My First Love Read Online Free PDF Page A

over again.
    So I got up from my desk and flopped on my bed, which I absolutely never did, and closed my eyes to relive every second of the afternoon I’d spent with Chris.

chapter four
    It was a well-known fact that Mr. Tayerle, our physics teacher, hated tardiness more than any other academic vice. He was a scientist, after all, and the stiff way he walked, talked, and graded our reports always gave me the feeling his whole life ticked along like a reliable wristwatch, digitally precise.
    So I was worried the next day when, ten minutes into Tayerle’s lecture on astronomy, Chris came into the room. He didn’t enter quietly, smiling apologetically, as I would have done. Instead, he burst through the doorway and stoodthere a moment, glancing around as he tried to catch his breath.
    “Uh-oh,” Blythe whispered from the desk next to mine. She loved a good scandal, and she leaned back to watch the action unfold, a grin on her face.
    “Uh-oh is right,” I whispered back.
    Chris appeared to be wearing the same torn Levi’s and leather flip-flops he had worn the day before. Only his navy T-shirt was different.
    It had taken me forever that morning to get ready for school. I’d tried on a pair of black leggings, a lavender miniskirt, and then my faded denim overalls before I settled on my favorite jeans and a ribbed blue sweater. Somehow, every time I pictured my name in Chris’s notebook, I headed right back to my closet. But Chris, apparently, hadn’t suffered the same overnight attack of self-consciousness.
    Blythe and I weren’t the only ones staring. The whole class was watching quietly, wondering what Chris’s excuse for being late was and what Mr. Tayerle would do. That’s when Chris spotted the mobile of the universe the teacher had put out on display. He slapped a hand to his heart and pretended to fall back into the doorway, gripping the frame for support. “Someone stop the world from spinning,” he said. “I want to get off.”
    “I’m afraid you’re my captive for the next forty minutes,” Tayerle said dryly, glancing from Chris to the wall clock. Then he added, “Funny you should mention spinning.”There wasn’t the slightest hint of amusement in his voice. “Today we’re talking about the orbits of the planets, if you’ll kindly take your seat.”
    “Cool,” said Chris. As he passed by the mobile, he reached out and gave Saturn’s rings a twirl.
    Chris always asked interesting questions in class, and he wasn’t at all afraid of disagreeing with teachers. As a result, he could get away with things that no one else could.
    If Tayerle had been the sort of teacher who gave points for participation, Chris would have been the best student in the class. As it was, though, Rick Finnegan outranked him. That’s because while Chris was sending Tayerle off on tangents, Rick was meticulously taking down every word he said. Rick was practically a professional note taker, with all the practice he’d had covering stories for the
Thunder
. The pages in his notebook were so crammed full that there probably wasn’t room left for doodling anything—definitely not the name of a girl.
    In fact, Rick was so diligent I wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d written down what happened next: Chris sauntered down the aisle and dropped a note on my desk.
    “Mr. Shepherd,” Tayerle said, holding out his hand and beckoning, “don’t think I didn’t see that message you just delivered to Ms. Wyse. I’d like to believe it contains your ponderings about astronomy, but I’ve a feeling that this morning your mind is on other matters.”
    “But Mr. Tayerle,” Chris argued as he picked up thenote from my desk and went to place it in the teacher’s hand, “how can a guy know about the universe without first examining his heart?”
    It was like one of those nightmares where you show up at school without your clothes on—everyone who’d been staring at Chris turned to stare at me. Meanwhile, to my horror,