It's only the first day of school and I can already tell Travis Blake hasn't changed.

I, on the other hand, have, and I'm in no mood to deal with him. For example, I'm not the same girl who let people walk all over her. And if Travis still thinks that, he's in for a rude awakening.

I try to get out of my car before Travis parks and has the chance to approach me. But instead of parking in his normal spot, he parks his black truck beside me and gets out. He slams his door shut and stomps towards me, his anger radiating in the air around us.

"Excuse me, but you know the speed limit was thirty-five before the school zone, right? Not twenty." Then he pauses and I can practically hear the gears turning in his head. I turn and meet his gaze full-on, anticipating an angry outburst. Maybe a few curses, a red face, or at least yelling. But instead, I'm met with, "Well, hello, there." Then, as he gets closer, his perfect, confident smile turns into a confused frown. Soon, something seems to click in his mind and that confusion turns to realization. "Holy fucking shit."

For a moment, I stand still, deciding against walking away from him. His eyes trace over me. The action of slow appreciation makes my nose curl up in disgust. It's already so humid outside I can feel a light sheen of sweat forming on my arms, making me more uncomfortable than I already am. Hopefully, this will be over soon so I can get inside and enjoy the air conditioning.

He lets out a low whistle that makes me clench my fists behind me. "Emori?" His gorgeous face melts into a grin, and his expression morphs into something more relaxed. He looks down at me through long, dark lashes, and shakes his head as he lets out a breath. A trail of broken hearts always follows that look. I'm not falling for it.

"Hey, Travis. How's it going?" I force a withering smile as I shut my car door. Travis never noticed me unless it was to make a joke at my expense, but now that my appearance has changed, he doesn't seem to know where to look.

"Summer does wonders, huh? But, uh, how'd you lose all the weight you had before?" Because three months isn't enough time to lose a hundred and fifty pounds. He seems to leave that part out as he leans against my car.

I've actually been losing weight for a year and a half. But without the skin removal surgeries, no one had noticed. The image of the fat girl had still been there, but in reality, it was stretched skin. Not the excess fat I'd had at the start of my weight loss.

I look him up and down, no perfect retort in mind as I blurt the first thing that comes to me. "Wouldn't you like to know? Personal reasons, maybe?"

Travis is in no need of such information. You can tell by the tight navy-blue shirt he's wearing. It outlines just enough chiseled chest and abs and is enough to make any girl faint, but I hope what I said lands all the same. The memory of his jokes and insults makes me want to slap the confidence right off his face. One snarky comeback is only the start.

As he runs his hand through his dark hair, the way he chuckles seems almost mocking. He looks away for a second then returns his gaze to me. "You sure you know how to flatter a guy, don't you?" Sarcasm is evident in his drawl as he stares down at me, newfound appreciation sparkling in his ebony eyes.

His lips part to say more when someone calls out for him. When his gaze shifts to the direction of the speaker, I duck under his arm, grabbing my bag as I go. I can't afford to stay and chat, especially since I have yet to pick up my class schedule.

"Emori, wait!" Travis calls as I begin to cross the parking lot.

I turn around, shooting him a smile. "Sorry, Travis, but I've got to go get my schedule. You look like you're busy, anyway."His protests get drowned out by raucous guffawing as one of his friends catches up to him and I don't stop as I make my way toward the school.

Norton Valley High is enormous, though one can't say the same for our class sizes. The senior class has a hundred and thirty students and that's considered a large class. Despite that, our school has remained huge since it was established in the late-1800s.

Everything has upgraded since then, from the brick exterior to the waxed marble floors. It seems so over the top, but with our academic standing - not to mention our top-ranking sports teams - it makes sense.

When I enter the office, Miss May is sitting in her usual spot at her desk, dressed in a pink cardigan and black skirt, with her salt and pepper hair pinned into a bun on top of her head. The copper bangles on her wrists jingle as she types on her computer, the sound almost melodic. When she notices me, she looks up from her computer, smiles, and pushes her chair back a bit.

"Well, I'll be." She smiles as she drops her glasses to the tip of her nose. "Look at you! You look so happy, you're glowing!" She points a peach-colored nail at me. "Not that you didn't look good before, mind you."

I laugh, approaching her desk. Miss May is one of the few staff members at this school who know me outside of class hours. She's always so kind and considerate when talking to me. She's like a grandmother to everyone, and it's almost impossible to get on her nerves.

"Thanks, Miss May. I'm here to collect my schedule. I didn't have time to print it off this morning." I woke up late, got distracted trying to read my murder mystery, and left the house ten minutes late. I could use my phone to keep track of it all day, but that would get annoying. With a printed copy, I can stick it in the front of my binder and glance down at it between classes.

"I figured you were." She begins to root around in the filing cabinet next to her desk. "It should be here... Oh! Here it is."

She turns back to me, two papers in her hand. "You're in so many honors classes and online courses that it takes two pages to fit your schedule." She taps them against her desk, and I take them. "You better not make yourself too busy, sugar. You'll overwhelm yourself."

