I've been curious how Carter would handle a typical Teen Fiction novel situation...😂🤣 this is what I got.

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Carter sat back in her chair watching the stream of seniors enter the math class. One of the only two sophomores in the class, Carter warranted even less notice than usual. This didn't bother her, it was better than when anyone did pay her attention. Those times it didn't end well on either side.

A senior entered the room that Carter had never seen in that class before. He had perfectly tousled hair, sharp cheekbones, and dark green eyes. From the tailored lines of his uniform, she could tell he took care of himself. There was something about him that made Carter cautious. It was more than he knew he was good-looking, it was that he seemed the type to enjoy breaking hearts.

Before her mother had left, Carter used to read Teen Fiction books. But after they seemed shallow to the pain she faced and hated the cheap happy endings. Looking at this new classmate, Carter felt there was only one tag to attach to him: cliché bad boy.

As if to prove this, he strolled down the aisle towards the empty seat next to Mason, a slight swagger in his step.

"Mason," the guy said.

Mason raised his head from his phone and nodded to the newcomer. "Jamison. What are you doing in this class?"

"My schedule got rearranged so I got bumped to here." Jamison's eyes trailed away from Mason to Carter. A slow crooked smile overtook his face. "Hi. I don't think we've met, if we had I'm pretty sure I'd remember."

Carter stared back at the guy, baffled. She knew that her uniform from last year fit differently due to more development, but she seriously didn't think she merited his notice.

"Oh, this is Carter Owens," Mason said like she was no one of consequence.

"I'm Jamison," Jamison said, still wearing his crooked smile.

Carter wondered if as a sophomore she should be flattered by his attention but she wasn't. Though she could admit his smile was disarming, she wasn't drawn to it. This guy was not her type. She didn't care for cocky.

"Okay," she said.

The unfazed remark made Jamison's smile quirk with surprise and curiosity. Before he could say more, the final bell rang and class began. Carter put Jamison out of her mind as she took notes. When class was released, she shouldered her messenger bag and joined the tide in the hallway.

A second later, Jamison caught up to her.

"Where are you running off to?" he asked.

"What aspect of my casual stride would you equate to 'running off'?"

Again a flash of curiosity darted through Jamison's expression.

"Figure of speech. Where are you headed, I can walk you there?"

"You know, as feeble as I am as a girl I think I can manage to make it from point A to B without a male escort."

Jamison laughed a warm teasing sound that attracted surrounding gazes, including a few girls who threw Carter baffled looks. Yeah, she didn't understand why he was walking with her either.

"You're cute," Jamison said.

"Okay."

Why was he still following her?

As Carter cut away from the mass of students and towards the doorway of her A.P. Euro class, Jamison blocked her path, putting one hand on the doorframe.

"Look," he said, his green eyes locking with hers. "What do I have to do to get your number?"

"Nothing."

Jamison smiled, pleased.

"Because I'm not giving it to you. I'm not interested in whatever you're offering."

Ducking under his arm, Carter slipped into her classroom. As she took her seat, Jamison stuck his head inside.

"You aren't getting off that quickly, Carter Owens," he said.

With a final flash of his crooked smile, he disappeared. A few girls around Carter stared at her, but she pretended to not notice, hoping that her lack of interest in Jamison would make them ignore her. And hopefully make him give up as well.

Carter had no such luck. As she sat in her living room, textbooks strewn about her, her phone buzzed. Captain sat at the dining table, on the phone as he inspected a file. Carter dug through the mess around her until she found her phone. The number was unknown.

Her heart jumped. Was it her mother? It had been less than a year since she'd left but maybe she just needed time and space. Maybe she'd missed Carter.

"Hello?" Carter answered, hating how much she wished to hear her mother's voice.

"Hey, beautiful."

Carter's heart deflated. For a second, she sat there trying to convince herself that it didn't matter.

"Hello?" the male voice on the other end said.

"Who is this?" Carter asked.

A light laugh. "You know you don't have to pretend."

Carter pulled the phone away from her ear and hung up. She didn't know what game was being played but she wanted no part of it.

"Who was that?" Her father asked his own phone call down.

She hated that she heard a note of hope in his voice as well. At least she wasn't alone in wishing one day it would be a call they both wanted.

"Wrong number," she said.

Her phone pinged.

Hanging up on a guy, that's cold.

How did you get my number?

I have my ways.

Stalking is unattractive, just so you know.

Haha it's not stalking if Mason willingly gave it.

Carter was going to kill Mason Douglas. She didn't even care if she went to jail for it, at least she'd rid the world of such an irritating person.

Are you mad at him now?

Don't be, I'm hard to say no to

You'll find that out soon enough

Are you ignoring me now?

You understand playing hard to get is pointless, I'm not hard to get

I'm right here, waiting and willing

Carter?

You there?

