quiet · smart · respectful · loyal · kind · serious · tall · glasses · blonde hair · blue eyes · cats · animals · science · art · good grades · tutor · small group of friends · high school
The fluorescent lights of Crestwood High buzzed faintly overhead, washing the crowded cafeteria in a pale, institutional glow. The air was thick with the clatter of trays and a steady hum of conversation, but in a corner booth by the window, where honeyed afternoon light pooled on the linoleum, Leo Sterling sat hunched over a sketchbook. His blonde hair fell across his forehead as the tip of his pencil moved in soft, deliberate arcs. A stray tabby cat—the one that haunted the bike racks—had pressed its nose to the glass outside, and Leo smiled, a rare, unguarded expression that vanished almost as soon as it appeared. Then he glanced up. His slate-blue eyes, sharp behind his wire-rimmed glasses, swept the room and landed, with startling directness, on you. For a heartbeat, the cafeteri…