January Dreams Carrigan Richards (the mitten read aloud TXT) 📖

and when I smile dimples appear, but Cherry always tells me it’s cute. We are both average height, about 5’6” which we both prefer, and slender. Well, I’m not slender like the cheerleaders or dance team and I don’t have a ridiculously flat stomach. I could probably lose a few pounds.

As we make our way to junior history, I tell Cherry about my dream. The damn thing is still haunting me.

“Casper? Gross.” She scrunches her face in disgust and takes her seat next to me in class.

“I know.” Sure, he’s gorgeous. Every girl wants to be with him, but he’s only after one thing. I’ll never forget Trinity Taylor crying because as soon as he got what he wanted, he dumped her. And he wooed her for a good month. That still doesn’t stop ninety percent of the girls to swoon over him. I guess swooning is healthy.

“Well, at least it was a dream,” Cherry says. “Could make for good story material. You haven’t written anything in a while.”

I nod. Nothing’s come to me in a long time, but this could be something. “By the way, I had to get a late pass and I met someone.”

She lifts her eyebrows and grips my arm. “Vincent Young?”

“How’d you know?”

“He’s the hot office assistant. He’s got blue eyes that you could seriously get lost in. Everyone knows who he is.”

Except me, apparently. The school is fairly large. I don’t know everyone in my class, but somehow Cherry keeps tabs on who’s who. I’m not sure how she finds the time.

“Did he ask for your number? Did he ask you out?”

“Whoa, slow your roll. I just met the guy. Besides, I’m still grounded. Not like I can go anywhere. Or talk to anyone.”

Cherry lets out an annoyed groan. “When does this current grounding session end?”

“I think Mom said the eighth.”

“Of what year?” she jokes.

“November. One more week.”

“Yeah, until you sneeze the wrong way and then it’ll be another stupid month.”

“Probably.”

Something I forgot to mention. My parents love to ground me. At least, that’s how I see it. I really am grounded for the dumbest things. Like one time my mom thought I was being a bitch, which I was stressed out, and so she grounded me for two weeks.

My jerk of a stepdad thinks I’m a crazy teenager. But how crazy can I be when I get good grades in school, I work, I don’t drink, I don’t do drugs, I’m still a virgin, I don’t sneak out—I could be the poster child of the century. None of these things ever interest me. I haven’t been curious to try any of it probably because I don’t like losing control of myself. I don’t want to end up with consequences or things like that. However, my mother is adamant that I will have the same life as her because it happened to her. She doesn’t believe me when I say I will not lose my virginity at sixteen. Or get married at eighteen. Or have a baby at nineteen. I know that’s why they keep me under lock and key.

“Ugh, I wish you could go trick or treating,” Cherry says. She has no idea how much I wish I could go. Halloween is my favorite holiday.

“Even if I wasn’t grounded, you know my mom wouldn’t allow it. You know she thinks it’s rude for people to go around to houses asking for candy.”

She lets out a frustrated groan. “Your mom seriously deflates any kind of fun.”

“You’re telling me?”

“Why don’t we go to Sloss for the haunted house?”

“You know I want to.”

“Then do it. Come on. You’re always grounded. Your parents will never find out. Just tell them you’re working.”

I mull it over. I’m tired of being stuck at home all the time and never having any sort of fun. I deserve it. I’ve been too stressed out from school, parents. Mom and Ron will never know.

Screw it. “Okay.”

She squeals.

After class, I make my way to precal. When I look up, my heart skips a beat as I see Casper by his locker. The dream comes back to me. Usually, when I dream, they are very vivid, but they tend to go away, and I forget about them. But this one with Casper is still there, which bugs me. It was so dramatic, like something straight out of a Cure song.

He normally pays no attention to me but today his beautiful brown eyes are fixed on me for some reason. Heat pricks the back of my neck and fills my cheeks. His ragged bleach blonde hair sweeps across his eyebrows. Okay, yes, he’s good-looking. He has abs like Jason Mamoa for crying out loud beneath that simple white T-shirt. I only know this because I caught him one day after school without his shirt. His tanned skin would probably make me look even pastier if we stood next to each other. Not that I ever want to stand next to him.

But I can’t tear my eyes away from him, almost as if they’re magnets to his. Why is he looking at me? I can’t explain it, but I feel something inside me as we gaze at each other, like I did in my dream.

Chapter Three

I’ve always wanted to go to the haunted house at Sloss Furnace. As one of the famous landmarks in downtown Birmingham, it’s now used for concerts, haunted houses, and any kind of social gathering now. But it’s haunted. I’ve lived in Birmingham my whole life and haven’t experienced much of the city. My parents love doing things, without Jonathan and me. But I want to go places. See the history. See the landmarks. Live life. But I guess I’m too young.

After rushing home to change into my ladybug costume, I meet up with Cherry in the