Author's Note: I'd like for everyone who reads this to know that this is my first shot at a real romance story, and that it is indeed slash. It's a work in progress, and will require quite a bit of planning if I hope to make it really worth reading. The best way for me to do this is by getting as much help as I possibly can, and I'd like for you all to do that by giving me any hints, tips, or criticisms about what I can do to improve my story, and how I can do it. So please, don't hold back. Let me have it. Just be gentle. I do have a fragile ego.

Volando A Voi
(Flying To You)

One:
A Different Kind of 'Like'

Adam Ramirez sat in his fourth period cooking class listening to his teacher, Mrs. McKenzie, demonstrate a lab they would be doing the next day for the class up at the demonstration table at the front of the class. She was showing them how to make a recipe called ‘Crepe Party Purses,’ which sounded just about as absurd to make as their name sounded. While the rest of the class stayed completely focused on the teacher while she lectured, Adam felt his mind begin to wander. It wasn’t necessarily because he was bored- that wasn’t it. He loved cooking, though he never thought of going into it for any sort of career. He just liked to cook, and wanted to be better at, so he took the culinary classes his school offered to do just that. He usually was just as attentive to Mrs. McKenzie’s demonstrations as the rest of the class was. But today, he felt distracted. Something just felt different about today. But what?

That’s when the door to the class room opened, and some tall, dark, and handsome looking guy came walking in. His hair was jet black and spiked with the finest hair gel (the finest money could buy, no doubt), and he dressed in name brand clothing from head to toe- a red Abercrombie t-shirt that seemed much tighter than it should have been (to show off his perfectly sculpted body, no less), a pair of faded, holey American Eagle jeans, and a regular old pair of plain black flip-flops. He had his backpack slung over one shoulder as he approached Mrs. McKenzie up at the front demonstration table. He handed her a slip of paper, and she looked at it for a fleeting second.

“Class, we have a new student. I’d like you to welcome Chase Williams,” Mrs. McKenzie said. “Chase, you can sit wherever you’d like. I’m just giving a demonstration for a lab we’ll be putting together tomorrow, so look on with someone at their recipe.”

Adam watched as the new student strode by and sat on the other side of the room at a table where three girls sat. One of the girls was blonde, while the other two were brunettes with blonde highlights streaking their hair.

He must be a lady killer, Adam thought. Why else would he choose to sit at a table with 3 of the most beautiful girls in the class? Obviously because he saw them as soon as he walked into the room, and automatically set his sights on them as soon as his copper eyes fell on them. Guys like that annoyed the hell out of Adam, so egocentric and conceited. He’d have loved to take a stick and beat the living day lights out of every big headed prep that he came across. But unfortunately, there were far too many of them to do that to, and even if he could, they’d hire their fancy lawyers and sue his ass ten times til Christmas.

And yet, something about Chase drove Adam absolutely insane. He had just seen him; he hadn’t even spoken to the boy yet and he was already being bothered by something concerning him. But what was it? Why was Adam bothered by the mere presence of this boy? It couldn’t be because he was drop dead gorgeous. Adam knew plenty of guys that were just as gorgeous and they were all conceited ego freaks as well, but none of them ever bothered Adam like this. So what was it about Mr. Chase Williams that drove Adam so insane?

He was jealous. He wanted him to sit at his table. But why?

Because he liked him, and he had just seen him just now. How could Adam already like a guy that he had just seen, and had not even been formally introduced to yet? The boy was clad in designer labels from head to toe, and walked with such poise and confidence that Adam knew right away that his head was ten times bigger than any other part of his body. So how the hell could Adam like him? He was yet another incarnation of everything that he hated, so how could he even begin to think of liking someone who thought they were bigger than Jesus?

“Mr. Ramirez,” Mrs. McKenzie addressed.

Adam snapped out of his daze. Had he been staring at the new kid? Did anyone notice? God, he hoped they didn’t.

“Mr. Ramirez, could you repeat what I just got through explaining?” Mrs. McKenzie asked.

Adam looked blankly back at Mrs. McKenzie, and gulped.

“Um... trim and discard the root ends of the green onions before slicing the white parts into thin pieces?” he replied.

“That’s what I thought,” Mrs. McKenzie said. “Stop staring off into space and pay attention or you’re not going to have a clue as to what to do tomorrow.”

“Sorry Mrs. McKenzie,” Adam apologized.

Mrs. McKenzie began her lecture once again, but Adam could not refrain from glancing back across the room at Chase.

Thanks a lot, Chase. You got me so dazed and confused I don’t know which way is up, and which way is down. Nice going, ass.

Although Adam wanted to deny it with every fiber of his existence, he really felt something for this new kid. But what, and why? Whatever it was about Chase that was eating at Adam, was slowly driving him insane. Thank God lunch was coming up soon, Adam thought.

