Love Story

The last period of the day had finally arrived. I made my way to Biology with a weary mind. There was no way Lucy would be sitting next to me in this class. She was headed for Art, which meant that she and I were in a world of trouble. I scanned the room quickly as I sat at my designated seat.
Everyone seemed excited as they waited for the rest of the class to arrive, eager to see whom their lab partner would be. I was less eager. I was more nervous than anything. What if the teacher paired me with one of those snooty girls, or a nerd, or some kind of weird creepy guy?
I would rather sit next to the nerd. I crossed my fingers under the desk as I watched the students pour in around me.
The warning bell rang and I was still sitting by myself. Had she forgot to seat someone at my table? There was no way I could be so lucky. I listened to the rush of voices around me. When the final bell rang, everyone sat back down and focused on the teacher as she made her way to the front of the room.
There was still no one beside me. I wondered if it was a curse or a blessing. Science was not my favorite subject. However, crappy partners weren’t either.
“Okay class. My name is Ms. Johansen.” She stood broad at the front of the class. Her shoulders straight, her lips tight and not even a hint of a smile. She looked very serious, maybe even mean. And I was suddenly sure that this would be the worst class of the day.
A loud knock came at the door. Ms. Johansen’s eyes tightened as she walked to the side of the room.
“Your late.” She said with disapproving authority to the person on the other side. “What is your name?”
“Dean McCray.” His tone was polite, even though it held annoyance.
“Well then, Mr. McCray, have a seat next to Ms. Green at table five.”
My heart dropped into my stomach as I heard her say my last name. Quickly I thought; maybe there is another ‘Ms. Green’ in here. I looked down at the desk out of fear and caught sight of the large 5 in the top corner.
Great.
I forced my eyes up. Dean McCray stepped right in front of me and looked down at the table almost mockingly. He nodded to himself and sat down beside me. My heartbeat increased as I felt the heat of his presence and the eyes of the entire class upon us. I glance around to find that not everyone was looking. Only a few girls and the one guy I despised.
Tommy Jones was a horrid guy. He preyed on girls who were too naïve to realize that he was only using them. He had been chasing after me for the past two years, along with Lucy, I might add. There was no way either of us would ever even consider giving him a chance. He was always up to nothing good.
Ms. Johansen cleared her throat at the front of the room, gaining our attention, once more. She went over a few class assignments that we would be coving this semester and began passing out papers.
The final sheet to hit my desk was the classroom rules. Dean picked it freely from my grasp, brushing his fingertips against the side of my hand. He rattled the paper and looked at me as my eyes met his face.
“I’m glad she made these rules, without them, I might always stay in trouble.” I could hear the sarcasm in his voice.
I shrugged, unsure of a proper response.
“Not funny, huh?” He frowned and looked at the paper in his hand.
“Are you new?” I asked, and then bit my lip in regret of asking such a personal first question. He would certainly think I was being rude.
“Yeah, I moved here over the summer.” He paused for a moment then smiled. “You must pay a lot of attention to the guys around here, huh?”
My face blushed. “No.” The defense in my voice was clear evidence.
“Well, you must or you wouldn’t have asked if I was new, because subconsciously you know that you would have remembered seeing me before if I wasn’t.”
I stared with my mouth slightly gapped open. Obviously, I was right, this would be the worst class of the day. “Are you some kind of therapist?”
“No.”
“Then stop trying to act like one, cause you don’t know what you’re talking about.” I looked away before he could see the truth in my eyes.
Dean McCray was right. If he weren’t new, I would have definitely remembered him. He had to be one of the most attractive guys in this school. Even better looking than the senior quarterback on the varsity football team, and that was saying a lot.
“So, do you prefer Ms. Green or should I call you by your first name.” Dean asked.
“Chloe.” I nodded and focused on the nonsense papers below me. Ms. Johansen was in no way a tree-hugger.
“How was your first day?” He asked, nudging his elbow against mine across the tabletop.
“Good.” I mumbled, startled by his persisting interest.
“You’re not very talkative, are you?”
“Not if there isn’t anything to say.”
“Well, I’m not worried, we’ve got a whole semester together.”
I lifted my head at the end of his sentence. Once again he was right. We did have a whole semester. I had a whole semester to sit in this torture chamber of a room, next to a charismatic guy that would never have any real interest in me, while my best friend was off in art class. I could only hope that she was having a better time than I was.

When the bell finally rang for the end of the day, I stood up from my table and swung my backpack over my shoulder. Dean picked up his biology book and grabbed my arm with his free hand.
“You aren’t going to skip tomorrow, are you?” He asked.
“No. Are you?”
“No.”
“Then why ask?” I asked as I pulled my arm free and headed out the classroom door.
“Just cause.” He followed behind me.
I tried to ignore his presence and looked for Lucy. Her class was just down the hall from mine, she should be around her somewhere.
“Hey. How was biology?” Lucy asked, popping up beside me.
“Oh.” I jumped. “Great. No, it sucked. I wish you were in there. Better yet, I wish I had art.”
“I know.” Lucy sighed.
“Well, I’ll see you tomorrow, Chloe.” Dean interrupted, brushing my shoulder with his as walked past us.
“Who was that?” Lucy’s eyes were filled with excitement. “I wish I had biology now.” She giggled.
“Dean McCray.” I tired to sound annoyed. “He’s my lab partner.”
“He’s gorgeous.”
“And a troublemaker. Let’s go, I’m ready to get out of here.”
We made our way to the back of the school building. Lucy talked of her day the whole way. Which wouldn’t have bothered me if I weren’t having such a hard time keeping a certain guy and his words out of my head.
Why in the world would he ask if I was skipping?
“Earth to Chloe.” Lucy nearly yelled waving her hand before my face. “Have you even heard a word I’ve said?”
“Sorry. I was thinking about…biology.” It wasn’t exactly a lie.
“Don’t worry about it. At least you have someone nice to look at. All the guys in art are repulsive.”
She made a gagging face and I laughed.
“Come on.” She said, “Mom’s waiting.”
We cut across the school lawn to the parking lot where Mrs. Baker was parked and waiting. She popped the trunk and we tossed our backpacks in. As I shut the trunk and made my way to the side of the car, a vehicle was approaching, blaring loud music. I looked in its direction and suddenly regretted it. Dean McCray was seated in the passenger seat, smiling at me pompously.