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I stared at the door in front of me, my fingers fiddling with the hem of my shirt, a knot of nerves settling in the pit of my stomach as I stared at the wood that divided me from him. I knew he was already inside: I could see the back of his head from the little glass window on the door. And even though he broke my heart three weeks ago, even though he got me my first detention, I didn't feel a burning hatred when I looked at his messy hair from the little window.

I felt nervous. Partly because I knew that hiding under the surface of the little anger that was there, was just hurt; but mostly because I already knew how my body reacted to him. When I saw him, I wanted to feel his arms wrapped around me. I wanted him to tell me that he was lying when he told me he didn't care about me in summer. I wanted him to tell me that he thought about me just as much as I thought about him.

To rid myself of these thoughts, I shake my head and stand up straighter, my hands going to my side. It was pathetic, how much I still wanted him, even after he hurt me the way he did. It was easier to ignore when he wasn't around, but now that he went to my school, I had a feeling it was going to be a hell of a year. But despite the obvious feelings I still had for Carter, I told myself to keep my chin up, be strong, and not submit to him so easily. He doesn't care about you, I had to chant in my head, he said it himself.

Finally, I gather enough strength to open the door and walk in, keeping my lips in a tight line and my eyes trained on the teacher in front. Mr. Peterson, the music teacher, looked up from his book at the front of the room and scrunched his eyebrows at me. I was sure he wasn't expecting me to be in detention: after all, when I'm at school, I'm the epitome of a perfect student.

"Amelia?" Mr. Peterson questions as I shut the door behind me. "Are you here to talk to me?"

I can feel Carter's gaze burning a hole through the side of my head, and the few other kids who managed to get detention on the first day of school snickered from the back corner. I walked up to his desk and shook my head. "No, sir. I have detention."

He looks even more shocked by what I just said, and his eyes dip down to the sheet until he finds my name, but the surprise doesn't wipe away. "Would you look at that," Mr. Peterson mumbles, then looks up at me and gestures to the seats. "Well, take a seat then."

I turn around and finally meet Carter's intense stare, his eyes begging me to come take a seat next to him. But instead, I sat a few rows away from Mr. Peterson's desk, several seats away from Carter. I could hear the audible sigh that escaped his lips when I fell into the seat, and tried to ignore the feeling of his eyes on me the whole time.

In an attempt to busy myself with some work, I took out my Calculus homework and began working on it. Halfway through my worksheet, a knock came from the door, and Mr. Peterson walked over to get it. Another teacher stood there, explaining to him in hushed tones with underlying urgency, and Mr. Peterson mumbled something before turning back into the room.

His eyes land on me before he announces, "I have to go tend to an issue with Mr. Lyons. Amelia, you're in charge. Make sure no one leaves this room until I come back."

With that, before I could protest or even open my mouth, Mr. Peterson slipped out of the room. Immediately, the atmosphere shifted, and the kids in the corner began talking and laughing amongst themselves, moving to sit on top of the desks instead of sitting in their seats. I looked back down at my worksheet and tried to continue despite the noise, but the sound of a chair scraping against the floor stopped me.

Carter got up from his seat and walked over to me, moving so he was standing in front of my desk. Despite his overpowering presence, I continued to do my worksheet, keeping my eyes glued to the paper on my desk. After a moment, he sighed, and snatched the paper off my desk. I looked up with narrowed eyes at Carter to see him dangling it above my head with a slight smirk on his lips.

"Carter, give it back," I practically growl. "And go away."

He shakes his head, seemingly amused. "I already told you, princess, I'm not going to stop trying."

Suddenly, a thought pops into my head, and I decide it's worth a try. I dig into my backpack and produce my phone, and scroll through the photos until I find what I was looking for. Then, with a smug look on my features, I show Carter the picture I had taken of him cuddling against some other kid in the cabins, the morning after I had put shaving cream under his covers and vinegar on the floor, and smirk.

"Leave me alone or else I will have this printed and hung up all around the school," I threaten menacingly, taking great pleasure when I see his smirk drop as he looks at the photo.

After a moment, he shakes his head, a small smile returning to his lips. "You can't scare me away, Mina. Hell, I'll hang the picture around the school myself if it means you'll stop looking at me like I'm a monster."

My smug smile dropped at his words, and I lower my phone with a defeated sigh. "Well, there goes that plan."

"It was a good try," He insists with a cheeky smile. "But we both know who won the pranking war."

My eyes snap up to his amused gaze as I narrow them. "You did not win."

Carter challenges, "I got the last prank in, Stevens. You can't even deny that."

