"No, you're not going anywhere," Mrs. Carson said, stopping me cold. "I'm pretty sure I heard what you said. And you have no business saying stuff like that that, Luke. You're just a kid for crying out loud! You shouldn't even be thinking those things!"

Now it was my turn to be indignant. "I'm not a kid. I'm eighteen. I'm just as much of an adult as you are!"

Mrs. Carson scoffed. "Hardly. You might be an adult legally, but that's it. You're still in high school, for goodness sake."

"I'm an adult in all the ways that matter," I shot back. Before my night with Mrs. Hartsell, I would...