Chapter 1

“Who's the new kid?”

“I heard he's called Kieran. Is he really as good looking as they say?”

“You mean you haven't seen him yet? He's like a god...”

Nate groaned and let his forehead sink to the desk. He was tired, he had a headache, and no one would shut up about the new transfer student. Every single girl in the school seemed to want to not only talk about him, but squeal and gossip across the classrooms. What happened to note passing, secret diaries and whispered confessions when it came to girls with crushes? Nate wondered bitterly. And he's only been here a week too.

“Good morning!” came a sing-song voice to his left. Nate muttered something unintelligible in reply, but turned his face to watch the bouncy brunette sit down in the empty desk, neighboring him. Her shoulder length hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail and adorned with a very loud, scrunched up black and yellow hair tie.

“Hung over?” Stephanie asked cheerfully as she pulled her English books out of her bag. Nate closed his eyes and focused on enjoying the feeling of the cold wood against his cheek. He wasn't hung over – he had been up all night working on his essay and she knew it.

“If only you had helped me with it,” he muttered, flinching at the sound of her pens as they clattered to her desk. “I could have been done days ago and I could have gone out this weekend.”

“Oh, I forgot you haven’t finished that essay!” Stephanie exclaimed with exaggerated surprise. Nate knew she hadn't forgotten at all. “You want to go to a university, right? You need your English credits. My doing your essays for you won't help you in exams.” When Nate opened his eyes again Stephanie had arranged her stationary in an orderly fashion and was underlining the date at the top of her page. Nate hadn't even gotten his books out. It was true that he wanted to go to a university, but he couldn't find the motivation do his homework. He had, after all, spent his day in school, learning, he didn’t want to be trapped inside textbooks at home as well.

“It's not like you had anything better to do with your weekend anyway,” Stephanie continued. “I mean, you don't have a girlfriend.”

Nate scowled. Thanks for the reminder. “Why am I friends with you again?”

“Because you need me,” said Stephanie simply. “Get your books out! The teacher's here.”

Nate groaned again and was about to reach into his bag for his textbook when the fire alarm went off, surprising nearly everyone. They had been warned that they would be having a drill sometime that week, but Nate hadn't been expecting it to be in the first lesson of Monday morning. He couldn't decide whether this was a good thing or a bad thing. On one hand, it was loud and irritating and did nothing to improve his headache, on the other, it meant that he could escape most of his dreaded English period.

Stephanie looked crestfallen as they left the classroom and entered the packed corridor. “I was hoping that we'd be starting Othello today, too,” she complained loudly, clinging to the back of Nate's shirt so that they wouldn't get separated.

Ugh, Shakespeare? No thanks, Nate thought in disgust. But knew better than to say that aloud.

Nate hated being part of a large crowd. It made him feel claustrophobic. He hated being part of a crowd even more on Mondays, when he was usually groggy from sleep deprivation. He banged shoulders with older and younger students alike; a lot of students still had their schoolbags on their backs, taking up even more space. Nate wished they had left them in their classrooms.

“Oh, look, there's Jason. Jason!” Stephanie shouted, calling out to the boy who made up their little trio, Jason hunt. Jason was tall, lanky and obnoxious. There were two things that made Jason stand out from a crowd, one was his height and the other was his shocking hair. Last month his hair had been blue, this month his hair was badly dyed green and black.

Jason grinned at them and waved, but continued with the crowd, shouting something that sounded vaguely like “meet you outside.”

“Nathan?” questioned a sudden voice from somewhere behind them. Stephanie stopped dead, pulling Nate to a standstill with her. There were a few grumbles at their abrupt halt and Nate turned around bitterly. He was ready to snap at whoever was holding them up, but as he looked up into captivating green eyes, and his angry retort trailed into nothing.

The voice belonged to a tall and very handsome senior with dark stylized hair and the kind of elegant build that seemed to be the most popular with the girls these days. His button-up shirt fit him perfectly, as though it were made for him (it probably had been), and Nate was willing to bet that every designer rip in those tight, dark jeans cost more than Nate's entire wardrobe.