Carter continued to ignore the pings of her phone, focusing on homework. His attention span had to die off soon enough.

*****

The next day as Carter approached her locker, she slowed her steps. A circle of people had formed around it. Scowling, she elbowed her way through and stopped dead in her tracks. A red rose was taped to the outside of her locker with a note hanging from a ribbon around the stem.

Morning beautiful. - Jamison

Ignoring the rose, Carter got into her locker and dumped her notebooks inside. She closed the locker as a group of girls appeared beside her.

"That's sweet of him," one of the girls said. "But you understand he's out of your league, right?"

"Doesn't matter," Carter said. "Like I told him, I'm not interested."

"You don't have to play the denial card with us. Everyone girl has fallen for him at least once."

"Not denial," Carter said, ripping the rose off her locker.

As she strode off, the girl called out to her. "You aren't fooling anyone!"

Why would no one take her word? Shaking her head, Carter kept moving. When she spotted Mason, she stormed over to him. She snatched his phone out of his hand and shoved the rose into it.

"Someone left this for you," she said.

As Mason eyed the rose, confused, Carter got into his contacts and deleted her number. If they ever had to work together on a project again, they could find some other way to communicate. She gave him back his phone.

"Give my number out again and I'll break your face," she said.

"Owens, always so violent," Mason said, walking off. "Hey Tiffany, I have something for you."

Carter forced her annoyance at Jamison out of her head for the rest of the day. That was until she sank into her seat in math class. Flipping open her textbook, she started to work out the lesson for the day and then went to the homework. She'd barely started when Jamison put a hand on her paper, forcing Carter to look up.

"You gave away my rose?" he asked, with genuine hurt in his voice. He put his hand over his heart. "Are you trying to break my heart?"

"If in the span of half a day of you knowing me you've given me the power to break your heart, you're really not that smart. Also, it would show a tendency for being impulsive and flaky. Not great qualities."

Jamison crouched down so that he was at eye level with Carter. His green eyes seemed to sparkle as they took her in. Carter understood how attractive he was, she wasn't blind. But since telling him she wasn't interested all he'd done was push past her refusal and that took all attraction away from him.

"Give me a chance to show you my better qualities," he said.

Though his tone was sincere, Carter wasn't versed enough to know whether that sentence had a second meaning. Either way, it made her more wary of him.

"No," she said. "Go find someone else to bother. I said I wasn't interested and I meant it."

"How can I when you seem to be the only girl I want to bother?"

He sent her a teasing grin and Carter knew he expected her to melt. But his pushiness only hardened her to him. Why couldn't he understand her 'no'? Did he seriously think continuing to flirt with her when she turned him down would win her over?

The bell rang, saving Carter.

****

By the time Friday came around, Carter didn't understand how many more ways she could say 'no'. Clearly, the word wasn't in Jamison's vocabulary because he kept finding reasons to talk to Carter. Each time the eagerness in his expression grew. His smile almost never left his lips and there was an amused light in his eyes.

As Carter headed towards the school exit with the rest of the students, a girl bumped into Carter. She was one of the group that thought Carter was in denial. Carter didn't understand them at all.

"I have to say I'm impressed," the girl said. "Making Jamison wait this long before getting a date is gutsy of you, he might have moved on by now."

"I wish he would," Carter muttered.

"You should really just give in and admit you like him, he always gets his way eventually."

Carter hated that. How was that okay, at all? She didn't want him. She didn't want to date him. Yet the whole school somehow believed that she had no opinion on the matter. He was good-looking and came from a rich family that seemed to mean everyone would want to jump at the chance to date him. So his pestering, which he thought as flirting, was what? Supposed to simply be endearing? But it wasn't, it was getting on Carter's nerves.

Carter didn't respond to the girl, instead she pushed through the doors and into the cool fall sunlight. Finding a secluded spot, she waited. The parking lot emptied and the noise around Carter slowly vanished. Her father said he'd pick her up and they'd go see a movie. Carter didn't mind waiting, it gave her peace and quiet.

Unfortunately, it didn't give her peace and quiet for long. The front doors opened and Jamison strode out. He glanced around and when he spotted Carter, he grinned. Carter wanted to melt into the wall and never be seen again. This guy was intolerable. But at least Captain would be there soon and she could get away.

"Do you need a ride?" he asked, leaning his shoulder against the wall near her.

Too near for Carter's liking. She shifted away from him.

"I don't, so please leave."

"I can't."

He could, he didn't want to. Carter didn't look at him.

"Carter," he said, his voice low, earnest. "Look, I know that you think I'm some flirt who can't be serious about anyone. But the way you've knocked me down a notch this week...well I don't know, it's been refreshing. They say it takes the right person to make someone change."

He couldn't actually be serious about this? How stupid did he think she was? Very stupid, clearly, if he thought she actually bought all the crap he was spewing.

