Few emotions rival the self-satisfaction and glee of when an intricate plan appears to have worked. Thus it was with this heady feeling mixed with adolescent romanticism and a touch of naive lust that Sissy bounded out of her small car and skipped across the gravel driveway.

All that was happy and joyful fled violently from her bosom. Muggy night air was sucked in sharply. For she saw a man-mountain in a black suit all but obliterating the entrance to her Eden. The figure, dark and menacing in the yellow porch light, harsh features turning stern, folded his arms across his wide chest.

Lip quivering under dime store lipstick and a welling tear threatening to ruin purloined mascara, Sissy stammered weakly, “L-lost, and…study! Review…ex-xtra credit…No! N-nothing extra! J-just, um…”

She trailed off and let her eyes wander to the periphery of the imposing presence in black. Her eyes met those of Cole, and her heart broke at the sight of his anger, rage…and something else she couldn’t quite place.