Burning Youth

Penny Zook has the best marks in the year and no protection at all. Queen Adams, whose family has money and who is used to being pleasant to nobody, has made Penny a fixed target, and by the time the new term is well under way Penny has stopped being able to absorb it. Louis Bell transfers in around then. Nobody knows much about him, which is part of why she approaches him. She offers a straight trade: he keeps her safe for three months, and she gets his grades up. They start meeting over textbooks and end up spending most of their time together. Louis turns out to be carrying something of his own, a guarded, solitary streak that the schoolwork never touches, and Penny's stubborn decency wears at it in a way he does not seem able to stop. She had asked for three months.