Lucky couldn't believe he was there. She was never supposed to see him again. He was supposed to leave and stay away.

“Take your seats kids,” Mr. Smith said.

Lucky sat down in the front like she always did and kept her eyes straightforward, not looking back at Julian once.

“Oh my gosh! Lucky they're back… THEY ARE BACK!” Ileana yelled when she saw Lucky.

“I noticed,” Lucky said.

“You don’t look happy. Why aren’t you happy?”

“Ileana you know my history with him.”

“Yeah but you're over him, right?”

At that moment Julian walked by with a trail of girls behind him capturing Lucky's attention.

“Right?” Ileana asked again.

“Yeah, right. I'm way over him.”

She closed her locker.

“I'll see you in Calculus.”

She turned and started to class. To her dismay Julian was sitting at her desk, a flock of girls around him.

“Lucky can I speak to you for a second?” Mr. Graziano asked when she walked in.

“Her name is Lucky?” Lucky heard Julian asked.

“Yeah, she's kind of a nobody though,” Allison said.

“Still a cool name,” he said.

Lucky smiled to herself.

“Yes Mr. Graziano?”

“Well I was wondering if you wanted to go to the library for today's class to work on your paper.”

“Sure, that'd be great. What are we covering today though?”

“Just the human leg.”

“Ok. I'll see you tomorrow then.”

Lucky smiled at her teacher before leaving, happy that she didn’t have to stay in class. When she got to music she noticed another familiar face. It was Nick Grayson, the youngest of Formal Rock.

Lucky sat down and noticed Nick looking at her.

She had never had a problem with him. In fact he was nice. He was two years under her and she will never forget the first time she spoke to him.

Flashback

Lucky was in second grade and Nick was in kindergarten. He walked into the cafeteria looking timid and scared. As she crossed his path after getting lunch he bumped into her and knocked down his lunch. He automatically started crying because the teacher had told him not to spill anything.

“It’s ok,” Lucky said.

“The teacher is going to get so mad at me.”

“Don’t worry I'll take care of it.”

Ms. Lancaster walked over furious.

“What happened here?” she asked.

“I accidentally knocked over his tray, it’s my fault,” Lucky said.

“This isn’t like you Lucky so I'll let it slide. Nicholas take a seat.”

He nodded and started to his table.

Lucky watched him sit down, no food in front of him and walked over.

“Here you go,” she said, giving him her tray of food. “I had a big breakfast. Just be more careful next time.” She gave his shoulder a light squeeze and walked away.

After that it was a ‘hi’ here and there but they were never friends.

Nick kept his eyes on Lucky the entire class period. She looked like the same girl he met when he was just a kid only prettier.

As they walked out of class he made a mental note to talk to her later, hey he did owe her lunch.

While in calculus Lucky received a text from Ileana saying she wouldn’t be able to make it to lunch. Lucky shrugged it off and decided to take her anatomy book with her to lunch so she could get started on her homework.

“Do dorks ever eat?” Alan asked his friends as he looked over at Lucky who was doing her homework on one of the courtyard tables.

“Hey man, I bet if you did half the work she did you'd at least be passing,” Julian said.

“Yeah whatever. Dude isn’t that your brother heading over to her now?”

Everyone turned to see Nick walking over to the table Lucky was at.

“You're brother is fraternizing with a lower social class dude,” Alan said.

“Dude it's his deal, not mine,” Julian quickly answered. He turned to the table and got into conversation with a couple of girls.

Lucky was reading the first chapter of her book when a tray of food was placed in front of her.

“I think I owe you one.”

She looked up and an adorable Nick Grayson was smiling at her.

“I can't accept this,” she said sweetly.

“It’s cool, I got two this time, just in case.”

He put another tray down.

“Is it cool if I sit with you?” he asked.

“I don’t think that’s the best idea Nick.”

“Why not?”

“If you sit with me your friends over there,” she looked towards the table Julian was sitting at. “They’ll put you under social suicide watch.”

“Oh come on, you can't be serious.”

“I am. You're nice Nick but you and I aren’t meant to be friends.” She stood up. “Thanks for lunch.”

She smiled before heading out of the cafeteria.

“So how was lunch?” Ileana asked after school as they walked to Lucky car.

“It was interesting.”

“How so?”

“Nick Grayson wanted to sit with me.”

