I woke up that morning with an ache in my heart so deep, I knew I had to do something.

I decided I was going to ask at least someone for a charger, because suddenly a month longer seemed much too long.

I pulled my car up in front of the school, nervous but determined. I begrudgingly mentally decided who I'd go to first.

I found her sitting on some stairs with a group of girls, all on their phones, looking at social media or whatever.

"Tiffany," I said.

She held up a finger, motioning for me to wait without even looking at me. She then turned to one of her friends and said, "Oh my gosh. Have you seen the new chick's latest post?"

"Yeah!" replied the one she was talking to. "She needs to keep her problems to herself."

"Oh, hey Logan," Tiffany said, indifferent.

"Uh, hi. First of all, sorry about yesterday--"

"Oh, no problem. I like Lucas now."

"Wait what?"

"Nothing. What else were you gonna say?"

"I was wondering if you had a phone charger."

"What kind?"

"iPhone 5."

"Uh, sorry. I have an iPhone 6."

"Don't they use the same kind of plug?"

"I wouldn't know. Oh! Here comes Lucas!"

She stood up and shoved me out of the way so she could run and meet some blond guy walking up the hall. I turned and looked back at Tiffany's group of friends. One of them was ogling at me so I decided to slip away.

At times like this, I'd go look around for Anthony to evade from awkwardness. Even if I didn't find him, I at least looked like I was looking for someone. But Anthony graduated last year so he isn't around for me to look for. I tried to look like I was searching for someone even though he wasn't there, but I felt like it wasn't working.

I walked past Perry, who flicked my head as he walked by. I passed the photography and art classroom, where a group of three girls with Polaroids around their necks were talking to some kid in hipster glasses. He didn't look very happy.

I decided to go to the piano classroom and play before the bell rang.

---

Later that day, at lunch, I went and sat at the corner of a table whose only other inhabitants were three gamer guys with minecraft shirts. One had long hair and one had glasses. We sat at opposite ends of the table. I never bugged them, and they never bugged me.

Tiffany and her clique were sitting at the table behind me. I could tell just by listening to them.

"Tiffany! Look at that girl's eyebrows!"

"Oh my gosh. That's so irritating. Everyone knows you're supposed to make your eyebrows ombré."

I didn't know that, but okay. I wondered if Stacey ever did her eyebrows....

"What's the new girls username?"

"Let me check.... It's trisha0507. Her profile picture is a dog."

"Oh, wow, she does look kind of depressing."

I stopped listening to the endless banter, no longer able to tell who was speaking or what about. I listened to the gamer guys at my table.

"I was mining yesterday and I totally hit diamond, but a creeper freakin' snuck up and killed me before I even got any."

"Oh, dude. That's so burnt."

At this point, I was done with my food, so I stood up and walked to my next class.

»»»»»«««««

After school, it was time for my first day of training at Walmart. Honestly, I was kind of scared.

I knocked on the manager's door and he yelled for me to come in. I stood and waited for him to speak as he dug in some drawers.

"Okay, Logan. How are you doing today?"

"I'm fine. How are you?"

"Oh the usual." He stood up. "Alright, here's your vest and your name tag."

"Do I need to wear these now?"

"Yes please."

I put on the filmy blue vest and pinned on the white card. It read LOGAN in capital letters.

"Alright. Follow me to the locker room where you can put your things."

I followed him down a hall where we ended up in a room with about twenty small lockers.

"Choose a locker. There should be a key already in the lock. While you're on your shift, you will put your things inside and pin the key to your vest. Please put it back in the lock when you come back to retrieve your belongings. Also, don't forget to add your name and locker number to the log each day. If we have any disappearing keys, we need to find them. Got it?"

"Yep."

"Okay. Put your things in the locker."

I took a key out of a locker and stuck my wallet and my keys inside. That's all I had with me.

"Alright, let me introduce you to your trainer."

This was already too much socializing for one day. Please, sir, let me go home.

We walked out of the back of the store and towards an opening where I could see shoppers. The manager picked up an intercom and said, "Ricky to the back, please." I heard the sound echo throughout the store.

After a few minutes, a young-looking blonde dude with a blue vest like mine came walking toward the manager and me.

"Is this him?" the guy asked.

"Yep," said the manager. "Logan, this is Ricky. Stick with him for the week while he teaches you all about Walmart."

I wasn't sure how much I wanted to know about Walmart, actually. What was I thinking?

