Chapter Three

McKenna

"Oh, I thought this was Jace's." Joel's face turned deep red. 

"It's obviously not," I snapped, wiggling the fingers of the hand I was still holding out toward him. Even though I had no understanding of why I was saving Jace's ass, it was fun sticking it to Joel right now. He was an epic level of jerk, like he was compensating for the fact that he rode the bench on the football team. Like he had to be extra good at jerkiness or something.

He looked at me and then back at Jace before handing over the notebook.

I could only imagine what was going through Jace's mind. I'd always had a soft spot for him, but this surprised even me. I couldn't let him get crucified for this. It just wasn't right.

Carlin Summers, a sophomore with bright blond, almost white hair and bold, sea-green eyes, gasped. "You're WriteEmHard?"

Oh shit. Even people here were obsessed with his sword story?

"Wait, what?" Victoria Knight said from behind me.

Blood rushed to my cheeks. The awe brightening Victoria's brown eyes sent a shock wave through my body. What had I done? If people recognized Jace's story with only a few lines read, that meant... Shit. I'd just completely stepped out from the world of invisibility, hadn't I?

"You're like, totally my favorite writer," Carlin's friend blurted out. "I love Kingdom of Swords!"

"Dude, that's freaking epic," Victoria added. "Mia, did you hear that? McKenna is the author of KOS!"

My mouth went dry. Holy crap... I'd read about two pages of what Jace had written in his notebook and thought it was kinda dorky, but then again, I didn't have much time to read anything other than what classes required. But the way these two girls looked at me... Yeah, I should have thought through this whole saving-Jace's-butt thing.

Carlin nodded but fell silent, like she was frozen at the sight of me or something. Sadie swooped in behind Carlin. "Is that a KOS notebook? Like, can I see it? Does it say what's happening to Prince Jarren next? I really hope so. I hope he and—"

"Sadie," Carlin said, putting a hand on her friend's shoulder. "Down, girl."

Sadie laughed, then nodded. "Oh, sorry. It's ah, well... holy shit. WriteEmHard goes to Twin freaking River High! How is this even possible?" Her voice cracked as she squealed, and then she jumped up and down, clapping her hands.

"Okay, well, I'm going to go." I tucked the notebook under my arm and wiped my sweaty palms on my pants. I needed to get out of here. Adrenaline started coursing through my veins. My fight-or-flight reflex had officially kicked in with everyone all up in my bubble.

Jace shot me a quick look. Thank you, he mouthed.

His cheeks were flushed and his jaw clenched tight. I gave him a quick nod and he visibly relaxed, slouching where he stood. Holy cow, he really didn't want anyone to know, huh?

I whipped around, put my head down, and hustled toward the exit. I needed to get out of this place. Away from everyone looking at me.

Pushing through the doors, I drew in a deep breath. The bright sun hung high in the blue sky. Plush grass flanked the wide cement walkway that led to the parking lot. I needed to haul ass to get to my car so I would make my shift at the Shack in time. Rescuing Jace set me back a little.

I guess I got why he hid his writing and why he'd be shocked that I'd jump in and rescue him like that. I mean, I was shocked myself. I couldn't help but laugh at Joel's reaction. He was such a jerk, it was nice to embarrass him like that.

Did that make me a bad person?

Regardless of the weird situation that had just gone down, I couldn't be late for my shift at The Hot Dog Shack. 

By the time I'd gotten to my rusted-out Honda Civic at the far end of the front parking lot, Ernie, my best friend, had sent me a text message.

ERNIE: What just happened in the hallway?

Gossip really does travel at lightning speed around here...

I unlocked my car and slid into the driver's seat.

ME: Long story, meet me at work?

ERNIE: On my way!

Ernie was pretty much the best person in the world. He had five younger sisters, so he snuck out as often as he could to hang with me while I worked. He got my whole sucky home situation, didn't freak when I dyed my hair and got all my piercings. The guy stood by me no matter what. I had mad respect for him.

Plus, he wore Hawaiian shirts to school nearly every day in honor of his uncle who had died from ALS. Ernie was the real deal.

I steered my beater onto School Drive and hung a left. Tall aspen trees lined each side of the street as it curved toward the east side of town. Their leaves were starting to take on a hint of yellow, since we were in the second week of September.

I used to love going for drives with Mom and Dad when the leaves turned. Having picnics under the trees and hanging out.

But that was a long time ago. Almost felt like another universe. Then again, not five minutes ago, my universe had taken a hard left into What The Fuck Did I Just Do? territory.

