[Copyright © 2013 The Daredevil]

All rights reserved.

***

Ryder's POV

I stared out the window at the falling snow as I tapped my pen on my desk. I hated winter. Who doesn't? Oh you don't? Then fuck you, you fucking Eskimo. How can anyone like having their ass feel like a freaking Popsicle? Or walking on that slippery glass that always makes you slip and slide all the way to ass hell?

December had just began and I was already cursing the stupid month to hell and back. December was always a hard month for me. Not only was it the month that brought this hell with it, but it was also the month I lost a huge part of me. December was a bitter month.

I was sitting in my psychology class, bored out of my mind. This was one of the worst classes in this school. Don't get me wrong, I didn't necessarily hate the subject, I just hated the teacher. The guy was boring as fuck. He was a fucking pompous ass who thought he was better than others. I looked up to stare at his bald head and the way the light reflected off of it. It was like a freaking mirror, it was that shiny. I bet I could see my reflection in it.

I glanced around the room and my eyes came to a stop when they reached Casey. She was listening intently to what the teacher was saying, chewing on the end of her black pen. I watched as she shook the strands of her hair, that had escaped from her ponytail, out of her eyes.

I hated the fucking ponytail. In my opinion, she looked much better with her hair let down. How would I know that? She wore her hair down for the party last Friday night. Although, I could use it to pull on when I was fuc—whoa, down boy. I glared down at my crotch. It was going to be the death of me, it really was.

I glanced out the window again and snorted when I spotted a poor bastard trying to get to the door. He kept struggling against the wind, his scarf hitting him in the face repeatedly. I tried not to laugh. I hated Winter, but I usually got a good laugh when it came around. I burst out laughing, completely forgetting where I was, when he slipped and fell. My eyes widened when I remembered that I was sitting in a classroom. I slowly turned around to find every student in the room looking my way. I glared at them and they immediately looked away, except for Casey who softly snorted.

"Mr. Cavanaugh, would you mind telling me what you find so funny?" Mr. Baldwin asked with a glare. He didn't like me. I was fine with that; I didn't like him either.

"Sure," I told him. "See, Mr. Baldwin-"

"Balkwin," he corrected, his eyes darkening.

I shrugged. "Back to what I was saying...I was laughing because I'm so fucking bored, that I think I may have lost my mind. I didn't see or hear anything funny, I just suddenly felt the urge to laugh. See? Crazy." I brought my index finger up to the side of my head and made a circle, whistling softly. "It really is your fault actually, because if you weren't so fucking boring, I'd be completely fine right now. So thank you, Mr. Baldwin for driving me fucking insane."

"Mr. Balkwin. Balkwin!" he shouted, the vein in his neck jumping angrily.

"Whoa, calm down, Mr. Baldwin, don't get your pantyhose all in a twist now, we don't want the principal to have to call mother," I tsked him.

His eyes darkened menacingly as his hands coiled into fists. Here we go. "I quit! I am so sick of you, you little cunt." He grabbed his stuff and marched out the room.

Boom, there it is. And my record for getting teachers to quit has just went from six to seven. It really was too easy to piss these teachers off.

As the classroom erupted in cheers, I grabbed my stuff and walked out.

"That was a real asshole thing to do, you know." I heard Casey say as she caught up with me, her hair swinging back and forth behind her.

"You should be thanking me right now," I informed her, lifting my chin obnoxiously.

She rolled her eyes. "Ryder, these teachers work hard and get a small salary, you could try to be more respectful. After all, these are the people helping you form the path to your future."

"Have you ever skipped school?" I asked her, changing the subject. I was already bored with it.

"You really do have the attention-span of goldfish, don't you?" she asked with a heavy sigh and I smirked. "Or you just want me to stop talking."

I gave her a grin and she shook her head. "So have you?"

"Skipped school?" I nodded. "No."

"Figured so." She rolled her eyes. "Skip school with me."

"Fuck no," she answered giving me a look that made me know she couldn't believe I'd even suggested that.