"Only because your last prank got us both in some deep shit," I point out, momentarily forgetting the fact that I was supposed to be ignoring him. "Had it not been for Marcus getting us in trouble, I would've come out victorious."

His cheeky smile turns fond as he gazes at me. "I'm happy he did, though."

I frown at him. "What? Get us in trouble?"

"Yeah," Carter nods, his eyes searching mine. "Had it not been for that, then I would've never gotten to know you like I did. We wouldn't have spent all those nights in the dining hall together, dancing along to that old radio we found in the back."

The fondness of the memory was wiped away when his words reinstate some sanity into me, and I realize that I was falling right back into his trap. The small smile that had subconsciously grown onto my lips fell when I remembered the end of our story, the end of my summer, and I look away from his intense stare. I straighten up in my seat, trying to rebuild the walls around myself as quickly as possible, this time twice as high so he couldn't get back in.

Carter's smile fades away as he looks at me, watching me guard myself from him. "Amelia, we need to talk. I need to tell you what really happened at the end of summer."

Even though I keep telling myself to ignore him, my interest is piqued at his words. Before I can think better of it, I turn to look at him again, curiosity shining in my eyes. The previous amusement in his features and fondness in his eyes was replaced with a stark sense of somberness. When he realized I wasn't going to speak, he took a deep breath and opened his mouth again, but was cut off by the door opening.

"Good, nobody left," Mr. Peterson noted as he walked back into the room, looking a bit out of breath as he glances to the corner of the room, his eyes narrowed. "Mr. Jones, get off the desk and into your seat immediately. You too, Miller. And no talking."

Carter grumbled something under his breath before he shuffled back to his seat, his head down, leaving me with my heart racing. Did I even want to hear the words that were going to come out of his mouth? Would I even trust him?

+ + +

"Do you want to do the English homework together later?" Georgina, a nice girl in my English class with short black hair asks me.

I grab the book I was looking for in my locker, and then shut it to look at her. "Yeah, that sounds good. Do you have any free periods?"

"I have study hall after lunch," She offers. "Or we could meet..."

Georgina trails off when her gaze catches something behind me. My brow furrows in confusion before I turn around to see what had rendered her speechless, and I'm not surprised at what I see. Wes Sherman and Joey Lakes were walking on either side of Carter as the sea of students parted to let them through.

Wes and Joey were infamous bad boys. They were known for skipping class, starting fights, and smoking cigarettes behind the school. Almost as infamously, they were womanizers- classic players, using their extremely good looks to get just about every girl they saw into bed. They had slept with most of the girls at our school at this point, similar to Jake's friends, and winked at anything with boobs.

So it wasn't a surprise that they had recruited Carter into their big bad posse. Carter was another good looking bad boy who wears leather jackets and smirks too much. I wanted to roll my eyes at the ridiculousness of the new friendship: Carter said his mom and stepdad had moved him here so he could get away from all the trouble, and yet he found the most troublesome boys in this school on the second day of classes.

"That new kid is so hot," Georgina says dreamily from behind me, even sighing as she stared at Carter.

I resist the urge to roll my eyes and turn around to smile tightly at her. "Anyway, you were saying you're free after lunch? I have a free period during fifth, too."

Georgina's eyes widened as she continued to stare behind me, before her gaze finally flickered to me while she asked in confusion, "Why are they coming over here?"

I sigh, feeling deflated. "Of course," I mumble to myself.

"Hey Mina," An all too familiar voice greets sweetly from behind me, and I sigh again before turning around to face Carter's smile. "Are you heading to lunch?"

My gaze slides past him, to Wes and Joey, who are both standing behind him like his guard dogs. Their eyes are looking around, and I catch Wes wink to a group of girls standing nearby, who all swoon at the sight of Wes smirking at them. Unimpressed, I look back at Carter, to see his smile threatening to turn into a smirk.

"Actually, me and Georgina were talking about-" I start, but I'm cut off by the very girl beside me.

"To head to the cafeteria. I feel like I haven't eaten in five years," Georgina mutters the last part, then smiles kindly at me. "Fifth period sounds perfect, by the way. Now let's go eat."

Georgina, unlike Gabby and the other girls, didn't seem fazed by the boys presence, and I almost immediately liked her. She seemed genuine, for a change. I nodded at her slowly, agreeing to go to lunch with her, so I could actually sit with someone instead of skipping again. Carter regards Georgina with a polite smile, then looks back at me.

He smiles again, his dazzling white toothed smile that pulls at my heartstrings. "Cool, let's head over."

I want to deny his offer- which wasn't really an offer, but more of a statement- and tell him that I wasn't going to eat lunch with him, but the hunger growing in my stomach begged to differ. Begrudgingly, I agreed, careful to keep myself at a safe distance away from Carter as I walked. I walked in front of him toward the cafeteria, Georgina falling into step somewhere behind me.

