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“Well, yeah.”

“Just make something up about me. That’s what I did for my biography of you.”

I slowly shook my head. “I’m afraid that’s not going to work.”

“Why not?”

“Well, I may have spoken to the teacher and explained that you weren’t very forthcoming with your answers, and he insisted we did this properly.”

“You told Mr. Randall we didn’t do the interview?” Yep, there was the loathing I’d been waiting for. It was practically radiating off her skin, and it felt like I needed a shield for protection. “Why would you do that?”

“I was trying to explain why I wouldn’t be submitting my assignment,” I replied.

She flung her hands up in the air. “You completely suck. You know that, right?”

“It’s not something I’ve heard before.”

“Well, people should tell you more often. Like, every day would probably be a good idea. What were you thinking? How could you do this to me?”

“I wasn’t trying to do anything to you,” I murmured, but she didn’t seem to hear me.

“I need to do well on this assignment, and now, I’m going to have to start it from scratch for thethird time.” She continued her rant.

I rubbed the back of my neck as a slight hint of guilt flared in my chest. “Look, it won’t be all that bad. We’ll just get our answers and then quickly redo the assignment.”

“I don’t have time to just redo the assignment!”

“Well, I can help you. We can do it now…”

“No, we can’t.” She glanced down at her watch and started swearing. “I’m going to be late for my babysitting job.”

She didn’t wait for my response as she opened the front door again and grabbed her bag from inside the doorway. She slung it over her shoulder before slamming the door shut once more. Teagan took off down the pathway in a flurry of motion, and I had to jog to keep up with her as she started storming down the sidewalk.

“Where’s your babysitting job?” I asked.

“Two blocks from here.”

I took hold of her arm, gently tugging her to a stop. “I’ll drive you.”

Teagan glanced toward the car parked behind me. She must have been desperate because she sighed and started to nod without complaint. “If I could get a ride, that would really help.”

“Just tell me where to go.”

There were probably plenty of places she wanted to tell me to go, and I expected most of them were as far away from her as possible. Thankfully though, she didn’t echo those thoughts out loud as she got in the car. She secured her seat belt and sat there silently, hugging her bag tightly to her chest as I started to drive.

She didn’t say anything other than to give me directions as we wound through the streets to our destination. It only took a few minutes until we arrived. The moment I pulled to a stop, Teagan was jumping out of the car and calling out her thanks. She darted around the front of the hood, and I wound down my window as she started toward a nice house.

“We still need to do this interview,” I called out to her.

She slowed only slightly as she glanced over her shoulder at me. “Meet me at my house at ten tomorrow morning,” she said. “And don’t be late.”

I gave her a small salute in agreement. “See you in the morning then.”

16

Teagan

Iwas so tired it felt like my eyelids had been lifting weights, and they were now struggling to blink of their own volition. I’d been stuck babysitting until late last night, and by the time I’d walked home, it was nearing 2:00 A.M.