For real, though... Why had I stuck up for Jace?

My chest started to rise and fall more rapidly. If Ernie had already heard something, how long until the entire school thought I wrote that story?

I hung a hard left, taking East River Road toward the mall. There were already signs lining the road about the famed Twin River Pirate Festival and it was over a month away.

The city of Twin River literally sat in the middle of where the main river split, so we were surrounded by little offshoots of water that people from all over the county came to hang out at and for all the water sports and special town events. I swear, Twin River had a million celebrations, everything from the Pirate Festival to crossing the river in rafts made from empty beer kegs to the Founder's Day Ball.

Bridges connected us to the suburbs that surrounded Twin River, which was where the mall was—aka, my second home. I'd been putting in some serious hours lately to pull in a little extra money to help Mom with the bills. It actually worked out, though. Mom wasn't doing so well these days, so being at the house was...stressful.

The drive to the mall only took about fifteen minutes, and by the time I clocked in for work, I'd run through every scenario I could dream up as to why I'd helped Jace like I had. Each time I came to the same conclusions... One, he'd needed my help, big-time. Two, okay, so maybe I'd had a little crush on him since third grade. He was one of the only people at school who never called me Goth Girl. Three, I'd probably made the biggest mistake of my life helping him.

I wiped down the counter beside the register as I looked out over the food court area. The Hot Dog Shack was in a prime spot to see most of the other food vendors. There was a sea of picnic tables scattered throughout the massive opening that lay before us, but off to the right, there were a few more private tables for employees of the vendor area to hang out at during their breaks.

For some reason, the mall was super dead right now. I suppose all the students lucky enough to be able to do after- school activities were busy doing that. In a couple hours, it'd probably pick up.

Since Ernie wasn't here yet and I was waiting for the next food rush, I grabbed my phone and looked up Jace's profile on Scribbles again.

I shook my head and read the messages that Jace's fans had left him. They were intense. Loads of people begged him to update his book, others sent him fan art of his characters, and there was an entire hashtag dedicated to getting him to the next level: #PublishKingdomofSwords.

I never would have guessed that about Jace. First, he was a star athlete on the football team, but he wasn't an asshole jock like most, even though today he wasn't the nicest when getting his notebook back. Second, he was uber famous on this Scribbles site, and still, he was so humble.

That deserved some respect right there.

Two elderly people with white hair and matching maroon jogging suits approached the cash register.

"Welcome to The Sword Shack, I mean, er, The Hot Dog Shack, what can I get started for you today?" Sword Shack, really? I really had lost my mind, hadn't I?

After I punched in their order and they shifted to the pickup area, I got out the sanitizer spray and wiped down the counters while Derrick, our hot dog chef extraordinaire, worked on their food. I usually cleaned as soon as I got to work, but the whole Jace situation had left me distracted. 

"Order's up," Derrick shouted.

I forced a smile. "No need to yell. I'm right here."

He shrugged and started scraping the grill with a brush. "Here you are. Have a great day," I said as I set the tray of food down on the counter under the Order Pickup sign. The couple smiled and thanked me.

They looked so normal and happy. My heart pinged and it suddenly felt like I was breathing water instead of air.

What would it be like to have them for parents, or even grandparents?

My train wreck of a homelife often left me contemplating this exact question. I didn't have the luxury of a mom and dad who loved each other, who made sure everyone sat together for dinner every night, or hell, just managed to keep the lights on at home.

I can't wait until I graduate in May and I can get the hell out of Dodge!

I already had an internship set up at the Winters Players Theatre. I'd work my ass off for a year there and then hopefully learn enough from everyone to join the acting troupe the year after that.

"Hey, what the heck is going on?"
I looked up and came face-to-face with Ernie.
His plump cheeks were slightly red and his glasses had slid down his nose.

"What do you mean?" I threw the rag I'd used to clean the counter into a red bucket under the cash register.

"Why are you telling people you're WriteEmHard on Scribbles?" He placed both hands on my clean countertop. 

I looked over his shoulder. No one else was heading our way, so I was safe to talk about this. Even if Derrick, the cook back in the kitchen, heard, he wouldn't care. He was in college and couldn't be bothered with high school drama. Normally I avoided it, too, but for some ridiculous reason, I'd thrown myself directly in front of the Twin River High drama train...

"Promise to keep this between us?" I took a deep breath.

Ernie rolled his eyes. "Duh."

