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My attention shifts to the one I was staring at as he rises and turns to face us, noticing this interaction. Noticing me.

She kicks at my feet. “Did you hear me?”

A ripple of annoyance courses through me as sand kicks up in my face. I don’t want to dignify her with a response, and my jaw clenches. “My name is London,” I tell her through gritted teeth as I breathe in a face full of sand.

I’m not used to being spoken to like this, either. I have no desire to play along with these girls right now. Last spring’s drama brought me here, but now I want to stay low key. Maybe if I give her what she wants, she’ll realize I’m not a threat and will leave me alone.

The blonde leader takes off her sunglasses, a glint flashing in her almond-colored eyes as I get a good look at her. She is quite attractive—long blonde hair she pulls back in a ponytail, athletic build, slim. Slimmer than I am, since my hips thickened a few years ago and my body rounded out, but I have bigger boobs, for sure.

“I knew it,” she says. “You’re London King, aren’t you?”

Shit. Somehow, she recognizes me, even though I haven’t lived in this area for eight years. We were like, ten when I left. How does she remember me?

My forehead wrinkles and my memory of her hits me like a needle piercing my skin.

She crosses her arms. “I’m Naomi Wilson. Don’t pretend like you don’t know who I am.”

My stomach drops as my past creeps up to me, and an image of a girl with braces and pigtails comes to mind.

Naomi Wilson, of course. We went to school together for years, and I remember her always being a complete bitch.

“Yeah, I remember you,” I mutter.

But it is the thought of her mother that has me wincing. Speaking of alphas, my father never got over his primitive urge to mate. Her mother was one of the many married women my father fucked in this town, and she is the reason both our parents split up. Naomi’s mom was the final straw for my parents’ marriage, and then we moved away from New Ocean shortly after. Mom and I had moved to Portland, never to look back, and my father had married his new wife. I had hoped time made people forget that scandal.

Naomi tilts her head and gives me a look of utter disgust. “Why are you back here?”

I open my mouth to speak, but my throat goes dry. This is the one question I should be prepared for, but I’m not.

“Naomi, Serena, let’s go,” one of the guys yells from where they are standing, watching us.

I raise my eyebrows as Naomi examines me, as if seeing me for the first time. An array of emotions are visible in her eyes. I’m a living, breathing reminder of when her life got torn apart, and I’m far from the gangly girl with braces who only ever had her nose stuck in a book. I still read just as much, but I look different. Her eyes linger on my cleavage, then down my legs as she takes me in one last time, probably realizing I look just as good in my swimsuit as she does. A gleam hits her brown eyes before she places her sunglasses back on and clicks her tongue. “This school year will be fun, London. I’m so happy you came back.”

She saunters off and I breathe a sigh of relief once she’s gone. Her friend Serena gives me one last confused look before she follows Naomi back to the guys, who have now packed up their beach stuff and are impatiently waiting by a tree.

I pull my sunglasses up and pour myself back into my book, but doubt fires at every nerve. She doesn’t blame me for what happened back then, does she? I didn’t spare Naomi a single thought when we left—and I hadn’t thought about her since, having blocked that part of my life out. Should I have cared more about her?

I have no clue how many women my father slept with, but I do know he slept with half the town when I was younger. I didn’t want details. The town of New Ocean is nothing but a collection of meaningless memories I tried my hardest to forget, my father’s indiscretions being one of them.

I spent months as a pre-teen helping my mom through her tears and depression after news broke of his cheating ways. She got her shit together and sucked a few million out of him.

I blow out a breath. I made a mistake by coming back, but it’s the only way I can finish high school. I have always dreamed of attending the top journalism school, and returning is my only option to make that happen. Online school won’t cut it when co-curricular are equally important as academics.

A wind gusts over me as a cloud pulls in front of the sun. Dark storm clouds now loom, blowing in over the ocean. I sit up and pause as I notice one guy lingering, staring at me. I pull down my glasses and squint, trying to get a better view of him, but a beam of sunlight shines right through the clouds and onto my face.

He’s the one Naomi was all over, and his body looks like it belongs to a bloody Greek god—so it must be him. Naturally, Naomi would be with the hottest guy in the group.

Every muscle is cut and shimmering, and he stands a good two feet taller than me. I’m tempted to get up and say hi, but he makes no motion that he wants me to. He just stands and stares, making me feel as if I should pull my towel around my body instead. After a few seconds, he turns and walks away from me, his entire tanned body leaving little to the imagination.

Today was supposed to be ordinary and dull, but instead, all my anxieties come rushing in. Tomorrow is the start of school, and I need to stay invisible. I have a nagging feeling I am far from done with dealing with Naomi Wilson.

New Ocean is not my home anymore, but now neither is Portland. I’m running from one life I want to forget and toward the other I already ran away from once.

Chapter Two

“London King, please come to the office,” a loud nasal voice calls out from the intercom. I slam my locker shut, aware of all the eyes burning into me and a blush creeps my face.

My plan for a low-key first day is already not working out the way I expected.