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Here's an inside look at the first chapter!

One She Never Expected © K. Leah

Chapter One - Piper

“I truly think you’ve lost your mind,” my sister, Cait, says. “Why in the world would you pack up and move to Atlanta?”

“Well, I feel like there are more opportunities there for me than here in Bakersfield,” I defend.

“Piper, you’re in school. Did you forget that detail?” My sister speaks her disapproval loud and clear. 

“No, I haven’t. I thought about transferring.”

“This is crazy. There is no way Chase will go for this. I mean, our extra bedroom will soon be occupied. Plus, it’s not like our place is very big.”

“See, that’s the thing. Y’all should get a new place, and I’ll rent yours when you move out. It’s an insta-lease. I’ll just take it over from you.”

“I don’t think it works that way.”

“We can always try,” I urge.

“If you take over our lease, how are you going to afford to live in this place if you’re in school? A part-time job isn’t going to pay the bills. Atlanta is expensive.”

“Sooo, you guys should buy a house with a basement, and I’ll rent from you that way!”

“No!” Cait barks.

“Caaaaaait, pleease,” I beg. 

My excitement over the situation isn’t amusing my sister. She’s not taking the bait of my newly formed plan to move in with her. 

“What’s the real reason you want to move?” she asks.

Busted. 

I can’t seem to keep anything from her. She can read me like a book, and she’s not even made it past the first chapter to know the plot twist. 

“Um…there’s no reason.”

“I can tell you’re lying.”

“I’m not lying. I really do want to move to Atlanta.”

“Piper!” Cait’s tone of voice is raised like a mother’s reprimand. 

“Okay!” I huff. “I don’t think nursing school is for me.”

“Excuse me?” Piper admonishes.

“Yeah, um, I think I want to do something different.”

“What do you mean different? You’re in nursing school.”

“Technically, I’m not in yet. I applied. And I just found out I didn’t get in. I didn’t make the cut for next semester.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. So there’s that.”

“I see now.” My sister clears her throat.

“I need a change of scenery. Plus a new school.”

“They have other programs at your school.”

“But Tucker Price doesn’t live in Atlanta.”

“Ding, ding, ding! I should have known this was about a boy.”

I huff. Cait can nail my disposition to a T at any moment, this one included.

“Why didn’t you just tell me this is all about a boy?” she asks. 

I pick at a non-existent piece of lint on my shirt. “Cause.”

“Because why?”

“Cait, I was humiliated in front of him, okay. I never want to see his face again!”

“Oh boy,” Cait mumbles under a deep breath.

“It’s bad, and I can’t show my face on campus ever again.”

“I feel certain it’s nowhere near the level of bad you have built up in your head,” she reprimands. 

“Weeelll…,” I draw out. “It’s bad for me!”

I can feel my sister’s glare through the phone. The puffs of air are accompanied by an eye roll and a facepalm, I’m sure of it. 

“Piper, you get entirely too worked up over stuff. Are you ever going to tell me what you did that was so bad, or am I going to have to sit here and ask you a hundred questions to pull it out of you?”

I flop back against the pillows and contemplate my words. I’m sure Cait won’t think this is anywhere near the level of bad that I do. She often tells me I’m a bit dramatic. 

Whatever.

“Okay. So, last week, a group of friends and I got together to study. It was a nice day, and we decided to sit outside in the courtyard. We were all minding our own business and eating while we talked about the upcoming Biology test.”

“Nothing bad is happening,” Cait singsongs.

“I’m getting there!” I exclaim. 

“Okay, go ahead.”

“While we were sitting outside, I saw a group of boys walking out of the building, I guess on their way to class. You know who Tucker Price is, don’t you?”

“Isn’t he the math teacher’s kid? The one from the high school? The one you’ve had a crush on since middle school?”

“Yes. That’s him. Super cute.” I add a little squeal for emphasis. “He’s walking our way, and I just had to open my big mouth when I shouldn’t have. I leaned over to whisper to Alyssa that I thought he was cute. Mistake number one. Then, she asks me his name, and I tell her. Mistake number two. As he gets closer to our table, Alyssa yells out, ‘Hey, are you Tucker?’ and he looks at us, surprised.”