The manager patted me on the back before walking away. He turned back abruptly and said, "By the way, I'm Steve." He then continued on his way.

I turned and looked at the perfectly tanned blonde man next to me. He was about my height, but he was sure as heck way more built. He smiled at me with teeth that looked way to white next to his tan.

"Welcome to Walmart, Logan," he said, still smiling. He shook my hand. He never actually stopped smiling.

"Thanks," I replied.

He started to walk and ask me questions. I followed him, answering his questions.

"How old are ya?"

"Seventeen."

"You a junior?" I couldn't help but notice his voice was nice and deep. He was everything a man wanted to be.

"Senior."

"Ah. I was eighteen my senior year."

"How old are you now?" I had to ask.

He chuckled. "Twenty-one. I'm working here at Walmart while I work on my degree in criminal justice."

"Nice, nice."

"What are you planning on doing once leaving high school?"

"Um, well, I'm wondering about bein a pediatrician or something."

"Why's that?"

I shrugged. "I like kids."

We kept walking. I was starting to wonder where we were going.

"You're going to work behind the scenes at customer service," Ricky told me. We'd stopped walking. I looked up and realized we were indeed at customer service.

"Okay," I said.

"You see those shopping carts full of random stuff?"

I nodded.

"It will be your job to take those things and put them back on the shelves. It's not too bad, once you learn where they go."

I nodded again.

"What're you waiting for?" Ricky said. "Grab a cart!"

»»»»»«««««

I was pretty tired when I got back home. I was only at the store for two hours, but Ricky had me walking all over the store, delivering miscellaneous things to their places.

Mom had tuna noodle casserole on the table.

"Logan! How was work?"

"Exhausting. I think I'll be sore in the morning."

"You got a workout?"

"Yes."

Mom opened the dishwasher to get some plates and came up with her new glasses all foggy. "Ugh! These glasses are impairing my vision more than fixing it! All day I've had smudges and little flecks of who-knows-what driving me insane."

"That sounds terrible."

"It is!"

I walked into the kitchen and grabbed some dishes to help Mom set the table. I then plugged my ears as she called for dinner. There was no racing down the stairs today, as Dad was in the backyard and the kids were spread out throughout the house. It was pretty embarrassing that even though Dad was outside, he still heard Mom's dinner call and walked in right away.

Anthony and I began shoving casserole into our mouths. That stuff was just plain amazing.

After a few minutes, Mom started speaking.

"Guys! Pamela called today and said her family is thinking of moving to Ohio!"

I dropped my fork and made a clattering noise on floor. Anthony snickered as I bent down to pick it up.

"Well," Mom continued, "it's here or Oregon."

My head shot up and I smacked my head against the bottom of the table. I yelped, and when I came up, my family was looking at me with furrowed eyebrows. All except Antony, who was snickering without shame.

"Um, you okay, kid?" Dad asked.

"Mmhmm."

"Anyway, I told Pamela I hope she doesn't choose Oregon, because that's really, really far. Her and Bob have been looking into it and they've decided to come stay in Ohio for a week to see how they like it. Then, later, they will visit Oregon. I guess they want to see how the neighborhoods of their potential houses are like and whatnot."

"Well, that's fun," Dad said.

"Oh yeah," Mom said. "I told Pamela her family can come stay at our house for a week while they visit!"

I choked on my water and started coughing uncontrollably.

Mom glanced nervously at me before saying, "She said that's a great idea! They're totally going to come visit us!"

I finally gained control of my lungs and blurted, "When?"

"Oh, uh, hmm. I'm not sure." Mom seemed unfazed by my question.

Anthony smirked at me and said, "What town are they wanting to move to?"

"Here! Isn't that great?"

I coughed again, still not quite in total control of my lungs.

Stacey was coming to my house. Stacey could quite possibly move to my town, meaning she'd go to my school.

And if she didn't... I could quite possibly never see her again.

__________________________

Yay! So, looks like Stacey's coming to town! But when? Also, she hasn't gotten a hold of Logan in three months! How does she feel about that? O.o

I hope you guys are enjoying this story. Cross country ended and I had freedom for two weeks, but track starts on Monday! Also, I had a bit of a phase of depression or something. Stuff happened. I'm feeling better now. (: Hopefully I'll keep writing. I'd like to.

Also just in case you weren't aware for some reason: this is book number 2. If you haven't read 1, idk what you're still doing here. Lol.

Remember to vote and comment what you think! Thanks for sticking with the story!

-H ❀