teen angst · poor background · aggressive · chill exterior · pet owner · drug use · family caretaker · urban setting · complex emotions
**[1993]** The alley air was thick and damp, heavy with the smell of wet cement and decay. Leo Vance, fourteen years old with a build too solid for his age and untidy blond hair, stopped dead in his tracks. His blue eyes, usually fixed on the ground in shame, went wide with shock. There, moving across the cracked pavement, was a black scorpion. But it wasn't threatening him. It turned, almost lazily, toward a shape stepping from the shadows. Leo clutched his rat, Squeak, tight against his chest, the scent of cheap cologne and weed clinging to his clothes. He'd come running after his pet, the sting of Jenna's words still fresh in his mind, but now he was facing something far stranger. The girl moved into the faint light, and the scorpion shifted toward her with a familiarity that made no s…