack from getting to her. And he’d ended up buying her lunch.She had paid him back, though. She’d given him more than enough money to cover her tacos and Dewy Mountain soda. She hated Dewy Mountain, by the way. It was so sour. Why would anyone want to drink that? She needed to start paying attention to what she picked out for lunch. Or start bringing her lunch. Her dad gave her twenty bucks a week for lunch, and that was more than enough, but if she brought her lunch, she wouldn’t have to go stand in the stupid line. She always felt like everyone was watching her when she was up there, so she was always in a huge rush to get out of there and ended up buying something she didn’t even want.Frustrated, Everly turned over. She could see out the window now since her bed was even with it, and there were still no cur

The routine of going to school was starting to come naturally. Everly got up in the morning, got ready for school, took Toby outside to do his business (since there still was no fence), her dad dropped her off, and she went to her classes. Jack wasn’t nearly as rude as he used to be during history class, but he wasn’t particularly nice either. She ate lunch with Alyson and her friends, went to her afternoon classes, and then caught the bus home where she’d take Toby out, do homework, and cook dinner. After that, she’d do the dishes and maybe watch a movie. It was hard to get an Internet signal and it wasn’t much easier to get any TV channels. Her dad said he’d look into getting a satellite, but Everly wasn’t holding her breath. At night, she’d fall asleep listening to wolves howl and usually dream about her mom—or Jack.It was weird. There never seemed to be much of a rhyme or reason to who she’d dream about. The dream