Page 21 of I Don’t Need Your Protection (Harrington Bay Academy #1)

Addie

Sophie tells me she wants to go to the library with me because she’s in desperate need of more books. I raise my brow at the stack she’s carrying in her arms, plus the ones sticking out of her backpack.

She gives me an innocent look. “What? A person can never have too many books.”

“And last I heard, you have commitment issues.”

She laughs. “So true. Is it my fault I want to read ten books at the same time? I wish I had ten brains. Can you imagine? I would finish a hundred books a month!”

I smile and shake my head as we head to the school library. “I wish I was passionate about something like you are.”

“You have a big heart,” she tells me, wrapping her arm around me. “You’re passionate about other people, especially those you’re closest to. That’s an awesome quality to have. ”

“I never saw myself that way.”

“Of course! How else do you think the others and I befriended you so fast? Not to mention you caught the attention of a certain rich dude who never talks to kids like us.” She jabs her elbow into my rib.

My cheeks heat up. “I don’t know if he’s into me because of my ‘big heart.’”

“Want to bet he is?”

“Not really.”

“Because you’re scared you’ll lose.” She sticks out her tongue.

“No. I just don’t want to get my hopes up.”

I’ve had so many disappointments and heartache over the last month, and the last thing I need is to add any more pain.

That’s why I won’t think too deeply about why Warner chose to team up with me out of all the other students in the class.

It’s not like he thinks I’m a good student because I haven’t been here long enough to know if I actually am smart enough for this school.

And it’s not like he had no else to choose, not when so many of his friends share this class, plus all the girls who are in love with him.

“I guess it’s smart to be wary,” Sophie muses as she opens the library door. “Warner might as well live on another planet from us. But don’t be too wary, you know? You should have fun. Gosh, you might really have a boyfriend soon!”

Her words cause me to grin and my heart to race. I don’t get any flutters or butterflies, though. But then again, I’ve never gotten butterflies or flutters from any guy before .

Except for Caleb , my brain reminds me.

Okay, fine. But that was just one time, when I caught him watching me dance.

“You okay, Addie?” Sophie asks, yanking me from my thoughts. “You look like you traveled to another world.”

I give her a smile. “Yeah. Just thinking.”

“About Warner?” She elbows me in the rib again with a teasing grin.

“No comment,” I say, wondering when I’ll feel something for Warner. I mean, I’m always excited at the prospect of hanging out with him, and I think about him a lot, but I always thought my body would respond in some way to a possible boyfriend. Like tingles or chills.

“So I’m going to look for some books,” Sophie tells me.

“You know what’s cool about this library?

” She motions toward the back of the room, where there are rows and rows of books that appear very old.

“They have first editions, limited editions, and even books that are no longer in print! Some aren’t allowed to be checked out because of their condition, but you have no idea how awesome it feels when I find a long-lost treasure.

Fingers crossed that I’ll find me some epic gold, matey,” she says with a pirate accent.

“Want help? I have a few minutes before I’m supposed to meet Warner.”

“Thanks, but part of the experience is finding the books by myself. Sorry, that probably sounds so ridiculous.”

“No, I get it. You want to savor every moment and create wonderful memories with the special books you find. ”

She gives me the largest smile I’ve ever seen and yanks me into my arms. “Oh my gosh, how do you get me and the others so well? It’s like we were destined to become best friends.”

I wrap my arms around her, hugging her tight because her friendship and the others’ mean the world to me.

I also feel like we were meant to be best friends.

I only hope they’ll feel the same when they inevitably learn the truth about who I really am.

Would they care that I’m actually an heiress? They’ve gotten to know the real me.

“You seem bothered about something,” she says as she pulls back to study my face.

“No, I’m good.” I force a smile. “Just nervous about meeting Warner.”

“Just be your awesome self and he’ll fall in love with you.”

“I guess we’ll see.”

She gives me another hug before squealing and rushing off to the back rows. I scan around the seating area for the perfect table, and then choose the one at the window. It’s slightly isolated from the rest of them, which will give us enough privacy.

I sit down and start my homework. I’ve only been here for a week, but I feel like I have a whole month’s worth of homework.

I knew this school would be much more advanced than my old school, but sheesh, do they expect us to act like robots?

But I know I can handle it all. I also like how challenging it is.

