The bell finally rang. Emma stood and then looked down to shove her textbook back in her bag. She swung around to leave and then—crash! She and Jackson smashed right into each other. Emma fell sideways, grabbing the desk for support. Jackson lost his balance and landed right back in his chair, dropping his notebook as he went down.
Emma scrambled to stand. “I’m so sorry! That was totally my fault. I wasn’t looking.”
Jackson seemed stunned for a second. Then he shook it off. “You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” She leaned down, picked up his notebook, and as she handed it back to him, she felt the same jolt of excitement she had experienced at the school assembly—something electric. And unless Emma was imagining it, the half-smile on Jackson’s face made Emma think that he had felt it, too.
“Thanks,” he said, taking the notebook back with one hand as he reached up to push his hair away from his forehead with his other.
Suddenly feeling bold, Emma asked, “Can I see what you’ve been drawing? I mean, I just happened to notice that you spent most of class drawing something, and I was just…curious.”
Jackson looked surprised but not angry or insulted. He scanned the classroom. Most everyone had already left, leaving the room empty except for the two of them and a couple of kids talking with Ms. Lyons up at her desk. He opened his notebook and leaned toward Emma so only she could see. Their shoulders were almost touching.
The margins of the pages were filled with the most amazing comic-book art. “Wow. So cool.”
“You draw and stuff, right?” Jackson asked.
“Yeah.” Now it was Emma’s turn to be surprised. She instinctively patted the sketch pad tucked away in her bag. She had no idea that Jackson had noticed that she drew. All this time she’d thought she was the one staring at him.
“And you really think this is good?” he asked, his face open and vulnerable.
Emma couldn’t believe he was asking for her opinion. “Totally. I really like what you’ve done with the style. It’s bold and simple—in a good way, I think, because it’s not too detailed or busy. I also like the way the characters seem to jump off the pages, like they’re three-dimensional. See, here?” She pointed to figure of a guy holding a book in one hand and a sword in the other. “He’s totally great. He looks like someone we’d know but also a hero at the same time.”
“Exactly!” Jackson said enthusiastically. “That’s what I was going for!”
At that moment, Lexie appeared in the doorway to the classroom.
“Hey, Jackson! I’ve been waiting for you at your locker.” Lexie was wearing a dress so short that Emma was positive it was meant to be a shirt. Even so, she looked beyond amazing in it. “Come on!”
Jackson closed his notebook and gathered the rest of his stuff. Emma put her bag down on the desk and pretended to reorganize her things. He started to make his way over to meet Lexie, waiting impatiently at the door. Then he stopped and ripped a page from his notebook. He handed it to Emma without a word. In a few long strides, he was out the door with Lexie. Emma could hear her giggles echoing down the hall, the sound slowly fading into general hallway chatter.
Emma closed her eyes to let the Jackson “moment” sink in. When she opened them again, she looked down at the page he had given her. It was the drawing of the hero that she especially liked. Emma tucked it into her own sketchbook for safekeeping—right between her own sketches of Allegra Biscotti’s next collection.
