"See you on second period, Aaron," said Ethan to me, as he took a thick book from his locker. "I got the moldiest luck to get Calculus for my first period. Hey, Luke, tell me what you have for your first period."

Luke sneered at Ethan. "Reading and Study Time," he said.

I sniggered. RST or Reading and Study Time was a really cool period. Mrs. Roberts lets us do anything we want during that time, as long as we didn't leave the classroom, which was fine by us since we can do a lot of things without leaving the classroom.

"What?" demanded Ethan in disbelief. He grabbed Luke's schedule and stared at it for the longest time. "Awe, lucky dude," he grumbled.

After that, he left for his class, scowling. Luke and I exchanged amused looks.

"I've got to bounce, too," he said, patting me on the shoulder and looking pointedly from me to Annabelle.

When Luke was out of sight, I raised my eyebrow at Annabelle.

"What?" she asked, pouting. Then, she rolled her eyes. "Oh, all right. I guess I missed you so much that I couldn't help myself." She shrugged.

I snorted. "Yeah, right."

"I did!" she said indignantly, widening her eyes. "Didn't you miss me, too?"

"Of course I did," I said automatically, frowning a little. I frowned because it felt weird saying it. I don't know, but I think I didn't miss her at all. It's harsh but it was true.

The summer I spent with the Dakota was like when we were kids: we were problem-free. We hadn't been like that for so long. And it felt good. All we did was wake up early and ride our bikes to the nearby park. We'd sometimes watch as the sun rose from New York City. For the rest of the day, we watched the latest movies we illegally downloaded from the internet while we ate snacks we experimented on. Or when we were feeling like it, we rented old movies from the video store. And then for the rest of the night, we spent time talking about the movies we watched for the day by our windows – using the talkies, obviously. Awesome, huh? Now, that was life.

Annabelle wasn't that type of person. She watched E! and read gossip on any magazine she can find. She only listened to Justin Bieber and the Jonas Brothers. I couldn't even understand what was so cool about those dudes that almost all the girls drooled over them. If Annabelle was a guy, I'd bet everything I have that he was gay.

I came back to reality when Annabelle gave me a huge smile.

"It's time for our French," she said, kind of seductively.

"We'd better go, then," I said, slightly touching her chin for a moment.

After saying the last word, I started walking.

Annabelle and I walked together to French class, holding hands. Only the people in the hallway stared. Most of the students were already inside their first periods. It was better that way. It wasn't that easy to greet everyone at the same time.

"Hiyah, Aaron!"

"Yo, Aaron!"

"What's up, Ford?"

"How you guys doin'?"

I greeted them in turn. I couldn't just ignore them. It wasn't in my nature to do so. Annabelle liked the attention, but I know she gets annoyed sometimes, too – even if she didn't show it.

At any rate, we made it to our French class. We sat next to each other by the fourth row. Our teacher, Monsieur Delacroix, was late. That was why when he entered, he didn't get the full attention of the class. After a few minutes, the class eventually settled down. That was when the boredom began.

This class makes me want to snooze, I thought. Suddenly, it dawned on me. Oh, man. I'm turning into D. Ha ha...

A coyly smile stretched across my face. And then, Annabelle, who was seating next to me, apparently saw me because she tossed me a note saying,

Been thinking about me?

I slowly faced her and lightly shook my head, giving her a smirk. Annabelle's mouth immediately dropped. Soon afterwards, she kept throwing me pieces of crumpled paper. We were both laughing so hard, only we did it silently.

"Y a-t-il un problème?" asked Monsieur Delacroix, eyeing us. He meant, "Is there any problem?" in English.

Annabelle and I glanced at each other and answered, "Non." Which you might've guessed that means "No."

Whoa. It surprised me how much I missed this. I wasn't in love with Annabelle or anything. But I was truly attracted to her "debonair cheerleader" image. We were perfectly matched. She was very attractive and full of self-esteem, while I was the same. It might seem like I was an egocentric, but I was just aware of how I look.

The bell rang. Finally.

"That seemed like forever," I said with solace as I got up from my seat and followed Annabelle.

Turning to me, she said, "Looks like you'll miss me until lunch."

"I don't think so," I said, grinning. "We still have third period together."

"I know," she replied with dignity and confidence. Then, she looked at me carefully. "You are having lunch with me today, aren't you?"

She asked me that question because I always sat with Dakota every lunch hour, except when I was sitting with the guys or with Annabelle.

"Absolutely," I answered, and then, I kissed her on the forehead. "C'mon, I'll take you to your class."

Okay. An incredibly weird thing just happened minutes before the bell rang: someone talked to me. Not just an ordinary someone, as a matter of fact. He was a handsome someone.

Here was what happened:

I felt better when I regained my focus. Besides, Creative Writing was my first period. I mean, what could possibly go wrong, right? I liked that class and I absolutely enjoyed it.

Our first class started with Mr. Darwin or Mr. D introducing a transferee. Yeah, we had the same nickname. It was okay. Only Aaron called me "D" so it wasn't that confusing.

Anyway, at that moment, I was so sure that the new guy would be part of the popular people as soon as he left this class. He was maybe 5'11" tall, with blonde hair. He has the kind of muscular body that got girls my age following him around.

