Pulse

it needed to be for the insignificant number of students attending class every day. There were long corridors around every corner that were lined with nothing but locked doors and empty lockers, places where people could sneak away and do things high schools weren’t designed for. One of these corridors was of special use to Wade Quinn. He’d made some modifications, mostly out of boredom; but three days after he’d blown it in the gym with Faith, he thought it might be the kind of place she’d like.
    Faith, Liz, and Hawk were standing in one of the few operational hallways. Before Wade walked up uninvited, they’d been talking about the new, cheap jeans that had shipped thanks to Hawk’s Tablet wizardry. All three of them ignored Wade for about ten seconds. Under normal circumstances that would have been plenty of time for Wade to get the message and take off, but unfortunately, the annoying Amy was walking toward them. Amy was a popularity queen who drove Wade half insane with her need for attention; and as she passed by, Wade leaned hard into the circle of Faith, Liz, and Hawk, searching for refuge.
    “Hey, guys. How’s it going?” Wade put a hip into Hawk’s elbow (Hawk was that much shorter) and gained full admittance into the circle. “I need to talk to Faith for a minute.”
    No one moved or spoke.
    “ Alone , if you don’t mind,” Wade added, glaring down at Liz like she was gum stuck on his shoe.
    “Wade Quinn, are you avoiding me?”
    Amy had a sugary, high-pitched voice, but the guys thought she was a knockout. Whenever she came around, Hawk started mumbling like a half-wit and shuffled in her direction. Amy had zero patience for dweebs and morons. After a one-syllable comment— Ew —she started backing away like Hawk was a leper reaching out toward her with a zombie-like hand. When Garrett Miller walked by, she locked arms with him and looked back sadly like Wade Quinn, the coolest guy in school, had fallen in with the wrong crowd.
    “What do you want, Wade?” Faith asked indifferently as she leaned closer to Liz. “We’re kind of busy here.”
    Wade started to speak, but the first thing that came into his mind was an insult, and he was trying very hard not to mess this up a second time.
    “There’s something I’d like to show you. It’s in one of the closed wings, very cool. Will you come with me?”
    Faith was melting inside. Wade was wearing a white tee, jeans, and Vans. His dark eyes locked on hers, and she let her gaze drift down to his lips. “Trust me, you’re going to like it. And no one’s going to find out. I go there all the time.”
    “Cool, I’ll go,” Hawk said with his usual flair for the dramatic. “What is it? No, let me guess. You have live snakes down there? Or a monkey. I bet he’s got a monkey!”
    Wade stared at Hawk like he was the dumbest kid he’d ever seen.
    “It’s not a monkey.”
    “Maybe it’s an alligator,” Liz said, egging Hawk on.
    “Alligator? Cool!”
    “It’s not an exotic animal. And besides, you’re not invited.”
    “Oh.”
    Liz put an arm around Hawk, which perked him right up.
    “I say we all go. If you’ve got a monkey down there, I want to see it.”
    “I told you it’s not a monkey! It’s not anything like that.”
    “You got candy down there?” Liz teased. “Is it like Candy Land?”
    “Aw yes!” Hawk laughed. He was pumped.
    Wade looked at Faith and hoped this wasn’t going to keep going in the direction in which it was headed. “You’ve got weird friends, you know that?”
    “So I’ve been told,” she agreed.
    “Then you’ll go with me, just the two of us? I’m telling you, you’re going to love it.”
    “No thanks,” Faith said, and began walking away.
    Wade Quinn was nearly at the end of his patience, but not quite. He really liked Faith, especially because she played hard to get.
    “Okay, your friends can come. In fact, I want them to. You guys wanna go see the monkey? And the candy?”
    Hawk smiled from ear to ear.
    “Holy shit, there is a monkey!”
    “And candy!” Liz added.
    Faith was laughing when she turned around, and she found it unstoppably charming that Wade was, too. By the time she returned to the group, he was already out of her doghouse.
     
    Hawk knew better than most that the Quinns were not people you messed around with. He’d tried to warn Faith to steer clear, but it was too late, and his joking around hadn’t pissed off Wade the way he’d hoped it would. She’d