The nurse cleaned and bandaged my cut. By the time she was done, my first period Art class had already started. She gave me a note and I rushed off to class.

When I got there, most of the seats were taken. Daisy was sitting in front of Paige next to the window. The closest available seat to Daisy was the one next to Paige, so I took it.

The boy in the seat in front of mine smiled at me as I passed. He was skinny with messy blond hair, a nose that was too big for his face, and a weak chin. I had seen him before, but never had a class with him. As soon as I sat down, Millie walked in with Andreas. I sat up straighter. Andreas is in my class! I heard her introduce him to our teacher, Mr. Belford. His last name was Iversen.

Andreas took the seat on my right, in back of a scruffy-looking soccer player named Peter Turi. Pete was Irish, Algerian, and French which made for a handsome combination. He always wore wrinkled t-shirts, but somehow managed to look good in them.

Andreas looked straight ahead to the front of the class despite the whispers and stares surrounding him. All the girls in the class were discreetly checking him out, including Daisy and Paige. He looked even better up close, considering I usually saw him from across the street. Except for a small scar on his left cheek, he looked like he could be an Abercrombie model.

Mr. Belford handed out charcoal sticks and blank sheets of paper. Our assignment was to draw a still life that was set up in the front of the room consisting of boxes, cones, and spheres.

The boy in front of me turned around to pass me a sheet of paper.

“Hi,” he said. “I’m Jamie.” His eyes had a sleepy look to them and I was surprised that they were a pretty blue.

I smiled. “Hi. I’m Lilah. I’ve seen you around.”

“You have?”

I giggled at the surprised look on his face. His cheeks turned red.

“Quiet, Everyone!” said Mr. Belford. “Mr. Schweitzer, eyes to the front!”

Jamie whipped his head back around and I stifled another giggle.

“You all will need to buy a sketchbook and draw in it every day,” said Mr. Belford. “I'll check them every Friday. You must draw a minimum of five pages per week. Anything over that is extra credit.”

Extra credit? The idea appealed to me and I was anxious to get started.

After class, Andreas left with Pete.

Daisy asked me why I was late for class and I told her what happened, leaving out the parts concerning Marco. We compared schedules and discovered we had Biology together for third period.

“I heard Marco is in our Biology class,” she whispered.

“How do you know?”

“Paige told me. She’s in the class, too.”

“You talked to her?”

“Just a little before you got to class.”

“Hmph.” I raised my eyebrows and curled my lip.

“Oh, stop.” She rolled her eyes before heading off to her next class.

English was my second period class. I spotted Millie grinning at me when I walked in, so I made my way toward her and sat down in the seat next to hers. She looked like she was about to burst as she waited for me to get settled.

She leaned over to me. “It looks like Marco really likes you,” she whispered. “Do you think he’ll dump Paige for you?”

“What?” I said trying to keep my voice down. “We’re not even friends! Besides, they already broke up, so it’s not like he’s dumping her for anyone.”

She gasped. “Really?”

“Yes! It’s old news by now. I don’t even like him anyway.”

Her jaw dropped open. “How can you not like him? He’s the cutest guy in school! And the nicest.”

“His best friend is Trey. How nice can he be? There’s obviously something wrong with him.”

Millie’s smile faded. “He’s not like Trey. People aren’t always like their friends.”

I snorted. “They’re a lot like their friends. That’s why they hang out together. Like attracts like. Haven’t you heard of that?”

She shook her head. A tiny part of me was hoping she was right. I dismissed the feeling and focused on Ms. Hansen who was introducing herself to the class.

When I got to Biology, Daisy was already there. I took the seat next to her at the high two-person table.

Paige and Trisha walked in and chose a table at the back of the class. The guys stared and the brave ones talked to them. Daisy watched them with admiration. Annoyed, I turn to write in my notebook.

Marco walked in, pausing just inside the doorway. He glanced at Paige, but didn’t make a move toward her. A significant hush fell over the room. Everyone knew they were a couple, but not everyone knew they had broken up. His eyes met mine, then landed on the open seat at the table next to me. I telepathically willed him not to sit there. Paige and Brittany stopped talking and watched to see what he would do.

