Miss Renee Rainstead has been my constant bother ever since last year, when Zan moved back from Oklahoma, where he had lived for two years on a farm before returning to our equally rustic town. By then, he had gotten quite a nice little tan.

Needless to say, he was our object of affection, and thus, we have never been on good terms.

I huffed indignantly as I skipped over the yellowing grass, careful not to step on any cow patties. Did I tell you that we had cows invading our campus almost everyday? Yeah, well, we do. It’s an unimaginable pain, but it was not as bad as having your crush be stolen from right under your nose.

I was out to prevent that. I’m not really going to go into Renee’s character in much detail, because, well, she was shallower than a kiddie pool.

Mr. Wagner’s room was pretty normal. Unlike some other teachers I’ve had, he did not have buffalo hides adorning his walls.

Without being too obvious, I deposited my stuff onto a seat in the middle of the classroom, where I saw Zan sit most often. Satisfied that I had a considerably close seat to him, I asked Mr. Wagner a few quick questions on the homework before sitting back down.

The class started to filter in sluggishly right after I’d gotten the correct answers for the review assessment. No enemies (Renee) and no potential boyfriends (Zan and the plethora of hot seniors that graced P204 on Wednesday afternoons) arrived yet, so I leaned back in my chair and turned to Chelsea, a fellow junior, to pass the time.

“How’s life treating you?”

Chelsea smiled, her dimples showing her genuine pleasure at seeing me. “Fine, you?” She shut her dog-eared copy of Harry Potter and faced me. “How are you and Caroline?”

I blinked in surprise, and then decided not to be puzzled. Chelsea was as shy as they could get, but she always had the latest digs in rumors, breakups, friendships, etc…

“Uhrhm…” A weird combination of a gurgle and a cough caught in my throat. “Just peachy,” I replied, not really concerned whether she would buy it or not. Chelsea was seriously too nice, because she couldn’t even gather from my oddly cheery voice that I was hinting at the opposite. That’s what you get from being too caught up in gossip and not real people…

“That’s good to hear,” she said. “I mean, I didn’t think that she would continue her front for that long. She looks kinda frail, doesn’t she?” Wrong, Chelsea, on both accounts.

“Hmm.” I responded nonchalantly, absently tracing Zan’s initials onto my palm, “I hope the exam coming up isn’t that hard…”

At that moment, the bell rang, and Mr. Wagner took his spot at the front of the classroom. While I had been talking with Chelsea, Blond Hottie had taken a seat four seats diagonal to me. So, had I been (0,0) on a coordinate plane, Zan’s location would have been (1,4). Perfect. Four was my lucky number. (Don’t ask. If you haven’t figured by now, my mind works in STRANGE ways.)

He waved to me, and I just about melted. Mr. Wagner cleared his throat untimely (geez, couldn’t he have decided to rid himself of mucus five minutes earlier, when Zan wasn’t smiling widely at me?) and Zan whipped back around hastily.

Five minutes later into the lecture, I was steadily plowing my way into slumberland. A vision of me and Zan, quietly sitting in a little secluded glade drifted stealthily into my mind, and I was sure I was going to fall asleep. My desk seemed to be moving steadily closer to my face, and I finally surrendered to sleep.

In what seemed a millisecond later, a loud screeching filled my head. “Mburgh?” I spluttered, my head almost splitting on the desk as my forehead zipped up.

Chelsea looked at me funnily and shrugged. “Fire drill.”

I groaned. A firedrill. In this weather. Damn.

The class filed out, everybody grateful from the respite from the Civil war and all it’s intricate plots and treaties. I wanted to thank whomever pulled the alarm, but seriously, in my La-la land dream, me and Zan were incredibly close to kissing, and that didn’t score very many points for the alarmer on the Hannah scale.

Chelsea and I walked close together and a bit far apart from the crowd. That way I could keep an eternally watchful gaze on Zan. Yay.

The sky was peaceful, and the people were mellow around me. So why did it feel like I had just swallowed a toad?

Oh, I know. Maybe because a certain Renee was talking to a certain Zan.

