Marco didn’t smile or look at me when he took his seat in Algebra 2. Trisha was talking, but Marco and Trey didn’t seem to be listening. Trey looked at me sideways with narrowed eyes, but didn’t say anything rude or embarrassing. I looked down at my Algebra 2 homework trying to figure out the problems I knew I did wrong.

“I didn’t see you at lunch today,” said Marco quietly. “Why didn’t you come over?” He spoke even softer so Trey couldn’t hear. “Was it because of Trey?” We glanced at Trey. He was talking to Trisha.

“Yeah,” I whispered. “It would’ve been weird being around him.”

“Daisy shouldn’t have left you alone.”

“I wasn’t. I was with Pete Turi…and Andreas.”

“Oh. Him.” He looked down.

“He says you tripped him in P.E. Is that true?”

Anger flashed in his eyes and his cheeks turned red. “No. I lost my balance and planted my foot so I wouldn’t fall. He tripped over it. It’s not my fault he doesn’t watch where he’s going.” Marco scowled. “I don’t know what you see in that guy.”

“He saved my life.”

Trey turned his head and gave me a dirty look. Marco noticed and opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again. Ms. Yoshida asked us to pass our homework assignments to the front. I handed mine to Marco and he turned back around.

I was about halfway home when I saw Andreas up ahead. He was on his phone, walking slow enough for me to catch up with him. I accidentally kicked a rock and it rolled toward him, but stopped just short of his feet. He turned around to look at me. When he saw it was me, he smiled and got off the phone.

“That was Lena,” he said.

I tried not to feel jealous. “Is she okay with us running together?”

“Yeah. I told her what happened. Everything’s cool. She was on a break during a photo shoot when I called her, so she didn’t have a lot of time to talk.” He avoided my gaze when he said this and I got the impression he was upset about it. I changed the subject and we talked about other things all the way home.

Later, he met me in front of my house as I was finishing up watering the lawn.

“Do you have any idea where you want to run today?” he said as he watched me roll up the garden hose.

“I know where we can run,” I said with a mischievous smile. “Have you seen the blue mill?”

“No. What’s that?”

I smiled even broader. “Great! You’ll see. It’ll be a surprise.”

He looked puzzled, but didn’t ask anymore questions.

We ran about a mile and a half. “Okay, I hope you have enough energy to sprint.”

“What?”

“You see that blue mill up ahead?” It was a big blue decorative mill that was sitting on someone’s property. The yard was huge, so the mill did not look out of place there. None of the properties had fences.

“Yeah, I see it.”

“Run as fast as you can until you get to that mill.” I started to sprint. “Now!”

“What? Why?” He picked up speed to follow me.

Just then, two big black dogs ran out from the far side of the house next to us. They were barking and running after us. I ran as fast as I could to outrun them.

Andreas saw them. “Oh, crap!”

He sprinted after me. They came close, but did not reach him. We got to the blue mill around the same time and I slowed to a stop. I laughed as I tried to catch my breath. The dogs had stopped and gone back to where they came from.

“Are you crazy?!” said Andreas between gulps of breath.

I laughed hysterically and couldn’t stop.

“You should’ve seen the look on your face!” I said. “I wish I could’ve taken a picture!”

“You’re out of your mind.” He glared at me, then a smile broke over his face and he started to laugh. “I saved your life and this is what you do to me? Try to get me killed?” I laughed even harder. “Why aren’t those dogs tied up? Isn’t there a law against that?”

“Everyone here knows those dogs. They’re harmless. They only chase you when you run.”

“You are sick and twisted.”

I grinned. “It’s nice to hear you laugh. You don’t smile much at school.”

His laughter began to fade, but he was still breathing heavily. “This is the most fun I’ve had since I’ve been here.”

“Really? Wow. I should play jokes on you more often.”

His face turned serious. “Don’t. I hate jokes.”

I chuckled. He picked a leaf off of a tree and started to twirl it around in his hand. There was a yellow flower growing on the side of the road. I picked it and put it behind my ear.

“So, I take it you don’t like it here, huh?” I said.

He looked at me sideways and gave me a crooked smile. “It’s not so bad now.” I felt my face flush and smiled back. He studied the leaf. “Things are actually better for me here now that I think about it. Just before I came here my parents got divorced, then I got into a few fights and my grades started to slip. My parents didn’t know what to do with me, so my dad put in a request at work to transfer his job out of state and he got it. I think he just wanted to get away from my mom and used me as an excuse.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“I’m over it now.”

“Why were you getting into fights?”

He chuckled and looked away. “There was a kid being bullied on the way home from school. These dudes were trying to take his iPod. It was four against one and the kid was small. I told them to leave the kid alone. They ganged up on me instead. The kid ran home scared, but I defended myself. They were sloppy fighters, but one got me good in the face.” He touched the scar on his cheek. I wanted to touch it, too. “After I kicked their asses, they went and told their brothers and friends. The next few days I got into two more fights trying to defend myself from those guys. My parents were already dealing with their own problems. They didn’t want to deal with mine. So, my dad decided to move here and take me with him. He didn’t care about me and Lena. As far as he was concerned, the problems were solved. He said I could move back if I stayed out of trouble. Like everything was my fault.”

I felt bad for him, but it hurt to hear him talk about Lena.

“You almost got into a fight with Marco,” I said. “You could’ve ruined it for yourself.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Yeah. I could have. But he seriously pissed me off. I’m a really calm person, but for some reason that guy gets under my skin.”

“He told me he didn’t trip you on purpose.”

“Yeah, right.”

“I had doubts about him, too, but I think he was telling the truth.”

“That’s because you’re a girl. All the girls like him for some strange reason. Of course you’re gonna side with him.”

“I’m not siding with him. I’m just telling you what he told me. And I don’t like him the way you think I do.” I like you.

He stared at me in silence as if reading my mind.

Nervous, I looked away. “So, is Lena waiting for you to come back?”

“I guess so. Yeah. Her mind is mainly on her career, though. She’s our age, but she’s already working as a model and gets to travel to different places and countries. Her mom and my mom are best friends, so I’ve known her all my life. We moved a lot, but we saw them at least twice a year until we settled in the same area a few years ago.”

“Wow. She sounds very…impressive.”

“Yeah, she’s on a different level than I am it seems. She’s around a lot of adults, so she acts older.”

“She must be beautiful.”

He smiled. “She is.” I pushed back the feelings of jealousy and disappointment that were building up inside me. “Acting is her first love. She wants to move to Sweden to act in Swedish movies because she thinks it will help her gain experience that will open doors for her to act in American movies.”

I raised my eyebrows and nodded. “That sounds like a good plan.”

“Really?” He didn’t pretend to hide the disapproval in his voice. “I can’t move to Sweden. Even if I could, I wouldn’t want to.”

“Oh. I didn’t think about that.”

He looked around and took a deep breath. The sun was farther down in the sky. “So, are we running past the dogs again or is there another way home?”

I smiled. “There’s another way home. Follow me.”