title: Ashley: What if the world you thought you would know, turned out to be nothing like you'd planned?
author: melissa anderson
description: Melissa is a fourteen year old high school student living in New York State. Writing is one of her most treasured passions. Ashley is her first novel, written during National Novel Writing Month.
zlib_text: “Zac, I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
   
  He smiled, then reached down to help her get off the low futon. She was
  spooked by the events of the evening and his warm hand just made her feel
  better. “You’re shaking.”
   
  “It’s been a very long past few days.” She fought the urge to ask him to
  stay, but she had no right. He was already doing more than he probably
  should.
   
  “I’ll swing by later, check in on you and the girls. Keep the doors
  locked.”
   
  “Okay,” she said as a warm tear slid down her face.
   
  He caught it on his fingertip. “Hey, I thought you didn’t cry.”
   
  “I don’t. It’s the hormones. I have too many of them and they’re running
  amok.”
   
  And then he dipped his head, kissed her cheek.
   
  She stood looking after him, her fingers against the place where his lips
  had touched. Beneath the layer of fear kindled by Zac’s warnings, another
  feeling tried to break through.
   
  She pushed it away….
   
  
  ALICE SHARPE
   
  
  MULTIPLES MYSTERY
   
  TORONTO • NEW YORK • LONDON
  AMSTERDAM • PARIS • SYDNE