13 to Life Read Free Page A

Like this wasn’t important.
    What was it with him? Was I being blown off?
    “So, um. Why the cop?” I figured I’d just go for it. Ask the question about the elephant in the room.
    Pietr didn’t pause, just continued walking beside me. “We went to Europe last year and didn’t tell the school.”
    “Oh.” My brain reeled at the thought of just going to Europe. “So you basically skipped school for a few—”
    “Months.”
    “Oh.”
    We walked for a while in silence, down the long corridor of tall windows leading toward the English department’s classrooms. There was just the noise of my shoes squeaking on the tile floor. His sneakers never made a sound, and I looked over more than once to make sure someone was actually walking beside me.
    I hoped I hadn’t suddenly suffered a psychotic break and imagined the meeting in Maloy’s office. Although I wasn’t sure why I’d conjure someone like Pietr during a psychotic episode. . . . That was probably just it, though. You couldn’t know what to expect if you snapped. Or when it would happen. You just knew everyone expected you to snap and eventually have one. At least, if you were me.
    To relieve the silence I asked, “Where are you from?” If he wasn’t going to talk, maybe I shouldn’t keep encouraging conversation. But I was determined to give him a chance. Coming to a new school was bound to be difficult. Coming with a cop in tow . . . and then, not making friends—or even acquaintances—wouldn’t make it any easier.
    He looked over his shoulder and said, “Farthington.” He seemed to regret even the single word.
    I paused, stopping in the hall to look at him. “Wow. I would’ve totally left that place, too. You guys had all that weirdness with that wolf attack.”
    He nodded.
    “I didn’t even know there were wolves that close until I heard it on the news. I mean, you occasionally hear about a rabid raccoon leaping onto somebody’s porch and biting them, but . . . wolves?”
    He remained silent.
    “Did they get the wolf that did it?”
    “They think so.”
    From Farthington
and
reprimanded by a cop? There had to be a story here, and I was starting to feel like I had to be a code breaker to piece it together. “I’m with the school newspaper—I’d love to interview you about it.”
    “No, thank you,” he said with absolute conviction.
    My reporter instincts made me twitch. Even a reporter for a small school paper has to react when a student admits to being from the site of the bloodiest, goriest, most mysterious and bizarre wolf attack in a century and the guy doesn’t want to talk about it. It was an eye-poppingly big story. And Pietr summarily turned down my shot at writing the article—writing something far more exciting than “Students Struggle with New Library Filing System.”
    Okay. He’d rejected my request about the Phantom Wolf of Farthington. I wasn’t beyond trying again.
    But something about him was bugging me, and it was more than the fact he came from a place where things actually happened. Living in Junction made you aware the grass
was
greener everywhere else. I wanted to live someplace exciting, too—okay,maybe not Farthington, because the idea of a rampaging beast freaks me out. I shivered, remembering last night’s strange encounter at the stables.
    I refocused on my more immediate problem. Pietr. It wasn’t that he was shy—I’ve been shy, so I can read that vibe like reading the alphabet.
Shy
was nothing like what he put out.
    I squinted at him, trying to figure out what his problem was while he looked everywhere but at me. He was handsome enough. His dark hair spiked up and out in an unruly shock, a strand or two shadowing eyes that seemed nearly navy. Comparing him to Derek (whose stats I absolutely knew by heart), I estimated he was five foot ten or so and probably growing by leaps, considering the other family members I’d just seen.
    He didn’t look like he had a reason to be mysterious. He