Against All Odds Read Online Free PDF

over and pats my leg. “Don’t be jealous Shell.”
    “First of all, I’m not jealous, “ I tell him. “Second of all, what did you just call me?”
    “Shell,” he says still looking at his phone. “Your middle name’s Michelle right?
    I just kind of shortened it.”
    “How the hell did you know my middle name?” I ask him as I turn into the school parking lot.
    “Your dad told me.”
    “Look, I appreciate the whole bonding thing you’re trying to do, but I prefer my real name actually.”
    “It’s not really about bonding,” he says glancing out the window at the kids milling around the parking lot. “Victoria’s too serious. Shell is kind of…I don’t know, funny.”
    “Well, I hate it.”
    “Well,” he says not seeming to care, “I can call you whatever I want. It’s a free country.”
    I sigh as I pull my car into an empty spot. I push the break and switch the gear into park, cutting off the engine. I swing my door open in the hopes of getting out of here as soon as possible, but Nathan’s way faster than I could ever dream of being and easily catches up with me.
    I glance around the parking lot. So much for thinking I was going to get here early. The parking lot is already packed with cars and there are kids everywhere, weaving in and out of their cars and heading into the building.
    “You don’t seem very excited to be arriving at school with a celebrity,” he says to me as we walk toward the front steps.
    “Look,” I say stopping in the middle of the parking lot to face him, “whatever this is, it needs to stop now.”
    Nathan looks at me curiously, cocking his face to the side. “Whatever what is?”
    “This,” I say gesturing between the two of us. “Whatever you’re trying to do with me here or whatever. I’m not buying it. I know you’re not a good guy Nathan. And just because our parents seem to like each other doesn’t mean I have to be nice to you.” I turn on my heel and start to walk away quickly.
    If Nathan is taking anything that I’m saying seriously he isn’t acting like it, because by the time I reach the steps that lead to the front of the school he’s already back by my side.
    That’s the problem with people who are so full of themselves. Usually when you tell them off, when you make it clear you want nothing to do with them, it goes in one ear and out the other. It’s too late. Their ego has already become too big for you to ever beat it back down. And any type of negative treatment by you is just more of a challenge for them to win you over.
    “Brace yourself Shell,” Nathan says putting his arm around me as we walk in the front door of the school. “I’m about to make you more popular than you’ve ever been in your entire life.”

    ***
    Here’s the thing. Nathan is totally right. Just walking into school with him makes me a completely different person. At least it does in everyone else’s eyes.
    Suddenly, people who have never bothered with me before are smiling at me in the hall, waving hello as I walk by. It’s a complete and total switch from the life I’ve been living up until this point. And I’m not sure that I’m totally comfortable with the change in attention.
    It doesn’t help that everywhere I go Nathan’s standing right there. We don’t even have any classes together and yet every time I turn around there he is. He’s already strolling through the halls like he owns the place, and he already has half of the popular crowd following him around.
    It’s like he has the best of both worlds. He’s a god when it comes to sports, which gains him respect with all the guys in the school. And as much as I hate to admit it, he’s very good looking, which means the girls love him too. I guess it’s true what they say.
    You only need to know one person in order to know many.
    Every time Nathan sees me he makes an effort to talk to me, or wave to me, or shoot some little comment my way. It’s enough to change the way that everyone in