A/N – aaand here be chapter the third! a head’s up for you guys: we’re switching our update day from fri to mon (you might wanna checkie the website). thank you so much for the reviews & the adds! they are amazing. aiight, so – i’ve been hopping to get to this chapt. i love love love what happens. bigbig plot point, yay. tell us what you think of this one; hopefully you like it as much as we do :)
-kait

amanda: i’m glad you liked the chapt! oh, mitch is def coming back. we love him too much to shaft him.

liz: omg, dear, you don’t have to apologize! –hug– school is being evil right now, but we’ll def try to update every week. we think dani’s pic suits her really well :) lol! you know how much i love denial. yup, it’s going to be interesting how dani fares without mitch. haha, the part where mitch hides is prob my fav bit. dani wants to be alone, def. & if i were dakota ... i’d bite dani’s head off. grin. i’m glad you liked all the detail. & seriously, we love your reviews! they do help. ty!

Chapter Three

heat.

--

“So, if you sleep until you’re 18 ... think of all the suffering you’re gonna miss. I mean, high school? High school – those are your prime suffering years. You don’t get better suffering than that.”

- Steve Carell

--

Dinner was a spectacular disaster. Not knowing anyone, she’d sat at the end of a long table on her own with her baked potato, mushroom quesadillas, daikon coleslaw, and BBQ pork ribs. She missed the way Mitch would snitch stuff from her tray … hell, she missed having conversation over her food. All the students around her were talking and laughing, and here she was, with only her dinner for company.

She’d thought about sitting down at the same table as a couple of girls who’d looked friendly and were smiling and giggling with each other. Maybe they’d include her in their conversation, let her in on the joke. But as soon as she’d begun to approach them, one of the girls had nudged the other sharply in the ribs, and their laughter had stopped immediately. They’d stared at her, faces blank but eyes glaring as if accusing her of ruining their fun, until she’d beat a hasty retreat.

She wondered retrospectively if they’d been laughing at her.

Sighing, she moved her little mound of coleslaw around her plate with her fork. At least she’d made it to the dining hall without getting lost once. Even without the ‘hounds’, the multitude of signs paved a clear enough path.

Dakota was nowhere in sight, but her words stuck in Dani’s mind. People did seem inordinately interested in her, even if they never tried to actually speak to her. She wondered if she liked it this way. On one hand, it gave her the space she so craved, but on the other, if she was going to study here, she had to at least get to know someone. Back in Eastwood, she’d had a group of friends she hung out with everyday, Mitch included before he’d moved.

Wow. Who knew – she actually missed the place, with its leaking restroom taps and flaky paint jobs. Not that she didn’t like it here. The food was exceptionally good, everyone seemed cordial (if distant towards her, but that would change with time, she was sure), and its academic programme was reputed to be excellent.

Still, she felt uneasy.

She blew a strand of hair out of her face. Baby steps. She’d face it when she had to.

Speaking of facing…

Feeling eyes on her again, Dani looked up from poking at her coleslaw, preparing herself for the familiar mixture of curiosity and scrutiny in the gaze she would meet. It was a little funny from a different perspective. The whole school was like a closed community where strangers weren’t exactly welcomed, but weren’t turned away either. They were stuck in some sort of limbo, unable to move unless the other students allowed them to.

Then she forgot everything about that.

He sat amongst several of the guys who had been playing foosball in the common room earlier. She didn’t recognise him, though, and she knew she would have had she seen him. Like the others, he stared unabashedly, but there was a fierceness in his gaze as if he expected her to wither away under it. No one else had looked at her half that intently, not even Dakota.

He looked vaguely Hispanic … Spanish, probably. Mitch followed soccer religiously, especially the Spanish league, and he looked a little like some of the players on it. Spanish or not, wow! Despite being ten feet away from him, he was hands down one of the best-looking guys she’d ever seen. Dark hair that fell over his brow rather sexily, predictably unfathomable dark eyes, strong biceps that were all the more obvious by his propping his arms up on the dining table, and a tan that spoke of countless hours in the sun made for a very good view indeed.

In fact, it rather ruined the pork ribs she’d been saving for last.

She knew, though, that guys like him could only be bad news. There was a defiance to his posture, and confidence exuded from him from the way he leaned his chin on his hands to the unimpressed expression on his face. The guy simply redefined the word ‘arrogant’.

So he wasn’t impressed by her, was he?

Well, there was only one thing to do. Stare right back, and look even less impressed than he did.

As she did just that, he frowned slightly. Then, all of a sudden, he broke eye contact and leaned over to speak to the guy beside him. Light from the fixtures above reflected off his hair, causing her to blink for the first time since she’d caught his gaze.