Christine Gentry, or “Chris” as she preferred to be called, sat at the far side of that table next to me. She was probably the only girl in school besides me who didn’t chase after Marco, but then again she was a lesbian and not into boys. Marco took the seat next to her. Everyone in the room seemed to whisper all at once. Daisy and I looked at each other. Her eyes were wide with a mixture of terror and excitement that Marco was sitting so close to us. I bit my lip to suppress a laugh. The whispers died down as Mr. Irwin addressed the class. I made a conscious effort not to look at Marco the whole period.

As I left Biology and headed toward the gym for P.E., Marco caught up to me, taking me by surprise.

“How do you like Biology?” he said.

What is he doing here?! I swiveled my head around to see if Daisy was within view. She was nowhere to be seen, but I was still uneasy about walking down the hall with him.

“Is there something wrong?” he said looking around to see what I was looking at.

“Uh, no. Nothing’s wrong. Biology was pretty interesting.” I put my head down and continued to the gym. He stayed with me. I frowned in confusion. “Is your class this way, too?”

“I have P.E. with you.” He smiled sheepishly. “I looked at your schedule.”

“Oh.” So he did look at my schedule.

When we stepped into the gym together, several people stopped to look at us. Others were sitting on the floor chatting while they waited for the coach to call roll. I spotted Andreas in the crowd. My heart jumped when I saw him, then I noticed that he was talking to a couple of girls. Paige and Trisha. Kayla was just joining them. Something is wrong in the universe. There was a sinking feeling in my stomach. One of them could snatch him up before I could get a chance to even meet him. This isn’t the way things were supposed to go! How is it that they got to meet him before I did? We were supposed to be friends and walk home together… The strange thing was that Andreas didn’t even smile at them. He kept looking away as if trying to ignore them like he did me. Interesting.

Devin Sanders, a football player who was a part of Marco’s inner circle called out to Marco and waved him over. Marco started to walk over to him, but turned around to look at me as if expecting me to follow. I quickly sat down next to Jamie from Art class. He looked surprised, but pleased. I smiled and watched his face light up.

The coach walked in and everyone grew quiet. His clean, white sneakers squeaked with every step he took.

“I’m Coach Castellano,” he said as he handed out sheets of paper. “This is a list of rules and things you will need for this class.” A pair of sunglasses dangled off the neck of his white t-shirt and a pen was tucked behind his ear. His hair was completely white which contrasted with his tanned skin.

I took the sheet of paper and studied it. Jamie leaned over to talk to me about art class. He blushed and grinned revealing crooked teeth when I told him I liked his drawings. His clothes were too small for him and his lankiness made him look even more awkward. I felt sorry for him. A few years ago I looked just as awkward. Even though he was a little too geeky, he was nice and sort of cute despite his many flaws. I listened with interest as he told me how he learned to draw by copying the art from graphic novels.

The coach stopped talking and looked at us. Everyone turned to look at us as well.

“Sorry to interrupt you two lovebirds, but this is MY class and when I am talking, you keep quiet,” he said. “It’s very simple. Leave the flirting for later.” My cheeks burned with embarrassment. “If you talk while I’m talking, come in late, forget your P.E. clothes, act up, blah, blah, blah,” the class laughed, “you will be running laps around the track.” Silence. The class looked from him to us, waiting for him to make us run laps, no doubt. I kept my eyes on the him, hoping we wouldn’t have to. “Lucky for you two, I’m a reasonable guy. Since it’s the first day and you don’t have your gym clothes on, you don’t have to run laps. Next time, I won’t be so reasonable.” Some of the kids snickered. He went back to discussing the rules of the class.

I leaned away from Jamie so he wouldn’t talk to me and I glanced at Andreas. His eyes were on the coach. The other kids had also turned their attention to the front, except Marco. His eyes were fixed on me, a look of curiosity in his eyes.