I glance at the back section of the library and see Sophie’s chocolate brown head bobbing up and down as she searches through the rows. Even though I’m quite a distance from her, I can feel her excitement and joy bouncing off the walls of the library. I laugh to myself at how cute she is.

“What’s so funny?” a familiar voice asks.

I twist my head upward and find Warner standing at my table. He’s wearing a charming smile that makes him look very sexy.

“Hey, Warner,” I gush. “I was just laughing at Sophie. She’s like a little kid in a candy store.”

His eyes travel toward the back of the library and he shrugs. “To each their own, I guess. I only come here for assignments.” He shrugs his backpack off and sits down on the chair across from me. “Were you waiting long?”

“Nope. I was catching up on homework.”

“Nice. You must be really good at school.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Aren’t you here on scholarship?”

“Oh, right. Duh. Of course.”

He chuckles.

“What about you? Are you good at school?”

He shrugs. “I’m what the school calls ‘average.’ My dad’s not too happy about that.”

“Really? He wants you to get straight As?”

“He couldn’t care less about the schoolwork. He just wants his only son to be the smartest person on the planet.”

“Oh…that must be tough.”

He shakes his head with a laugh. “Who cares what he thinks? I don’t. ”

From the look in his eyes, I know that’s a lie.

He very much cares what his dad thinks—maybe he even thinks his dad’s love is conditional?

I wish I could delve deeper and ask him a million questions—I want to get to know him so badly—but I doubt he’d like that.

We barely know each other and I’m sure the last thing he wants is to pour his heart out to me.

Even though I would do everything I could to make him feel better.

“Anyway, you want to start?” he asks.

“Okay.” I unzip my backpack and pull out our assignment, laying it down on the table. “Did you think of a product you want to sell?”

He grins at me. “How could I think of a product to sell when all I think about is you?”

I freeze in place as my cheeks scorch. “Oh, um…”

“Maybe it was a mistake to team up with you. You’ll distract me and make me get a bad grade.”

“So I’ll be responsible for you getting a bad grade?” I joke, my neck and ears heating up, too.

“Obviously,” he says with another grin.

Okay, he’s totally flirting with me right now. I have no idea how to flirt back. Why am I so bad at this?

“Well, you’ll distract me, too,” I say.

“Yeah, right. You’re too smart to be distracted by me.”

My mouth opens, but no words come out. My tongue is all twisted.

He chuckles softly. “You’ve never had a boyfriend, have you?”

“Is it that obvious?” I lift my backpack and hide behind it .

He chuckles again as he lowers it to the table. “Hey, there’s nothing to be embarrassed about, Addie. I’m actually jealous of you.”

“Jealous?”

“Yeah. For you, everything is new. If I knew I would meet you one day, I never would have gone out with the other girls. I wish you would be my first everything.”

I just gape at him. “You’re BSing me.”

He shakes his head. “I swear I’m not. I like being around you. You make me feel…” He stares off in the distance as he contemplates his thoughts. “You make me feel seen.”

Oh, wow. I can’t believe he just said that to me.

From the outside, he looks all cool and sure of himself, and he’s the most popular guy at school.

But who knows what his life is really like?

Maybe he doesn’t think he can be his true self with his friends.

Maybe they don’t understand him. Maybe his home life isn’t the greatest.

Before I have a chance to respond, he snorts, mutters something about forgetting all this heart-to-heart mushy crap, and focuses on the assignment sheet.

“So I did think of something. What do you think about starting a new clothing line? I don’t know much about the fashion industry, but you can never go wrong with clothes, right? ”

I twist my nose. “I bet every team will do clothes. And anyway, it’s probably hard to stand out with a clothing business. They’re way oversaturated and we might have a hard time getting investors.”

“I’ll just ask my uncles to invest,” he says. “Easy peasy. ”

I give him a look. “Mrs. Powell said we have to treat this as though it’s real. She’ll see through the BS. You think she’ll give us a good grade if your family members invest in our company?”

“It’s cute how into it you are.”

“It’s fifty percent of our grade.”

“Yeah, yeah.” He groans and sits back in his seat. “So what do you want to sell?”

“Well, you’re thinking something high-end, for the wealthy class. But I think we should make a product that speaks to a larger audience. The lower and middle class.”

He nods slowly. “Yeah, that makes sense. See, you’re so smart.”

I like the fact that he’s complimenting me, but maybe he’s overdoing it? I wonder if he’s nervous to be around me. He seems cool on the outside, but maybe it’s all an act?