She felt a little disappointed. Then a little idiotic, too. The other students only seemed interested because she was new, but him … his interest had seemed different. The challenge in his eyes had certainly been intriguing. Or it could just be meaningless conjecture. Why would a guy like him be curious about her?

Looks were definitely deceiving.

On top of it all, if she had to be honest, the fact that in the end he’d decided she wasn’t worth his time ... well, it stung.

Her pork ribs didn’t seem very appetizing now. Throwing them out would be wasteful, but she didn’t feel like being a sitting duck for the entire school any longer. Twenty minutes of impudent stares had been more than enough. She wouldn’t be able to eat knowing that guy was right there, at any rate.

Grabbing her tray, she swung her seat outwards – the seats were attached to the tables and could swing in circles, which had been the only thing that’d made her smile in what felt like forever – and got up, ready to head back to her room and call Mitch. He had to be settled in already. Remembering how he’d tried to hide from her schoolmates in the car, she smiled wistfully, wishing he’d chosen to enrol here at ATA instead of Haddonbridge. It would have been amazing going to class with him again – he had a way of cheering her up, erasing her worries and fears.

Besides, if anyone looked at her crosswise, he’d simply knock their front teeth out.

And so Dani Seavers spent her first night at Aldridge-Turner Academy ensconced in her room, totally unaware of how his gaze had followed her out of the dining hall.

--

Dani stared down at the paper in front of her, as if looking at it long enough would make it disappear. She’d held her breath upon entering the classroom, terrified that she’d have to stand up in front of the entire class to introduce herself. When that didn’t prove to be the case, she’d exhaled in tremendous relief ... only to have her breath seized from her again when she found out that they were being given a test.

The sound of scribbling pencils was worse than nails raking across a chalkboard, in that it was quieter, deeper. Something like death. Oh, yes. She’d bet anything that hell would sound like scribbling pencils.

The girl beside her began muttering to herself under her breath as she scribbled frantically. Dani grinned to herself. She couldn’t hear everything the girl said, but the few words she could were not flattering at all.

“Miss Lee,” the Math teacher started, her voice dangerously firm. “Please be quiet. Your classmates are trying to concentrate.”

“Sorry, Mrs. Chen,” the girl answered brightly, sounding for all the world oblivious to her teacher’s tone. “I have a bad habit of saying numbers aloud when I’m writing them. It helps me focus. I wasn’t aware that I was doing it, but I’ll stop now.”

She obviously had not been murmuring calculations, but Mrs. Chen could only click her tongue in an admonishing manner before letting it slide.

What was up with the formal address? Back in her old schools, students had been called by their first names. It was another detail that emphasized just how misplaced she felt here.

Dani sighed, doodling mindlessly on her paper. To give students a test on the first day back from Spring Break was a horrendous thing to do. It should be a crime. And a Math test, no less! Surely that qualified as a capital offence?

She eyed Mrs. Chen, a slight Chinese woman with glasses that kept slipping down her nose. Go figure. It was always the ones who looked harmless that were the most evil of them all. A gentle smile here, a soft word there. They were fantastic actors, slippery entities that melted away the moment suspicion fell upon them. But they always returned to follow you, biding their time, licking their lips, sharpening their claws, waiting for the opportune moment when you let your guard down and turned your back. For behind the innocuous exterior lay a cruel and terrible force, and it trembled in its constraints from the all-consuming yearning to be unleashed upon the poor hapless student body! It was a raging fury that overwhelmed the unsuspecting, trusting teenagers, crushing them under textbooks and shredding them with test papers!

Maybe she should abandon art for creative writing, Dani mused.

But then she looked down at her test paper and nearly burst into laughter. She’d drawn a rough sketch of Mrs. Chen’s face planted on the body of a tiger and breathing fire. Tiny little students were in a tangled heap as they struggled to flee, pushing and crawling over each other, falling down the left side of the page. Many had been burned to death, and lay prostrate.

No, art was in her blood.

Fire. Huh. Why had she drawn that?

Damn it. She erased the drawing savagely, nearly ripping her paper into two in the process.

Closing her eyes, she tried as hard as she could to conjure up pictures of meadows and trees and streams and relaxing violin music. Somewhere else. She was somewhere else, somewhere far away.

“You have five minute left, class.” Mrs. Chen’s voice interrupted her daydream suddenly, sending leaves flying and the melody slamming to a screeching, cacophonous halt. “If you’re already finished, you may leave. Please don’t forget to write your name on your test paper. Any paper without one will not receive a grade.”

Looking down at her paper, on which she had written nothing but her name, Dani cringed. She berated herself as she bent over the test, scrawling answers to the problems she could solve quickly. At least she was good at math, a lucky fact considering her distaste for the subject. She was sure the next test would pull her mark up. It’d better, really, or she’d be given the honour of an ‘F’ in her final report card, which wasn’t something she particularly relished getting.