"Come on, Casey, it'll be fun," I told her with a pout and she rolled her eyes.

"You do know that doesn't make you anymore attractive, right?" I gave her a confused look. "The pout?"

"No, it makes me adorable," I told her with a grin.

She stopped at a locker I assumed was hers. That assumption was confirmed when she turned the combination lock and pulled it open. "I really have no idea why I'm hanging out with you."

I grinned. I did. "Want me to tell you?"

She shook her head no. "No, not really."

"It's because you find me so irresistible," I told her anyways. "I'm like chocolate, sweetheart; once you've had a taste of me, I become an addiction."

She sighed with exasperation as she rolled her eyes and I tried not to laugh. "You really think you're God's gift to women, don't you?" she shook her head and my eyes were drawn to her ponytail as her hair swung back and forth with the motion. Before I knew what I was doing, my hand reached up and grasped it. She turned towards me and gave me a strange look. "What are you doing?"

"I'm testing your ponytail's sturdiness," I told her and she lifted an eyebrow in question. "I want to see if it will hold up when someone grabs onto it."

"Why?" she asked with an adorable expression on her face.

"Men like to grab onto stuff when they're banging someone," I replied and her eyes widened. "I'm trying to see if this god-awful ponytail you insist on wearing, is of any use."

"You should really seek some help for your sex obsession. It's staring to creep me out," she told me seriously and I rolled my eyes.

"Having a fantasy of grabbing onto a girl's ponytail and using it like a reign like she's a pony while we're doing the deed, does not qualify as either an obsession with sex or creepy," I informed her with a smirk.

"Did you just admit to having a fantasy about me?" she asked, smirking. Closing her locker's door, she turned to walk down the hallway and I followed. My next class was on the opposite way that we were going, but it wasn't like I was planning on attending.

"Yep."

"Seriously?" she asked, a little pink tainting her cheeks, her face full of surprise. Why was she surprised? She wasn't hot as hell, but she also wasn't fugly. And those legs? Those legs could make any functioning man, hard.

"Why are you surprised? It's not like I'm the only one," I told her and she snorted.

"I'm pretty sure you are," she argued.

"No I'm not," I replied and she shrugged. "So are you going to skip school with me or not?"

She stopped and turned to me. "Okay, here's the deal, Ryder: I will do anything you ask me to do—" I grinned suggestively. "Get your mind out of the gutter, you pervert. What I meant was, I'll do anything that you want me to do, in order to learn to be spontaneous—this of course, doesn't include anything sex-related. But the one thing that I won't do is mess up my perfect school record."

I sighed heavily. "You're already a straight-A student."

"Exactly, and I want to keep it that way. I won't skip school, Ryder. I'm working my ass off to get into an Ivy League school; I can't put that in jeopardy." She started to walk again.

"I guess I get that," I told her and she gave me a grateful smile.

"Thank you." I nodded. "This is me," she told me when we reached the science lab.

"Okay, I'll see you later. Have fun," I told her and she nodded. Giving her a smirk, I walked away and down the hallway towards the school's entrance. I didn't reach very far as I noticed Ashley Bennett walking down the hallway. I quickened my pace and grabbed her by the arm when I reached her. She jumped slightly at my contact before turning around. When she noticed it was me, she smiled shyly with a blush. Great, she was a shy one. I didn't really like sleeping with shy girls. They were usually just as shy in bed as they were out of it, and I liked a girl who knew what she wanted and wasn't afraid to ask. But for now, she would have to do.

"Hey, Ashley," I greeted her, with a crocked smile.

She blushed a deeper shade of red and I tried not to groan in disappointment. If she blushed with a simple 'hey,' I couldn't imagine how awkward and shy she would be in bed. "Hey, R-Ryder."

"What class are you heading to?" I asked, my eyes lowering to her chest.

"Um, b-biology," I heard her stutter, but my focus was completely on her chest as it slowly rose and fell with each breath she took.

