A Glimmer o

hing cold and miserable-metal bunk beds, creepy hallways, people yelling all the time. You know, like in tho

s. Reed ran the whole place like she was everyone's grandma-not the strict, no-hugs kind, but the warm, always-has-cookies k

that someone must've left behind. I didn't even care that the drawers squeaked when you opened them. For the

ns outside the window. Just the sound of the wind through the tree outside and the soft tick of the old clock in the hallway. I kept

ame. And I wa

ng, arguing over cereal, trading banana slices like they were gold. I sat at the end of one of the tables, clutching my tray like it mi

ody

milk all over the table and everyone just started laughing, not yelling. A little

days later, t

and C

o the seat across from me. I looked up and saw this guy-probably sixteen, seventeen-dark hair all messy like he didn't care, eyes sharp like he not

d kind of gruff. "You look lik

t a joke? Or... wa

d red curls like a tumbleweed of energy. "He's secretly a softie," she said way too loudly,

ttle pink around the ears. "Chloe,

iled, but it felt weird on my face. "I

were old friends. "And that grump over there is Liam. Don't let h

mall nod. "Nice to meet you,

as the

't even realize it at first, but it happened naturally. They

castic way. He showed me stuff like which cabinets to avoid in the kitchen (one had a loose hinge that smacked your

ved, the dreams she had, how she once thought clouds were made of whipped cream. She dragged

this ridiculous hand-clapping game that had like fifteen moves and some kind of weird song abou

between giggles, "That's only the fi

ing. I hadn't laughed like that in... I

ath textbook, but I caught him looking up more than onc

ent stuc

ll or ruin it or tell me I didn't belong. I just was. Sitting there on the floor with Chloe snorting w

a

t just a stop on the

it was a

there. I could feel them if I sat too still for too long. But they didn't

ittle room and closed my very own d

t...

n like I