Ileana grabbed Lucky's arm and stopped walking.

“What?”

“He asked to sit with me.”

“How did it go?”

“It didn’t. I told him it wasn’t a good idea.” She continued walking.

“Why on earth would you do that? He’s Nick Grayson. My god what I would do to spend a night with him.”

“Nick Grayson isn’t exactly in my category of friends.”

“Well true but you could have changed all of that! Lucky we have six months to make a name for ourselves before we leave this place.”

Lucky rolled her eyes and got into her G-Wagon.

“And besides, you have more money than anyone in this school.”

“Ileana whenever you decide to say something meaningful do it, until then just don’t say anything.”

Lucky started the car and pulled out of the parking spot she was in and started to Ileana's house.

“I'll see you tomorrow morning,” she said to Ileana as she pulled up to the white cookie-cutter house.

“Ok. I'm off to a boring afternoon of homework and then a marathon of Star Wars.”

“May the force be with you,” Lucky said.

Ileana giggled and hopped out of the car.

As Lucky drove home she passed by the Grayson house which happened to be a few houses down from hers. Outside of the house there were about ten cars, Lucky recognizing most of them as those of kids from her school. She continued down to her house and pulled into the driveway of the monstrosity her parents prided themselves on building.

There were several of these around the globe. Her parents enjoyed having houses in every time zone even though they rarely spent time at any of them.

Lucky's parents were rarely home. One day they were in Australia and the next they were in Ireland. She saw them maybe a few times a month but aside from those odd visits she was alone. She had grown used to it though.

She kicked her shoes off as shewalked into her room, picking up and old yearbook from elementary school.

“Such a dork,” she said as she looked at her picture.

She had a bow the size of Mount Everest on her head and her glasses resembled those worn in the eighties. She flipped to Julian and there he was. He had the perfect haircut and the perfect smile.

She shut the yearbook and flipped over to her back.

“Some things are never going to change,” she said to herself.

“Why are there so many people here?” Conner asked Nick when he got home and saw almost half of Seattle View high in the living room.

“Apparently everyone wants to be around Julian.”

“Yeah, I see that.”

Conner pushed his way past people and made his way upstairs with Nick.

“So how was school?” he asked.

“Ok.”

“Mob of girls ask you out?”

“I actually got turned down by a girl.”

“What?”

“Yeah. She's that girl I told you about that gave me her lunch my first day of school, remember?”

“Oh yeah. You had a crush on her for years.”

“Shut up. Anyways I asked if I could sit with her and she said people like me weren’t meant to be friends with people like her.”

“Well what's she like?”

“She's smart, I know that, but she looks like she keeps to herself.”

“What's her name?”

“Lucky.”

“Seriously?” Conner chuckled. “Cool.” he laid back on his bed. “So are you going to try to talk to her again?”

Nick shrugged.

“She doesn’t look like she wants to be bothered.”

“Well I don’t know what to tell you.”

“You always know what to tell me! You pick now to draw a blank?”

“Guess so. I'm tired.” He yawned. “I'll see you in the morning.”

“Conner it's seven-thirty.”

“Go!”

Nick got up and walked out of the room.

It sounded like a zoo downstairs so he just headed to his room and stayed up there for the rest of the night.

“Well it's our second day back from Christmas break and I have your semester project ready to assign. I will be paring up two people and give them this video camera. You're task is to document your time together and in the end you will do a presentation of your film and state how your partner changed your life. The partner list is up here. Please come up in an orderly fashion and see who you got paired up with.”

Mr. Smith placed the list on board and students rushed to see who they were stuck with for an entire semester.

Lucky didn’t bother to go up. She figured her partner would call her name once they saw it.

“Lucky?”

It was a voice all too familiar to her.

She looked up and saw Julian scanning the room, his eyes finally landing on her.

“Lucky?” he asked again.

“Yeah, that’s me,” she said quietly.

He walked over to her and sat down.

“Guess we’re partners,” he said.

She nodded.

“I'm Julian Grayson.”

“Lucky Torma. Nice to meet you.”

This was the first time she had ever had a real conversation with him.

“We should probably get started on this soon,” Lucky said.

“I guess. You're smart right?”

“I think so.”

“Good, that means we’ll get an ‘A’ for sure.”

That sort of upset Lucky. He was going to use her to get a good grade and probably blow her off.

