• The first few weeks went by kind of slow. I had gotten into the routine of tuning Jace out in most of my classes. He obviously has this disorder that makes him ask me random questions in Home Ec. Like today.
    "What class of animals does the penguins fall into?" He asked as he slid into the seat next to me as the late bell rang.
    "Mammals?" I looked up from the book I was reading.
    "No...Birds."
    "Ugh." I grumbled.
    "Wait," Jace held up one of his hands. "I have another one-"
    "Jace Connell, you have a question?" Mrs. Monks asked impatienly, playing with the zipper on her jacket.

    "Yeah, if you were stranded on a deserted planet with giant lobster-like creatures, and you could bring one type of fruit, what type of fruit would it be?"
    "An apple." Mrs. Monks sighed. This has happened before.
    "Why?"
    "It keeps the doctor away."
    "But there are no doctors!" He pointed out.
    "Don't ask questions! Go sit and make some pants."
    "I don't know how to make pants." Jace grinned.
    "Why are you in here then?"
    "Because you’re so cute." He winked.
    "Go sit down...” She glared at him sideways."...Thank you."
    'I'm already in my seat." His grin got boarder and he turned back to me. "You need a ride home." It was more of a statement than a question.
    "No, I have a car."I sighed and closed my book. Reading around him was a lost cause.
    "That's not what Hevrey said."


    My eye widened. "Shoot! I forgot to day was Thursday!" I covered my face with my hands. "I'm getting my crappy brakes fixed today."
    "I'll give you a ride, but there's somewhere I have to go first..."
    "Its okay, my place isn't that far." That was a small lie. It was really ten or more miles away.
    "I really need someone to go with me...” His face had a distant dark look to it.
    "You can't just get one of the guy's on the team to go with you?" I asked.
    He nodded his head no. "I don't feel comfortable asking them something like that."
    "So you feel comfortable with me?"
    "Your like one of those cats that is missing patches of hair and your so weird looking that it makes you lovable and cute...ish."
    "Thanks. Jerk."
    "I didn't mean it like that."
    "Okay, whatever, I'll go." I said flatly as the final bell rang.

    Jace clicked his tongue and dug in his pocket. "I have to go get some stuff from the locker room." He explained pulling out his keys, handing them to me. “You can go ahead. You know which ones mine, right?"
    "Mmm-Hmm." I grabbed the keys and hoisted my bag up on my shoulder, while trudging out of the classroom.
    "Or I could just skip the locker room," he said as he matched my pace. "But tomorrow's homecoming and the gym's going to be locked...And you already have my keys so if I took them back it would-"

    "Do you always talk to yourself?" I asked bleakly.
    "Well, no. I was talking to you silly." He replied in the same tone of voice as me.
    "Oh, right. Silly me," I mumbled.
    He patted me on the shoulder. "You'll be able to find my truck though, right?"
    "It's the only white truck that has your name on the personalized front license plate." I said pushing open the door that leads outside.

    "Right, right." He said rubbing the back of his neck. "It'll take me five minutes, max," We had stopped walking and were just standing awkwardly in front of each other.

    "Okay."
    "Maybe, seven."
    "Okay."
    "No, wait... Yeah, five minutes at max."
    "Okay." I laughed.
    "Hey! I got you to laugh," he exclaimed triumphantly.
    "And?" I asked.
    "Nothing," He shrugged. "You just have a nice laugh." With that he turned and started walking away toward the gym.

    My legs went shaky for a moment but they didn't stay that way. That was a plus. Before I nonchalantly walked off to the truck, I shot a, if I do say so myself, nasty look over my shoulder as I walked.

    Jace's truck wasn't hard to find. Most of the trucks in our parking lot are either red or blue. So it sticks out. No, finding the truck wasn't the hard part, getting in it was. The darn thing was three or four feet off the ground and at the moment when I finally managed to pull myself up, I ended up banging my head on the bar that’s supposed to help you up. If this wasn't an amazing start. Rubbing the back of my head. I reached over and unlocked Jace's side and put the keys in the ignition. Then I looked up to see Janet in her cheerleading uniform standing outside of my door. Her eyes narrowed and her hands were on her hips. She mouthed, "Roll your window down." Very clearly.

    I rolled my eyes and rolled it down, "Yes?"
    "Just what the hell do you think your doing?" Her voice was sharp. Great, I'd pissed of the wicked witch.
    "Hevrey has my car." I sighed.
    "So?!"
    "Meaning I don't have my car. I need a ride home," I pointed out.

    She sucked in a breath, and then looked around before she leaned in closer to the window. "Okay, let’s get one thing straight, freak." Fabulous, she was resorting to name-calling. "Before you start thinking that you have close to a chance at all with Jace. Just remember that your Hevrey's sister. And that is the only...ONLY reason a guy like Jace would even look, no not even look, breathe the same air as you!" She looked around again and lowered her voice. "Truth is, you’re just a joke. Without the help of your brother, you wouldn't even have a guy like Jace take you home." She hissed.

    I felt my face flush and my throat tighten. I bit my bottom lip. Talk about low blows. But of course I've always known this, because if I wasn't Hevrey's sister I would be getting the snot kicked out of me everyday for being a 'freak'. So I couldn't remark on what she had just said. The other side door opened and Jace pulled himself in. "Hey Janet!" He said throwing his bag in the backseat, then grabbed mine and did the same thing. "What’s up?"
    "Just chatting with Cassandra, right?" She looked at me.
    'Yeah," was what I wanted to say but my voice cracked? So then I just nodded.

    "Cool. Sorry, but me and Cassie need to get going." He said as he shut his door and fastened his seatbelt. Then he nodded his head for me to do the same, which I did without comment.
    "Oh! Where?" She acted excited and which I might add, she did very well.
    "It's a secret." He grinned.

    "That's mean!" She pouted her lip out and then smiled and fluttered her eyes. Gawd, I told you most days I wanted to hit her. Today would be one of those days. But since she fluttered her eyes, which makes any girl look like their going into anaphylactic shock. So today I'd let her live. Wait...Strike that. I would hit a mental kid. But I could do it in front of Jace, so I just cleared my voice and looked at him.

    "Well, see you tomorrow." Jace said. Then he looked at me, but I stayed quiet, knowing better than to get involved in this.

    "Homecoming!" She actually did a little jump in the air, clapping her hands. "See you tomorrow!" At that point Janet skipped off but not before she shot me a look that clearly said 'know your place'. I rolled up my window with a kind of fear that she might try to jump threw it to come with us. I looked back at Jace.
    Jace was looking at me. "You okay?"
    "Yeah." My face was slowly getting its color back.
    "You sure?" He was still looking at me.
    "I made a face.”Maybe." I said as he started the engine. "So where are we going?"
    Jace put the truck in drive and winked at me. "It's a secret."