—

Finally, lunch time. The one time Adam could really socialize with anyone other than before and after school. He often sat with different groups of friends on different days of the week. One day he might sit with some of his goth friends, another he might decide to chat with his band buddies. He was friends with a lot of people from a bunch of different social cliques, but Adam never really considered himself part of any of them. If anything, he was part of a little bit of all of them, to an extent.

Today, however, he sat alone. He rarely did that, but when he did, he could always count on his friend Ashley Tucker to show up to nag and annoy him about what’s bothering him and why he’s so glum and whatnot. Although he pretended to be annoyed and tell her that it was none of her business and that he hated her guts and never wanted to talk to her again, it was all in good humor, at least between them. Anyone else would think they had a serious mental disorder and should be locked up in a loony bin for the rest of their lives.

Ashley sat her lunch tray down at Adam’s lunch table, and then sat herself down in the seat directly across from him. She didn’t say anything at first, she just started to unfold her napkin and sit it in her lap whileshe began to poke at her food and play with it instead of eating it. Finally, she sat her tray aside, and propped her head up on one hand, grinning stupidly at Adam. She always used that same grin when he sat alone, just because she knew it was the only way to get a smile out of him otherwise.

“Heya, Adam,” Ashley said.

“Hey, Ash,” Adam replied.

“What’s bugging you?”

“Nothing. Just leave me alone and go bother someone who wants to be messed with,” Adam said.

“But you’re so much fun to bug! Not to mention you always have the most interesting problems. So, what is it this time? Some idiot make you drop your books again? Ooh, ooh! Or did someone shove you into a locker in the halls this morning?”

Adam smirked, and shook his head.

“No, none of that,” he said.

Ashley raised an eyebrow curiously, and began to twirl her finger through her light chestnut brown hair subconsciously.

“Oh? So, who is it?” she asked, as if she knew that his problem wasn’t with some impatient louts in the hall, but with one of his many crushes that he often had some steam to let out over.

Adam sighed.

“Some new guy,” he replied.

“Ooh, a new guy, huh?” Ashley asked. “What’s he look like?”

“He’s tall, got black hair that he uses way too much hair gel in, and wears shirts that are so tight you can see every detail of his body.”

Ashley seemed excited.

“Is he hot?”

“Unfortunately,” Adam said.

“And that just makes your blood boil, doesn’t it?” Ashley asked.

“Let me tell you,” Adam said.

Ashley chuckled in amusement.

“So how many crushes does this make now? 7? 8?” she asked.

Adam rolled his eyes.

“8. And he seems different somehow,” he replied.

Ashley gasped in shock.

“Different? However do you mean?”

Adam closed his baby blue eyes, and leaned back in his chair, letting out a deep breath before he answered.

“I like him.”

Ashley blinked absent mindedly.

“But don’t you like all your crushes?” she asked.

“Yes. But still, he seems different. I mean, I can tell by the way he walks and dresses that he’s a total egotist, but the entire time I was in fourth period, I couldn’t keep my eyes off him,” Adam explained.

Ashley giggled in a squeaky tone.

“Aww, my little Adam is growing up! He’s discovering boys! And love!” she shouted.

“I doubt what I feel is ‘love,’” Adam said, putting as much bitterness into the word as he could.

Ashley grinned wildly.

“Oh come on, Adam. If you don’t hate him, then that must mean you like him! And if you like him then-“

”No, no, no!” Adam called. “It’s different. All my other crushes I only like for their looks. Inside, they’re nothing but conceited ego freaks who need a serious reality check.”

“And what about this one?” Ashley asked.

“He’s...” Adam paused, trying to think of the word he was looking for. “He’s... He’s...”

“Different?” Ashley asked.

Adam sighed.

“Yeah. But I don’t know what I mean by different,” he said.

Ashley let out a dreamy sigh.

“What’s his name?”

“Chase.”

“Chase...? What? No last name? Is he like Cher?”

“Williams. Chase Williams.”

Ashley chuckled.

“Chase Williams, huh? So that’s the name of your new crush,” she said.

“Yeah, and like all the others, he’s just that- a crush. An infatuation. Nothing I should spend any nights staying up over.”

Ashley giggled in her squeaky tone again.

“You’re so cute when you’re pessimistic,” she said.

Adam smiled.

“What can I say? It’s my best quality,” he said.

From there, Adam and Ashley moved on to other subjects until it was time to go to fifth period. But even though they were now off the subject of Adam’s latest crush, he still found his mind wandering, fixated on that boy from fourth period.

What kind of game are you playing, Chase Williams? And what kind of tricks will you be pulling out of your hat?