"Mm, I could teach you a few things about the human body that Mr. Brooks can't teach you," I told her, lifting my eyes to watch her reaction. When she sucked in a breath and bit down on her bottom lip, I smirked in satisfaction.

"I do love biology," she breathed.

"Once I'm done with you, you'll wanna fuck biology." Yes, I do realize that made absolutely no sense, but I had a pretty good feeling she wouldn't even catch on.

She giggled. "Okay." Told ya.

I grinned and turned around to walk down the hallway. I heard the 'click clack' of her heels as she followed behind me.

Just too easy.

***

I walked down the empty school hallways while pulling on my jacket. I'd already missed most of my classes that were before lunch. I just had one more that was halfway done by the time Ashley and I were finished. Ashley, as it turned out, wasn't as shy as I initially thought she would be. On the contrary. She was a fucking beast. If I didn't have a rule about sleeping with a girl twice, she would have definitely found herself in that janitor's closet more than once a day.

I rounded the corner to the cafeteria's door just as the bell marking the end of the last period before lunch, rang. Student's started to pile out of the classrooms as I made my way to the doors.

"Hey, dude, wait up." I heard Oliver's voice shout over the noisy crowd. I slowed down and turned around to wait for him.

"Hey," I greeted him once he'd reached me, he nodded and we resumed our walk to the cafeteria.

"So what happened to you? You disappeared after Psychology," he stated as we reached the doors and pulled them open.

I shrugged. "I got distracted."

He grinned. "With who?"

"None of your business," I answered with a scowl. Oliver knew how much I hated people getting in my business. He rolled his eyes as we got in line to get our food.

"So party at your house this Friday?" he asked.

I paused for a minute, my mind debating if I should throw a party this Friday, like I usually did. I didn't really feel like partying, but it was a Friday, and I never liked spending Fridays sober. "Yeah, whatever," I replied, my mind made up.

He grinned. "Alright!"

"You haven't been laid since last week have you?" I asked, trying not to laugh. Oliver usually met the girls he slept with at my parties. He was too shy to approach a girl without a little liquid confidence. So he never really approached a girl out of parties or if he didn't have any booze in him.

He shook his head with a grimace. "Dude, I feel like I'm literally withering away."

I shook my head. "You are such a drama queen."

"I swear to you." He gave me a pitiful look and I rolled my eyes.

We finally reached the front of the line and when we both had what we wanted we headed down to the table we usually sat at. It was the biggest table in the cafeteria and it sat right in the middle. The table was always full with hockey players and ice girls. Once we reached the table, I slumped down in my usual seat and dug into my food. My face cringed in disgust at the first taste. Yuk. I hated the stupid cafeteria's food. It was nasty but it was the only thing there was to eat.

Wait. Was it really?

My eyes traveled around the cafeteria searching for a brown ponytail with a blue ribbon holding it up. When I finally found the head I was looking for, I got up with a shit-eating grin.

"Where are you going?" Natasha, one of the cheerleaders, asked, looking up at me from her seat at the table. I ignored her and headed to Casey's table. She was sitting at the far end of the cafeteria in a hidden corner, with Nissa across from her.

"Hey," I greeted once I reached the table. I sat down next to her and turned to her with a grin.

"Uh, hey." She gave me a confused look.

"Hey, Ryder," Nissa said and I gave her a smile in greeting.

"What can I help you with?" Casey asked, her voice laced with uncertainty as she quickly glanced around the cafeteria. It really bugged me that people were bothering her about what supposedly happened. It had never happened to the other girls I'd actually slept with.

"Nothing really," I answered with a sheepish grin. "I was just settling in to eat the god-awful cafeteria food, when it hit me—you are not eating cafeteria food, are you?"

Her eyes widened as she subtly grabbed the food on the table, in front of her, and slid it out of my line of vision, keeping her eyes on me the entire time.

I tried no to laugh. Oh, Casey, when would she learn?

I leaned in towards her, making sure to get into her personal space. She backed away from me and I just followed. Her eyes widened, concern filling them.

I leaned in and whispered, "Come on, sweetheart, you're not going to deny a starving man, food, are you?"

