Marlowe

"Lowe, are you even listening to me?"

I close my locker and turn to face Hadley.  "Honestly? Not really. Natalie is not going to get my spot on the pyramid. I stopped listening to you as soon as you said it might happen."

I pick up my backpack from the ground and throw a strap over my shoulder, then step around her to show her that I'm done talking about it.

In reality, I stopped listening to her because my mind had slipped away to thinking about this past weekend. I couldn't get Jonah and the kiss at the party out of my head.

I never thought much about Chris when we had pretended to date and my thoughts about Damien had only made me feel shame, nerves and nausea. And okay, thinking about Jonah kind of gives me feelings of nerves and nausea too but it's a different sort of kind. I don't dread the idea of him getting into my space again.

I crave it.

And yet, when I dropped him off at Aunt Alice's and he leaned toward me, I panicked. I turned my face away and gave him a quick hug and then promptly explained, "Guess I'll see you Tuesday. Bye Puck!"

He hesitated for a moment, searching my face with a slightly confused expression, then he grinned at me and nodded his head. "Yeah, I'll see you then, MJ. Looking forward to it."

He got out of the car and walked backwards toward the house, smiling and waving at me while I drove off like the scaredy cat I was.

And I don't even know what I'm scared of!

It felt incredible when he kissed me, and the way he slowly backed me into the door and pressed into me was just enough to get my heart racing without making me worried that he was going to turn into someone like Damien. And the way he had been concerned about Ronnie being too drunk...

He is so sweet, so sexy, so caring.

Which I guess answers my question about what I'm so scared of because, in the end, he is still a hockey player. And hockey always comes first to hockey players.

Which is fine, really. I get it. Not necessarily the hockey part, but I put everything I have in me towards getting a scholarship. I work hard to get excellent grades, I'm an important member of the cheer team, and this year, I'm thinking of running for class president.

So it shouldn't—it doesn't matter that Jonah might as well be a prince charming in a fairy tale. That's just my teenage hormones lapping up the attention. There's no harm in that. We both know this agreement of ours isn't going anywhere important. So as much as I'm looking forward to seeing him again, I know it doesn't actually matter. I could go through this whole first week without—

My train of thought is interrupted when two large hands gently clap down on my shoulders. I turn my head to look behind me, ready to give whatever jock has his hands on me a piece of my mind, and am met with the smiling eyes of Jonah McCallum.

"Hi," he greets me with a wide smile. "I found you," he explains cheerfully, "I was worried I'd go through the day without getting my eyes on you again."

"Awww," Hadley gushes and nudges my side with her elbow.

"Hey Hadley," Puck greets her with a friendly smile. "You mind if I steal MJ from you for the morning? I was going to see if she had time to show me to my first class."

"You should have gotten a package that includes a diagram of the school," I mutter, even as Hadley eagerly shakes her head.

"I don't mind at all, Puck. I'm sure Lowe... Did you just call her MJ?"

Puck nods while he slips my backpack off of my shoulder. "I did, yeah."

"Her mom calls her that," Hadley laughs, giving me a pointed look before she looks back at Jonah. "Stick with Lowe, Puck. Unless you want to be her daddy... Bet Ms. Jacobs will just want to eat you up when she gets her eyes on you."

"Knock it off, Hadley!" I laugh as I shoo her away, when in reality I'd like to knock her teeth out.

My mom is a lot younger than most of my peer's moms and she's also really pretty. She's been the butt end of jokes amongst my friends for years, even though they all seem to genuinely love her.

Hadley walks away cackling, and when I turn around to face Jonah head-on he's staring at me with a concerned expression.

"What's wrong?" I ask him while I reach to take my backpack from his hand.

He maneuvers the bag away from me to sling it over his shoulder. "Why did you laugh? I can tell you didn't think it was funny."

I raise an eyebrow at his statement. "You could tell? Wow, it's sure nice to have such an old friend who knows me so well." I roll my eyes at him and turn around again to keep walking in the direction of my first class.

Jonah catches up to me in a few strides and shoves his hands in his pocket. With my backpack over one of his shoulders and his over the other, he's an interesting sight. "Okay, maybe I couldn't tell for sure, but it just seemed—"

"Puck, no offence, but I don't think digging into the human psyche is your strong point. Stick to hockey and whatever simple classes you're taking to keep your average as high as possible. Speaking of which..." I stop walking and hold out my hand toward him. "Where's your timetable? I'll point you to your first class if you really can't manage to find it on your own."

Puck opens his mouth like he wants to say something, but then closes it again and reaches into his back pocket. He hands me a folded piece of paper and then stands there quietly as I unfold it and let my eyes scan over its contents.

Biology, Calculus, Physics... His timetable is nearly identical to mine.

"Why are you taking these classes?" I ask in disbelief.

He shrugs and a smile tugs at his lips. "Aren't these the simple ones that will make it easy to keep my average up?"

"No, Jonah. These are..." I drift off as his smile grows. He's messing with me, but I can't even be annoyed because I fully deserve it. "How are you going to have time to keep up with these classes and get to all your games and practices?"

His smile fades, replaced by a small frown, and he tugs his timetable back from my hands. "Well, isn't this funny? I apparently sound like your mom and then you go off and sound like my dad." He laughs softly and offers me a smile that doesn't reach his eyes. "What's your first class? I can walk you there but then I need to get going. I don't want to be late on the first day."

"I thought—"

"I know where my classes are, Lowe. I was just making an excuse to talk to you."

"Oh..." I feel like more of a bitch by the second, but I guess that's what I get for trying to come across as less than friendly. I don't even know why I'm doing it. Jonah is supposed to become my boyfriend. Fake or not, I shouldn't be trying to drive him away.

I guess it's just my natural reaction to hockey players.

"Well, you don't have to worry about being late," I tell him with a soft smile, "We're on our way to the same class."

"Oh yeah?" he asks with a grin, "You're taking the easy classes too? Figures."

I laugh and nudge him with my shoulder. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry. I just didn't expect you to be in so many of the same classes as me. It was wrong for me to assume though."

Puck shrugs his shoulders and very lightly nudges me back. "That's okay. I'm used to it. But if we're both going to the same class and we both know where we're going... You know that only means one thing, right?"

I give him a confused look and shake my head. "Um, no? What does it—"

"Race you!" he belts out while giving me a careful push to the side and breaking into a run.

"Hey!" I call after him as my competitive side pushes my legs into a sprint, "You cheater!"

Jonah's body disappears around the corner while his laughter fills the hallway followed by shouts of alarm from fellow students that I'm sure he's inches away from bowling over.

As I chase after him I find myself laughing too. I'm so glad that it didn't take him all week to find me. Jonah McCallum is going to make this an interesting year.