I walked into my first class with my head held high, finding it difficult to keep a smug smile off my face when I didn't see Orion at his seat. It was strange to get to school with more than a second to spare. When I finished my work, I raced to change my shirt and boots, before running out the door without a glance in the mirror, hoping that I looked half decent this time. I didn't want to risk him beating me by glancing in the mirror, or driving the speed limit.

I sported a comfy flannel, jeans, and a pair of high boots as I sat down and stretched out, grinning like an idiot. Orion hadn't even finished his chores when I left for school.

He's going to look like a dump truck.

I felt slightly guilty for taking pleasure in knowing that, but after a moment my guilt was replaced with shock. Orion walked into class and gracefully sat himself down next to me. He looked... well perfect. His straight hair was combed to the side with several lone strands falling into his face, streaks of dark beauty landing across his jaw. He had showered and smelled wonderful.

A freaking beautiful dump truck...

He smiled at me. "Hi, boss."

"Hi loser," I said leaning back, ignoring how nice he looked. It didn't matter. I won.

He chuckled. "I wouldn't call me that if I were you." He leaned towards me, more of his raven black hair falling into his face.

"Why? Does losing hurt your feelings?" I asked with fake concern.

"No. I didn't lose," he said with a grin. "You see... I finished early and then asked your dad for your list of chores that you do after school and did those too."

My mouth fell open and I sat up straight. "No way. You're lying."

His eyes glistened with amusement. "Nope."

I shook my head, confused. "How... how..."

"Magic." His eyes darkened, before fighting off a smile. "I am very fast."

My brain processed the words. The probability that he could have finished first didn't add up. It didn't make sense. He must have cheated. It's impossible. "I don't believe you." I finally stammered.

He shrugged. "Then check my work when school's over. Your dad checked, but if it makes you feel better to go over your dad's work, then go for it. But I didn't miss anything."

I glared at him for a long moment and then pulled out my phone, my eyes never leaving his. "I'll get this settled now. No need to wait."

I dialed home and my dad picked up on the first ring. He was laughing as he answered. "Whoa! Orion was right. That boy is a mind reader."

My heart dropped. "What are you talking about?"

"Tell Orion I owe him five bucks. He said you'd call as soon as you found out that he did all the chores on your list for this afternoon."

Disbelief washing over me. "So he really did them all?" I asked quietly, hating that I had been stupid enough to make the phone call while sitting next to Orion.

"Yep! The kid's fast! I checked his work."

"Oh," I managed to say.

My dad chuckled. "Don't hate him too much hon. I think he's a good kid."

I sighed. "Dad, you like everyone. Get some standards."

He laughed again. "Have a good day sweetie. I'll see you later." I couldn't even look over at Orion as my call ended. I put the phone in my pocket and stared at my desk.

"So tomorrow..." Orion started. I could hear the stupid smirk on his face.

After taking a long painful breath I looked at him. He raised a brow at me, waiting. I clenched my jaw. "My dad owes you five bucks."

He didn't say a word, waiting for me to continue. I sighed. "And... a deal's a deal. You can have more of the list."

He grinned and glanced me over. "Great. So you can focus on getting ready for school."

"I'm fine," I muttered. He reached forward and touched my hair. I moved back out of his reach, startled. "What are you doing?"

He placed a piece of cornstalk onto my desk. "You had this in your hair."

I blushed angrily, thankful that the class was still empty. None of his new adoring girl fans were present to add fuel to the fire growing inside.

...

I gripped my backpack strap like it was my lifeline as I stood outside the door to my Chemistry class. I didn't want to go in. I didn't want to see my desk covered in sharpie again. Not after dealing with people calling me Ranch Girl all day. Taking a deep breath, I walked inside, determined to force myself into my chair, only to stop in the same exact spot as the day before.

I gasped, my eyes going wide. No one was paying attention, the students oblivious as they talked to each other. Blank. RANCH GIRL, which had been written in sharpie was gone, erased from the desk like it had never been there. I sat down with a thump and touched the desk, confused. The desk hadn't been painted over. The other words were still there, but the words that had haunted me all night had vanished like someone had hit the undo button.

"You okay?" someone asked behind me. I looked up to find Orion moving into the seat next to mine. I looked back down at the desk, half expecting the words to be back, burning bright under my fingertips.

"Yeah. I just..." I blinked confused. "There was something written on the desk yesterday, and now it's gone." I felt like an idiot for voicing it with such awe. It made me sound crazy. Orion leaned over and stared down at the desk, far closer to me than I was prepared for. He furrowed his brow and then looked up at me, forcing me to catch my breath as concern flickered across his eyes.

"What words?"

I swallowed. "Ranch Girl," I whispered past the lump in my throat.

Orion searched my face, processing my words. I felt my cheeks burn under his attention. I preferred the smug side of him. Not this quiet boy who could tell something was wrong. I was saved a moment later when Ms. Dailey called the class to order.

Apparently Orion had joined our class. Something that must have happened after I was kicked out yesterday.

Great...

Ms. Dailey demonstrated with a quick set of instructions that came with many years of teaching, how to combine a set of ingredients inside of a beaker with the ultimate goal of turning the liquid blue over a bunsen burner. I scribbled notes as fast as I could, trying to make sense of all the confusing ingredient names. The only one I recognized was rainwater. I ended up spelling them phonetically, hoping to figure out what they were later.

