I went to horticulture as quickly as possible. Taking my seat, I stayed focused on the door. I wanted to feel Jolie's first emotion when she saw me. After her avoidance yesterday, I was nervous.

"Hey, Ash!" Mandy slid onto the table, blocking my view of the door.

I tried not to sound frustrated, she was just trying to be friendly, "Hello, Mandy."

I moved to the side to look around her. Instead of taking the hint, she leaned toward me, so I had to tilt back, to keep our faces from touching.

"What are you looking for? Anything I can help with?" she asked.

Jealousy and annoyance were coming from her. Why did she think she had any claim on my attention?

Before I could say anything, hurt and anger washed over me, and I saw Jolie. She was standing there looking at me, with Mandy almost sitting in my lap. She turned away and sat on the other side of the room with her back to me.

Mandy looked at her and smirked, and I realized that she'd hurt her on purpose. She was satisfied, and I was livid.

"How miserable you must be to need to hurt someone to be content. I feel sorry for you, but that doesn't make your vindictive behavior any less odious."

She just sat there with her mouth hanging open.

I stood up, grabbed my bag, and went to the seat next to Jolie, "May I sit here with you?"

She looked up at me delighted, "Sure."

I sat, grateful nothing had changed between us. I felt her mood lift, and all was right with the world.

At lunch, I sat with Mark at their regular table to wait for Jolie.

"I heard you told Mandy off today," he was grinning at me, "That's pretty great."

He was really happy about it, which almost made me laugh. "Did Jolie tell you that?"

His eyebrows pulled down and he huffed, "No. She wouldn't talk about anything like that, at least not at school. She might have told me later, but it doesn't really take that long for things like that to get around." He chuckled, "Did you really call her odious?"

"Not exactly, I said her behavior was odious, not her."

Mark cracked up, "That's just as good! Man, I wish I could have seen her face. I bet she was pissed."

"Hey, guys!" Clara sat next to Mark with her sack lunch. "Who was pissed? Mandy?"

At Mark's nod, she went on, "I heard about that! I bet it was amazing. Maybe next time you're going to put one of those skanks in her place, could you let me know ahead of time? I swear I could have sold tickets to that show!"

I laughed, "It wasn't planned, and I'd rather not do it again."

"Well, if you and Jolie are going to be some kind of a thing," she waved her hand around, "I'm sure it'll come up. There are a few girls here who called dibs on your first day, and Jolie wasn't one of them."

"What does that mean?" Humans were so confusing sometimes.

Clara rolled her eyes, "It means, a bunch of girls got in line when they saw you, and you skipped the line and went straight for Jolie." She smiled, "You made the right choice, those other girls are the worst."

"What girls are the worst?" I was so focused on Clara's bizarre explanation that I hadn't seen Jolie coming. She sat right next to me with her tray like it was nothing. She was happy, and when she saw me looking at her she gave me a big smile, "What?"

"I'm just glad you're here."

Her cheeks turned pink and as she looked into my eyes her happiness poured into me. It wasn't as good as skin to skin contact, but when she focused on my eyes I could almost read her mind.

Mark cleared his throat, "OK, you guys are adorable, but we have things to discuss."

Clara giggled, "Yeah Jolie, were you going to mention the smackdown this hottie gave on your behalf today or were you just waiting for us to hear it around the school, like a couple of strangers?" She was shaking her head in disappointment, but she was kidding, I could feel that she was happy.

Jolie laughed, but she was a little embarrassed. She didn't seem to like being the center of attention even with her friends, but maybe it was because I was there.

"Clara, what are you writing your paper on for English?" I asked.

Taking a deep breath, Clara launched into an explanation of her paper's topic and how far she'd gotten. I wasn't really paying attention, but Mark was, so they continued the conversation without Jolie and me.

I couldn't focus on them because Jolie had reached for my hand for the first time. When I looked at her she mouthed, "Thanks" and gave me a grin.

She was relieved to have the attention off of her, and I was finally starting to understand this amazing girl.

At the end of the day I waited near the door to the parking lot so I could walk Jolie to her car. When she saw me leaning against the wall, excitement flared up inside her. Tate was right, she liked me as much as I liked her, and I liked her very much.

I smiled when she got closer, "Hello."

"Hey! You don't drive, do you?"

"I like to walk, but I wanted to see you one more time before tomorrow."

She beamed and took my hand as we started walking. I loved how quickly she'd become comfortable doing that.

I gave her a slip of paper, "Here, it's my phone number. I thought maybe if you have time later you could give me a call."

"I bet I can squeeze you in," she grinned. "Do you have far to walk? I could give you a ride."

