Copyright

      © 2012 by Erica Morrison

      ISBN: 9781456612528

      All rights reserved. The reproduction or utilization of this work in whole in part, in any form by any print, electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

      Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of any copyrighted materials in any form. To do so is a violation of the author’s rights.

      This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

      Contents

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      1.

      Katie fiddled with her locker combination as she listened to her friend Beth complain about her after school job. Beth worked at the Candy Shack, a cute bulk candy store at the Taylor town Mall. It was two weeks before Valentine Day and they had rearranged the entire store last night to prepare for the holiday. This had severely cut in to Beth’s usual work activities, which were flirting with her co worker Carl and texting on her cell phone. Katie was having a pretty difficult time finding sympathy for the fact that her best friend had to do some actual work for once.

      She finally managed to get her locker open and reached out to grab her books for sixth and seventh period, chemistry, and history. On top of her texts she found a small pink heart shaped box. She took it out and showed Beth who stopped in mid rant.

      “Hey what’s that?” She asked

      “I’m not sure; it was just in my locker.” Katie switched out her books and then studied the tiny package.

      “Look” Beth pointed out “There is a note.”

      Katie found a small pink envelope taped to the side of the box the card inside was printed in a swirly font and said

      Katie

      Be mine

      Katie handed Beth the note and opened the box. Inside was a cellophane baggie filled with pink conversation candy hearts and tied with a pink bow. All the hearts were white with pink letters and they all said Be mine.

      “Whoa, Katie have you been holding out on me?”

      “What? No way, I have no idea who this could be from, it’s probably a joke.”

      “Or someone is crazy about you.” Beth said batting her eyelashes outrageously. She snapped her fingers. “Hey we are both on the dance decoration committee; maybe it has to do with that, like favor bags or something.”

      “Good idea, check and see if you got one.” Katie said.

      The girls turned and headed toward Beth’s locker when the second bell rang.

      “I’ll do it later I can’t be late for French class again, Granger’s already written me up once this quarter.”

      “Ok later Beth.”

      Katie turned and headed to her own class opening the door just as the third, and officially late bell was ringing. She could feel Mr. Green following her as she raced to her seat a couple tables from the back. Her lab partner Andy was already seated with his book open when she sat down. He gave her a smile that barely concealed a laugh and she rolled her eyes.

      Katie had known Andy since kindergarten. He was always the tallest person in class. Now in their senior year he was six four and towered over everyone especially Katie who was five three even in heels. Because of his height Andy had spent most of his life slouching and trying to look smaller. Katie noticed this past summer he’d dropped the slouch and was trying a bit more with his clothes. Today he had on a maroon and grey Rugby shirt and dark jeans, his floppy brown hair made him look a bit like an overgrown Harry Potter.

      The truth was Andy wasn’t a bad looking guy, but how could you get excited about someone you had known since elementary school? And when they were seven Andy had pulled the heads off all her Barbie’s during show and tell and threw them on the roof! Katie still held a bit of a grudge, even if she had gotten him back by telling everyone he still slept with a teddy bear, her Barbie’s had been sacred.

      “Now that we are all here.” Mr. Green said, giving Katie a look. “Open your books to page 132 and begin reading today’s experiment.”

      Katie lugged her book onto the table and found the page. “Have you read through the experiment yet?”

      Andy nodded. “Yeah it’s easy more acids/bases tests. You sick of these yet?”

      “More then you know.” Katie went over to the supply chest and grabbed litmus paper and the small tray of samples they were supposed to test. She placed them on the table between her and Andy.

      “So we have to guess what each substance is and then predict acid or base at the end we test them and see if we were right.” Andy said.

      Katie nodded and grabbed the test tube marked sample one. Inside was a thick peachy liquid. Katie removed the stopper and smelled an unmistakable citrus odor. “Pink Grapefruit juice.” She said.

      Andy gave a quick sniff to double check and then wrote it down. Marking the entry with an “A” for acid.

      Katie took the next tube out, the liquid inside was pale violet and creamy. When she removed the cork she could smell the cloying sweetness of fake lavender.

      “Cheap Conditioner.” She said passing it to Andy.

      He laughed. “How do you know it’s cheap?”

      “It’s got that fake lavender dollar store smell.”

      They worked on the other six samples and then did the testing, getting all of them right.

      Katie gave her partner a high five. “Not bad Andy, we make a great team as usual.”

      Andy grinned we sure do. “So Katie, are you and Beth working on the dance this year.”

      “Yep, Jackie Simmons is in charge and man is she unorganized. Who the heck elected her class president?”

      “We did” Andy said laughing.

      “Yeah but only because she bribed us with chocolate.” Katie raised an eyebrow. “Why do you care? You haven’t been to a single dance ever.”

      “I don’t know it could be fun, I might go, my Mom’s on another of her” “Get the full high school experience kicks, so looks like I’m going to do sweetheart and prom this year.”

      Katie laughed. “You should get a powder blue tux in protest.”

      “I might.” He said. “So Katie I was wondering…”

      The bell rang cutting off Andy’s words. The lab partners turned in their reports and shuffled out the door.

      “What were you going to say?” Katie asked.

      “Nothing, the dance is the 15th right?”

      “Yep Saturday the fifteenth, just look for the gym covered in pink and red tackiness it will be pretty easy to spot.” Katie laughed. “Hey what about a pink tux? Then you’d match the décor”

      “Geez, thanks Katie, I was thinking black pants white shirt and a tie.”

      “Yeah