Ethan went back to his room, dropped into a chair, and just sat there. Out in the living room, his parents carried on, completely oblivious to everything.He laughed again, out of nowhere.That day, Ethan had seen Margaret still alive. Robert, whose back hadn't yet started to hunch. Nora, who hadn't vanished from his life. He'd made plans to grab barbecue with Danny, and he'd ended things with Camille.Sure, he'd gotten the lowest score in the class on his English test that day.But it felt like he had the whole world in his hands anyway.On his first night back, Ethan slept like a rock....Ethan slept great that night. What he didn't know was how many other people were lying awake, restless and confused.Danny got home and his phone wouldn't stop ringing, everyone in their social circle calling to ask about Ethan's "heroics" that day. He had to field every single one of their little jabs and brags."Yeah, that's right, I was standing right next to him. Yeah, Camille's a big deal at

Ethan had originally wanted to actually experience the bus ride, weaving through the streets and alleys, soaking in the atmosphere of Riverton in the early 2000s. Instead, he just ended up getting shoved against the window by the crowd.Pressed flat against the glass, swaying with the bus and the shifting light, he finally made it to the Willow Street stop for Hartwell High and got spit back out onto the sidewalk.He didn't look elegant. He didn't look handsome. He'd pictured himself with that half-bright, half-melancholy look, like some brooding movie star in a music video, riding the bus lost in thought. Instead he looked like he'd just escaped a disaster.No wonder he hated taking the bus. In a city as packed as Riverton, the bus alone could wear you out completely.After getting off at the stop, cars couldn't really get much farther anyway. Most students coming to school got off right there and walked up the tree-lined road to the main gate of Hartwell High.He usually didn't meet

In their homeroom, Andrew Kessler's grades were in a tier all their own, way ahead of everyone else. The second tier was Nora, Emily, and Owen.Andrew's overall ranking was first in the grade, no weak subjects anywhere, mostly thanks to how fast he picked things up and how quickly he thought on his feet. When it came to learning English, there were basically two schools of thought: the grind-it-out approach, and the smart-method approach.Andrew was firmly in the smart-method camp, never really relying on sheer effort. For him, English mostly came down to building vocabulary, locking down grammar, and sharpening listening comprehension.Andrew was talented, sure, but he wasn't a god. There was still plenty of vocabulary he hadn't gotten around to learning, and he couldn't preview every single subject every single day. Sometimes he just crammed right there in class, and usually that was more than enough.He figured if he'd had to answer that translation question himself, he probably wo

The story of Ethan and Camille making up became yet another legend in the grade.Of course, the real star of this particular story was Camille.Camille had successfully stirred the whole thing back up, sparking a fresh round of gossip. Her status as Hartwell's reigning goddess stayed completely untouchable, her reputation unmatched.There are always people like that in this world. No matter the situation, even when the odds are stacked against them, they somehow turn it all around in the end. People like that tend to become major players in whatever world they're operating in.Ethan had always believed that people who sail through life without a hitch, climbing steadily the whole way, aren't the ones worth envying. The people who actually impress you are the ones who get knocked down by a storm and come out the other side standing taller than before.Plenty of people manage ten years of fame. The ones who stay relevant for half a lifetime, though, those are the real heavyweights. Just

"Your Hartwell is such a good school, you don't even know how lucky you are. If I could go back, I'd have picked Hartwell over the Lakeside scholarship in a heartbeat. I bet my grades would've been even better!"Lauren wasn't lying, either. She genuinely wished she'd ended up at Hartwell, partly because of how its reputation had only grown over the years. Success bred more success, more wealthy and connected families scrambling to get their kids in, which only amplified the whole aura of prestige around the place.Lauren craved that feeling, attending somewhere that practically guaranteed you'd stand out, that gave you an automatic boost just by association.And honestly, it wasn't an unreasonable thing to want. Take Hartwell's reigning school beauty, Nora, who'd been famous for ages. Or Camille, who'd once completely bewitched Lakeside's own heartthrob, had him waiting outside Hartwell's gate every single day, something the whole district knew about.There was also a girl on the gymn