“Still, nothing bad is happening,” Cait interrupts. 

“I’m getting there!” I yell. 

“Good grief. Get on with the story,” Cait grumbles.

“Tucker pointed at himself, and Alyssa nodded that she was referring to him. Then she said, ‘Come over here a minute,’ and I literally thought I might die a slow death as he walked toward us. When he was right in front of us, Alyssa said, ‘You know this girl?’ and pointed to me. I wanted to crawl under the table. So, Tucker was standing there, looking confused. He grunted and shrugged his shoulders but never really answered the question. Then…then, Alyssa put the icing on the cake when she said, ‘She thinks you're really cute, and I think you should ask her out on a date.’ Tucker’s face turned about ten shades of red, and I lost all sense of feeling in my entire body. I was devastated, and he was super uncomfortable. It was bad. So bad.”

“So, let me get this straight,” Cait states. “Alyssa asked a guy if he’d go out with you. I see no harm in this. Awkward, yes, but still, this is a good thing. Or it should be. At least for you.”

“Piper! No way! You don’t put a guy on the spot like that!” 

“Eh,” Cait waffles. “I imagine it was probably uncomfortable. So, what did he say?”

“Nothing! That’s the thing. He just stood there and stared. Then the boys he was with started laughing, and they all left.” 

“What did Alyssa do?” Cait prompts.

“She just laughed it off. I looked at her and asked why she would do that, and she told me that I needed to chill out. That I needed to chill out. Me!”

“Um, Piper…?”

“What?” I cry. 

“You’re doing it now.” Cait’s statement is direct.

“I’m doing what?”

“You’re freaking out, and you’re just telling me the story. I can only imagine how you acted to Alyssa’s face in the heat of the moment.”

“Well!” I exclaim. “I was upset.”

“So how––again––does this give you a reason to pack up all of your stuff and move to a new college in a new town?”

“So I don’t have to see Tucker ever again.”

“But I thought you liked him?”

“I do,” I whine. 

“So, why would you not want to see him ever again?”

“Argh. Don’t you see how humiliating this is?”

“Embarrassing, yes. Humiliating, no. Use this as an opportunity to talk to him sometime. Unless you're still dating that one guy. What’s his name?”

“Jacob. And no, I’m not dating him. That never even started. It was just flirting.”

“Piper, I hate to say it, but I have whiplash just hearing you talk about your love life.”

“I don’t have a love life!” I argue. 

“Well, you certainly talked about a couple of different guys in a span of five minutes.”

I huff, and my shoulders sag. “College isn’t what I thought it was going to be.”

“What do you mean? Just because you don’t have a boyfriend means you don’t like it?”

“No, Cait. That’s not what I mean,” I deadpan. “I mean, I thought I was going to love nursing, but I don’t.”

“Technically, you haven’t even done true nursing classes yet.”

“Yeah, I know, but it doesn’t even appeal to me anymore. Like, it’s so far off my radar, I don’t know if I even want to try again.”

Cait huffs a sigh. I know she’s frustrated with my indecision. I’ve said that I wanted to be a nurse my entire life, but now that I know it’s not a reality—at least for this next academic year—I have no idea what I want to be when I grow up. 

“Listen, if you want to be a nurse, be a nurse. If you want to do something else, then do that. But you’ve got to make a decision. You’re wasting time and money at college,” Cait admonishes. “I think you need to meet with a career counselor or something. Take one of those assessment tests to see what your interests are.”

I release a long sigh. “I should. It will probably tell me to do something completely different.”

“I’m serious, Piper. Take a semester off. Get a better job and save up some money.”

“What I’d really like to do is move to Georgia and live with you.”

Crickets. 

“Cait, did you hear me?” I repeat. 

“Yeah. I heard you.”

More crickets.

