• "Stella, is he........"

    "I think so." I cut her off, knowing the end.

    "Shade, take your seat beside Stella right there." The teacher indicated the empty seat beside me. I looked over at it with a bit of a horrified expresion. I had forgotten about the empty seat. It had been vacant ever since a classmate had moved to New York. I sighed and turned back to the front to see Shade walk pass and take his seat.

    He looked over at me and smiled. "Nice to meet you."

    All I replied with was an, "Eh." He laughed a bit and turned toward the board. I heard every girl in the room sigh, even Rose sighed. I looked around and let out an annoyed sigh. This really was gonna be long day.


    At lunch, we ate outside on the wooden tables. "Looks like the popular girls got him already." I said to Rose, pointing out the large number of girls surrounding Shade at his table.

    "Yeah. I feel bad for him." She said.

    "I do too. To be tortured on the first day of school. How sad." I turned back to eat my lunch."

    "Stella!" Rose whispered, trying to get my attention.

    "What?" I said with a mouthful of chicken. She pointed to Shade, who was walking over here with a smile. "Crap."

    "Mind if I joined you?" He said, now sitting across from me.

    "I wouldn't. I don't know about Stella though."

    "Oh no, I wouldn't mind at all!" I said in a sarcastic tone, mouth still full.

    "Great!" He replied. I looked up at him and glared. Either he was doing this on purpose or he wasn't very good at telling the difference between sarcastic and normal. He just smiled.

    At that point I began to eat fast and left to scrape. As I left, I felt the eyes of every girl on me. I walked faster and didn't look back.