WHEN THE DUCKLING BLOSSOMED

ed she coul

and she was already regr

her backpack. Her brown hair was tied into a simple ponytail,

lockers, she heard som

ia! W

a Montgomery approaching

ia s

they want

, girls," she

oked her u

same shoes you

looke

's wrong w

t wondering how lon

na la

You're going t

r cry. I'm asking

pened he

lease leav

ca sm

getting an

Jessica reached for the noteb

t's

it b

to take it, but Jessica

so imp

ca, pl

er and began readi

diar

urst into

as a d

pened ano

this a lov

face tu

readin

looked

is

ddenly becam

hell?" Bri

natched the note

it b

her before burst

dness! You

covered

y? Ryan M

said

steppe

clear. Ryan would never

owered h

ust leave

ca la

ur little secret

walked away w

knew that w

r kept anyon

-

class was

back, hoping nobod

yan's best friend, was

rned

, Am

look

es

you have a c

m suddenly b

nts turned

ia f

old yo

s la

t's t

nother student shouted, "R

one l

d up from

ha

nted towa

someone has a

at Amelia,

y. A

oys l

en't you

hook h

rea

ned to h

hing for a few seconds b

red at her

oor would open up

-

sat at her usual ta

ough her sandwich w

I sit

looked

plenty of e

hy

out the chair

se I w

Tiffany sa

leaned

ow long have y

ontinued

ant to tal

t? It's

ase

ca la

ed. Everyone deserv

hoked on her dri

osed her

lea

p and picke

tched her

nvite Ryan to your

burst into

-

ing outside the school build

roached him

ya

tur

ey

d and hel

to the basketbal

oba

should save

s la

dmit you want to

layfully

ut

lau

Amelia walked towar

em without sa

ely noti

cussing Friday's ga

simply another stud

red him, and he certainly wasn't

-

sat at her desk w

for several minutes bef

r di

was te

e notebook, and now ev

ould stop

into school without

t would feel like to be p

le would treat

hey think, but it's difficult when y

t things t

ary and placed it

ched off her

as another

new Jessica would

hat the coming weeks would br

e to discover something

being everyone's