She swallowed hard.

I brushed a strand of her hair out her face and her eyes flitted around the cafeteria to see if anyone was watching. "So, are you going to let me starve, Casey?"

I watched her eyes glint mischievously and I drew back a little, confused.

She smirked. "It's so cute that you think I'll fall for that." She tapped my cheek lightly and I drew back in shock. Had she just—No, there was no way. But she had...

"Such an amateur," Nissa mumbled to herself, shaking her head and I turned to her.

"Like you could do any better?" I challenged.

"Oh, she can," Casey answered for her and I scowled.

"Alright, let's see it," I told Nissa and she smirked.

She turned to Casey, her eyes tearing up. The fuck? She could get tears in her eyes on command? "Casey, my stomach is so sensitive, you know that. I can't eat the food in this cafeteria, it'll make me sick. You don't want me to get sick, do you?"

"And that is how you do it," Casey told me with a smirk and I glared. She handed Nissa a foil-covered burrito and my stomach growled.

I turned to her with sad eyes and she glanced at me through her peripheral vision. She grabbed one of her burritos and went to bite into it when I sighed. She glanced at me again and this time, I put my sad eyes in full gear. She quickly looked away and glanced down at her burrito. I sighed harder this time and watched as she slowly started to crumble.

One more sigh and she caves in, three...two...

"Oh for fucks sake, just have it." She shoved the burrito my way and I grinned triumphantly.

"Nice," Nissa commended and I saluted her in return.

"You guys are assholes," Casey grumbled beside me, Nissa and I both just shrugged, happily chewing on our food. She scowled at both of us, suddenly sitting up. "Oh hey, look, it's Seth." Nissa immediately sat up and looked around. "Seth! Over here!" Casey called out, waving both of her hands in the air. Seth turned around and headed our way. When he reached us he looked around the table with a smile, until his eyes landed on me.

I smirked. "What's the matter, Seth?"

He looked around nervously. "Uh, nothing."

Casey turned towards me curiously and I shrugged. I really didn't have a clue why the kid was so nervous. "You okay?" Casey asked next to me with genuine concern.

Seth nodded as he cautiously sat next to Nissa and across from me. "You're looking a little pale," Nissa spoke up.

"Dude, if you're gonna hack, please do it away from the table. If you hack anywhere my food, I will pull your eyebrows off and glue them over your nipples," I threatened him and he scowled, immediately regretting that decision when I raised an eyebrow.

"Ryder, leave him alone," Nissa defended him and Casey and I both turned to her in surprise. She shrugged with a blush and I smirked. She so wanted to screw his very-weird-brain out.

"Yo, Ryder!" I heard Oliver's voice boom over the noisy cafeteria and I turned in his direction. "Get over here, dude, you gotta hear this."

"I'll see you guys later," I told them as I got up and headed back to my usual table. "What's up?" I asked Oliver as I sat back down in my abandoned seat.

"Rita, here, was just telling us this little story about the guy she banged at your party on Friday," he informed me before to turning to Rita, "Go on, Rita."

I turned to Rita as she began to speak, "Okay, so I'm completely wasted, right, and I stumble into this room. There is this guy, just laying on the bed," I start to tune her out, bored with what she was saying already, when something caught my attention,"we start to talk and he starts to tell me that he just broke up with his girlfriend. One thing led to another and we ended up having sex—if you can even call it that. Three minutes later, he was done and literally crying on my shoulder. Let's just say—he was my worst lay so far—I mean, it's like he had no idea what to do with his dick."

"Rita, do you know who it was?" I asked her. I had a feeling I knew who it was, but I needed confirmation. The fucking dickhead.

"Nope and I really don't want to know; he didn't even get me off," she told me, rolling her eyes and flipping her hair over her shoulder.

"She doesn't want to know, but we do," Oliver turned to me with an evil grin, "so we're going to find out."

I had a pretty good idea who it was and I had to hand it to him, he was an even bigger asshole than I was.

***