Ugh. She’d only been to one class, and she’d already managed to screw things up.

And she had the feeling the rest of the day wouldn’t be any better.

--

The lunchroom – it was really a building, not a room, that was connected to the dining hall – was nothing but chaos. As soon as Dani pulled open the door, she was overwhelmed by shouting and laughing and clinking silverware. Two guys were grappling with each other, surrounded by a small crowd that cheered and egged them on. Another guy was chasing a shrieking girl around the perimeters of the room.

To tell the truth, it all felt like home.

It made her pause just inside the door even as other students pushed past her towards the lunch line (had no one here ever heard of the phrase ‘excuse me’?). After the disastrous dinner the night before – if she could even call it that, seeing how she hadn’t really tasted most of her food – she’d have thought the atmosphere would be … sterile, maybe. It’d been decidedly more subdued last night. Then again, school had officially started up once more. Even with the promise of homework, assignments, and dreary projects, friends were reuniting after a week or so of being separated. Toss in the nearing graduation for seniors – one recipe for cheery moods in the air, coming right up.

Biting her lip, she finally walked into the building, careful not to meet anyone’s eyes as she got into line with the others. A group of girls in front of her paid her no mind, interrupting each other constantly and tripping over each other’s words as they chatted on … and on … and on.

Dani couldn’t help overhearing their conversation – it wasn’t her fault that they were talking so loudly! She wouldn’t be surprised if the entire lunchroom could hear them. Obviously, they didn’t care, or were even being this loud on purpose. They were sure of themselves, sure of their place in this school. They didn’t care that everyone else could listen in. And if people had a problem with what they were saying or how loudly they said it ... well, those people could go screw themselves.

What she wouldn’t give to be as confident as they were right now.

She didn’t measure a person’s worth by how many friends they had, but the fact that she hadn’t made any yet was starting to make her feel like an outcast living on the street, barely worthy of society’s attention. She’d never been popular, per se, at Eastwood (only sometimes, by extension of being so close to Mitch) but she’d known who people were and they’d known her. Here, she was just adrift.

Resolutely ignoring all of that, she discreetly leaned in. Screw that.

According to these girls, someone named Brittany (last name unknown) had hooked up with a hottie by the name of Kevin (last name unknown too) at the end of Spring Break in Miami. No, it was California. No, Hawaii. “Whatever,” the girl who’d started telling the story had said dismissively. Also, the fact that this Brittany wasn’t here for the first day of school meant that she’d obviously gotten pregnant, and had to stay home because of that.

Dani resisted the urge to tell them that there was no way Brittany would know she was indeed pregnant, not if she’d had ... intercourse with Kevin at the end of the Break. Pregnancy tests couldn’t work till a week or so had passed after the act. In any case, it was Brittany’s business, right? Why would they care? They certainly didn’t have the right to be gossiping about her behind her back.

Blinking, she wondered why she was even thinking about this. What a weird place to be talking about pregnancy, the lunchroom.

Her gaze then wandered to the girls’ short, short skirts and tight uniform blouses. Only thorough taking in of their hems could have resulted in that. These had to be some of the popular girls Dakota had warned her off of.

Dani tapped her fingers against her skirt. Boy, it was a good thing she hadn’t spoken her thoughts out loud by accident, as she was wont to do sometimes.

She thought that too soon.

In moving forward as the line shifted again, Dani didn’t notice that one of the girls hadn’t done so as well. As her luck had it, she bumped right into her back.

Her first reaction was to think ‘oh, shit!’ Her second was to balk when the girl spun around, glaring at her something fierce.

“Watch where you’re going,” she hissed. “If it turns out that you damaged my body in any way–” Damaged? Dani thought. Jeez, she hadn’t hit her that hard. What was she think she was anyway, a collector’s item? “–I’ll sue you so fast I’ll make your head spin. Got it?”

“Sorry,” Dani blurted out quickly, recoiling at the venom in her stare. But that didn’t stop her from adding, “You should’ve moved up, though, or I wouldn’t have bumped into you.”

At her words, everyone within hearing range ominously fell silent. Dani fidgeted as she tried her best to ignore them. She could feel the stares boring into her body, dissecting her, judging her. Noting how awkward she was, how she didn’t fit in. This was why she didn’t look being the centre of attention.

