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  PICTURING DIFFERENT

  A Raymere Grove Novel

  Nikki

  Kwiatkowski

  Picturing Different Copyright © 2020 by Nikki Kwiatkowski. All Rights Reserved.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

  Cover designed by Karis Drake

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Nikki Kwiatkowski

  Visit my website at www.NikkiKAuthor.com

  Printed in the United States of America

  First Printing: November 2020

  ISBN-13 978-1-7332165-2-4

  To my husband, Chris, and son, Lochlan

  To my parents, Angie and Raymond

  With loving memory, to Kevin and Kaci

  CONTENTS

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Epilogue

  Chapter 1

  Ashlyn was livid when she found out what Eric did, but ultimately she told herself that he had his reasons. Getting kicked off the baseball team before tryouts even started had been hard on him. She never expected his stupidity to get him suspended for two weeks.

  She had intended to get to school earlier; however, it had been a long week, and she still had to get through today and Friday. With only ten minutes until the bell rang for students to head to first period, Ashlyn rushed into Principal Willis’ office.

  The receptionist was on the phone, surrounded by disheveled papers everywhere. Ashlyn attempted to wait patiently, wondering if Principal Willis was behind his closed door or not. After another minute, she figured there couldn’t be much harm in knocking.

  Just as she approached the door and brought her hand up, it swung open.

  “I’m looking forward to it,” the boy called out as he backed himself from the office, closing the door behind him, and colliding into someone he had not expected. He quickly turned and reached out to the person he had nearly knocked over, grabbing her by the forearms and steadying her. “Whoa, I’m so sorry. I didn’t expect–”

  “Do you always walk backwards,” Ashlyn snapped.

  He shook his head and laughed. “Not usually. Again, I’m sorry. Are you okay?”

  Ashlyn looked down to where his hands were clasped around her forearms. Through her sweater she could feel the heat from his palms soaking into her skin. She quickly yanked her arms away and stepped around him toward the door, not saying another word.

  “Miss Jennings,” Principal Willis greeted, quite surprised by her presence. Upon glancing at his watch, “The bell will be ringing soon. Perhaps make an appointment with–”

  “I’m here to talk about Eric’s punishment,” she blurted out. The idea of talking to Principal Willis was frightening.

  “I’m sorry, but I don’t think it’s appropriate to discuss another student’s behavior. If you’d like to speak with a counselor about your relationship with Mr. Weaver, we can make arrangements.”

  “No sir,” Ashlyn replied. She waited a second more, took in a deep breath and started again. “I was hoping that since he’s not allowed on school property for the next two weeks, that maybe I could fix his wrong, and maybe…and maybe he could come back early?”

  “He won’t be playing baseball this year, regardless if he’s back in time for tryouts or not.”

  “But–”

  “Miss Jennings, he vandalized school property. Two weeks suspension is nothing compared to if we would have gotten police involved,” Willis insisted.

  “I’m saying, I’ll repaint the sign. I’ll make it beautiful,” Ashlyn stressed.

  When Principal Willis said nothing in response and appeared to think about it, she took it as a miniscule victory.

  “I like that idea. We’ll add it to your college application,” he finally announced, quite pleased with the idea.

  Ashlyn groaned. It wasn’t what she had in mind when she decided to bargain with Willis. For some reason, he was obsessed with students having a wide variety of garbage for their college applications.

  He turned serious. “Miss Jennings, defacing the field’s sign was bad, but we both know that isn’t why he’s not playing. Every student athlete was required to submit to a drug test within seven school days at the start of the semester. He ruined his chances on his own.”

  Ashlyn sighed. She and Eric hadn’t talked about that. Lately they didn’t talk much at all. His new group of friends weren’t helping matters any. She just hoped that maybe if he was able to play this coming season that things would go back to the way they were when they met freshman year.

  Just as Ashlyn turned to leave, feeling defeated, although knowing what her chances were walking in, “One moment.” She turned back as Principal Willis grabbed the phone on his desk. “Dora. Yes. Is Mr. Scott still out there? Does he have his schedule yet? Wonderful. Tell him to wait.” He hung up the phone looking pleasantly pleased. “If you could do one more thing.”

  Ashlyn let out a sigh. It didn’t matter what she did, Eric wouldn’t be coming back to school any sooner, nor would he be playing baseball. She felt like telling Principal Willis to shove it, but that was just a thought. She’d never be so bold as to tell an adult no.

  Just then, the bell rang and both Principal Willis and Ashlyn looked up at the small dinging box in the center of the room. Willis grabbed a couple slips from his desk and initialed them.

  Great, at least he wasn’t going to allow for her to be counted as tardy.

  “We have a new student. Here are two late passes,” he said, walking around his desk toward her. “If you could take about ten minutes or so and see to it that he knows the general area of everything.”

  “Yeah, sure,” Ashlyn said rather somberly as she took the passes.