“And do you have anything to say about that?” I ask. 

“Nope. Not really.”

Her statement is matter-of-fact. It’s not up for discussion, and I’m not going to push the subject any longer. I love my sister, but I think I’ll have to butter her up a little more before I bring up this topic again.

“I gotta go,” she tells me. “Chase will be home soon, and we’re going to the farmer’s market.”

“Okay. Thanks for listening to me, sis. I know I probably drive you crazy sometimes.”

Cait laughs. “Well, you said it. Not me.”

“Hey!” I call out. 

“I love you, Piper. But please try to figure out what you want to do with your life. Seriously.”

“I will. Love you too.”

My insecurities really came out during the phone call with Cait. Thinking back on the conversation, it was so petty and childish. I’m really just searching to find a place to fit in. 

I’m not fresh out of high school like many of the students in my class, but I’m still not able to support myself. 

Ugh. What to do?

Being the baby of the family doesn’t help. All of my siblings are on their own, and I want that too. Cait tells me to be patient. My time will come. Talia tells me to stay at home as long as I can to save my money, and Chip says that Mom and Dad will keep me at home as long as they can since I’m the youngest because they are not ready to be empty nesters. 

Even though Chip still works on the farm, he moved out and got his own place a few months ago. He’s going to build a house on our land once he saves up the money. He should have been the one to stay at home instead of me.

Double ugh.

I sigh and fall back against my bed. I wish it was clearly written out for me to know the path God has for my life, but the ceiling isn’t giving me any answers right now.

***

The next day, I’m walking down the hallway to leave, and Tucker and Jacob are heading my way. If I could duck into a classroom and hide, I would. But all the doors are closed because classes are in session, so I have no choice but to pass them. 

The closer I get, my heart starts pounding. They are talking and not paying much attention to who’s in front of them. 

Meanwhile, my heart is racing, and I feel the blush creeping up my neck. 

I really wish there was an extra hallway or door for escape. 

About the time I’m getting ready to duck my head down, Jacob looks up. He stops talking and nudges Tucker’s arm with his own, nodding his head my way.

My eyes widen. I’m about ten feet away. 

A slow smirk forms on Jacob’s face, and Tucker makes eye contact. 

Five feet apart.

They are getting closer, and a smirk forms on Tucker’s face too. 

Three feet apart.

It’s as if we're moving in slow motion as everything happens at once.

One foot apart.

“Hey, Piper,” Jacob singsongs.

Tucker’s eyes narrow at me, almost as if he’s angry.

Just as we pass, Tucker's shoulder nudges my arm because the hallway is a little too narrow for three people to fit, and it knocks me off balance. 

I stumble and very ungracefully trip, barely catching myself before I face-plant onto the ground. 

Thankfully, I don’t fall, but it's super awkward and ugly trying to catch myself. Unfortunately, my books don’t recover and slide down the hall. I hear laughter and look over my shoulder just in time to see Jacob turn around and watch me as he covers his mouth and points. Both boys keep walking, and Tucker doesn’t even look back. 

Standing in a spread eagle position in the middle of the hall, I’m breathing heavily as I watch the boys turn the corner. 

They didn’t even stop to help. No apologies. No, “I’m sorry about that.” 

Nothing. 

I want to cry, but I don’t. Instead, I stand up, smooth my shirt, gather my books, and walk to my car. 

When I’m inside, the tears begin to form. 

“What am I doing here?” I say to my empty car. “Why do I always fall for the jerks?”

My hurt morphs into anger, and I start breathing rapidly to deter the tears from falling.

“I want out of this place!” I scream and throw my head back against the headrest. 

Taking a few calming breaths, I find my control again. 

“God, I don’t know what you want for my life. I wish you could just paint it across the sky or write it in my notebook. I want so badly to know what I’m supposed to do, but the questions seem to come more and more rather than the answers. Help me to keep focus and show me your plan.”

After my prayer—no, my plea—to God, I wipe my tears and drive home. 

I’m going to figure out my life. 

One way or another.

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