“It says here we have to do an introduction of each of us. Would you like to do yours now?” she asked.

“Sure.”

She turned the camera on and started recording.

“Hey I'm Julian Grayson. I'm eighteen years old and I'm in Formal Rock which is a band I am in with my brothers. I just got back from a world tour and I am happy to be back home. I have 2 brothers, Nick and Conner and I'm a pretty chill guy.”

“What do you expect to get out of this project?” Lucky asked.

“Hopefully some good Youtube videos.”

Again Lucky was hurt. She thought he'd at least say he'd get to know his partner. Apparently he fwas still shallow… and an asshole.

“Come on I guess we can get yours over with too.”

She handed him the camera.

“Ok state your name and give us the 411.”

“I'm Lucky Torma I've been living in Seattle since I was five.”

“Where did you live before?”

“Australia.”

“Cool. What else?”

“I'm an only child and I'm quiet.”

Julian shut the camera off .

“So maybe we can…” Lucky started, but Julian was already walking over to Alan and his friends. “Work together later,” she finished to herself.

She excused herself to the library and stayed there until Anatomy.

She sat down at her usual desk and when Julian walked in he sat down next to her.

“Hey it's the luck of the Irish," he said.

“My name is Lucky.”

The room light went off and Mr. Graziano put a film up on the projector.

Julian did a once over of the room and made sure nobody was watching before leaning in to Lucky.

“Hey want to come over tonight to work on the project? We can work on the first activity sheet,” he said.

She turned to him.

“Why are you telling me this now? Why not in English?”

“Oh well…”

“Didn’t want your friends to see you talking to me for too long?”

“No, I just…”

“It's fine. Working at your house today is fine.”

“Ok.” he wrote his address down on a sheet of paper even though she already knew what it was. “I'll be there right after school.”

“All right.”

He nodded and scooted away from her.

And just when she thought things couldn't get any worse they did. Julian didn’t even want to be seen talking to her. What a self-esteem crusher.

Ileana was able to make lunch today and unfortunately she was there when Nick made his return.

“Look Lucky I don’t care what the social standings at this school are. I want to sit with you and I am not taking no for an answer,” Nick said valiantly.

Lucky was about to speak but Ileana piped up.

“She's not saying no. Nick go ahead and sit down. You are welcome to sit here,” she said.

“I am?”

He looked at Lucky.

“Yeah, yeah I guess you are Nick.”

He took a seat next to Lucky.

“Dude your brother is at it again and this time he's actually sitting down,” Alan said to Julian. “Nick has always been kinda dorky though hasn’t he?”

“Yeah I guess,” Julian said.

“Hey aren't you paired up with Lucky for our English project?”

“Yes I am.”

“Oh man then you're definitely gonna pass, it's just a bummer that you have to spend so much time with her.”

“Well what's wrong with her?”

“She's kind of boring. All the girl cares about is school. She hangs out in the library for fun and tutors for free. She has no life.”

“Yeah but the girl is loaded,” Allison piped up. “She lives in that house a few down from yours, that gigantic gated mansion. I heard though her parents are never around.”

“That must suck.”

“No way, I'd throw a party every day if I had that house to myself. I hate to say this but the girl’s a loser and you my friend are stuck with her for the entire semester," Alan said.

“Oh will you live?” Michael asked Julian dramatically.

Julian chuckled and stood up.

“I gotta go see my counselor, something about causing mobs in the hallway. See you guys later.”

He exited the courtyard and headed to the office.

“So you got paired up to do a project with Julian?” Nick asked Lucky as they walked to creative writing which they had together along with Julian.

“Yeah. I'm actually going to your house after school today to get started on it.”

“Cool, want to give me a ride?”

“Don’t you ride with your brother?”

“Yes but I think riding with you would be better.”

“Why?” she asked with a laugh.

“It's a brother thing.”

Nick opened the door to the class for her and they walked inside.

“Say no more.”

“I thought you didn’t have any siblings.”

“I don’t which is why there is no point in you going on because I wouldn’t get it.”

“Ah, you're pretty smart.”

“Top of the class.”

They sat down as Julian walked in.

“Nick-O!” he said, jumping over a desk and landing in is chair perfectly. “Missed you at lunch today.”

“I was with Lucky,” Nick answered.

Julian turned to Lucky, now noticing her.

“Oh hey. Yeah, maybe from now on you can sit with us.”

