Insight

Samantha had always been trapped in a world of disturbing family secrets. Daryl had a paranormal ability to perceive the emotional state of another individual. He was also able to transmit these intense emotions and could cause others to act on them. He was not genetically modified and nobody conducted secret experiments on him when he was a child. This, for him, was natural. They had known each other for some time now and they had always maintained a pleasant, rather cool relationship. They might even, on occasion, hold a brief conversation about mainly the weather, but never showed any interest in each other. Up until now, when Daryl genuinely liked a girl, the feeling was always mutual.

Young Adult / Teen Love and Romance (Social Issues)

Try it now.

Chapter One
It should have been quiet in the class for at least the next forty minutes or so of the period, while everyone had his or her head bent down toward the stack of papers on the desk in front of them. Some students even had their arms curled protectively around their exam papers. Some stared off in the distance as if something only seen by them would suddenly give them the answers they were so desperately seeking for. Others were scribbling fast and vigorously across the sheets of paper, lest the thoughts melted away and they forgot what it was they wanted to write down.
So it was when I, sitting at my desk, balancing my pen between my index finger and my thumb, trying to come up with an answer for question 2B (iv), saw her walking into the room and it was not so quiet anymore. All of a sudden I could hear my own heart beating wildly in my chest.
The teacher lumbered his six foot, heavy built frame over to the front of the class from his leaning spot against the back of the classroom, where he could watch each one of us with a suspicious eye. When he reached her he leaned closer to her and she whispered something close to his ear. He smiled briefly as she spoke. Then he moved away from her and nodded.
I dragged my sweater from my body, suddenly feeling too hot in the over warmed room. Pushing my finger in between my collar and my neck I pulled at it. I glanced around the room quickly while I fumbled my fingers in under my tie and undid the top button, then wiggled the tie a bit looser. Totally against the rules, but I needed to find the evading answer to this question and I could not think if I did not feel comfortable, and at the moment it felt as if I was overheating.
She walked past my desk to get to hers, and an envelope dropped from her bag onto the floor.
Glancing down at it, I am not entirely sure why I did it, but I moved my black Doc Marten's and hid the envelope under the sole of my shoe.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.