A/N: Any towns or character names are entirely my own and if they sound like someone else's it is entirely coincidental. Anyway, I'll stop yapping now...ENJOY!

.01

They had to be kidding. That was the only thought running through my head at that point. They had to be kidding.

Standing in the crowded C Hall of my school, I was probably just over ten feet from The Wall. And no, I’m not kidding. It’s not like it was named that- I can’t imagine that the school director would allow Principal Colby to name it or something. But it was just that – a wall.

Moreover, it was a stupid wall in which all the popular guys would hang out against between classes.

I thought it was ridiculous.

Like they had nothing else better to do with their time, like maybe, I don’t know, studying? But that was probably too much for them to even comprehend. The whole studying thing, I mean.

These guys, while not the stupidest ones on the block, were most definitely not in Honors classes, never mind AP ones. Not that, you know, I’m in all Honors (math has never been a strong point of mine, sue me) but still, at least I was able tear my gaze from a set of boobs.

Not that I look at boobs. I mean seriously, I’m all into guys, but you get my point. The only thing that was going through their mind was, and I’m sure this is true: “Dude, look at that set of tatas! They’re probably bigger than the size of my brain!”

Except not about the brain part.

So anyways, there I was walking down C Hall, hoping that for once the guys against The Wall would just friggin’ disappear when all of a sudden I was pushed from behind...

And landed right into a set of strong, muscular arms.

By the way, this is not where the heroine of a story looks up and realizes that her Prince Charming has finally found her and they can go skip off into the sunset like a bunch of pansies.

No. That would never happen to me, seeing as how I am unlucky, unfortunately unlucky.

This is where I land in the arms of the most annoying, spoiled brat to ever exist. And he’s not even a senior. So how’s that for luck? This was the type of guy who would hold my clumsiness over my head for the rest of my high school career. So you can see why I was not jumping for joy at this point. In fact, I was just about ready to throw a tantrum.

“Well lookie who we have here,” that idiotic (though incredibly sexy) voice murmured right in my ear. I wanted to puke. “If it isn’t Anna Franklin.”

Oh yeah, that’s me. Anna Franklin. I’m just about your average girl, except that I happen to be the daughter of the mayor of our town. Charles Franklin, Mayor of Trafford, Massachusetts, a little town in the middle of the Berkshires. I hated Trafford, maybe more than I hated the guy who was still holding me.

“Let go of me,” I muttered, squirming in his grasp.

“Now, now Anna. Let’s be friendly,” he said.

I was going to kill him. “Everett, if you don’t let go of me in the next two seconds I’m going to hurt you where it counts.”

“Anna, really, why would you do that?” Though I couldn’t see him, I could assume he was giving me the grin that made all the girls faint when they came in contact with him. “You know you think this body is sexy.”

I glared at his chest- it was the only thing I could see at this point. I should point out that if this chest was on another male specimen, I would have been drooling at this point. But as it was not, I was able to keep such drooling tendencies to myself.

“The only thing sexy at this point is you letting go of me.”

I hated him. Loathed him with a passion. Jeremy Everett was the epitome of everything I couldn’t stand. And no, I’m not one of those girls whose on a feminist rant about how much she can’t stand some macho guy. I truly hated him. Always have, probably since we were in diapers.

Our parents have always tried to throw us together at functions, and while Jeremy didn’t seem to care (at the tender age of thirteen he was all about chasing everything with breasts) I was wishing myself anywhere else. He was annoying. He was a brat. He was sexy- okay, so whatever, I’ll admit it. And even at thirteen I could understand that when he got older he was going to be a heart-breaker. I was setting myself up for devastation if I thought I meant anything to him. But it wasn’t only that. The way he acted just...bugged me. His Bostonian accent sounded weird to my ears, rubbed me the wrong way. He was too loud, and even though I didn’t consider myself a mute, he was just...out there. And I wanted nothing to do with him.

“I’ll let you go in return for something, darling,” he whispered.

By this point I was absolutely fuming. If I was a cartoon character I wouldn’t have been surprised if steam was radiating out of my ears. Enough was enough.

Time to take action, Franklin.

I peered up into his odd gray eyes (okay, not odd, I thought they were incredibly hot, but I wasn’t about to tell him that) and with a playful smile, reached up to brush my hand against the collar of his blue Polo shirt. “Oh, baby, what do you want?”

His gray eyes narrowed on me. Out of all his little Wall cronies, he was the smartest. What with his dad being who he was and everything, he had to be smart.

He didn’t say anything however, and I realized with a little sense of alarm that the passing time between classes was just about to end. I had to wrap this little scenario up if I wanted to get to class on time. Too bad he was in my class as well. Seriously, there was no getting rid of him. He was like a pesky mosquito that continued to hover around you wanting more blood. Right now, it was my blood he craved.

“How about we settle this later, huh?” I whispered, bringing my hand down to his arm. He shivered a little, and I congratulated myself on a job well done. It couldn’t be said that Anna Franklin wasn’t at all unattractive; I just wasn’t the best looking out of the bunch.

“When?” he answered, a little too eagerly in my opinion.

Such a sucker, I thought. Even at the age of seventeen (we had both been stuck behind in the year after the one we should have been, due to being September babies. We hadn’t made the cut-off date) he couldn’t resist his primal urges.

“Later...” and with that said, I elbowed him in the gut, and he dropped me like a hot potato. Clutching his stomach, he growled at me. “See you later, sweetheart!” I grinned over my shoulder at him, leaving The Wall behind me.

I barely heard him say: “Sweetheart my ass,” before I was out of range and heading to first period. What a way to start the day.