Chapter One

McKenna

Invisible.

All I needed to do for nine more months was fly under the radar and then I could bust out of Twin River and never look back. And with four thousand students here at Twin River High, I should be able to do that no problem. Even with my bright pink hair.

I took two steps to the left and one to the right, narrowly avoiding Gretchen Mead and her trio of popular girls strutting down the hallway. They were one of the many reasons I couldn't wait to get out of here.

None of them acknowledged me. That would bother most people, but not me. Unless I was with my best friend, Ernie aka E, I preferred to be in the shadows.

Speaking of Ernie, I glanced down at my phone to see if he'd texted me back. We were supposed to meet for—

My shoulder and side of my face collided with something soft, yet surprisingly hard. If that was even possible? The contact sent me spinning and I planted my foot in time to keep me upright.

"Whoa!" My physics lab notebook and half-eaten apple went flying through the air. Damn it. I was hungry!

A hand jetted out and snagged my apple, centimeters from hitting the nasty linoleum floor, and then cupped my elbow, stabilizing me.

I looked up and came face-to-face with Jace Rover's rock-hard pecs.

"Oh shit." My heart took off, beating so hard I thought he'd hear it. I stepped backward, cheeks burning hotter by the second. A locker, more the combination dial of that locker, jammed into my spine and I hopped to the side.

Jace's ocean blue eyes narrowed on mine as he held up my apple, and then he quirked an eyebrow.

"Nice catch." I was grateful he'd saved my food, but it was too bad he couldn't have saved the contents of my bag splayed on the gross floor. The herds of students stampeding down the hallway shifted a little, but some of the papers were still getting trampled.

"You okay?" Jace glanced around, then focused on me again.

My stomach flip-flopped. Ramming into a brick wall would have hurt less and he hadn't budged at all. What is this guy? Like 400 percent muscle?

I gently inspected my nose ring to make sure it was still in and there wasn't any bleeding. "I think I'm okay." 

Dang.

He ran his fingers through his chestnut hair and shifted his weight from foot to foot. "You need the nurse?"

"I'm fine." My response came out a little bit more clipped than I'd intended, but holy hell I was talking to Jace Rovers, Twin River High's star wide receiver, one of the most popular guys at our school, and the first boy I'd ever had a crush on.

A conversation with him would lead to being seen. The opposite of staying invisible.

Jace gave a nod before crouching down. He reached for his fallen backpack, but its contents had spilled all over the hallway as well.

A chorus of snickers filled the space surrounding us.

Leave it to a group of high schoolers to laugh at two people colliding in the hallway. Who was I kidding, if I'd witnessed this, I probably would have laughed, too.

As Jace gathered his notebooks and iPad, a hint of fresh soap swirled out from him as his shaggy brown hair shifted, and I found myself breathing deeply. There might have been a bit of pine in that mix, too, and somehow, it was exactly how I'd imagined he'd smell.

I kept my eyes glued to the floor as I reached down and picked up my things.

Fuck. My mouth was watering. As in I was salivating. Because of Jace Rovers.

"Nice boots," Jace said as we both stood up.

I froze, totally not trusting what I'd just heard. Jace was a pretty nice guy, but I certainly didn't expect him to make small talk with me.

"Thanks." I looked down at my worn combat boots. I got them from a thrift store last year and they'd become a staple in my limited wardrobe.

He dipped his head and hustled down the hallway in the opposite direction from me.

My mouth opened to tell him bye, but I couldn't get the words out.

I gulped. My heart was still slamming in my chest and I felt a little lightheaded.

Get it the fuck together, McKenna. 

I'd known Jace since kindergarten, but we never ran in the same circles. Especially after the sixth grade when my universe fell apart. I'd stepped back from everything... everyone.

I'd always thought he was cute. But that didn't matter. We were just too different, a realization I'd come to a long time ago...

The warning bell rang and the students buzzing around me morphed into a mad dash. My boots squeaked against the linoleum floor as I picked up the pace and raced down the hall.

Twin River High was so huge, getting to the physics lab on time, when it was on the far end of the senior wing, was challenging, to say the least. I had to weave around four thousand students, of which a thousand were in my senior class alone. This place always felt more like a castle from the 1900s that'd been repurposed into a school with its narrow hallways, massive stone facing, and dim lighting inside.

I flicked a few strands of my thick hair out of my face that'd worked loose from my double buns during my collision with the human brick wall.

I'd dyed my blond hair bright pink after Dad bailed on my mom and me because I refused to have the same color hair as that deadbeat. Since then, I'd tried a few different colors, but bright pink was my favorite. Sure, it was a sharp contrast to my all-black dress code, hence the Goth Girl nickname everyone so lovingly gave me, but I liked it and that was all that mattered. At first I worried it might make me stand out too much, but in a surprising twist, it only made me blend in more, since lots of students dyed their hair.

With only seconds to spare, I entered the classroom and took my seat behind a black slate lab table.

Out of all my classes, this was one of my favorites. We did a lot of interesting experiments and Mrs. Numan actually made physics fun, which wasn't exactly an easy task.

