Scattered Colors Read Online Free PDF

energy, like a sprite.” I smiled as she laughed at my description.
    “Spritely…” she said thoughtfully. “I like that. Well, Mystifying Freya, I have to get to class. Here, give me your phone.”
    I quickly handed it over. “Mystifying?” I asked as she fiddled around with my cellphone.
    “Yeah,” she replied, handing it back when she was finished. I looked down to see she’d programmed her number into it. “You’re the mysterious new girl in a small town, might as well get used to it.”
    I laughed again. I’d laughed more with Spritely Stella in just a couple of hours than I had in months. It felt nice. “See you around.”
    “I called myself from your phone so I’d have your number, too,” she told me as she walked backwards down the hall. “We should hang out some time.”
    I found myself answering, “I’d like that,” and genuinely meaning it. I still didn’t want to make a lot of connections in Sommerspoint, but I liked the idea of having Stella in my corner. I could already tell she was going to be a good person to have around.
    “Cool. I’ll call you later.”
    The rest of the morning went by without any issues. I’d paid more attention to each classroom I walked into, not wanting to risk another run-in with Parker if it could be avoided. Luckily, we didn’t have many classes together and those we did share, I was able to find a vacant desk far enough away from him that I didn’t have to deal with his annoyingly demanding presence. When I walked into Biology, he was sitting at a table with another guy who looked to be around Parker’s height, but where Parker was leanly muscled, the other guy was beefier. The first thing that popped into my head was that he had to have been one of the jocks Stella was talking about. Their heads were leaned in as they talked, and I thought I could get past unnoticed. I was wrong.
    “Hey, Freya! Come sit here,” Parker called just as I stepped up next to his table. “Dude, move somewhere else,” he said to the guy next to him, elbowing him in the ribs.
    “No, thanks.” I answered quickly, not bothering to stop. I’d spotted a seat at the table in the back and I was determined to get there before I got sucked into Parker’s vortex.
    I sat at my table and hefted my bag onto the top. I’d been so focused on avoiding Parker that I hadn’t noticed the person sitting next to me until he spoke.
    “Hi. I’m Michael.”
    I turned to see a boy smiling at me. He was good-looking enough, with sandy blond hair and pale blue eyes. He didn’t have the same in-your-face persona Parker had, but he was still attractive.
    I offered a polite smile. “Freya. Nice to meet you.”
    “Nice to meet you, too. So, you’re the new girl everyone is talking about, huh?”
    I groaned and rubbed at my temples. “Yeah, I guess that would be me. No offense, but don’t you guys have anything better to talk about around here than some new student?”
    He laughed good-naturedly. “No offense taken, and no, not really. Sorry, but in a town this size, we’re limited on entertainment. You’re probably going to be it for the next few months.”
    “Lovely,” I deadpanned.
    “We had a foreign exchange student once. I think he was from Brazil or something. You should have seen the commotion that caused.”
    “Well, fingers crossed someone else comes along to take over the title of ‘new kid’. I’m not really big on attention.”
    We both remained silent as we prepared for class to start. A few minutes later, Michael asked, “So, you know Parker Owens?”
    My head fell back with a sigh. “Why does everyone keep asking me that? I don’t know the guy! I ran into him once, that’s it. And it wasn’t all that pleasant of an experience.”
    I looked over at Michael to see he was a little startled by my sudden outburst. “Sorry,” I quickly apologized. “It’s been an exhausting day.”
    He raised his hands in a placating gesture. “Hey, no problem. I only asked