The girl looked her up and down, derision evident in her expression. Now that her face was visible, Dani could see that she spared no mercy with her make-up. It wasn’t that she slathered it on, like lots of girls tended to do – she made sure whatever cosmetics she used enhanced her features to the fullest extent. Her brunette locks were curled slightly and down, framing her slightly oval face. They were slightly mussed up, giving her a tousled, just-out-of-bed look. Her skin looked flawless, and she had the most gorgeous hazel eyes Dani had ever seen. She was model-pretty, but for all her beauty, she seemed … cold. Constantly at odds with the world. Keeping distant, dangerously quiet, rage building inside ... and then lunging when you approached and swallowing you whole. Like a she-lion.

Did lions even swallow their prey whole? Dani rolled her eyes at herself. The metaphor still stood.

Judging from the way the other girls crowded around her, she was the ringleader, too. Oh, Dani, you have all the luck in the world, don’t you?

“What’s your name?” she asked abruptly, a candy-red fingernail tapping against equally red lips.

Dani recovered herself and replied shortly. “Dani Seavers.”

“You’re the new girl,” she said almost wonderingly, a strange light gleaming in her hazel eyes now. It was calculating, not hostile, though that was intimidating enough as it was. Her stance changed, and she plastered a bright smile on her face. It actually looked friendly, and that put Dani even more on guard than before.

“You know, I should apologise. It’s been a tough day – this is your first day, right? Oh, let me introduce myself too. Beverly Teehan.” She looked at Dani like she ought to know who she was, causing her to feel a little flustered.

“Nice to meet you,” Dani offered, thinking the complete opposite.

Beverly – it seemed right for her, especially as it brought to mind Beverly Hills – raised a perfectly plucked eyebrow. “Dani, hmm. That’s a pretty name. Is it short for something?”

“It’s your turn, Bev,” one of the girls in the little posse piped up.

Beverly looked at her sharply. “Get it for me,” she snapped. “I’m talking to Dani here.” She turned back to Dani, smiling as if they hadn’t been interrupted.

Dani felt more than a little flustered now, and a little sick too – though the latter was because of Beverly’s query, not the girl herself. “Thanks?” She decided to ignore the question. “Beverly’s a pretty name, too.”

“I know,” she preened. “After all, it wouldn’t do for a Teehan to have an ugly name. We’re known for our line of beauty products – Teehan Cosmetics, you might have heard of it?” But she wasn’t asking. She obviously expected Dani to know, and to be impressed. That dangerous glint was back in her eyes, so Dani tried to look like she was. She had no intention of being mauled on her first day of school.

“I’m also captain of the varsity cheerleading team,” Beverly continued in a tone of voice that told Dani she should be impressed by this fact as well. Dani wasn’t. At all. “As a matter of fact, you, Dani…” She scanned Dani up and down once more, though less disdainfully than before, “you have the look of a cheerleader about you. Petite, flexible–” how would Beverly know if Dani was flexible or not? It wasn’t like she’d dropped into splits after bumping into her– “pretty … a little make-up here and there and you’ll be just right. You have nice eyes, by the way. Like grass.” What the...? “Are you interested in joining the team? You get extra credit. It’s a pretty sweet deal, and you’ll be popular beyond belief.” She flashed a blindingly white set of teeth at Dani. It reminded her of a shark’s.

“Oh, no, I couldn’t,” Dani answered quickly, looking to see if Beverly’s crony had scored her a lunch tray yet. She needed to get out of the she-lion’s claws ASAP. What the hell was the girl on – she didn’t look like a cheerleader at all! “I don’t have any experience in cheerleading. And I’m really more into art.”

The smile faded from Beverly’s face. “Art?”

“Drawing, sketching, painting. Some sculpting. It’s a pretty sweet deal too, if I must say so.” Dani smiled sweetly at her.

“Art,” Beverly repeated slowly, like it was a completely foreign thing to her.

“Bev, we should really go, we’re holding up the line,” the same girl from before broke in, sounding desperate.

Beverly literally snarled at her. Dani took a surreptitious step backwards. “They can wait another ten seconds without dying of hunger, Steph.”

The girl named Steph whimpered, but acceded.

Beverly then whirled back on Dani. “So you’re another of those self-martyred, starving artist types.” She wrinkled her nose, as if she smelled something bad. “God, when will you idiots ever learn? That’s not going to help you become famous.” She sighed as if it were a huge tragedy – not being famous, that is. “Well, it’s your loss. You’re not pretty enough for the squad anyways.” Not giving Dani time to reply, she then barked, “Girls, let’s go.”

And she swept off in a cloud of perfume, straightened hair, and altered uniform.

Dani stared after her, barely noticing that the buzzing clamour of the lunchroom had begun again. A few people were snickering, but she couldn’t have cared less. Not pretty enough? She wanted to laugh. God, juvenile much?

“Git your lunch and scram, lass,” the lunch lady said loudly, her annoyance nearly making it a shout. Her voice made Dani realize that she was standing at the head of the lunch line, still a little dazed over what had just happened.

