Our science teacher crazy Ms. Meyer was the only teacher in the entire school that still required assigned seats and walking in she was just placing the last of little white folded pieces of paper with our names on them on the desks.

          It was a typical science room with large black tables and two seats per table. For the last three years I had always sat at the same table with the same person, Eugene; I couldn’t complain because he was one of those genius kids, so anytime we had partner projects, which happened a lot in science, I was always guaranteed an A. I was slightly disappointed when I walked in and seen him in the first seat of one of the tables; Ms. Meyer always put us in alphabetical order and his name was always right after mine on the list; if he was in the first seat of a table that would put me in the second seat of the table next to his, damn, there goes my grade this year.

          I made my way to the back and was surprised to find a name I didn’t know on the card where I thought I would be sitting, C. Stevenson, who the hell is C. Stevenson? Looking over at the other card on the table labeled H. Stevens I took my seat; great not only did I lose my genius science partner now I was going to get stuck with a new kid; I could only hope that they had already made friends and wouldn’t try to latch onto me for the rest of the year.

          I opened up the science book that was sitting on the desk and neatly wrote my name in the provided spot on the back of the front cover, adding a smiley face at the end just for good measure; I was about to close the book when someone slammed down a folder on the table next to me effectively causing me to almost fall out of my chair. Looking over I was about to scowled them for their rude behavior when my words got caught in my throat; I turned my head back towards the front of the class before dropping it down to my folded arms on the desk, I had to resist the urge to bang my forehead against my books a few times; maybe I really was going insane.

“Hello class as most of you know my name is Ms. Meyer and I will be your teacher for this period. I see that you have all found your seats and those will remain your seats for the rest of the year. Please feel free to take a few moments to get to know your partner as you will be working closely with them throughout the year.” The teacher went to take a seat behind her desk as we ‘got to know’ our new partners; my head was still folded in my arms on the desk, if there was any time that the floor could just open up and swallow me whole, now would be a good time to do it.

“Colt.” The heavenly voice spoke next to me; I finally raised my head from my arms and looked over at him.

“Haley.” I said with a small smile and held out my hand.

“Oh yeah you’re the girl that was fucking Nick this summer, right?” He asked ignoring my outstretched hand.

          I’m pretty sure that my jaw hit the floor and I pulled my hand back no longer willing to shake his even if he changed his mind and wanted to shake mine. What the hell? Seriously, who greets someone like that? I don’t care how freaking hot this guy was, the fact that he looked like a Greek god that was just dropped from the heavens no longer seemed to matter to me; he was a jerk, a downright asshole!

“First of all I wasn’t fucking Nick, and second of all even if I was it would be none of your business.” I said turning back around in my seat; great I could see how well this class was going to go this year.

“Maybe if you were fucking him then he wouldn’t have screwed that other chick.” He replied; again my jaw hit the floor. Was this guy serious right now, who the hell did he think he was? How did he even know about that?

“So just because I wasn’t giving it up that automatically gives him the right to go get it somewhere else?” I raised my eyebrows and cocked my head to the side as I spoke; this guy was really getting under my skin. Normally I would have just ignored him and moved on like nothing ever happened but something about him just really irked me and I couldn’t hold my tongue.

“Well yeah, a guy has his needs and if his girl isn’t fulfilling those needs what do you expect him to do? Maybe if you weren’t such a tease he would have held out a little longer.” He didn’t even look over at me when he spoke and the grin that I had once found sexy but was quickly finding repulsive was still plastered across his face.

“Look I don’t know who the hell you think you are but you know nothing about me. I made it perfectly clear to Nick when we got together that I wasn’t going to be sleeping with him unless I knew that I was in love with him, and clearly that didn’t happen. So if you don’t mind I would prefer it if you just shut the fuck up, stay out of my personal business and don’t speak to me again unless it has to do with an assignment.” I was seeing red at this point and was honestly proud of myself at keeping as calm as I did; the things that were running through my mind that I wanted to say to him were more suited for a pirate’s ship than a classroom.