"Why in the world would you think that's me?" Carter asked. "You don't know me, at all. You've flirted and I've not responded."

"But you're unlike any girl I've known before," he said.

"How few girls have you known in your life then?"

Jamison simply laughed. A breeze kicked up and stray strands of Carter's hair blew into her face. Jamison reached out and caught hold of them, tucking them behind Carter's ear. A chill ran down Carter's spine. She gripped his wrist, pulling it away from her face.

"What made you think I'd be okay with you touching me?"

Jamison stared into Carter's eyes, his whole manner sober.

"Carter, you don't understand. I can't stop thinking about you."

She flung his wrist away from her. "I can see how that would be devastating to you since usually you only think about yourself."

In a blink, Jamison stood before Carter, both hands pressed against the wall beside her head, pinning her there. Carter's entire body reacted.

She went rigid even as adrenaline spiked through her. Jamison was a head taller than her and a whole sixty pounds heavier. Carter was shockingly aware of the emptiness around them, no other students, teachers locked away in their classroom with headphones on. They were completely alone.

"Can't you see the connection between us?" he asked.

All Carter felt between them was a lack of space. Jamison glanced down at her lips and another shot of adrenaline surged through Carter. She knew how to defend herself, but would his strength counteract everything she knew?

As he leaned in, Carter thought of all the other girls who could have been in this exact position. Did they convince themselves that the frantic beating of their heart was from desire instead of fear? Did they want Jamison or were they badgered into thinking they did because of his attention and everyone else's constant statements that they did?

Fury tore through Carter, not only for the violation she was feeling right then, but for all the other girls as well who might have been in her place.

When Jamison cupped her cheek and leaned in, Carter jammed her palm upward and broke Jamison's nose. He let out a cry and staggered back, clutching his face. He swore at her, but Carter didn't care, she was racing away from him.

As she sprinted down the front steps, her father's SUV pulled up. Carter didn't have time to open the door before her father stood there.

"Carter, what's going on?" he said, urgent.

"I broke a guy's nose," she said. "He tried...he was going to..."

Only as she spoke did Carter realize that her whole body was trembling. Nothing had happened to her but that didn't matter, her mind played out all the things that could have.

"Is that him?"

Carter glanced back to see Jamison swaying towards the parking lot, his nose bleeding all over his white oxford shirt.

"Yeah."

Her father stormed over to Jamison as Carter crossed her arms, trying to get herself to stop shaking.

"Carter," her father said.

She climbed the steps towards him and let out a breath as she saw the firm grip he had on Jamison's arm. Jamison no longer looked cocky, instead he looked pale and ready to puke. Carter knew even then he wasn't feeling the fear she'd had, what guy ever could?

"Come on," her father said, pushing through the school doors.

Carter walked beside him, feeling the anger coming off him. She knew he wanted to pummel Jamison but had a clear enough head to hold himself back. In Principal Withers' office, her father shoved Jamison into a seat.

"I want this kid expelled for sexual harassment," her father said.

Principal Withers looked rattled but calmly gathered the facts. With her father's statement from seeing them and the footage from the camera's outside the school, Withers got on the phone and rang up Jamison's father.

An hour later, Carter walked out of the school with her father. Jamison was getting sent to military school, something he'd already been threatened with and Carter wasn't going to be punished for breaking his nose since it was a gut reaction.

At the car, Captain hugged Carter tightly. She hugged him back, feeling as tears built but kept them at bay. She would be stronger than some guy scaring her.

"Are you okay?" her father asked.

Carter nodded, she would be. When Captain pulled back, he placed his hands on Carter's shoulder.

"I'm really proud of you for protecting yourself," he said.

"Thanks, Captain."

He kissed the top of her head and opened the car door for her.

"Come on, we're going to skip the movie," he said.

"Why?"

"Because I'm going to teach you tactics for taking down guys twice your size. I never want you to feel afraid or be unprepared for the type of situation again."

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Ummm...boo?

(Dang! I've done that one before. I guess that's what happens when you write over ONE HUNDRED of these things)

Any who since I've given you so much I'm demanding you give me your thoughts cause I had a blast with this chapter and I want your response. (Good or bad, I'm fine with either) 🗯💬💭

Raise your hand if you wish Steve was your father?

(Two hands and a pair of feet, yeah I feel ya)

I'm not going to lie on of the things that bothers me about Teen Fiction sometimes (besides the bad boys) is when friends tell the main character that she definitely likes the guy she fights with and says, 'I hate him'.

Like why can't the friends just take her word for it? Why do they have to try and convince of something when she doesn't want to be convinced? I also thought this annoying since it makes the friends pushy and unwilling to listen to what the main character is saying.

What are some of your Teen Fiction annoyances or pet peeves?

Vote, comment, follow because you love me, I love you, we all love Carter and Carter loves Donovan and so with the transitive property we all love Donovan. But I'm guessing that isn't something new.