“Who's us?” Nick asked.

“Our friends.”

“Lucky is my friend so I'm going to sit with her. Why don’t you sit with us?”

Julian laughed loudly then looked at Nick who wasn’t smiling.

“Oh you were serious. Um, no offense but I think I'd rather hang with my friends.”

“You and Lucky are going to be doing a project together doesn’t that kind of make you friends?”

This was a conversation Lucky wished she wasn’t present for.

“It's just a school project. We were assigned to do it together. All we are is partners, right Lucky Charms?” he asking, bumping his shoulder against Lucky.

“Yeah, right. Just partners. Excuse me.”

She got up and moved to another table.

“Why are you suck an asshole?” Nick asked.

“What do you mean?”

“You don’t say that to somebody even if it's a joke. I'm pretty sure you hurt her feelings.”

“Nick come on, she and I just aren't exactly friends material.”

“Why? What makes you so special?”

“I… well…”

“Exactly. Man get over yourself.”

“Shut up,” Julian said annoyed.

Nick was a punk , what right did he have to speak to his older brother like that?

He turned around in his seat and ignored Nick for the rest of the class.

After school Lucky waited by her locker where Nick said he would meet her.

“Hey!” Nick said, jumping in front of her.

“Ah!” Lucky yelled.

“Did I scare you?”

“No, I'm perfectly fine,” she said sarcastically. “Come on.”

They started to the door but someone called Nick.

“Hey Nick where are you going?” Julian asked.

“I'm riding with Lucky. I'll see you at home.” he pushed the door open and disappeared behind it.

“Listen Lucky, I want to apologize for what my brother said today in creative writing," Nick said as she drove.

“Nick you don’t have to apologize for him and really what he said didn’t bother me. If you really think about it he's right. We’re not friends, just project partners.”

“It was still rude.”

She waved it off with her hand and drove to his house.

“The almighty Grayson house. How does the band Formal Rock live?” Lucky asked as they pulled up to the house.

“You are about to find out.”

They hopped out of the car and up the porch steps.

Nick slipped his key into the door lock. “Welcome to…” he opened the door. “A completely normal household.”

Lucky walked inside and he was right. The house looked like a perfectly normal family home.

There were family portraits on the walls and early year school pictures.

“Boys?” a woman asked from the kitchen.

“That’s my mom, come on.”

Nick pulled her through the house and into the kitchen.

“Hey mom.”

“Hi Nicky.”

“Mom this is Lucky. She and Julian are working on a project together so expect to see a lot of her.”

“It's nice to meet you Mrs. Grayson.”

“Please call me Jane.”

“Jane,” Lucky corrected herself.

“Well where is your brother?”

“He should be here soon. I just rode here with Lucky.”

“Will you be staying for dinner Lucky?”

“Um…” Lucky pondered.

“Yes she will,” Nick answered.

“Looks like I am, if it's not trouble of course.”

“Not at all.”

“I'm home!” Julian yelled.

“There's number two.”

Julian walked into the kitchen.

“Well you drive fast,” he said to Lucky. “Mom this is…”

“We have already been introduced. You two go work on your project. Make sure you keep him in check Lucky.”

“I promise I will Mrs. Gray…”

“Ah ah ah.”

“Jane.”

Jane smiled as the kids backed out of the kitchen.

“We’ll work in my room,” Julian said.

“See you at dinner,” Nick said before going into his room.

“You're staying for dinner?” Julian asked.

“Yeah, if that’s ok.”

“I don’t have a problem with it. Sit down, please.”

She sat on his desk chair and pulled the camera out.

“So do you want to give me a quick overview of what exactly we have to do for this project?” Julian questioned.

“Yeah. Pretty much we have to document our time together with this camera or we can write and then at the end we do a presentation and say how we changed each other’s lives.”

“So it's easy.”

“Yeah, it shouldn’t be hard as long as we each do our part.”

“Our part?”

“Well they're expecting to see two people on camera.”

“Oh right.”

“Yeah.”

“Do we start now?”

“If you want to.”

“Well what should we do?”

“Talk and record?”

“I have an idea.”

He grabbed the camera and put it up on his desk then moved Lucky over to his bed.

“There, now we can both be in the shot and the camera can record us.”

“Ok.”

He pressed record and sat down next to her.

“So are you a Formal Rock fan?” he asked.

