Prologue:

Sarah felt herself go numb. This couldn’t be happening. She gripped the phone, her knuckles going white. The knot in her throat was unbearable.

“Sarah, are you still there?”

In an almost inaudible whimper Sarah answered, “Ah huh.”

“I know this is hard honey, but it’s not the end of the world. We talked about this already, and you knew it was a possibility. I tried, Sarah. I really did. But there’s no way around it. We’ve gone over all the other possibilities, but anything else is too much of a risk. It’s for the best.”

“But, senior year …” Sarah felt the anger building, and the tears burning in her eyes. She was ready to blow up, lash out. Then she heard her mom again. Her voice choked up as well.

“I know, honey. I’m so sorry. I really screwed things up this time.”

Her mom took a long, trembling deep breath and it broke Sarah’s heart. She wanted to be with her, to hug her, and comfort her.

“It’s okay, mom. I’ll be fine.”

Her mom cleared her throat and lowered her voice. Sounding very determined, she spoke again, “I am going to make this up to you. I promise, okay?”

“Okay.”

“I’ve already called Aunt Norma. She and Uncle William will be here this weekend. They wanna help us pack so you and I will have time to spend together. Then I’ll have to be in court on Monday.”

Sarah gasped. “Monday?”

“Yeah, babe, Monday.”

Sarah covered half her face with her free hand and shook her head. Not wanting to make her mom feel any worse, she choked back a sob.

“Alright, mom,” she whispered.

“I’m gonna be here a while, honey, so don’t wait up for me. We’ll talk more about this tomorrow.”

She hung up and looked at her best friend Sydney who’d been sitting on the bed next to her the whole time. Sydney stared at her anxiously.

“She’s pleading guilty and gonna do at least three years. I have to go live with my Aunt Norma in California.” Sydney kept a strong front but Sarah fell into his arms crying.

CHAPTER 1

ONE MONTH LATER

La Jolla High School, California

Even as she stood in the middle of a bustling hallway with noisy students rushing by her Sarah felt utterly alone. One month wasn’t nearly enough to prepare her for new school, new friends.

New life.

God, how she missed Sydney. This wasn’t at all how she’d imagined her first day as a senior in high school would feel like. She had so many plans at her old school and now she stood here completely lost.

Clenching her backpack in her hand she walked off in no particular direction. She wanted to get out of the middle of traffic of bodies. Where in the heck was Valerie? She had said the main entrance hall just outside the counselor’s office hadn’t she?

They’d been dropped off together by her aunt but Sarah had to go to the counselor’s office. Since she’d enrolled so late her schedule hadn’t come in the mail like Valerie’s. No sooner than the moment they had walked into school together had Valerie started socializing promising she’d be right there when she got back from the office.

The bell rang and Sarah tried not to panic. She glanced at her schedule but had no idea where her first class was. She backed up slowly until her back was against a wall. Had Valerie really abandoned her? No she wouldn’t. She took in some of the faces around her and wondered if she should just ask someone for directions to her first class.

High pitched squealing got her attention and she turned to the front entrance to find some girl had her arms wrapped around one of the guys that had just walked in. Sarah rolled her eyes. She’d always hated those types of girls. The guy was obviously a jock because he wore his letterman’s jacket and so did his two friends.

Deciding she was on her own, she walked back toward the office and frowned when she realized a map of the school had been just outside the office all this time. There were a few kids standing in front of it examining their schedules and then looking up at the map. Apparently she wasn’t the only newbie at this school. Not much of a consolation. Sarah looked around for Valerie, feeling more than a little annoyed at her.

Male laughter erupted just behind her and she turned to find the same jocks she’d seen walk in earlier with a few more guys horsing around. The tall one that was greeted at the door by the squealing girl was smiling when their eyes met. The smile on his face seemed to dissolve slowly. And she stood there frozen, her lips slightly opened. For a moment she thought he might say something and then she heard Valerie.

“There you are!”

Sarah snapped out of her daze and watched as Valerie who’d already taken Sarah’s schedule smile wickedly. “We have two classes together!”

“We do?” Sarah’s cheeks still felt warm but she quickly walked along side of Valerie incredibly grateful for her timing.

Valerie talked about the classes just until they were far enough away and around the corner of the building. “Oh, my God, Sarah, do you know who that was staring at you?”

Surprised, and not sure why, Sarah pretended to not understand. “Who?”

Valerie gasped. “That was Angel Moreno! Don’t you remember I’ve told you about him and his brothers?”

“No,” Sarah lied. Of course she remembered part of the reason she could hardly breathe when she recognized him.

The bell rang again.

“Oh, shit,” Valerie looked at her watch. “We’re gonna be late on our first day.”