I've spent most of today trying to ignore Levi as much as I can. It hasn't been that difficult considering I only have two subjects with him, Maths and Geography. Only having Maths today, today's been both of a relief and still a bit of a problem.

It's the last lesson of the day and one I have with Ryan, Imogen and Oliver. All of them have noticed I haven't exactly been myself today.

"Are you alright behind there?"

Ryan gives me a quizzical look as I peer up at him from being my stack of textbooks. I try to give a nonchalant smile.

"What? Yeah, of course." My voice is way too high. I glance across the classroom. Our table is right at the back and, thankfully, far away from Levi's.

"Yeah, you've been really weird, even stranger than usual." She eyes me up, looking way too suspicious for my liking.

"Weird?" I ask, leaning forward with my hand in my chin in an attempt to look innocent. My palm's so clammy my chin actually slips and I nearly hit my head on the textbooks.

Imogen gives me a look. "Yeah."

I shrug, wiping off my hands. "I've been perfectly normal," I say, "Why wouldn't I be? Everything's fine, you stop being so weird."

I then catch sight of Natalie Sumpter. She isn't hard to miss, since she's completely swivelled around in her chair and glaring so furiously at Oliver that he'd be six-feet-under and compost if looks could kill. Her face is flushed a blotchy pink and her hand is furiously twisting her hair.

"What's up with her?" I turn and ask the others.

Oliver shifts uneasily in his seat, dragging a hand through his messy ginger hair. Imogen's eyebrows shoot immediately upwards.

"What've you done?" she asks.

Oliver attempts to look innocent, which is his equivalent of putting up a neon sign announcing, 'GUILTY! GUILTY! GUILTY!' in flashing lights.

He gives an embarrassed laugh. "Well, this is... Haha, well, I might have..."

"Might've what?" I ask, several guesses already springing to mind. He goes a faint shade of pink before giving a sheepish smile.

"I might've, er... accidently forgotten to tell Natalie that I'd broken up with her when, uh, she discovered me in bed with... someone."

We all groan.

"How did she discover you in bed?" Imogen splutters, looking appalled.

"Well that someone might have been her... sister," Oliver says before immediately throwing up his arms to defend himself against Imogen promptly smacking him.

I shake my head, actually speechless this time.

"You dickhead!" she exclaims.

I raise my eyebrows at the hand Ryan's just raised to slap against Oliver's, which he quickly lowers.

Oliver starts defending himself, claiming Natalie has since been stalking him and was threatening to 'get his balls'. Imogen offers to help bury them.

After knowing the idiot for eleven years, I'm not even surprised. I'd met Oliver in Year One, making him my oldest and best friend.

We were six years old and my family had just moved here to the little town of Wickworth from London. When he first saw me introduced to the rest of the class, he started grinning like crazy, looking deliriously happy. That's the first thing I remember about him, his smile. It's wide, bright and one of the best things about him.

He was excited about how I was a fellow ginger.

"Your hair's red!" six-year-old Oliver had yelled excitedly during break time. "Mine's orange, kind of like yours!" Six-year-old me just blinked in response before being pulled in the direction of the playground.

And by the logic of having similar fiery hair and a following adventure at the sandpit involving an armless plastic dinosaur and Barbie, Oliver and I became inseparable.

Over a decade later nothing's changed, apart from puberty. Which has seen Oliver become one of the most popular in our year. His wild charm and sense of humour has turned him into that guy that girls crush on, guys have funny anecdotes about and someone who can always be counted on for a good time.

Imogen's about to hit Oliver again when our Maths teacher Mrs Billard sweeps into the classroom. She slaps her large scarlet crocodile-skin onto the desk as a way to shut us all up which is completely pointless since her mere presence does that for her.

"Sit up!" she barks at Reece Jackson who's got his head lolling on is desk. Needless to say, Reece jumps up in his seat.

Then it begins. The first part of the lesson is always spent with a lot of hysterical ranting from our teacher who demands that we need to listen. We are, not to actual relevant stuff but instead a fifteen-minute lecture on how the time has come to stop behaving like 'infantile knobheads'.

Bored, I slump in my seat, letting my eyes travel the classroom. Involuntarily, they fall upon Levi. I freeze when I find he's already looking at me. This is the first time I've seen him since- I push the event out of my mind.

I haven't thought about what I'd do when I see him again. To be fair I've tried to think of him as little as possible yesterday night but because of that, now I have no idea how to react.

My stomach knots when he doesn't look away, instead he stares at me with a look that has my cheeks dusting a faint pink. Levi does what I expect him to do least. He smiles.

It's not mean, nor is it friendly. The best word to describe it would be curious. And it would have been, had it not been for how it was a little bit smug.

All I know is that me noticing the fact Levi smiling means I notice his lips, and when I notice his lips then... things get a little cloudy.

I look away, ignoring the fact my breath's just hitched. I curse myself at looking at him in the first place but to be honest, I'm not surprised that I have. He bloody stands out everywhere.

Firstly, there's the gaggle of people always surrounding him, like adoring puppies running after their owner. Then there's the fact that Levi's always in the newest gossip, whether it's about him getting the highest result in some test he didn't try in or his stupid relationship.

Even his name stands out. Levi. It sounds different here, compared to the Jacks and Harrys of England. He'd lived in America but moved here with his mother a year after me, when he was seven. Our small English town must have been a big change from the vast, glittering city that is New York.