“So let’s see,” I say as I rub my pen across my lips. I catch Warner’s eyes dip there, and my cheeks flame. “Um…” I wrack my brain. “Not a food, because that market is oversaturated, too. What about goods or services?”

“Are you good at anything?” he asks.

“No. I’m like the most boring person on the planet.”

“You are definitely not the most boring person on the planet. But I’m not good at anything, either.” He taps his fingers on the chair’s armrest. “Want to use Google?”

I give him another look. “Mrs. Powell specifically instructed us not to use Google.”

“Right. Darn. Is there something you like? A favorite game or maybe a toy you loved as a kid.”

I sit up. “Oh my gosh! You just gave me the perfect idea.”

“What is it?”

“We can make stuffed animals!”

He frowns. “You want to make dolls?”

“Stuffed animals are not just dolls! Every kid loves to have a furry friend. They’re soft and cuddly, and they can make you feel better after a bad day.”

“You still have yours, don’t you?”

I raise my chin. “Yes, I do. Her name is Ellie the Elephant and she is currently sitting on my pillow.”

For a second, I assume he’ll tease me. But he gets this huge grin on his face and says, “That’s actually really cute.”

“It is?”

“Yeah. I can see you snuggling up with a cute stuffed animal. It’s cute.”

My face gets warm again. “Thanks. But let’s make our stuffed animals more fun.

How about…people send us their kid’s drawing of an animal, right?

And we make it come to life through a stuffed animal!

And we can have them personalize it by adding a special message or a card, or maybe we can even have the plushie say something when you squeeze its paw. ”

Warner rubs his chin. “You know…yeah, that sounds like a good idea. It’s always smart to tap into the children’s market. Parents will love surprising their kids with a friend they imagined all on their own. We can definitely appeal to the emotions of parents.”

“Okay, cool.” I start writing down the idea. “I already have some ideas for fun marketing videos, but we’re not holding there yet. We need to come up with a name for our business.”

“Addie and Warner’s Toys,” he says with a large smile.

I raise a brow. “That was very original.”

“It suits us, though.”

I shake my head. “I want something more special…something that will make our product pop…”

“My Favorite Furry Friend?”

I twist my nose. “No, I don’t think that’s special enough. Ugh, I’m so bad at this.”

“Me, too.”

We sit in silence as we wrack our brains. I know this is just an assignment, but I really like this idea and want to choose the perfect name. It would be cool if I somehow end up creating this product for real.

I sit forward. “How about Your Dream Plushie?”

He contemplates it. “Hmm…yeah, I like it.”

“Cool.” I fill out the name of our business and our product on the assignment sheet. “The next step is to find investors. Ugh, do we really have to go around town presenting our product to real people who will invest fake money? It’ll be so embarrassing.”

He shrugs. “They’re used to it. Powell does this every year.”

“So we’ll meet after school tomorrow and spend the whole afternoon bothering people?”

That makes him laugh. “Sounds like a fun way to hang out. We’d better get a good grade on this.”

“Are you not confident in our stuffed friends?” I ask as I get up and start putting away my things.

“I’m confident in you.”

I nervously tuck some hair behind my ear. “Thanks. I’m confident in you, too.”

He winks. “We make an awesome team, don’t we?”

I beam. “I think so.”

He steps forward and hugs me. “Thanks for agreeing to be my partner. Can I text you later?”

My whole body lights up. “Sure!”

He throws his backpack over his shoulder. “Nice. Later, Nelson.”

I wave. “Bye, Warner.”

I stare after him as he leaves the building, then fall down on my chair with a happy sigh.

I spend about five minutes thinking about him, smiling at all the times he complimented me.

But the memories fly out the window when I spot Caleb sitting a few tables down, reading a magazine.

Wow. I kind of forgot about him. He looks so lonely sitting there.

“Woohoo! I’ve struck gold.” Sophie emerges from the back rows with like thirty books. It looks like she’s seconds away from dropping them all.

Launching out of my seat, I rush to help her, grabbing hold of half the books.

“Thanks,” she says with a huff. “I think I need to work out more.”

“This is impressive even for you,” I say.

Her eyes shine. “I know, right? I have no idea where all these books were hiding. It’s like my birthday today. ”

I help carry her books to her room, memories of my time with Warner playing in my head over and over.

But I also can’t forget the image of Caleb sitting all alone at his table.