Nobody Likes Megan McGowen

Sneak Peek: All You Never Wanted

Megan walked into history two minutes after the bell rang. She knew Mr. Wilson hated when students were late, but that didn't bother her much anymore. She'd been late to class slightly more often than she'd been on time, and he hadn't seemed to really care – not since she'd made that wish to be popular. Besides, she had more important things on her mind than class at the moment; Jake had vanished after school yesterday, and she hadn't heard from him since. Megan still couldn't believe he could just be gone like that.

As Megan sank into her seat, her thoughts were interrupted by Mr. Wilson.

"You're late, Megan." he told her.

"Sorry." she said halfheartedly.

"Do you have a note?"

"What?" Megan asked blankly. She hadn't needed a note for being late in almost two months.

"Do you have a note?" Mr. Wilson asked again.

"Uh...no..." Megan said slowly. Was he being serious?

"Next time you're late, please go to the office and get a tardy slip."

"Yes, sir."

Mr. Wilson still seemed annoyed, but he turned back to his desk. At least that was over. Megan couldn't figure out why he'd even care; he never had before. He hadn't even cared two days ago when she'd missed the bus. As he started on the lesson, Megan found her mind wandering.

She thought back to yesterday after last period. When Jake had taken off running down the hall, Megan had been shocked to say the least. She'd never seen him look anywhere near that worried before. Usually he was so calm – almost cold. And he never showed that things were going wrong. So when he looked like he was about to have a panic attack in the middle of the hall, Megan knew things must be really bad.

It took her almost no time at all to decide to skip track practice and go right home; she had to know what was going on. And judging from the look on Jake's face, she couldn't afford to wait. She hurried through the hall and down the stairs. She was almost through the doors when she ran straight into Karen.

"Everything ok?" Karen asked when she saw the look on Megan's face.

"Yeah, it's fine." Megan shrugged, trying to put on a decent smile. She was doing her best not to look as worried as she actually was. Of course, Karen wasn't fooled for a second.

"What's wrong?" she asked Megan.

"Nothing, really."

True, Jake was really worried about something having to do with the bottle in her room, but Megan wasn't sure what she could say about that. What she really wanted to do was ask Karen to ditch practice and take her home, but she couldn't come up with a good excuse. At least, not one that would explain why she needed to be home right now.

She was pretty sure that explaining how she really wanted to see if Jake would be there wouldn't exactly be all that convincing. Megan was still trying to come up with some kind of excuse as she fell into step with Karen. Fortunately, Jen texted her, and Megan was spared having to come up with what would only be a transparent lie anyway.

What's wrong with Jake? Jen asked.

No idea. Take me home? Megan typed back.

Meet in the parking lot, came the response.

"I've gotta go." Megan told Karen, looking up.

"Really? No practice?"

"Not today. I have to do something with Jen." Megan told her.