“My name's Kieran,” the boy introduced himself quite unnecessarily. He had a gentle voice and an open, honest face, and Nate wondered how someone so desirable could act so humble. Having only seen Kieran from a distance, he had assumed that everything his classmates had said about him were complete exaggerations. Now that they were face to face he could see why the girls got so sucked in by him, and that only irritated him more.

He scowled up at Kieran and asked, quite rudely, “What do you want?”

“Perhaps we could go somewhere a little quieter? If we go back this way the corridors will be empty...”

Kieran ignored Nate's cold tone and smiled apologetically at Stephanie. “Is it alright if I borrow him for a second?” Stephanie squeaked slightly at being addressed and, much to Nate's dismay, nodded a little absently. Nate glared at her as she cast him a meaningful “tell me all about it later” look and disappeared into the already thinning crowd.

“Well then,” said Kieran cheerfully and without another word he snatched up Nate's wrist and started leading him back the way they had just come. They passed a few stragglers, a couple who reminded them halfheartedly that they were going the wrong way. But even once they were walking through perfectly empty corridors, lined with some rather terrible paintings from the first year art students, Kieran didn't stop. Nate's curiosity kept him from pulling away, but his confusion made him weary.

As they reached the doors that led to the stairway Kieran finally slowed down and Nate roughly snatched his arm back. “Isn't this far enough?” he muttered, nursing his sore wrist; Kieran had a surprisingly strong grip. “I don't know what you want, but we'll get in trouble if we don't get outside before they reach our names on the attendance lists. To be frank, I don't want a detention because of some pretty boy I don't even know.”
Kieran laughed, somehow amused, as he looked down at Nate. “You think I'm pretty?” he asked sweetly. He looked back down the corridor as though checking that no one was there, and brushed some of his dark hair out of his eyes.

Nate scowled. That was meant to be an insult, you idiot. But he was too interested now, wondering what the most popular student in the school had to say to him that couldn't be overheard.
When Kieran looked back at him a slight hardness had appeared in his eyes. The look sent an unexplained chill down Nate's spine.

Kieran’s smile was still friendly, but Nate couldn't help but feel uncomfortable as the other boy stepped in closer. It wasn't until Kieran had backed him into a wall and put his hands on either side of his head that Nate thought that he probably shouldn't have let himself be dragged away - but of course, by then it was already too late.

Kieran leaned in to Nate's ear and Nate wished he'd hurry up and say whatever he had to say. Realizing he was clammed up and breathing hard, Nate, tried to relax. He extracted his nails from his sweaty palms. There was no reason to get worked up. It was probably just some kind of delicate matter, and Kieran was probably just so paranoid about people overhearing that he had to whisper it...

“I think you're pretty too,” Kieran breathed in his ear, winding one of his hands around Nate's wrist and pinning it gently to the wall. Nate felt his heartbeat quicken and his cheeks flame up. What the hell? And then he felt Kieran's lips brush against his ear and a hand sink into his hair.“You know, I like blonds. How long will it take to make such a rough diamond mine, I wonder?”

“You creep!” Nate pulled away violently. At the same time Kieran relaxed his grip, as though he had been anticipating Nate's rejection, and Nate stumbled from his own force. Gone was the gentleness and honesty in Kieran's face – replaced with arrogance and amusement. Nate could hear Kieran laughing as he ran down the corridor, but he didn't look back and Kieran didn't chase him. What the hell was that?

He was panting as he reached the school field. All the students were there already being organized and checked off of the class lists by their teachers. Nate put a shaking hand to his face and could tell by the stark iciness of his fingers that his cheeks were still on fire. “Damn it!” he swore, and remembered Kieran's arrogant expression. “This is what he wants, for me to get all worked up like this. What a git.”

I'll kill him, he thought ten minutes later as he was being scolded by his English teacher for being late. He thinks he can make a fool out of me. What did I do to make him hate me this much? But he knew that he couldn't tell anyone, not even Stephanie. Not only was it painfully embarrassing, but who would believe that the perfect, charming and idolized new student would have any interest in Nate, an average and uninteresting boy two years his junior?

Nate apologized to his teacher, claiming to have been in the bathroom. He walked straight past Stephanie, who was explaining something to Jason with exaggerated hand movements, and sunk into an empty patch of grass.

And why, of all the students in the school, had Kieran singled him out?

Author's Note: Please review!