“I've heard your music.”

“And?”

“And I think Nick and Conner are great on the guitar. Nick has a beautiful voice too.”

“Well what about me?”

“Um you…” suddenly her shyness kicked in. “You're good too,” she said almost inaudibly.

“Well thanks.”

As they spoke Julian really observed Lucky. She was definitely a beautiful girl but she didn’t seem to notice or care. She dressed casually currently wearing denim skinny jeans, a plain white t-shirt and converse. The way she spoke was classy and intelligent. Her words flowed nicely out of her mouth and Julian knew she was a brain. He found out that she had been smart since she was young and had always been in gifted classes. She told him because she didn’t have any siblings she found herself passing time by studying.

He suddenly started to find himself intrigued by her. She didn’t make much eye contact and although she was speaking she was still quiet. It almost felt like she wasn’t letting go completely around him, like she was keeping something inside.

“What's she keeping from me?” Julian thought.

The room door suddenly flew open.

“Hey guys, dinner is ready,” Nick said.

“Wow, guess time got by us,” Julian said. “I hadn't even noticed we have been talking for so long.”

“Yep, Nick you saved your brother before I bored him to death,” Lucky said.

“You weren’t boring. I enjoyed listening to you.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Come on, I'm starving.”

As they walked out of the room they bumped into the oldest Grayson brother, Conner.

“Conner this is Lucky,” Julian said.

“Oh, Lucky,” he said with a grin specifically towards Nick.

“Yes, Lucky," Julian said, oddly looking at his older brother.

“It's nice to meet you Conner.”

“You too Lucky.”

“Kids!” Jane called up.

They walked down and into the dining room where Jane and the boys’ father, Scott, was already seated.

“Scott this is Lucky, she's working on a school project with Julian,” Jane said as she handed Lucky a plate.

“Nice to meet you sir.”

“You too.”

Lucky took a seat next to Nick and he served her her food.

“So Lucky do you live by here?” Jane asked.

“I actually live a few houses down.”

“Closer to the Darcy’s or Clapton’s?”

“I'm actually in between them.”

“Have you lived there all your life?”

“I moved here from Australia when I was five.”

“Australia, it's beautiful there. Why did you move?”

“My father grew up here in Seattle and he wanted to come back to his roots.”

“Are they here now?”

“No, they're in Ireland on buisness.”

“And you are home alone?”

“Yeah but I'm used to it.”

“Well sweetie if you ever get lonely over there you can always come here.”

“Thanks but I'm ok.”

Jane smiled and started eating.

“So what are you two working on exactly?” Scott asked.

“It's a documentary project,” Julian answered. “We have to spend time together and in the end say how we changed each other’s lives.”

“I wish I got projects like that when I was in school,” Conner piped in.

“Are you a good student Lucky?”

“She's top of the class,” Nick said.

“Really?”

“No, I mean yes. I just don’t really like to talk about it," Lucky said modestly.

“That’s nothing to be ashamed of, you should be proud in fact.”

Lucky smiled and continued eating.

“Gosh I missed home cooked meals,” Julian said as he finished eating.

“Lucky would you like dessert?” Jane asked.

“No thank you, dinner was amazing though.”

Jane smiled before taking some plates into the kitchen.

Lucky stood up.

“Well it's getting late and I have some more homework to do so I think I'm going to head home,” she said. “It's was nice meeting all of you.”

“You too Lucky.”

She walked into the kitchen.

“Bye Jane.”

“Oh you're leaving so soon?” she asked.

“Yeah I have some homework to do.”

“Ok well this is your house now. You are welcome here whenever.”

“Thank you.”

Lucky smiled and walked to the front door, Nick and Julian behind her.

“I'll walk you out to your car,” Nick and Julian said at the same time.

“It's ok, you guys stay in here. I'll see you both at school tomorrow.”

She gave them one last smile and walked out into the cold night air.

She was getting to her car when Julian called after her. She turned around and he was jogging over.

“You ok?” she asked.

“Yeah. I just wanted to tell you that you have a great smile. You should wear it more often.”

She thanked the gods that it was dark out because her cheeks were on fire from how much she was blushing.

“Thank you Julian.”

She got into her car and he closed the door for her, giving her a quick wave before turning to go inside.

Lucky stood still for a second before turning her car on and heading home, happy with how her night turned out.