          I glanced over to see him staring at me, that stupid grin never leaving his face; he was about to open his mouth to say something when the teacher spoke up again and gave us our first assignment, never in my life had I been happier to have school work to do. If it wasn’t for the distraction and one more word would have came out of his mouth I was sure that I would have blown up; my words wouldn’t have been hushed like the previous conversation either and I knew I would have been destined for detention, suspension even, hell at that point I wouldn’t have put expulsion out of the equation. 

          The rest of the class went by in complete silence, well at our table at least; I was up and out of my seat the second the bell went off and didn’t look back as I rushed my way out of the classroom. The next class seemed to drag by as by that time I had a pounding headache and just couldn’t wait for the school day to be over. I made my way to my locker to grab my bag after my last class and couldn’t help but frown when I took in its state; my once perfectly lines pens and pencils were now a scattered mess, my folders and books had no type of order and even the pictures I had hanging on the door were all at weird angles, no doubt from the way I was repeatedly slamming it throughout the day. At the moment I didn’t even have the drive to fix it, as much as it bothered me to have anything out of order the only thing I wanted at the moment was to get the fuck out of this school.

          I pushed my way through the halls earning myself quite a few glares and yells on the way; I could care less at this point who I had to shove out of my way, I just wanted out of here. The warm outside air calmed me down slightly as soon as I walked out the doors and the sight of my car shining in the sunlight in the packing lot brought a smile to my face; it didn’t matter how mad I was, just the sight of my baby always made me smile. I practically ran through the lot until I got to my car, lightly trailing my fingers across the flawless charcoal colored paint; getting in and starting it up the roar of the engine just widened my smile and I resisted the urge to actually hug the steering wheel.

          My parents were basically non-existent in my life, they worked long hours and were always off on business trips; I basically raised myself since I was twelve, but the one thing that they did do for me that I will never forget is buy me this car. Although we lived in a typical two story average looking house my parents were actually loaded; I guess the fact that they really never spent much time at home they didn’t see a reason to waste money on a big fancy house. For my sixteenth birthday they told me that I could get whatever car I wanted and while most kids would have went for a Porsche, Lambo or Ferrari, I went on a mission to find my dream car.

          I spent a good three months searching the internet before I came across it, the most beautiful thing I had ever seen; I knew the moment I laid eyes on her that she would be my mine, my baby, and I would love her with everything I had. The ad read, 1970 Chevy Camaro Z-28 with a 350 LT-1 motor and Rally Sport package; I specifically remember having to wipe the drool off my chin as I read it. She’s got 360 horsepower and 380 foot pounds of torque and when I put my foot to floor she never fails at pinning me back in the seat; the split bumper in the front with the pushed out nose and perfect deep charcoal paint job just add to her overall beauty, its safe to say that I am truly in love with my car.

          I pulled up in my empty driveway and just sat in my car for a good ten minutes listening to some Credence Clearwater Revival; it was basically a sin not to listen to old school music in a car like this. Getting out of the car I walked into the house and went to find my laptop, there was only one person that I wanted to talk to and that was Mandy; if she hadn’t moved overseas I would have already been texting her but I could only imagine the bitch fit my mother would throw if she got the phone bill and it was flooded with international message charges. I flipped on the laptop and strummed my fingers on the side of the keyboard while I waited for it to load; once connected to the Wi-Fi I pulled up my email account and started to write Mandy about my wonderful day at school, note the sarcasm.