“Sorry,” Dani replied timidly, handing the lunch lady her meal card. All the ‘sorry’s were going to warp her brain one day, if the weirdness of her schoolmates didn’t.

What had that been? Had Beverly – she tried her hardest not to think of her as ‘Queen Bitch’ – been serious? Cheerleader. Hah. She’d sooner pass off as a guy than that. Anyone who looked at her had to know she wasn’t the backflips, short-skirt-wearing, chock full of school spirit, rah-rah type of girl.

Right?

Double ugh. Now she apparently looked like a cheerleader. Not all of them were mean – in fact, she’d always thought the stereotype was unfair – but from what had just occurred, said stereotype definitely applied here.

She resisted a shudder. Where she was concerned, they were practically on the opposite side of the spectrum. Mitch would get such a kick out of this.

“That was pretty bold,” a guy’s voice suddenly piped up from behind her.

Dani looked back. Bespectacled and of average height, which was still a good deal taller than her, He Who Had Spoken Up seemed more like the type of people she hung with back in Eastwood. “I beg your pardon?”

A glint of humour showed from behind the lenses of his glasses. “Standing up to Beverly Teehan like that. Not many people have the guts. She can buy and sell any one of us, just like that-” he snapped his fingers, grinning, “which basically translates to ‘please her or be bitch-slapped into the next realm’.”

Dani smiled back, liking him immediately. “I’m sure her bitch-slapping would make me cry blue murder. She might be wealthy and popular, but she’s a complete snob.”

“Now, that’s what everyone here needs to realize!” He shook his head, causing a lock of brown hair to fall over his brow. Pushing it back, he continued grinning at her. “Since I know your name – from your talking with Beverly, I’m not a stalker, don’t worry, she’s just kind of loud,” he grinned as Dani raised an eyebrow pointedly, “it’s only fair you should know mine. We peons must stick together. Evan Cross – saxophone master, all-round band geek, and proud of it.”

Dani laughed. “Dani Seavers – wielder of the paintbrush, all-round art geek, and proud of it. It’s so nice to meet you.”

“Are ye gon’ stand there all day, girl?” The lunch lady demanded, sounding extremely grumpy indeed.

“Oh!” Dani scrambled to get the proffered tray, feeling a blush creep up her cheeks. It didn’t escape her that the lady hadn’t said a thing to Beverly even though she’d held up the line longer than Dani had. But then, Beverly could obviously buy her, too. Evan took her place as she stuffed her meal card back into her skirt pocket.

“Hey,” he said suddenly, reaching out to stop her with a touch on her arm. Dani swung back around, narrowly missing clocking him in the stomach with her tray.

“Whoa! I’m so sorry, I didn’t hit you, did I?”

“No, not at all,” he replied. The laid-back attitude from before was gone, and he seemed a little nervous now. “I just wanted to ask you if you wanted to sit with me and my friends.” He jerked his head to the left, and Dani turned her head to look at the students he’d indicated. Not one of them would meet her gaze.

She didn’t blame them. After all, what would it say, what would it do to their reputations if she, the one had just been ostracized by the girl who had the entire school under her thumb, sat with them? Evan might not have cared, but his friends obviously did.

“You know, since you’re new and all,” Evan rambled on when she didn’t respond right away. “Unless you have someone to sit with already, of course, in which case I’ll definitely understand-”

“It’s sweet of you to ask,” Dani said, smiling to take the edge off her words as his face fell, “but I don’t want to impose on you. I think I kinda want to sit by myself for now. Get used to everything.” She hefted her tray up, giving him an apologetic look. “But if I’m ever in need of saxophone lessons, I’ll look for you, rain or shine.”

That did the trick. His expression cleared. “Sounds good to me,” he said, saluting her. “I’ll see you around, then, Dani.”

“Right back at you, Evan. Stay sax-y.”

He blinked, then laughed. “Oh, right, I see what you did there. Ha.”

She smiled, feeling better than she had for a while, and trotted off towards an empty table, giving him a wave over her shoulder. He waved too, turning back towards the grumpy lunch lady. From the way his shoulders hunched in, he’d earned a reaming out from her too. Another she-lion, she was.

As Dani made her way to her seat, students literally turned to watch her pass, and once she sat down, the surrounding tables openly gawked at her. Rude, much? She half-expected them to scream and abandon their lunches for the bathrooms to puke in the toilet bowls from disgust, but they eventually turned away and continued whatever they’d been doing. It was a small victory, just not one that made her carrots and peas taste better.

She sighed to herself. Looked like the words ‘eating’ and ‘alone’ together were going to be the general gist of her diary entries from now on, which was just … depressing.

And just to cement the fact that this lunch had been even worse than dinner last night, she realized she’d forgotten to get anything to drink.