  “Also, I admire you. It is important in life for us know where our loyalties are; however, loyalties, as well as people, have a way of changing.” When he saw the hope in her face, he added, “And sometimes that change isn’t for the best and isn’t what we want.”

  “Thank you, Principal Willis,” was all Ashlyn could manage as he held the door open for her and she made her way out toward the receptionist’s desk.

  Dora appeared a bit calmer when Ashlyn walked up to her desk and she pointed her toward the chairs across the room to a face she recognized. She didn’t really recognize him, only from that brief encounter, but if she was being hones
t, he looked pretty unforgettable. His dirty blonde hair had a clean cut and was styled to perfection. His skin had just enough of a glow that she guessed that he came from somewhere like California or Florida. He was tall and lean. Though he had on a stylish v-neck sweater with a button-down underneath, Ashlyn easily assumed he was muscular. He looked like he’d be good at sports. That thought alone crushed her. Her boyfriend was missing out on two crucial weeks of school and here she was about to get lost in a set of light brown eyes staring back at her.

  She swallowed heavily. So what if she thought he was cute. She was allowed to think that other guys were attractive.

  Before Ashlyn made it half the distance toward him, he stood, a cocky grin already spread across his face.

  “Principal Willis wanted me to quickly show you around,” she announced, already motioning to the door.

  Instead of moving, he held out his hand. “Sorry we got off to a bad start. Tripp Scott.”

  Ashlyn looked down at his hand. The polite thing to do would be to shake it, but something inside her head was setting off all kinds of alarms telling her how dangerous that was.

  When Tripp saw that she clearly wasn’t going to take his hand, he dropped it with a sigh. Anytime he found a girl attractive, she always had to have some kind of issue.

  With the silence growing uncomfortable, “And you are,” he pressed.

  Ashlyn snapped out of whatever daze she was in. She hadn’t gotten a lot of sleep the night before. “Ashlyn Jennings, but my friends just call me Ash.”

  “Does that mean that you anticipate us being friends,” he teased.

  “Everyone calls me Ash,” she snapped back.

  Ashlyn walked out the open door and into the hallway, already dreading the next ten minutes or so. She really needed to learn how to politely decline more often.

  Chapter 2

  Ashlyn didn’t pay too much attention to Tripp’s schedule. She didn’t bother showing him each class, rather showing him the English and history wing and so on.

  “How did you get office aide? That usually fills up a semester in advance,” Ashlyn gasped when she saw his second to last class.

  With a shrug, “I guess someone dropped it.”

  Ashlyn glared at him. She knew the people who lived in Raymere Grove and the people who moved to Raymere Grove. Almost, but not always, the people in the town had one thing in common, money. She couldn’t help but wonder exactly who Tripp Scott and his parents were.

  “Athletics, 8th period.” It was a statement, not a question. “Are you in offseason?”

  “No,” he chuckled.

  Ashlyn didn’t know why that was funny to him. Before she could ask anything else on the matter, he told her, making her sick to her stomach.

  “Baseball.”

  Ashlyn closed her eyes and let out a huff, which only made him laugh more.

  “I take it you don’t like baseball, or maybe sports at all,” he speculated.

  “It’s not that.” Not wanting to give him any details concerning her personal life, “But you should know, tryouts were this week. They end tomorrow.”

  “Who said anything about trying out,” he scoffed.

  His face held a confidence that was unnerving. Ashlyn couldn’t believe that he could possibly think that he could move here, snap his fingers, and get a spot on the team.

  “Good luck with that,” Ashlyn snorted.

  Tripp stepped in her space, his smile fading to a cocky smirk. “I don’t need luck. I’m good and I know it.”

  Ashlyn wasn’t much for confrontation, but after spending ten minutes with the guy, she had decided that he rubbed her the wrong way and he should know it. “I see you’re humble as well,” she said with more attitude than she expected.

  He took one more step toward her and she was hit with the subtle freshness of his cologne. It was crisp and clean. And different. Everything about him was different.

  “I don’t flaunt much, but I know when it comes to the sport, I’m good. No point in beating around the bush about it.”

  “Here’s your late pass for class,” Ashlyn hurriedly spoke. She also took the opportunity to take a step back as she stretched her arm out to hand him the slip of paper.

  “That’s it?”

  Ashlyn desperately wanted to get to class. Her first class of the day was newspaper. It was the one class she never wanted to miss. “Yeah. Just give it to your first period teacher.”

  There was that stupid chuckle again. “I meant, we’re done with this?”

  “Yes. Believe it or not, classes started almost fifteen minutes ago,” Ashlyn stressed.

  He watched as she grew more uncomfortable by the second. She wasn’t the typical girl he generally went for. He tended to like flair, which usually included girls that spent too much time in the mirror on their hair and makeup, ones that went shopping every weekend, but always looked incredibly sexy in overpriced attire.

