Against All Odds Read Online Free PDF Page B

the school looks at me.
    On my way to seventh period some boy I don’t even recognize nods to me as he passes and says, “What’s up Shell?” Apparently my new nickname has caught on. It’s clear that Nathan is trying to drive me completely and totally out of my mind. The verdict’s still out on whether or not it’s working.
    “He’s clearly trying to drive me completely and totally crazy,” I tell Angelina later in the afternoon at newspaper.
    I haven’t been a member of the newspaper for very long, only about two months now. It started as a way to get my dad off of my back. He kept telling me after my mom died that I needed to make more friends, that I needed to be more social. I think he was hoping I would go out for a sports team or something. But instead I came home with the announcement that I had signed up for newspaper. As you can probably guess, the response I got wasn’t very enthusiastic.
    However, what started out as a chore for me has turned into an escape. I can pour myself into my writing. And it doesn’t matter what I’m writing about either. It can be research on the new bus system or interviewing graduating seniors and incoming freshmen. Writing for the newspaper is also filled with facts, which I like. There’s no in-between, no emotions. It’s just black and white.
    And my writing has become the best way for me to not have to think about my mom constantly too. When I’m sitting at my laptop, completely intertwined in writing an article, she doesn’t seem to creep into my mind as much. It’s the only time I’m not totally consumed with sadness.
    “Why do you say that?” Angelina asks me as she looks over her notes for a piece she’s writing on the swim team.
    “Um, hello,” I say putting the book in my hand down and swirling around in my chair to look at her. “Yesterday I was completely normal. Today I have half the school saying hi to me.”
    Angelina sighs and gathers her curly hair up into a ponytail. “So let me get this straight,” she says looking at me like I’m crazy. “You’re mad because your stepbrother is making you popular?”
    “He is not my stepbrother,” I tell her sharply.
    “Not yet,” she points out, “but he will be. And what better way to welcome you into his family than helping you become super popular.”
    I don’t know what to say to Angelina. She doesn’t get it. I don’t want to be popular. The truth is that if something like this had happened a year ago I probably would have been super happy and excited. I spent my entire middle school youth trying to be noticed by these kids, trying to get their attention, but it never came. It’s only after everything that’s happened in the last year that I realize just how thankful I am for that. I don’t want attention anymore. I want to be invisible. And for the last year I’ve gotten my wish. But now Nathan is here messing with my life. He’s here trying to ruin all that and I have no idea how to stop it.
    “It’s not real popularity though,” I point out. “They’re only being nice to me because of him.”
    “Doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it Tori.”
    That’s the problem. I don’t want to enjoy it.
    “Did I tell you he nicknamed me Shell?”
    “Shell? What does that stand for?
    I roll my eyes. “My middle name.”
    Angelina laughs and I stick my middle finger up at her.
    “I’m telling you,” she says going back to her notes, “if I were you, I’d enjoy it.”
    “And I’m telling you, it’s not all I thought it would be.”
    “Well either way,” she tells me, “I’ll give you twenty bucks if you let me accidently walk in on him one time when he’s showering.”
    I laugh and playfully throw the book I’m reading at her head.

    ***
    Later in the day, Nathan brings a girl home with him.
    I’m not kidding either. On the first day of school he’s already bringing girls back to the house.
    I’m confused when I come outside after newspaper and see her leaning up against my