To: Mandy Winters

From: Haley Stevens

          OMG! You’re not going to believe how my day went today, never in my life had I needed my best friend more than I did today! Damn you for moving away!!!! Let me start by saying we got a new guy at school, a really hot guy at that; so hot actually that he caught me checking him out in the courtyard. Yes, I got caught checking him out, you did read that correctly! I know, it’s a first, and you missed it!!! So anyways said new guy turned out to be in my science class, also turned out to be my partner for the year; settle down Mandy, I can see you wiggling in your seat from here! Anyways turns out that this new guy is a complete jerk and doesn’t know how to mind his own business so I went from being a ‘I think I’m in love’ stupid teenage girl, to a ‘I’m going to rip your face off’ raging bitch within minutes of talking to him. Not only that but Nick still doesn’t seem to get the point that we are over, done with, never going to be together again, I would rather lick the cement than have to spend another minute of my time with him; well you get the point, but he sure as hell doesn’t seem to. Oh and last but not least I think that I have went completely insane as I now have an imaginary Mandy, yes it’s you but in an imaginary state; by the way your not as helpful that way as you are in person. You should see my locker it looks like a tornado went through it, I should have taken a picture to send to you just so you would be able to see how fucked up my life has gotten since you left! Anyways I will stop my bitching now, I just really needed to get it out and seeing as how my bestie is half way across the world and this email is the only form of communication I have with her, it all had to be summed up in this not so short rant. So how do you like it in Europe? Meet any hot guys yet? How is school, or did you even start yet? Message me back ASAP, I miss the living shit out of you!!!!!!!  Love always, Hal.

          Once the email was sent I just sat there staring at the screen waiting for a response; what was the time difference between here and Europe, I wonder if she’s even awake. Knowing that staring at my email wouldn’t make her respond any faster I decided looking up the time difference would be a good way to keep me busy; after only about two minutes of searching it appears that they are about 7 hours ahead of us. Thinking maybe she was already in bed I got up and made myself a bowl of ramen noodles, my go to snack when I didn’t feel like really cooking; I was half way through the bowl when the computer beeped. I tossed the half eaten noodles on the table and grabbed the laptop to read the message.

To; Haley Stevens

From: Mandy Winters

          Holy hell!!! What has your life came to since I left? I can’t believe I missed a ‘first’ for you; I have been there for all of them, agh that makes me so mad!! God I wish I was there to see you get caught, you know I would have given you hell about it. Sooooo this new guy, he’s hot, huh? Hot enough to just look past the bad attitude? I’m telling you girl the bad boys are the way to go, so much better in bed!!! Nick is such a douche; I don’t know why you ever dated that guy in the first place. I’m sure he will get the point; he probably just couldn’t resist your good looks and wanted to at least give it one more shot. Hell if I dated you I wouldn’t want to let you go either; not that I’m gay, but you know if I was you would be my main squeeze. I can’t believe that you got stuck with that guy in science class though, how are you ever going to pass without Eugene????? You have replaced me with an imaginary version of myself, I don’t know if I should be worried or jealous!! Haha…  Anyways Europe is fine, a lot different than the US but I guess that’s expected; the hardest part so far is the language barrier. What do you mean met any hot guys, Europe is full of them, they are around every corner; I may have no idea what any of them are saying to me but does it really matter, no!!!! Agh the US was really lacking on the hot guy scale, I never noticed until I moved here. School starts next week and I’m dreading being the newbie; at least my parents found a school that teaches in English or I would be completely lost. Anyways I better get to bed, but I hope tomorrow goes better for you than today; remember the first day is always the worst, so it can only get better from here. I miss you like crazy and can’t wait till the end of year so that I can come visit!! Love always, Mands

          Just reading her message put a smile on my face but at the same time just made me miss her that much more; I was glad that she seemed to be happy in Europe but couldn’t help but be sad at the same time that she wasn’t here with me. I drummed my hands on the keyboard again thinking about what I could write back but came up blank; it was crazy because I knew that if she was here with me we would be able to talk for hours without running out of things to say, talking to her over the computer just didn’t seem to be the same. After multiple failed attempts at coming up with something to write I shut down the computer and started cleaning the house; it was already perfectly spotless but I tended to have a slight OCD with making sure that everything was perfectly straight, like the remotes on the table, or making sure that all the labels on the pop cans in the fridge were facing forward, horrible habit, I hope one day I can break that.