Leading Lines

A Pippa Greene Novel

ECW PRESS

"Pippa Greene, please report to the office. Pippa Greene, to the office, please."

Less than five minutes into the first day back after winter break and my name's called over the PA system. I stand, and so does the hair on my arms. In my time at Spalding High, I've only been called to the office twice. There's a bunch of oohs around the room.

"The rules! You're breaking the rules!" Dace quotes. We had to read Lord of the Flies over the break for English Lit and Dace actually read it. Then we watched the movie. That Balthazar Getty may be ancient now, but he was super cute in the movie.

"Hurry back. You don't want to miss all the fun," Mr. Alderman says a little overzealously. Mr. Alderman is new. All I know about him is that he's filling in for Mrs. Murphy, who was my homeroom and English Lit teacher, while she's on mat leave. And now, all he knows about me is that I got called down to the office within minutes of a new term. Not exactly the impression I was going for. I grab my white ski jacket off the back of my chair — the trek between the portable and the school is too frosty without it — and pull it on. My heart picks up speed as I yank open the door to the portable, a gust of cold air hitting me in the face. I pull my hood over my head and hurry down the three steps to the snow-covered pavement to the back door of the school, burying my chin beneath the stand-up collar.

The main office is bustling with students bringing down attendance forms and latecomers signing in. And there's Ben Baxter, standing in front of a tall gray filing cabinet, holding a colorful stack of file folders. He smiles when he sees me. He got a haircut over the break: it's shorter on the sides and back and a bit longer on top. He's wearing a navy mock-neck sweater, making his blue eyes pop. My stomach flip-flops.

"In trouble already?" he teases.

I give him a look. "I'm sure it's nothing." My face heats up and I look away. Mrs. Pinkrose is shuffling papers at the front desk. She's the main office admin lady, the one who called me down to the office. "I probably forgot a mitten or something over the break."

"Yeah, I heard Forsythe has a New Year's resolution to run a very personal lost and found system." He grins.

I roll my eyes, then shuffle toward the row of green vinyl chairs that line the glass windows of the office. Ben comes over and sits beside me, placing the folders on his lap.

"Maybe you're getting an award for putting up with me in New York." He leans over, knocking my shoulder with his.

I glance his way, quickly, then focus on the large white clock on the wall. "What are you doing here, anyway?" I ask him, to change the subject.

"Detention," he says, as though I should know. "No spares for the wicked."

I raise my eyebrows.

"What?"

"You're still doing detention for stealing everyone's stuff?"

"Hey, you were the number one casualty. If you think it's been too long, maybe you could put in a good word when you're in there." He raises his eyebrows.

"Not likely." I smirk at him, so he knows there's no hard feelings. But detention? He totally earned it. "How much longer do you have?" "Rest of the year. Every day. First period."

"So there really is justice in the world."

"Can we move on?" He tosses the folders on the table at the end of the row of chairs. I look up to see if Mrs. Pinkrose is taking any of this in, but she's oblivious. "So how was your break?" We haven't seen each other since we go