Just as I was about to blurt out the disaster that had been today, a familiar face appeared at the register. I couldn't remember his name, but damn, this guy could eat some hot dogs. As in, a few shifts ago, he actually ordered ten and sat down, then demolished every single one of them.

"You going for a baker's dozen this time?" I gave him a wry smile.

He motioned to a table in the center of the food court. "My guy Brodie doesn't think I can do it again. Ten dogs, in an hour. Ha. That's child's play."

My eyes drifted over his shoulder to a guy with shaggy brown hair sticking out from under a Woodhaven Hockey hat. He was sitting at the table, hunched over his phone.

"Name on the order?"

"Seriously? I've ordered like a million dogs from you!" The guy with blond hair long enough to put in a man bun laughed. "It's Nathaniel. I literally drive from Woodhaven to eat your dogs."

"Settle down, Hot Dog Hound." My voice was flat, but the corners of my lips crept up into a small smile.

He grinned. "Harsh, Hot Dog Girl. Harsh."
I chuckled as I got him his order. I actually did remember his name. I just liked messing with him. He was pretty cool and always nice to me.

"Bye, Nathaniel."
He bowed his head. "Hot Dog Girl."
Ernie waited a few seconds, then slammed his hands on the counter. "Spill it! Quick, before someone else interrupts us!"

I grabbed the disinfectant spray and wiped Ernie's handprints off my counter. "Okay, so get this. After lunch, I bumped into Jace in the hallway. Our notebooks accidentally got switched. And in the process he actually gave me a compliment. It was really weird!"

Ernie pushed his glasses up, then hitched his hip onto the counter and leaned toward me. He was about four inches taller than me at five-foot-nine, heavier set around his middle section. And right now, his light brown eyes were securely fastened on me as if he were hanging on my every word. "Okay, so you switched notebooks; how did that turn into people thinking you're the author of KOS?"

"He had my physics lab notebook and I got his, um, writing notebook."

"Wait, so Jace Rovers is actually WriteEmHard?"

I nodded. "You should have seen my face when I opened it during lab. He had like half of it filled with his Kingdom of Swords story. There was a map in the front and everything."

Ernie hung on my every word.

"He's like ridiculously popular on Scribbles. Like, famous." I shook my head. "His book has millions of reads." Ernie squinted. "Why are people saying that you're WriteEmHard if Jace is?"

I told Ernie the story of how I'd claimed the notebook was mine in order to save Jace's cute ass.

Wait, cute? I did not just say Jace has a cute ass...

Okay, he totally did, but I did not want to notice that cute ass.

Ernie leaned forward and gave me a sly grin. "You've always had a crush on him."

"No, that's not why—"

"I call BS!" He pointed at me. "Summer camp. Third grade."

"Shut up." I reached over the counter and pushed his shoulder.

Ernie clasped his hands to his chest, the side his heart was on, and batted his eyelashes. "MS plus JR was all over your camp diary."

He wasn't wrong. But I'd never said anything. Jace had never known. It was clear, even at that age, I would never run in the same crowd as him. And then summer before sixth grade happened...

"Whatever." I shook the memories out of my head. That was then. This was now. And I lived in reality.

"Wow, McKenna. Seriously, wow." Ernie leaned against the counter and smoothed out his Hawaiian shirt. "So now that this is out in the open, what are you going to do? Because your perfectly honed role of Miss Invisibility is vapor. You realize that, right?"

My stomach dropped.

"You're like a celebrity now." Ernie eased off the counter and faced me full-on, then made an arc with his hands. "I can see the headlines for the school newspaper now, Famous Author Graces the Halls of Twin River High."

"No way. People will forget all about it by tomorrow."

Won't they? I waved him off and started sanitizing the counter where he'd been sitting.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that." Ernie dug his phone out of his pocket and held it up.

I gasped when my picture popped up on the screen.

WriteEmHardFanAccount: We have HUGE news! It was revealed a short time ago that McKenna Storm is the author behind Kingdom of Swords! According to several classmates, she's a senior at Twin River High in Twin River, Wisconsin. Stay tuned for more info on our favorite author! We will update soon!

I gulped. "Son of a hot dog." 

Hey, Everyone!

Happy Monday! Hope you enjoyed chapter three of GUTTER GIRL! Chapter four will be going up soon! But, if you can't wait for the next update, you can pick up a copy online (Amazon, B&N, through your indie bookstores, and more)! 

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Kelly and Lynn xoxo