I smile. The genuine concern she shows for my well-being is more than I expect from most other staff members at this school, as horrible as that sounds. "Yes, ma'am." She doesn't need to know that the list will grow in extracurriculars.

After she shoos me out of the office, promising to inform my mother if I was tardy on the first day, I shake my head. Despite the hell this school has been for the past few years of my life, there are still some things that make me feel welcome, no matter how big or small I am. Even if those things are few and far between.

When I re-enter the cramped hallways, the atmosphere has shifted a little from when I first walked in. Usually, the halls are filled with the buzz and happiness that comes with the first day of school.

Everyone likes to act like they hate it, yet if you pay enough attention to what goes on around you, it's easy to see that isn't the case. But the usual hum of excited energy is absent. Something else replaces it. I'm not sure what.

Unlike earlier, people are no longer chatting with their friends, but staring at a guy making his way down the hall. My heart thumps harder in my chest when I realize who he is.

Mateo Perez. He usually goes by Tay, though, rather than the name passed down to him by his father. I suppose he chose the nickname because it has a more Southern twang and helps him fit in more than his dark skin allows. He never told anyone why for sure.

People around me whisper as he makes his way through the crowd, head held high even though his usual cocky and self-assured smile is absent. I wave and try to make my way to him, but it's impossible to push past the people in the middle of the hallway. When I managed to get closer, more than his smile was different.

I've only ever seen Tay as a confident, mesmerizing, and kind person. We haven't talked much, only when we had time to text, but seeing the dejected look in his eyes is odd and stops me in my tracks. Something isn't right.

I watch Tay walk into the doorway of the office, rather than through it, and he curses.

"Damn it," he mumbles, feeling the door frame with wandering hands as he manages to get through it this time.

What's up with him? The door is right in front of him, and it isn't like he was looking somewhere else. His gaze was focused on the doorway, yet he still ran into it.

Whatever is going on, it's weird. Tay and I kept in touch through text while I was out of town, but he'd never let on that anything happened. Come to think of it, it's been a while since he's responded to any of my questions, but I figured he was just busy.

Mom talked to Laurie, Tay's mom, but refused to tell me what they discussed, which was unusual. Whatever happened over the summer, it's bad enough that no one wants to talk about it. So I have to figure it out myself.

I keep my head down the whole walk to my class. Half of me is trying to avoid bringing attention to myself while I think. The other half is trying to come up with scenarios on what could have happened to Tay. If everyone else already knows, I'll find out later, but something is seriously off. He didn't notice me even when I called out to him. Didn't even look twice in my direction.

My next class is in a room I know well, so it's not as difficult to find as I'd feared.

"Welcome," a baritone voice greets from the teacher's desk.

"Good morning, sir," I reply politely, shifting my gaze to where I can see the teacher's face. Instead of seeing the familiar, wrinkled face of old Mr. Arnold, I'm met with that of someone new. I could tell he wasn't from the south by his lack of an accent. He's somewhat young, too. One of the youngest teachers here.

I send him a quick smile as I take my seat, and the bell rings. The teacher stands up and turns to the board. He scrawls something in chalk before facing the class.

"I'm Mr. Chambers, and this is Honors Physics. Today, we're just going to lay a few ground rules and I'll assign lab partners." He grabs some papers off his desk and hands them out, talking as he does so. A couple of guys toss a paper ball back and forth, and he snatches the ball, turning around and tossing it into the trash in one deft move.

"You have the rules here, so I won't bore you with the specifics. Read these rules and you'll be fine. Just expect I won't deal with acting out of turn, horseplay in the lab, disrespect, or goofing off while I'm talking." He sends a pointed look to the two he took the paper from.

Once he finishes his lap around the room, he spins on his heel and faces us again. "I know how annoying guys can be when it comes to working with girls, so I'll assign same-gender partners." The joke earns him a few laughs, but they're strained like they're only courtesy laughs.

Mr. Chambers walks along the rows, assigning partners by who is closest together. My partner ends up being a thin girl with pale skin and auburn curls that are teased back into a short ponytail. She seems harmless enough, and I know she's someone I can see myself being friends with. Even her name, Lottie, is sweet.

Mr. Chambers returns to the front of the room and clasps his hands together. "You and your partner may talk quietly amongst yourselves. I don't know if each of you knows the other, but I want you to use the rest of class time to talk." He takes a seat at his desk and begins typing, not giving us a second glance.

"Hey." Lottie leans over the back of her seat and smiles at me.

"Hi," I reply, returning the smile hesitantly. The intricacies of conversation with someone new aren't unknown to me, but I haven't met someone new in so long that I have no clue how to react.

The group beside us begins muttering something to each other, and the only thing I catch from their conversation is, "I heard he's blind now. He and his brother were in an accident over the summer."

Lottie flinches as she also catches wind of the conversation and turns away. She pretends to scribble something into her notebook, not sparing a second glance at the guy speaking. I'm not sure how she can ignore a conversation like that. It's heartbreaking. Anyone would be concerned with who he was talking about.

Unable to quell my curiosity, I lean over to the group. "Who?"

The guy who was talking blinks at me. "You don't know" After seeing the look on my face, he said, "Tay Perez."