After classes concluded for the day, Annie volunteered to drop off some paperwork to the main office for her fourth and last period Geometry teacher, Mr. O’Reilly. Annie would deny being a teacher’s pet, but she was definitely the pet of every teacher she ever had; like a very eager Golden Retriever that would do anything to please its owner.

Annie entered the main office and walked straight up to the front counter where the school secretaries stationed themselves day-in and day-out. She was familiar with the office and the staff there only for making such errands as this one.

“Mr. O’Reilly asked me to deliver these here, and also pick up the parental forms for back-to-school night?” she said to the small, aging woman who sat behind a computer almost as ancient as herself. The old secretary smiled then slowly stood up to reach over the tall counter to take the papers—a task that she struggled with, seeing as she fell inches short of even Annie’s height. 

“Sure, dear,” the secretary replied pleasantly. “Give me a moment to grab those.” She then waddled away through the other desks in the back of the room. Annie’s eyes wandered, as they tend to do while waiting for something. Her eyes traveled from the large copy machine to the closed doorway that led to the principal’s office, to the dusty, cliche painting of a landscape at sunrise on the wall. Soon her gaze drifted behind her, where she became locked in a stare with a pair of cool blue eyes. 

There he was again. The mystery boy. Jonah Mathias.

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