The seat next to me was empty. I was the only student in this class who'd managed to skip having a lab partner. Which was fine by me; partners meant talking, which meant asking questions.

They wouldn't understand my home life. So what was the point of pretending to be all chummy with the people in my class?

I grabbed a pencil from my backpack and opened my notebook.

Kingdom of Swords was printed across the top of the first page in neat block letters.

I took a quick breath in. What the hell was this?

Under the title was a map drawn out in black ink. Areas had been shaded off for forests, swamps, mountains, and a medieval-looking city had been sketched in painstaking detail.

I flipped to the next page.

Chapter One: Death by the Sword

Neat handwriting filled the next ten pages. All capital letters, spaced out perfectly.

Seriously, what the hell was this?

I looked up at the whiteboard. Mrs. Numan had been listing the steps for our next experiment and I needed to write this stuff down.

What happened to my notebook?

That's when it hit me. My collision with Jace. His book bag had been open and his stuff had gone everywhere.

I flipped through a few more pages in total disbelief. This looked like notes for a story.

Maybe it was for a creative writing class or something.

Crap. I was going to have to track him down to switch notebooks back, wasn't I?

Wait a minute. Wait a minute. This couldn't be his notebook. No way would a football jock like Jace write fantasy stories, right? Okay, maybe it was rude to assume he, an athlete, couldn't also love to write. I mean, nobody knew I loved to act, so maybe Jace was a secret writer.

I scanned the content until I came across a steamy kissing scene, entangled limbs and groping hands.

My cheeks instantly flamed. It's a romance fantasy story? Holy shit, Jocktastic Jace Rovers writes books with make-out scenes?

This can't be his, can it? But if it wasn't, who did it belong to?

No one else had dropped anything and my notebook was missing. So I had his and he must have mine.

It was the only explanation that made sense.

I didn't know Jace well, but surely people would talk if they knew he wrote stuff like this, right?

The pages were filled with his neat penmanship about halfway through the notebook. It was more like notes, some fully written scenes, and then a few outlines. Almost like brainstorming or something. I'd seen this before in some of the online screenwriting webinars I'd watched.

I flipped to the last page and looked at the inside of the back cover.

There, he'd written a website, username, and password.

Scribbles?
WriteEmHard
I grabbed my cell phone from my pocket. Being sure to keep it out of Mrs. Numan's view, I Googled Scribbles.

The premium website for writers.
Was he sharing this story online?
Too curious not to look, I typed in his username and clicked on his profile.

Holy crap! He had ninety-three thousand followers. The screen had a message board that was filled with comments.

FantasyGirl1: Update! 

ILikeBigBooksandICannotLie: Plz update Kingdom of Swords!

ReaderGirl99: I can't wait for Wednesday! Please update today!

KOSFanModerator: Come join our Fandom on IG! Follow @KOSFans to discuss your favorite book of all time!

Whoa... He has some intense fans.

To the left of their comments was a book cover. It was all black with a gold sword in the middle. Kingdom of Swords had been written in a font that reminded me of the Game of Thrones title.

Fifteen million reads?
Are you serious?
Eyes wide, I tapped on the cover. Chapters one through twenty-three were available to read. Each of them had thousands of comments.

I went back and looked at the profile again. Above the comments was an "About Me" section.

WriteEmHard: I like swords, what can I say?

Well, geez. That didn't give much away.

He didn't even have a profile picture. Instead, the space was filled with the letters K.O.S. over a sword.

Kingdom of Swords? He's got a logo for his book?

"Miss Storm, will you be joining us today or just looking at your phone?"

I snapped my head up. "Huh?"
Everyone around me laughed.
"Sawyer, could you please pass out these motion detectors?" Mrs. Numan shook her head. "And if I catch you on that phone again, Miss Storm, I'm keeping it until the end of the day."

"Sorry," I mumbled as I slipped the phone into my backpack, nearly dropping it thanks to my sweaty hands. I wiped them against my pants and accepted the motion detector from Sawyer.

As I followed the steps she'd written on the board for the graphing motion experiment, my mind raced.

Holy shit, star football player, Jace Rovers, was a secret fantasy romance writer. 

Hi, Everyone!

Great news! I will be posting all of GUTTER GIRL right here on Wattpad!

This book was co-written by myself and the incredible Lynn Rush! It's been published by Entangled Teen (Entangled Publishing) and is perfect for fans of GOSSIP GIRL, MEAN GIRLS, and SHE'S ALL THAT!

This book will only be up in full for a limited time (3 months), so be sure to add it to your library so you don't miss a single update!

Also, speaking of updates, what do you prefer? Two updates a week? What days are best? I used to update on Wednesday and Saturdays, but I want to hear what you all prefer! Drop a comment here with your preferences!

If you can't wait to see what happens next, pop over to https://bit.ly/ReadGutterGirl and pick up your e-copy or paperback!

Thank you so much for checking out GUTTER GIRL!

Hearts,

Kelly Anne & Lynn xoxo

P.S. All comments, votes, and library adds are majorly appreciated!