• Other then us four in Chem, there were three other people. And they were all guys. And, again, I had to stand up in front of everyone and introduce myself. I mainly looked at my-- well there isn't a better name for them at this point-- friends.
    My teacher, whose name I forgot already, let me sit where ever I wanted. So I chose to sit in the far back corner, right behind Cyndi, right next to Mike, and diagonally to Jack. Luckily, we had a down day. So in other words we didn't learn anything new.
    "Okay so I was thinking," Cyndi started but was cut off by Mike.
    "You were thinking?" Mike mocked surprise shock.
    "Ha ha," Cyndi said sticking her tongue out at him. "As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted, I thought that we should go to my house after school today!"
    "Um, don't I have a say in this? Like at all? And what about mom?" Mike interjected.
    "Mom is ALWAYS fine with stuff like this. I'll text her later this period and ask her if you so insist." She rolled her eyes.
    Mike started to open his mouth with a well thought out remark when one of the guys from the small group of three came over to us.
    "Hi, there!" he said sounding like it was meant for all of us but he looked straight at me.
    "Hi Johnny, what do you want?" Cyndi asked with irritation.
    He smiled at her and put this finger under her chin. "Well I'll take you if that's the right answer." Johnny said cockily, his smile turning wider.
    Suddenly a hand shot out of no where and grabbed his wrist and pulled it away from Cyndi's face. I glanced from Jack's furious face to the teachers desk, then back to Jack. I looked back over at the teachers desk and became confused. He wasn't there. Was it normal to leave a room of teenagers by themselves? I guess so in a school this small. My eyes and attention flashed back to the scene in front of me in time to listen to the conversation.
    "Watch it you..." Jack said through his teeth, the muscle in his jaw bulging just a fraction before he let go of Johnny's wrist.
    I looked over at Cyndi and saw relief on her face. I read in her thoughts that she was, once again, happy that she had Jack. I suddenly realized that this has happened before.
    "Cool it Jack I was only kidding around, sit down will you!" Johnny said, as Jack stiffly sat down but was still tense. "Besides, I'm not interested in your precious Cyndi any more. I'm now infatuated with our lovely new student." He smiled and looked at me. I manged a half-smile.
    "Go away Johnny, no one likes you, and you're a foul perv," Mike suddenly said, making me snap my head and attention to him.
    "Oh, I see how it is. Get her against me as soon as you can so then when the new prettiest, most popular girl doesn't like me, no one will," He smiled at me again. "You wouldn't want that now will you?"
    "Um..." I started but was cut off by a finger on my cheek.
    "Shh, no. It's okay, I know you don't want to turn everyone against me," Johnny's finger traced up my jaw line to my temple and down to my chin. A chill went down my back, but not a good one. It was a bad chill.
    I smacked his hand away from my face and glared at him.
    "I refuse to be used in such a way. If you want people to like you, well I'm no expert at popularity, but maybe you should become a likable person."
    I raised an eyebrow at the look on his face and he spun around and went back to the other guys.
    "Whoa, nice girl!" Cyndi said holding up her hand for a hi-five. I gave her one and laughed.
    "Well I'll be damned. She stood up to that freak," Jack said letting out a low whistle.
    "You know what that means don't you?" Mike said, still grave.
    "You can't be serious!" Cyndi said.
    "Uh-uh. No way," Jack shook his head slowly.
    "What did I miss?" I was really confused at this point.
    "Cassy, what it means is that, because you don't have a guy to, for lack of a better word, 'claim' you he's gonna try and get his perv-y hands on you," Cyndi said.
    I stared at them in disbelief, but I could read it in his thoughts, clear as day. I looked over at him and he was staring at me talking to his friends.
    So how's your first day of school going?, Mike asked.
    Fine up until the time that there's a guy after me now, I replied glumly.
    I didn't realize that my life could be come a lot more complicated.