Unfortunately, Carter caught up to me with ease and said, "I couldn't find you in the cafeteria yesterday. I wanted to sit with you."

"Was that before or after you punched Jake?" I ask sarcastically, unable to bite back the comment.

I can feel his stare on my face, but refuse to look at him. Instead, I keep looking forward, steadily ignoring his gaze. Lowering his voice considerably, Carter asks cautiously, "Are you mad I punched him? Do you still... like him?"

I had to glance at him when I heard the hint of jealousy underneath his words, and I couldn't help but feel a little smug about it. I could squash his jealousies, tell him right there that I didn't have feelings for Jake Sloan anymore, because, well, I didn't. But then again... Where's the fun in that?

My gaze sweeps in front of me again as I look away from Carter and shrug. "We have a lot of history together."

Even though I hardly said I still loved Jake, I knew that was enough for Carter. He frowned at me as I walked into the cafeteria, yet continued to follow me like a lost puppy as I went to the lunch line. I grabbed chicken fingers and fries before heading over to the cashier, but before I could pay, Carter stopped me.

Usually I would be over the moon about someone buying me food, but the fact it was Carter only ticked me off more. I walked over to the table Georgina sat without thanking him. To my dismay, Carter followed me to the table and sat across from me. Wes and Joey were close behind, dropping their trays at the round table and sitting down as well.

"Why'd you pick this table?" Joey pouts at me, then looks into the center of the tables longingly. "We're usually in the middle."

Georgina rolls her eyes at him. "Why does it matter?"

"Feel free to sit anywhere else," I add sharply, looking at Carter as I said so.

Wes raises his eyebrows at me, a small smirk on his lips. "Well you're a little spit fire, aren't you? How come we never noticed you before?"

Joey nudges Wes, glancing at me before he says, "She was Sloan's girl, remember?"

I notice how Carter tenses up at the mention of Jake, and have to bite my lip to keep a smirk from appearing. Recognition dawns on Wes' face as he looks at me again, and actually smiles, a look resembling remembering dawning on his features.

"You're the one that cut a hole in his soccer shorts before his game last year?" Wes asks curiously, amusement dancing in his eyes.

Georgina gasps, "I remember that! People called him 'Ducky' until the end of the school year."

I smile wickedly at Georgina, Wes, and Joey. "Everyone got to see his ducky boxers."

Carter, who had been sitting and watching our interaction, laughs heartily at this. My heart swells at the familiarity of his laughter, and despite myself, I can't help but smile a little too. But I quickly straighten my smile out and look at the table instead of him.

"That's my girl," Carter murmurs with the smile on his lips.

Joey smirks as he looks between us. "Your girl, huh?"

"No," I tell Joey immediately, risking a glance at Carter, and feeling Georgina's curious gaze. "We aren't together."

Joey and Wes look at each other and then both look at me, a newfound glint in their eye as Wes smirks at me. "In that case, can I get your number, sweet cheeks?"

I cringe at the nickname and say plainly, "No."

Wes' face falls at my answer, and Joey and Carter laugh out loud at my blatant rejection. Joey and Wes were notorious players: even though they were hot, there was no way I would ever go out with either of them. Besides, I was still trying to get over the other boy at this table.

I look around the cafeteria and see that the boys laughter had drawn a lot of attention to our table. Girls were staring in awe, and then fixed their glares on me. I resist the urge to roll my eyes at the typical high school girls who already formed a dislike for me because I was friends with the guys they liked.

"No one rejects the Wes machine," Wes grumbles under his breath.

This time, I can't help but laugh too.

"The Wes Machine?" Georgina echoes incredulously.

"You're going to have to come up with a better name than that." I tell him with a quick shake of my head.

"That's what I told him!" Joey cries, pointing at Wes accusingly. "I also told him not to refer to himself in the third person."

"No girl likes a guy who refers to himself in the third person," Carter agrees with a smirk.

Wes scowls at him. "Plenty of girls at this school like me, Miller."

"That's a lot of confidence for a guy that just got shut down," I say in mock warning, a cheeky smile on my face.

Carter, Georgina and Joey laugh, and for the rest of the lunch hour, I forget everything. I forget that I'm supposed to hate Carter and should be avoiding him at all costs. I forget that I planned on getting through senior year with my head down, not drawing attention to myself by befriending the three hottest guys in school. I even manage to forget the ache in my heart every time I think about how things ended with me and Carter.

Instead, I make unlikely new friends and wonder if things won't be as bad as I thought.