I would've loved to spend the extra time with her, but the thought of riding in one of those unnatural things was beyond unappealing. "Thank you, but it's not far. I just cut through the woods," I pointed toward the trees on the other side of the lot.

"Oh, OK. Well, I guess I'll talk to you later," she smiled and waved as she walked toward the car where Mark was waiting.

"I'm looking forward to it. Bye Mark!" I waved as I walked toward the trees.

It didn't take me long to get home running through the woods. When I walked in, Tate was on the couch watching a war movie.

"This is what you found to watch? I thought you were tired of fighting."

"I am, but it's not like I'm involved, I'm sitting on a couch. Besides, the way they fight is interesting."

"If you say so."

Pausing the movie Tate turned to me, "So? How did it go with her today?"

"It went very well. I think you were right, she's nervous because she likes me too."

"Of course I was right, I'm always right," he smiled. "I need to go home for a few hours; it's been too long. Holding this appearance is starting to feel draining. You haven't returned since we got here, you need to go too."

"You're right. But, I gave Jolie my phone number and she said she would call. I don't want to miss it."

Tate sighed loudly, "Fine, we can wait until after the girl's call. We'll still be back before morning. I have another movie I was wanting to watch anyway," he grinned.

It was unusual for me to get to feel my own emotions with no one else's affecting me. It wasn't something I could stop; if I focused I could turn it down, but I could never turn it completely off. Some people or emotions were so strong they couldn't be ignored, even if I tried.

I was finding many human teenage emotions couldn't be ignored. It was tiring to have all that coming at me all day, so I preferred to spend my time alone in the evenings.

I was curious to see how my gift worked over the phone. Would I still be able to feel what she was feeling? Did I want to? Maybe having a normal conversation the way everyone else did, would be nice.

When I told Tate that I wanted a phone, he thought it was hilarious. He'd never needed one, and for me to get one just to give one person the number was really amusing to him.

He got me one anyway and helped me figure out how to use it. He was interested to find out how being on the phone would affect my gift too.

It was getting late when a shrill sound pierced the air, and the screen on the phone glowed. My heart sped up as I answered, "Hello?"

"Hi Ash, it's Jolie. Are you busy?"

It didn't work over the phone, I didn't feel any external emotions! Hearing her voice without her feelings to accompany it, was a little disconcerting. But getting to experience my own excitement and joy by itself was amazing.

"Ash? Are you there?"

"I'm here, sorry. I'm not busy at all, just lounging on the grass in the backyard."

"You spend a lot of time lying on the ground." She laughed, "You do have a room inside, right?"

Chuckling, I said, "I do, but I like the quiet out here. What about you, what are you doing?"

"Not much. I walked the dogs and did a little homework. Mom's working late tonight, and Mark has to work too, so I'm just hanging around doing a little laundry."

"You stay busy, don't you?"

"Yeah, I guess so. Mom works a lot, so I try to help her out."

"That's nice of you. What kind of work does she do?"

She took a deep breath, "Everything. During the day, she's a teller at the bank in town. Nights and weekends, she does all kinds of work, waitressing, stocking shelves, anything that will work around her bank hours," she sounded frustrated.

"Does it bother you that she works so much?"

"Yeah, kind of. I feel guilty, she does all these extra jobs for me, and she insists that I can't get a job to help. She lets me walk dogs because it doesn't take up too much of my time. She says school and learning are my jobs right now."

"It sounds like she just wants you to do well. Has she always worked so much?"

"No, not when I was younger. But when I turned 13 she decided that I was old enough to be home alone sometimes. By the time I was 15, she was working all the time. She's saving money for me to go to college or whatever I decide to do," she sounded sad, but it seemed like her mother was just trying to do the best she could for her.

"She sounds very determined."

She snickered, "She is that. Mom only has a couple of things she feels really strongly about. One of them is no one should ever have to depend on someone else to live, that means a good career is important. She says that money gives you options, so she's saving as much as she can so I'll have options."

"Do you know what you want to do after high school?"

Groaning she said, "I have no idea. What about you?"

"I don't know either."

We talked for the next hour about nothing and everything, and it was wonderful. She made me laugh, and she was so smart and caring. She asked some questions I had a hard time answering, like where I was born, but thankfully she seemed content with the answers I was able to give without telling a lie.

She started to yawn between words, so I told her it was time for me to let her get ready for bed. I was glad she didn't seem eager to stop talking, but I still had to go home. If we were going to have time to recharge and get back before school started, we needed to leave soon.

She yawned again, "Excuse me. I guess I'll see you in the morning then?"

"I'll be waiting for you outside, OK?"

I didn't need my gift to recognize the enthusiasm in her voice, "OK, that'd be great!"

"Wonderful, I'll see you then. Goodnight."

"Night, Ash."