The Ocean Read Online Free PDF Page A

songs we had that were the same. I’d make a play list tomorrow, but for now I picked those songs and played them as I stared at my ceiling.
    School. It would be here before I knew it, so long as I could go to sleep. The plan. What was the plan? I didn’t have a plan. I would wing it. I was real y good at winging it. I final y fel asleep after replaying the evening over and over in my head and looking at the picture on my phone a dozen times.
    There was a soft buzzing sound. At first in the distance, a low buzz, buzz, buzz. Then, as I realized it wasn’t supposed to be in my dream, the buzz became louder and louder as I woke up. I heard my mom talking. What did she say? Late? My eyes flashed open.
    “I knew that would get your attention; you need to leave in five minutes.” I jumped up, ran to my bathroom, brushed my teeth, splashed water through my hair and on my face. I rummaged through the clothes on my floor for a pair of unwrinkled jeans and grabbed a shirt from my drawers. Socks and shoes went on as I stumbled down the stairs. My mom sat eating breakfast with my sister. She tossed me a banana, and I was out the door. I’d put my book bag in my car two days before because I knew I’d forget it if I didn’t. It was a good thing, too, because I was at school before I even thought of it.
    I found my locker, put my stuff up, and grabbed a notebook for my first class. I slammed my door shut, and there she was a few lockers away from me in a camo army green short pleated skirt and a black cotton top. Was I real y this lucky? I stepped sideways toward her.
    “Hey,” I smiled hopeful y. She glanced over, concentrating first and then instantly smiling when she recognized me.
    “Hi.” She put up her messenger bag; it was army green with buttons, patches, and marker drawings on it. It looked vintage.
    “What’s your first class?” I was hoping for chemistry.
    “English. Then Algebra 3, and then Spanish.” She didn’t even look at her schedule.
    “Then lunch?” I asked, hopeful again.
    “Yeah, I think so.” She was closing her locker now with a spiral notebook and a worn composition notebook in her hands.
    “Alright, I’l see you then.” I turned as the five-minute warning bel sounded. I had to be across the building on the third floor by the time the next bel rang. I made myself walk casual y. I looked back at her as she disappeared into the herd of students. Once I knew she was gone, I ran. I took two steps at a time up the stairs and made it to an empty seat in the middle of the classroom, the only one left, just as the bel rang. In my rush not to be late to my first class of the first day of school, I didn’t bother looking around to see if any of my friends were in my class.
    “You were M.I.A. this weekend. Why didn’t you return my cal s?” I knew that voice. Jil ian. Gorgeous, sexy, hot Jil ; and before last spring I honestly thought she was the girl I’d probably marry after high school. She had been my girlfriend since the seventh grade. But I had final y realized she took what she wanted and didn’t care who she hurt. In her last scheme (or the last scheme that I knew about) a girl had broken her leg, and a teacher had been fired, but Jil ian had landed on top of the cheerleaders’ pyramid with the title of head cheerleader. When I realized what she had done, I broke up with her. Only recently, after she’d seemed to have made some amends, was I speaking to her casual y. I didn’t real y want to tel her how much she disgusted me. Just because she was mean, didn’t mean I had to be. I shrugged and looked toward the teacher who was reading off names. He rambled something about lab partners; I looked at Jil and groaned, realizing he’d just paired us together. Pleased, she smiled.
    “Wel , the least you can do is walk me to my next class, English. You at least owe me that. I’m going to carry you for this A.” She was opening her book to the page the teacher had just instructed us.
    “I