We'd gone to the same primary school and I can still just about muster up an image of a frightened, shy young boy who'd not wanted to speak because of his different accent. Oh, how things have changed.

Ten years later, Levi's accent is gone and all traces of American dialect have vanished apart from the occasional 'faucet' or 'cell phone' that he probably still uses at home. And now it doesn't result in any teasing like it had done in primary school, girls now find it cute.

"Ruby Parkes, are you paying attention?" Mrs Billard's voice yanks me out my stupor.

I sit up frantically. "Yes," I reply, not daring to say no. She doesn't look like she believes me.

"So what did we just discuss?" she asks, her eagle-eyes fixed on me. I swallow, really having no idea. Mrs Billard's eyes narrow so much I'm not sure she can even see. I'm dead. I'm so dead.

Imogen leans in a little, pretending to write something on her page, she turns and murmurs, "Co-ordinate geometry." I give her a quick look of thanks.

I clear my throat. "Er, co-ordinate geometry?"

I smile at the look of dissatisfaction on Mrs Billard's face since she doesn't get to yell at my answer. I smile too soon.

"Well as you're such a good listener I want you to go to Mr Cheng's classroom and get those test papers we did last week off him," she orders in a clipped voice.

"Er, I'm not sure where Mr Cheng's classroom is," I say, trying to sound disappointed. I'm kind of telling the truth but really I can't be bothered to get out my chair and walk to the other side of the school. Mr Cheng's both a Chemistry and a Maths teacher and the Science block's way too far from here.

"I'll take her," Levi suddenly says. My stomach twists. What the heck is he doing? Max Murphy, his best friend, looks surprised but that's nothing compared to the expression one of Elle's friends is wearing, namely shock.

Mrs Billard looks disapproving. My heart lifts just a little. She looks towards her desk, taps her crimson fingernails on her chin in thought before nodding. Ugh.

"Alright," she finally says, "but seeing as the two of you are going, also ask him to give some of those new edition textbooks you can carry here together, he'll know what I'm talking about."

Reluctantly, I push myself up and out of my chair as slowly as I can, my stomach tightening as I watch Levi do the same. Imogen looks after me curiously as I walk toward the door. Great, this'll have her turn all Detective Grace on me. Bloody fantastic.

We head out silently. Well, that is until we're halfway down the corridor where I turn on my heel and look at Levi accusingly.

"Why aren't you leaving me alone?" I demand.

Levi rolls his eyes. "Don't be so paranoid."

I scoff. "Then what are you doing? You didn't need to volunteer to come here with me." I don't understand how this prick doesn't realise every unnecessary moment we spend together is a mistake. "We shouldn't even be here-"

"I need to talk to you," Levi says, his cool demeanour shutting me up.

I shake my head. "What?"

"The... deal yesterday. It's still on right?" Levi's eyes give nothing away. The way he's talking about it we may as well have arranged to give each other a lift to the cinema or something.

"I don't think it even deserves to be called a deal," I say coldly. "Last night, while you probably went off to your demon girlfriend, I actually felt bad and thought about what we'd done."

Levi doesn't look too impressed at the insult towards Elle. "And what did you think?"

"I don't care what excuse you have, both our relationships will be ruined if one of us gives something away and shares the picture. Then what's the point?" I ask, my heart thudding. The whole plan is bloody flawed.

Levi just shrugs which infuriates me. "Not everybody needs to know about it, besides, it raises the stakes. If both our relationships are ruined, then we have to keep quiet."

"Then what if someone finds the picture?" I exclaim.

"Save it in a safe place." He shrugs again. His calm composure really has me wanting to yell in frustration.

"But what if someone does? Then secret or no secret, my relationship with Ryan is ruined anyway because of you- you egotistical dick!" I cry, stabbing a finger in his direction aggressively.

Levi looks back at me flatly. I don't like the hint of amusement in his eyes, as if all this is one big joke to him.

"Why are you in such a good mood about all this anyway? You're actually smiling at me- yesterday you looked ready to kill someone," I say, recalling just furious he had been.

Levi shrugs, hardly looking more serious. "Like I said, I never get angry- despite what my file says. You, however, have a really short temper," he says with a slight grin.

"Oh, like you know anything about me," I sneer, folding my arms.

"Ah," Levi says, abruptly flicking my nose. I stumble backwards in surprise. "But I do."

At this my face falls. He's completely right. This only has me feeling angrier. "You know what? You can just eff off!"

"There's that scowl again," Levi notes, a smile edging on the corners of his lips. "you're always so angry... it suits your hair."

"And your Satan-like qualities suit hell." I snap, turning away so I don't have to look at that stupid smirk.

"It's all red... like a ladybug," Levi muses, turning too before continuing to walk down the corridor. I hurry to keep up, the idea of trailing behind him like a member of his fan club is not appealing.

"It's ladybird," I correct, knowing I sound childish. But, come on, how can I pass a chance to correct this pompous arse?

"Whatever." Levi shrugs. "Come on, Bug." He then picks up his pace, leaving me half-jogging to keep up. I grimace at the name and bite my tongue not to shout a profanity in return.

As we walk wordlessly down the corridor, my mind wanders back to the idea of someone finding the picture. What I really hate to admit is that it isn't my biggest concern.

I swallow, staring at Levi from the corner of my eyes.

What I'm really worried about is how much I can't stop thinking of that stupid kiss.