Sawyer

Coyote Ridge High School, Senior year

Monday, May 18, 1998

Sawyer Walker

I couldn’t believe there were only two weeks before I graduated and left Coyote Ridge High School in my dust. As far as I was concerned, I’d done everything there was to do here. It was time to take my rightful place in the world. It was time to make our dream come true—a family-owned business was in the works and the only thing I was waiting for was that damn diploma to say I was through once and for all.

College wasn’t on my radar. At least not yet. Maybe not ever. With Travis gone off to the army, I needed to stay home and help out as best I could. And I knew, with the help of my younger brother Kaleb, who only had one year left before he was through with high school, we’d be well on our way in no time. After all, Walker Demolition was Kaleb’s dream in the beginning. The rest of us had just adopted it. And now we were only a few short steps away from making it a reality, by God.

Now, I just needed to get through the next ten days of school and I’d be well on my way to bigger and better things. But first, I needed to get to chemistry class, or I’d be spending another day in detention, something I certainly wasn’t looking forward to. As it was, I’d spent far too many hours in that classroom over the course of the last four years.

I moved to the right side of the hall, dodging other kids, grinning and winking at a couple of giggling girls as they passed.

“Sawyer!”

Spinning around, I noticed Corey Harper and Cameron Aldridge making their way toward me. It didn’t take but a second for me to realize what they were about to do to the girl just in front of them.

Kennedy Endsley.

I grinned, taking a step back to watch the spectacle as it played out in front of half the student body, all crammed into that long, narrow hallway.

Kennedy was one of those girls who spent more time with her nose stuck in a book than she did doing anything else. I’d heard she had big dreams of being a veterinarian one day and maybe that explained all the time she spent studying. She looked every bit the nerd she was with her tall, slightly overweight body, her unruly red hair pulled back in a ponytail, her glasses perched on her narrow nose, and her braces glinting in the light every time she opened her mouth. She rarely smiled, but she was the first to answer a question whenever the teacher tossed one out, and for my buddies and me, she was the person to sit beside in class because the teachers rarely called on anyone else. Shit. Why would they when she clearly knew everything? And if Kennedy wasn’t reading, which she just happened to be doing right at that moment, then she was writing something down. No matter what, she generally wasn’t paying any attention to what was going on around her—just like now.

“Hey, Kennedy!”

I watched as she spun around, lifting her nose from that damn book just in time to come face-to-face with Corey and Cameron, and then… Bam! Her books went flying out of her hands, scattering across the floor, and the hallway erupted in laughter.

“Oops,” Cameron said, kicking one of her books out of his path. “Didn’t see you there, nerd girl.”

I glanced down at Kennedy, watching as she bent to pick up her books. Our eyes met briefly and she glared at me, fire shooting from her gray eyes. Yeah, she was pissed. But what had she expected?

“Come on, man. Let’s get to class,” Corey said, slapping me on the back. “Only two more weeks of this hellhole and then we’re done.”

Pulling my eyes away from Kennedy, I fell into step with my buddies. It wasn’t like I was going to help Kennedy pick up her books. So, why did I feel a strange throb in the center of my chest?

Surely that wasn’t guilt.

Was it?

* * *

Kennedy Endsley

I crouched down on the floor and gathered my books, one at a time, while the other kids did their best not to step on me now that Corey and Cameron had stopped kicking my things.

I was so freaking ready to get out of this place, to leave these people behind.

Looking up, trying to avoid getting my hand beneath someone’s shoe, something that happened quite frequently, I found myself staring into the smoky blue eyes of none other than Sawyer Walker. He was laughing—at me, no doubt—while the toes of various shoes sent my books every which way.

I hated Sawyer and his friends. Hated them with a passion. I had no idea what I’d ever done to draw their attention, but it was a given that at least once a week I was going to be picking up my books off the floor or trying to get my locker open when they felt compelled to somehow get it stuck.

I’d even had to deal with the jocks spreading rumors about me, namely when they tried to convince Everett Seymour that I had a crush on him. Which I didn’t. But he didn’t seem to realize that and although he wasn’t much to look at, he’d taken the news to mean he could harass me as well.

Again, I just wanted to get out of there. In two weeks I’d be off to college, starting in the summer so that I could get a jump start on my degree.

Right before Sawyer turned away, I thought for a brief moment that I saw something akin to regret in his blue eyes. I knew that was only wishful thinking. It was hard to believe he could be so cruel, so cold, but he was. I knew he was. He might not have ever been the one to play a cruel joke on me, but he was always quick to laugh, which made him just as guilty as far as I was concerned.

One day…

I vowed that one day I’d show this town.

I’d show them just what I was made of and then I’d be the one to have the last laugh.