Forever Now (Forever - Book 1) by Elise Sax

She wore bright red lipstick that escaped her lips in little craggy lines. Her eyelids were painted blue and drooped over her eyes. She wasn’t an attractive woman, but that was almost a relief since I had been surrounded by too much beauty, lately.
    “I think that’s a perfect idea,” she said, finally.
    “What?”
    “You’re going to go the Sorbonne in Paris and write great novels. I think that’s the best idea I’ve heard in a long time.”
    “You do?”
    “Don’t you?” she asked me.
    “Well—“
    “You mustn’t be wobbly, Tess. Dreams remain dreams if you get wobbly. It should be full steam ahead. Man the torpedoes.” She shook her fist at the sky and bounced up and down in her chair, making it creak.
    “The torpedoes?”
    “Tell me what you’ve done so far.”
    “Done?”
    “To get in. How’s the application process going?”
    Application process? What was she talking about? Hadn’t she heard me? I didn’t have any money. There was no way I could go to Paris.
    Mrs. Landes cocked her head to the side. “You went away there, Tess. Come back to me. Focus.”
    I was focusing. Focusing on how impossible my dream was. Wobbly? I was so wobbly I had already fallen over.
    “I can’t go to Paris, Mrs. Landes.”
    “Why not?”
    “I can’t afford it.”
    “Stuff and nonsense.”
    “Stuff and what?” I asked.
    “Balderdash. Claptrap. Twaddle. Tripe. Drivel. Of course you can go to Paris.”
    “But—“ I started.
    “No buts. You’re going to research everything about studying at the Sorbonne, and so am I, and then we’re going to meet back here on Tuesday during fifth period. Got it?” She penciled my name on her desk calendar and waved me out of the room.
    I stood outside the office and took a deep breath. It was warm for November, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. I felt a kernel of hope pop inside me. Could I really make my dreams come true? Could I really make it to Paris, after all?
    For the first time in a long time I was optimistic, but the optimism wasn’t alone. It was kept company by a big dose of fear. There’s nothing scarier than hoping for something and not getting it.
    On the other hand, Mrs. Landes seemed very sure. She wasn’t scared at all. And more than that, she didn’t laugh at me. In fact, she thought it was a great idea. She told me I shouldn’t be wobbly.
    It dawned on me that my best choice for happiness rested in the hands of an old lady with droopy eyelids and red lipstick. That sort of made me happy.
     
    ***
     
    I walked out of the college advisor’s office to a quiet school and an empty quad. It was a long way across the campus to the exit. The nice weather and my new hope kept me company and made the walk enjoyable. I planned on getting on my mom’s computer and researching everything I could the minute I got home. It was great to get permission to turn my dream into reality.
    I walked through the school’s front gate. There were only a few cars in the parking lot, but hovering at the entrance were about five kids, talking around a white Challenger. I recognized them: Three football players and two of the meanest of the mean girls.
    I would have to pass them to walk through the lot toward home. I took a deep breath and scrunched up my courage. I knew it could go one of two ways. Either they would ignore the invisible girl, or they were bored and would use me as a distraction.
    It turned out to be the second option.
    “Look, it’s the freak,” one of the girls announced.
    Their heads turned toward me in unison. It was like they were watching a tennis tournament, and I was the ball.
    Great. Just perfect.
    Two of the football players blocked me from passing them. They were huge, at least six-feet-tall with thick necks and bulging biceps.
    “Where do you think you’re going, freak girl?” One of them demanded. I think his name was Ralph, but he could just have as easily been called, Tank or Butch.
    Or Killer.
    Gulp.
    “Who do you think you are,