  The girl before him…She looked different. She had a simple beauty about her. Her oversized sweater and slim jeans concealed most of her body. Though she was taller than a good portion of girls, she appeared tiny standing in front of him in a pair of flat shoes. Her makeup was simple and subtle, no smokey eyes or blazing red lipstick. He wasn’t sure how long her hair was; she had it in a cute side braid that hung over her left shoulder. Though during most of their conversation she refused to meet his eyes, he was certain they were one of the most beautiful shades of blue he had ever seen.

  “Can I get your number,” Tripp asked bluntly.

  “What?! Why?!”

  “In case I get lost,” he laughed.

  Ashlyn recovered from her shock at how bold he was and turned serious. “Just find the front office. They’ll help you.” She adjusted her bags and turned to leave.

  “Can I still have your number?”

  A surge of giddiness raced through Ashlyn, but she was quick to squash it. She knew guys like Tripp Scott without needing to know him. He was overconfident, cocky, and far too proud. He was used to getting his way and probably one of the biggest jerks on the planet.

  When Ashlyn didn’t turn to respond, Tripp calmly followed her and walked in front of her. “Well,” he pressed.

  “I have a boyfriend,” Ashlyn blurted out.

  For a moment she thought she saw the confidence fade in his face, but if it did, he found it back rather quickly. “That’s great and all, but still not answering my question.”

  Ashlyn huffed in annoyance, and stepped away. “If you can’t do the math on that one, then I feel sorry for you.”

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  “Wow. You look like crap,” Emory pointed out as soon as Ashlyn sat down at the lunch table.

  June and Kayla immediately looked up and put on their sweetest smiles.

  “Thanks,” Ashlyn said, sticking out her tongue in the process.

  “I guess you didn’t convince the principal to let your loser boyfriend back to school early.”

  Ashlyn glared at Emory. Of all their friends, Emory was the only one who ever spoke out about her very obvious dislike for Eric.

  “Worse,” Ashlyn began, already stuffing her ham sandwich in her face. “Somehow, I still managed to volunteer my time to repaint the sign, and he had me show around a pretentious jerk. Now I’m behind on my assignment for newspaper.”

  All three girls surrounding her now perked their ears up at that last bit.

  “Wait,” June began, quickly trying to swallow the bite of food in her mouth before continuing. “The new guy?”

  “Ugh,” Ashlyn scoffed. “Yeah. Tripp Scott.” She shook her head as those wasted minutes flashed through her mind.

  “Lucky,” Kayla hissed.

  Ashlyn gasped. “Lucky? He’s a jerk.”

  Emory raised a brow and leaned forward with a mischievous look on her face. “Well, when it comes to jerks, you would know.”

  Ashlyn smiled and shook her head. “I’m serious. He thinks he’s the greatest baseball player on the planet. He thinks
that he doesn’t even need to try out for–”

  “He doesn’t,” Emory quickly interrupted.

  Silence ensued and three sets of eyes waited for her to continue.

  “Deacon came over for supper last night and told Ellis all about him.” Emory said with a shrug, as if that explained everything.

  Ellis was Emory’s twin, and so as not to hurt himself for his senior year of football, he had opted out of playing baseball in the spring. Deacon, his best friend, didn’t share the same sentiment, and was trying out for the team again, although he was one of the few people that practically had a spot if he bothered to show up.

  “Deacon said that Tripp stopped by their practice yesterday and met with the team. He’s played all over the place,” Emory added.

  “What do you mean,” Kayla quickly asked.

  “His dad is in the tech industry or something, some bigshot, and they’ve lived all over. I guess baseball was the one thing he tried to keep consistent.”

  “All over,” June now inquired.

  “Gosh, if you want to know so much about him just ask,” Emory teased. “I think he’s lived in the Dominican Republic, Canada, Australia, and some country in Asia,” she added with a wave of her hand. “He’s lived solely in the states for the last couple years.” Before either girl could ask anything else, “That’s all I know! Oh, except that,” she began directing her words to Ashlyn. “Yes, he’s on the team, without a tryout.”

  Emory watched as Ashlyn tried to hide her reaction. Knowing that had to cut her a little, especially after she would have done anything to get Eric on the team for this season.

  Ashlyn couldn’t help but allow her attention to drift to a table nearby. Several of the guys there would be playing for the team. Though Deacon and Byron did football in the fall, they also chose baseball in the spring. Both, as well as a few others, seemed to have already taken Tripp under their wing. Despite not playing, Ellis usually hung out with the guys, or occasionally he and Deacon would join Emory for lunch.

  After a quick scan of the cafeteria, Ashlyn saw that he was seated with Abby and her friends. That was another relationship that Emory wasn’t fond of. She disliked the idea of her brother dating a girl on the same cheerleading squad as her; however, with Abby being a senior, none of them expected it to last for more than a few more months.