Bah humbug.

--

P.E. There were no two other letters stuck together that struck such horror in her heart.

So this was it, huh? Every two or three days a week, she’d get a fresh opportunity to embarrass herself, only with assorted balls and lots of shouting. Now that didn’t sound embarrassing at all. Nope, not even the slightest bit.

It wasn’t that she was uncoordinated or anything; she was actually reasonably good at playing sports. She certainly wasn’t athletic, but she was in good shape (okay, so it was more like ‘decent shape’, but who cared about details?).

At least, she had been two years ago.

That was the problem. Back East, students were allowed to drop P.E. after grade 10. Most did, too – suffering from burning lungs and running around in sweat-drenched clothes were only appealing if you were crazy.

She’d thought the same applied here, but maybe private schools had their own, special curriculum? In any case, the bottom line was that she hadn’t done anything more strenuous than travelling up and down flights of stairs in two years. She did not need to pass out from exhaustion in front of everyone on her first day.

What made it worse was that Beverly was in her class. The Beverly who had just put her down before about half the entire school. The Beverly who looked perfectly put together in her too-short gym shorts, too-tight gym T-shirt, and hair now tied back in a ponytail with not a strand out of place high on the back of her head. Dani wasn’t sure how she was going to execute so much as a jumping jack in that attire, but the boys didn’t seem to mind. The only problem they seemed to have was that ATA didn’t conduct P.E. classes co-ed. Dani, on the other hand, considered that divine intervention. She didn’t quite fancy getting knocked on her butt in front of a cute guy.

What? She was a girl, after all. And ATA’s male population seemed made up entirely of cute guys. She’d never seen so many drool-over-able specimens of the other species in one place – Mitch would blend right in if he was here, besides the issue with the uniforms.

Must be something in the water here. Gold dust or something.

It didn’t escape her notice that Señor Hot Stuff from last evening, a moniker (she liked giving them to people she knew – not that she knew him, but it made it all the more interesting) she’d stolen from an episode of Bones, had P.E. the same period as her too. She’d seen him leaving the locker room, but he hadn’t seen her.

A fleeting glimpse was all she’d gotten, but her suspicions were confirmed. He looked even better in the daylight. Fleeting glimpse or not, Dani just knew.

Just then, she nearly tripped over her feet as a girl pushed past her, athletic sneakers-clad feet (brand name, of course) pounding the track. Whoa, they really took running laps seriously here.

She furtively sped up too, pumping her legs and focusing on her breathing. Three more to go. She’d run through the neighbourhood with Mitch the day after visiting the school, but her lungs had already started up a slow burn. It felt like her bronchioles were popping merrily like fresh popcorn, one by one, minute by minute. Hoo boy.

Popcorn. Hot. Spanish. Spanish popcorn.

She shook her head vigorously. That train of thought had to be derailed at once, lest she landed splat on her face once and for all.

Sweat was starting to collect on her forehead, and she used her forearm to wipe it off. Squinting into the distance, she spotted Beverly’s distinctive blonde ponytail swishing from side to side as she ran. Apparently, contrary to what Dani had thought, tight clothes didn’t necessarily impede bodily motions.

Of course, she hadn’t thought about the full range of bodily motions one could partake in.

She blew air out through her lips. This was what happened when you eavesdropped on a conversation about pregnancy for five minutes. Five minutes. Jeez.

Concentrate on your breathing, Dani, or you’re going to faint – and it won’t be pretty, she chided herself. Exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale…

That got her through the remaining two and a half laps. The P.E. teacher, Mr. Smith, who unfortunately was nowhere as good looking as Brad Pitt from Mr. and Mrs. Smith, then put them through a killer routine of hamstring stretches, jumping jacks – which Beverly did smoothly, to Dani’s continued puzzlement – and other exercises that seemed made for the punishment of muscles Dani didn’t even know existed. The gruelling pace made it all the harder. Thirty push-ups in under a minute? Her record was twenty, and that was after glugging a whole bottle of Gatorade. This was not how she wanted to leave the world, spread-eagled on a hideous orange exercise mat. Why were they orange anyway? Red would be much more appropriate. It’d hide the blood.

It was official – P.E. was Satan’s original spawn, before relative velocity and nuclear physics had popped out of Mrs. Satan’s womb.

“Miss Seavers!” Mr. Smith barked. “Up! No lying on your stomach! That is not what a push-up is supposed to be! Look around you! Is anyone else doing what you are? NO! SO UP!”

Dani scowled at the ground, heaving herself upwards. A few spaces down, Beverly and a couple other girls tittered. Mr. Smith’s reprimanding of one of them brought the noise down, but didn’t erase the looks she was getting.

Bloody, bloody hell.

