Secrets and Shadows by Shannon Delany Page A

that I somehow overlooked. I was usual y more together in Mr. Miles’s class, but sitting beside Derek was like sitting beside the sun. I couldn’t help noticing how he shined.
    When the bel signaled the end of class Pietr brushed between Derek’s desk and mine, heading straight for Mr. Miles. I tried not to eavesdrop, but the temptation was too great. Slowly I put away my pen. My pencil. My notebook. My textbook. My ears perked for any bit of their conversation.
    My resolve to establish a new normal excluding Pietr had wavered almost as soon as I’d caught sight of him again. Stupid heart. Stupid girl.
    “I do not change service learning assignments without need, Mr. Rusakova.” Mr. Miles looked grave.
    Change his service learning assignment? My throat constricted. Sure, Pietr and I didn’t actual y talk during service learning anymore, but it was stil better to have him nearby than not. Most of the time.
    When it didn’t hurt me.
    Oh, hel .
    Pietr glanced over his shoulder at me, peeved I was stil not out the door. Derek’s buddies passed by, slapping him on the back, jostling and joking with him. Each tried in his own way to coax Derek away with them—away from me .
    I was no cheerleader. I was much farther down the social food chain. Nobody wanted a footbal jock dating an editor of the school paper.
    Derek finished loading his backpack and propped himself against the neighboring desk, waiting for me.
    I invented reasons to stay. I rearranged my pens and pencils. I adjusted my stack of textbooks, ordering them neatly by period. I straightened my notebooks. Everything I’d put away, I took out and redid, buying time.
    Derek waited, beaming. Handsome, strong, charming. Impossible to ignore.
    Pietr leaned toward Mr. Miles, hands ruffling against stacks of papers as he spoke softly.
    Mr. Miles frowned and shook his head. “I certainly don’t change service learning assignments because of a lover’s spat. Imagine how often I would be rearranging things if I did.”

    of a lover’s spat. Imagine how often I would be rearranging things if I did.”
    Pietr hung his head.
    Derek’s mouth slid into a smirk. “Come on, Jessica.” He straightened, shouldering his backpack. “We don’t want to be late.”
    As cool as it was that Derek used “we” to refer to me and him— together —I couldn’t leave. Not yet. Two months ago I wouldn’t have given Pietr Rusakova a second glance if Derek had shown any interest in me.
    But he hadn’t. “I’m sorry, Derek. I have to talk to him.”
    “Don’t waste your time. Sarah wil give him whatever he wants— if you know what I mean.”
    I did. Everyone did.
    “But you”—he set a hand on my desk, so close I could smel the cinnamon scent of his breath—“you have higher standards.”
    I wanted to disagree, stand up for Sarah and say she and I were cut from the same cloth. But it was such a lie. The truth was I couldn’t even afford a yard of what Sarah’d been cut from.
    Instead of disagreeing with Derek, I said, “Go on. I’l catch up to you later.”
    He shrugged, not worried. Derek was top dog at Junction High School.
    Before the werewolves moved in.
    “I don’t think there’s anything you can say that would make me change your service learning assignment.”
    Pietr groaned.
    I stood and slung the backpack over my shoulder, heading for the door. I’d just taken a position outside in the hal way, my back cooled by a locker, when Pietr stepped out. My stomach tightened, quivering in anticipation.
    He knew I was there before I said anything.
    “Why are you doing this?”
    Mr. Miles closed the classroom door. Students completed the race to class, leaving us alone in the hal way.
    Pietr stood silent, looking down at me.
    “I don’t know what to do,” I confessed. “I thought—when I had time to think—we’d come through everything stronger. I didn’t expect this . You choosing Sarah, Derek choosing me.…”
    “You said a girl wil know when she’s