Ugh. Nice. They just kept on adding popular people so that many more can torture us. Just lovely.

But then Mr. D paired us off. And guess who he paired me with? Yup. Dwayne Richardson, the new guy. Instead of pairing me with the one person I was comfortable with – which was Alyson, he paired me with the new addition to the athletic people. Wasn't Mr. D the kindest teacher?

And so, my "partner" came near, pulling a chair next to me.

"Hi! I'm Dwayne," he said, smiling at me.

I blinked. Was it just my imagination or did he just greet me?

"What's your name?" he asked slowly, seeing as I didn't greet him back whatsoever.

The way he asked me that was what made me come back to my senses. Do I look like I was retarded to him?

"Dakota," I answered. The moment after I answered him, I tried to ignore him. But of course I couldn't do that if he kept on talking to me. That was just what makes me crazy! Why was he talking to me?

"'Dakota,'" repeated Dwayne, lost in thought. Suddenly, he looked at me curiously. "Interesting..." he added.

Hmmm... Strange... People at school didn't usually talk to me – let alone talk nicely about my name. At least, compared to the usual bad jokes made from my name, his comment makes it nice.

I didn't notice I was staring at him until Mr. D spoke up.

"Settle down," he told us.

I immediately turned my eyes on him, ignoring Dwayne's nice smile that was plastered on his face.

When the class was finally quiet, Mr. D continued, "Now that I have paired you all up, you are to talk about your first day as a Senior high school student with your partner."

Dwayne raised his hand up. Mr. D's eyes looked around the room, and then rested on Dwayne. We were all watching at him.

"Yes, Mr. Richardson?" he asked, with a raised eyebrow – it was his way of making us fear him. Yeah, right. Like I was going to fear a teacher like him. Dwayne was expressionless though.

"I was just wondering, sir," he started, slightly frowning, "How are we supposed to talk about our first day as a 'Senior high school student' when the day has barely started?"

Mr. D looked like he expected the question all along, because he looked pleased.

"Good point," he said. "Well, then. Talk about what happened to your day so far. At the end of the day, write it on a piece of paper. It will serve as your assignment that is due tomorrow."

"Awe," the class groaned in unison. Most of the class glared at Dwayne. But it was only for a moment, because like me, they obviously thought that he was a soon-to-be popular guy.

"How's your day, Dakota?" he asked me innocently.

That was the one question that got me hyper with irritation at that moment. My day? My day? It was freaking awesome! Couldn't he tell by the look I was giving him?

I wanted to answer him with, "Oh my first day? It was freaking great. Everyone was so nice and friendly. They were kind enough to form their own cliques and isolate those who don't belong to their kind. But I'm fine with it. No big deal."

Unfortunately, I couldn't tell him that. That was just way too rude. Suddenly, I caught sight of Alyson, looking at me meaningfully. She was also eyeing Dwayne.

Yes, I get what she was trying to tell me.

Why are you doing nothing there? She was saying. He's talking to you, girl!

I scowled at her and turned my attention to Dwayne.

"Um, nothing new," I answered him, with a little bit of sheepish smile. Yes, I kind of smiled at him. But that was because he was kind enough to make a conversation with me. Even though I was still skeptical about it, he was nice as he did his part without being a jerk that I expected him to be.

"Wow," said Dwayne, mocking a surprise. "Sounds striking."

I stared at him. Was he trying to be funny? I didn't get it.

Then, he finally said, "Just kidding."

Oh. So it was a joke.

"Anyway, school's just started," Dwayne continued, shrugging. "New things happen unexpectedly. We can't do anything but be surprised – and of course, just let things fall where they may."

I laughed. "I bet," was all I can reply to him, but I was saying it more to myself.

Since then, I looked at Dwayne a bit differently than before. I could obviously hear some knowledge coming out from his mouth. However, that still didn't prove that he wasn't like the others. And by "others", I mean – you know who I mean.

I glimpsed at him from the corner of my eye. He didn't look all that bad up close. He had gray eyes – from afar it looked black. He even had an elegant posture, despite his muscular body.

I turned back my eyes to the blank piece of paper that was on my desk. I didn't know how, but as I was thinking about how nice and good-looking Dwayne looked, Aaron's face popped in my mind. Everything I loved about him. His bluish-green eyes, his playful smile, his dark hair that seemed so soft and cool in that sort of tousled style, his attitude towards kids, and his passion for basketball... I can go on and on.

Thankfully, the bell rang. Just like that, I was back to reality.

This morning just seemed so surreal. One minute, things were normal. I was the nerd whom no one talks to – with the exception of Aaron and Alyson, of course. Next thing I knew, a handsome guy was talking to me.

That was why I wasn't paying the least bit of attention in Calculus class. My mind was drifting off to Dwayne and to the reason as to why he talked to me. Because if he didn't want to be my partner in Creative Writing class, he could surely make up an excuse and get away with it.

If you were me, can you pay attention in class? No. I didn't think so.

Oh. Now I get it. Dwayne was being sarcastic earlier. Huh. It was totally weird when somebody else does it besides me.