“Cocksucker,” one of the girls beside her muttered under her breath.

Dani nearly fell over from surprise. She earned an extra reprimand from Mr. Smith because of that, but God, had it been worth it.

Looking over at the girl, she was surprised to find her gazing back – and was even more surprised when she winked at her, jerking her head at the teacher’s retreating back. She smiled back, delighted to find that she wasn’t the only one not sucking up to him in hopes of a good grade. She’d rather die a slow, tragic death before playing teacher’s pet to someone like Mr. Smith, 80s’ haircut and all.

Before she could do anything about that possible seed of friendship, though, it was time for crunches. Oh, horror of all horrors imaginable.

The bell signalling the end of the class was the sweetest sound she’d heard all day. She could barely feel her feet. Her shirt stuck to her back and her upper legs, while her shorts seemed soaked through.

Eww. She’d definitely have to take a shower, never mind if she was late for Art History. Feeling good came before being punctual, along with getting reprimanded on her first class, getting detention, and giving everyone another reason to stay clear of her.

Joining the group of girls making for the locker rooms, Dani snatched her towel from her gym locker and headed to the individual showers, eager to get the stink of sweat off her body. Ignoring the others – the looks hadn’t stopped, nor had the barely controlled whispers – she stepped into a stall with a sigh of relief, locked the door, and proceeded to let the water sluice over her body in quick drives. With a little shampoo, soap, and three minutes of vigorous scrubbing with her hands, she felt fresh enough to rinse and towel herself off.

It was then that she remembered forgetting to bring her clothes in with her.

Scrunching her mouth, Dani wrapped the towel around her body. At least she’d only have to walk through the girls’ locker room. There was nothing to worry about. Grab clothes and underwear, get back to a stall, change into them … it wasn’t that she was embarrassed going out in just a towel, but she didn’t know anyone at all. Beverly definitely did not count. In Eastwood, she’d rarely needed a shower after gym class. If she did, changing around everyone wasn’t a problem given that she knew most of them – got along with them, even.

Here? It was a jungle, and she didn’t want her head torn off by wild cats.

Right. Stepping out of the stall, she made her way into the girls’ locker room, unable to resist doing so on tiptoes. If she could have run without losing her dignity, she would have then.

Several girls milled around their lockers, exchanging words and generally complaining about the past eighty minutes of hell they’d just endured. Some of them were pulling their clothes on, some examining their reflections in hand-held mirrors, some fixing their hair or make-up in them. Most had a few choice words for Mr Smith.

One of the girls flung her wet hair back over her shoulder, sending water droplets flying into Dani’s face. Spinning around, she started to say, “Oh, I’m so-”

She stopped abruptly as she realized who it was she’d splattered. They stood staring at each other for a few more awkward seconds before the girl lowered her gaze, lifting one shoulder in a half-shrug as she turned away. Dani knew that was the closest thing to an apology that she was going to get.

Sighing, she moved on. Did this entire school dance to Beverly’s tune? she wondered, frustrated.

When she reached her locker, Dani made to open it before realizing she’d neglected locking it after taking out her towel. Mentally scolding herself, she pulled the metal door open – she hadn’t known a locker could look nice until she’d come here, not that she really cared – and reached for her gym bag. What was up with her memory today? She’d forget her head next, if she wasn’t careful.

At first, she thought it was a trick of the light. Then she thought she’d plum forgotten to put a change of clothes into her gym bag. But she knew she had. She could remember doing just that before going to bed last night.

The thing was, where the heck had her uniform – and oh God, her underwear – vamoosed to if they weren’t in her bag?

It was only then that she realized the locker door been open a sliver. That was weird. Even if she’d forgotten to lock it, it’d be shut all the way…

Unless...

Oh, crap.

“Has anyone seen my clothes anywhere?” Dani asked loudly, throwing caution to the wind. Panic made her voice squeak a little. She needed her uniform! She was not going anywhere in her dirty, sweat-soaked gym clothes, nor was she going to run to her dorm room in only a towel to get an extra set and subsequently be late to her next class by, oh, a whole period. If it did turn out that someone had stolen them…

A tall, striking brunette spoke up. “I’d check the boys’ locker room if I were you, Dan-Dan.” The group of girls she stood with burst into uproarious laughter at that.

Dani spied Beverly and her precious sidekick, Steph, in that same group, and her stomach contracted in dread. And then the words sunk fully into her frantic mind, and she realized they weren’t just laughing at the stupid nickname they’d bestowed on her.

The boys’ locker room.

Oh, no. No. They hadn’t just...

“What’s the matter? Scared of getting cooties?” another girl within that circle taunted.

“They probably don’t teach you in public schools that cooties don’t exist,” Steph threw out, glancing at Beverly hopefully to see if the barb had struck a note with her.

