Path of Destruction by Caisey Quinn, Elizabeth Lee

Jane as they watched Cameron rush down the hallway away from them.
    The last thing he’d expected that morning was to walk in and see the two girls staring each other down in the hallway. But it was really only a matter of time before they crossed paths. The firm grip Ella Jane had on Cami’s arm led him to believe that he needed to intervene before a catfight broke out. Even if a little part of him would have enjoyed watching the two of them tussle on the floor, he didn’t want either of them ending up in trouble. Especially when he figured the root of it all was Hayden Prescott.
    “You just got a warning for ditching class last week. It will kill your mom if you get into trouble, you know that right? She’s been through enough without having to worry about you getting kicked out of school.”
    “Just handling things like you would,” Ella Jane responded, her eyes narrowed in on his. “Isn’t that what we country folks do? Kick ass and ask questions later?”
    She might not have been very vocal over the past couple weeks, but he could hear the contempt in her voice loud and clear. Maybe it was a bad idea for him to bring up her mother’s disappointment.
    “Maybe here, in this place, we should think things through a bit more than usual,” Cooper said gently.
    “It’s not like you really thought things through before shoving Hayden.”
    He should have known that her attitude had nothing to do with her mom.
    “Are you seriously pissed at me for roughing up Prescott in the parking lot?” Coop scoffed. “I barely touched him. And, from what I recall, you were telling him to kick rocks before I got there.”
    “Whatever,” she said. He didn’t miss the eye roll she added for effect. “I don’t need you to fight my battles for me.”
    “Maybe you do, ‘cause from what I can tell, you’ve got some pretty crap judgment lately.”
    “For your information, what happened back there had nothing to do with Hayden.”
    “What else would you have to discuss with Cameron Nickelson?” he asked. He highly doubted that Cameron was lecturing her about the latest fall fashions or that Ella Jane was giving her tips for pruning a rose bush. The only common denominator between them was Prescott. For the life of him he couldn’t figure out what either girl saw in him.
    “It’s... She’s...” Ella Jane stumbled through her words like a flat stone skipping across the lake before she finally gave up. “Maybe you should go ask her. You seemed awfully concerned with her well-being a few minutes ago.”
    “To be fair,” Coop began, “I was only concerned because I thought you were going to kick her ass.”
    The last thing he wanted to admit to Ella Jane was that he actually liked Cameron Nickelson—she was different than he’d imagined the Summit Bluffs’ girls would be. Witty and engaging, way less shallow than he’d pegged her for. And there was something in her, deep down, that he could relate to, even if he didn’t know what it was. Nope. He could never tell Ella Jane any of that. It would go over about as well as giving a barn cat a bath.
    “I might have.” She smiled, pulling the strap of her backpack up on her shoulder. “I’ve got to get to class. They’ve already called my parents twice about me ditching. And for the record, my judgment is just fine,” she added, almost convincing Coop and, from what he could tell by the look on her face, herself.
     
    P hysics was the last class he felt like attending, so he took Ella Jane’s advice—even if she hadn’t literally meant it—and went to check on Cameron. He’d seen her go into the stairwell leading to the basement only to find an empty hallway when he made it down. The muffled sound of crying disclosed her location. A location she obviously didn’t want to be found in, but he went in anyway. There were only a few things in life that could get him to drop his tough-as-nails farm-boy facade and a pretty girl crying was one of them.
    “Thought you