Her blonde curls bobbed up and down, and she flittered incessantly infront of him, and then moved back, and touched his arm, and laughed at something stupid he said, and URGH! That girl was making me sick. (Quite literally. I get motion sickness, easy.) They broke off from the herd and migrated uncomfortably close to an abandoned trail.

“Um, Hannah, you alright?” That was Chelsea.

“As good as I could be,” Vague, but true. I couldn’t very well go up there and smash Renee’s face in, could I? Well, I guess I could, but I didn’t really want to spend the rest of the day in detention, so that wasn’t an option.

“So you like Zan?”

Woah there. Was I that obvious? “Well…” I stalled. Then I looked at Chelsea. She had an honest face and her glasses were glinting innocently at me. What could it hurt? “I guess I kinda do. Don’t tell anyone, okay?”

“Sure,” she tugged at my arm and pulled me behind a tree. “This way. They won’t see us here, and we can still hear everything they say!”

“Is this a good idea?” I wasn’t really on with the program. Sure I liked Zan, but this was turning oddly stalkerish.

“Be assertive! You know, you’ll never get what you want if you don’t go for it.” Chelsea’s voice held so much enthusiasm that I hadn’t the heart to decline.

“Alright…” I acquiesced uneasily. We walked above the trail, making our hasty ways over the parched grounds.

“See?” Chelsea pointed excitedly over my head. “they’ve stopped right there. Perfect!”

Now, don’t get me wrong. I love seeing Zan…that is, when he is completely devoted and focused in on me. Hey, it’s not in the completely egotistical sense. I just had a bad feeling that he was going to a.) see me and Chelsea wouldn’t have enough sense to keep quiet, or b.) ask Renee out, or something else deprecating to my self.

The two were walking slowly bellow us, and they stopped at a tree stump.

“Zan…” Renee began in her bubbly manner, “I have something to tell you…”

Zan visibly blanched. “Umm, I’m guessing it isn’t about a failed test or anything.” He shifted uncomfortably in his seat, scratching at his collarline.

“Do you know what I’m about to say?” Renee loosened her big, ornately carved hair clutch. Cascades of blonde flowed off her fingers, and she pressed herself closer to Zan. He gulped and nodded. “Good, then you’ll expect this, at least.”

She snaked her arms lithely around his unresisting torso, with him gaping helplessly. Renee smiled mysteriously and straddled him underneath her. She toyed with his ears sensuously, and her rich lips parted with a moan. “I like you, Zan,” she said breathlessly, still moving in ever so persistently, “so so much…” Her hands ran teasingly over his taut front, pouting. “Will you tell me the same?”

Zan was having an innerbattle. Would the carnal part of him win? As loathe as I would admit it, Renee’s shapely form was tempting for any guy, and Zan was no exception.
”I-I, I don’t-“ And then, Renee slipped her tongue slowly into his mouth, her hands roamed expertly over his body.

“The nerve!” I hissed angrily overhead. Chelsea put her hands over my mouth, and I watched as Zan practically get mouth raped bellow me.

Zan broke away, his face flushed and ashamed. “Renee,” he said as Renee persistently tried to give him a hicky, “ I really can’t do this, you have to stop, I like someone else.” His voice was husky, trying not to moan as Renee sucked delicately at his neck, “ I can’t stay true to her or myself if you keep on doing this.”

She smiled enticingly, leaving his neck with a soft pop, to proceed to lick him on the lips, parting his mouth and sliding inside once again.

And then, out of nowhere, a rock hurtled out of nowhere and struck Renee squarely on the forehead.

Fine, so I’ll admit, I did it.

“Oh my god!” Zan stood up faster than thunder and dropped Renee on the ground (Which I was happy to check was thoroughly muddy). He looked up and saw me. “Hannah?”

Wow, I’m screwed.

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Sorry on such a late update. I've been on vacation, and inspiration came slowlyyy. Still, I'm sorta relieved I was able to crank this chapter out.

I'm sad to say that I'm kinda loosing interest in this story because of how well one of my other stories is doing on fanfiction. If I get inspirational reviews, who knows. xD Don't give up on me, readers!