Beverly merely grinned a cat-like grin, bringing her powder puff to her nose. Her hazel eyes bore into Dani’s, seemingly asking ‘what are you waiting for?’

Dani felt her hands clenching into fists beside her. Her first day of school, and her classmates were seeking to expose her – literally. Add this to everything she’d had to endure in the past few days, and she wanted to bawl. Or scream. Or wring somebody’s neck. Maybe all three.

But there was nothing she could do, short of yelling like a banshee or pleading for them to get her clothes back. And if she did that, she knew her standing in the school would plummet to less-than-nothing from the nothing she was now. The other girls in the locker room either avoided her searching gaze and busied themselves with their own things, or grinned along with the other girls.

She bit her lip. Options whirled through her mind and were discarded one after the other till only one was left.

Mitch would so get a kick worthy of a World Cup goal out of this.

--

Jesse Iriarte stood in front of his gym locker, minding his own business and thinking about how he really felt like skipping Math next block, when something soft hit him on the side of his head, causing him to let out an involuntary 'FUCK!'

Not in the way he wanted to, either.

He’d finished his shower before everyone else, not caring at all for Harry Towson’s dreadfully off-key version of Evanescence’s ‘Bring Me to Life’. Jesus Christ, but the guy could pop about a dozen dogs’ eardrums without even trying. Amy Lee would be prostrate on a stretcher on hearing the first note. And as a big fan of his own hearing, he’d gotten the hell out before he’d lost it for good.

Dropping his towel on the floor, Jesse had pulled his boxers on – plain black cotton; he wasn’t a tool who wore Calvin Klein ones like a testament to his own wealth as most guys here did – and reached for his pants. Whistling Hollywood Undead’s ‘The Kid’ under his breath, he’d pulled them on too. It was when he was reaching for his undershirt that he’d gotten brained.

By what seemed to be a pile of … girl’s gym clothes?

Complete with bra and panties. That made him stare, then gingerly reach down to pick the entire pile up.

What the hell?

Jesse suddenly noted faint feminine giggling from behind the locker room doors. Yes! Striding towards it, he pulled them open, poking his head out.

But the coast was clear. Whoever had thrown the poor girl’s change of clothes in was long gone – probably back to the girls’ locker room, to tell the victim she’d been well and truly Punk’d.

But hell, what was he going to do about this now?

He walked back towards his locker slowly, giving the bundle in his hands a closer look. The labels on the backs of the blouse and skirt told him the girl was slender, or just made herself puke after her meals in her quest to fit into a size ‘S’. He’d never understood that. Why voluntarily throw up good food? It was worse than perjury. Man.

The bra, on the other hand … Jesse assessed it with a critical eye. Cup size B, at most. Or nearly a B. He wasn’t exactly an expert in bras, but … yeah, he was pretty sure of that.

He smiled to himself, picturing her. She’d have almond-shaped eyes and glowing skin, and she’d still be wet from the shower ... oh, yeah…

He hoped he wasn’t merely painting a pretty picture when the picture really wore strength-hold side gear and had acne marks all over her face. He knew judging by appearance was wrong, but it was just a fantasy. He was a guy, after all.

A guy holding some mystery girl’s undies and uniform.

Nothing about them told Jesse who they belonged to, though. What if the owner didn’t claim them? Was he supposed to hang onto them? Hand them in to the Lost and Found desk? Ask the entire female population who fit said clothes? Whoa, hold that thought. No way in hell was he going to act like Cinderella’s prince. Jesse Iriarte did not bumble about like a fool who didn’t know who he was looking for. Besides, three-quarters of the female population here could easily wear these.

He frowned.

All of a sudden, the door banged open, nearly flying off its hinges from the force of it. A slight girl clad only in a big, white towel ran in, her short, wet red hair curling at her chin, a frantic expression on her face. She seemed not to see Jesse as she cast frenziedly around the room, but then she did a double take and looked straight at him.

Her mouth fell open. His nearly did, too. It was the girl from the dining hall the previous night – the new girl, the one who’d stared back at him so ferociously before plastering an exaggeratedly bored look on her face. That’d been strange. It wasn’t a reaction Jesse was used to eliciting, and he didn’t like it one bit. What was her name? Debbie, Debra – something along those lines?

Whatever it was, she definitely lived up to his picture (despite the fact that her face looked awfully chaffed), hastily assembled as it was.

Her gaze now was fixated on the pile of clothes he held. She’d turned a nasty shade of white too, until she almost blended in with her towel. And no matter how much Jesse wanted her to keep standing there so he could look at her for as long as possible, he knew he had to say something, so he opted for the first thing that came to his mind:

“Looking for this?”