"That's not how you spell any of those ingredients," Orion said, glancing at my notebook. I took a beat to stare at him with an annoyed expression.

"Really? I don't know how to spell really hard words that never follow the rules of the English language? Shocker!" I replied dryly.

Orion looked pensive. "Are you asking me? Because I already told you that you do not."

I had to stop myself from snorting. "I was being sarcastic." A look of embarrassment crossed his face.

A slow smiled overtook me. "Do you really not understand sarcasm?"

A strange look crossed his eyes. A darkness fell across his features, shooting a warning off in my head. I had seen something in him that wasn't meant to be shared. He grabbed my notebook and quickly wrote down the ingredients. He wrote in clean cursive, each line purposeful and easy to read. Irritatingly perfect penmanship.

Then he slid the notebook back to me and leaned back in his chair, listening. It was then that I noticed that nothing sat on his desk. No notebook. No book. No pencils. Nothing. He hadn't had anything in his other classes either. He never took out anything to write with. I raised a brow at him. "Not taking notes?"

He nodded and pointed to his temple, still looking at the front of the room. "Echoic memory. I remember everything I hear." This time I did snort, which caused him to give me a sidelong glance.

I continued to write, ignoring his gaze. "Don't let me interrupt your note-taking then," I replied with a scoff of disbelief.

"Yeah, how'd you know?" Orion said, in a Tennessee accent. I stopped writing mid-word and stared up at him.

"What?" I asked.

"That's what you said when I met you. I asked if you were Ms. Brookes as in Brookes Ranch and then you said, 'yeah, how'd you know?' Then I said you were covered in dirt. All over your boots, clothes, and face. Ranch work is dirty. You look like a ranch girl. "

His lips quirked up into a smile as he continued to stare forward. "Then you asked if what I said was supposed to be an insult. Then I said it was just an observation. Then you told me to keep my observations to myself. I realized you were angry and pointed that out, which resulted in you saying, and I quote, Duh."

I put down my pencil and turned to stare at him, raising an eyebrow in irritation at the terrible reminder of yesterday. "Are you done?"

Orion shot me a smile as Ms. Daily pulled our attention back to the front of the class. She gave instructions for our class assignment, breaking down the items we would need. I listened, suddenly lost. I had no idea what she had been saying, completely distracted by Orion's stupid desire to prove that he was above taking notes.

The class chattered as everyone got to work. Our goal was to turn a set of liquid in our beakers, blue. I lit my bunsen burner, watching the small blue flame flicker to life. I quickly ran my fingers over the flame, enjoying the quick thrill of the heat without keeping it there long enough to get burned. I loved a hot fire, fascinated by the constantly changing beauty, the warmth, and the result of it consuming everything it touched.

"You cleaned up," Orion said as he set up his beaker. I shot him a confused look. "That's how our second interaction started." I groaned as he continued, replaying our entire second conversation, irritating me further. Then, as if to prove his point, he continued to repeat every interaction we had the day before.

Orion had proven his point, he remembered everything with irritating accuracy.

I did my best to ignore him, as he spoke. I scanned my materials, trying to figure out how to turn my stupid beaker of liquid blue. And as if to prove that he was good at everything, he finished first, his liquid turning a bright blue about ten seconds into the assignment.

I rolled my eyes as girls began to ask for his help, batting their eyelashes at him so fast that I was convinced they would turn into propellers and hoist them into the air. I continued to tinker with my ingredients, watching my concoction turn yellow.

Letting out a sigh, I looked over my notes again. I had no idea what to add. Picking up a teaspoon of powder I didn't know the name of, I threw it in, hoping it would give me a better result. The concoction betrayed me and turned black. Everyone around me was finishing up and they had all managed to turn theirs blue.

I groaned as Ms. Daily began to make her way around the room, checking on the assignments. Crap. I'm out of time!

Biting my lower lip, I looked around, trying to find something that would change the color. But I was out of ingredients. I had thrown everything into the beaker. That's probably why it's black, I thought bitterly.

I saw Orion, his eyes on my beaker of liquid. His eyes flashed a strange dark blue, two twin dark ocean storms, slowing down the room to a crawl for a moment. Then he blinked and turned away, his eyes dark onyx again.

Some weird reflection from his beaker, I thought as I turned back to my beaker. Ms. Daily walked up. "Alina. Nice work. Perfect color."

I stared down at my beaker in surprise. "What? Oh. Um. Thank you," I uttered, confused at the now perfectly blue liquid. First my desk, and now the beaker.

What's happening? Was it a delayed reaction?

The bell rang and everyone gathered their things, eagerly dashing for the exits, ready for lunch. "Nice work with the assignment," Orion said as he picked up his backpack, which apparently carried nothing of school value.

I shrugged, uninterested in giving him more verbal ammo to repeat to me later. I shoved my book and notebook into my bag and shrugged it on. The class was completely empty now. "Didn't last long though," Orion said motioning back to my beaker. The liquid was black again. I took a step back from it, confused.

I'm seeing things. I really need to cut down on the coffee.

Orion moved past me, his bag hitting a large beaker of liquid. The beaker fell on the counter, shattered, and drenched my upper body in clear liquid. I jumped back in surprise, gasping as the cold liquid hit my clothes and skin. "Hey!" I shouted.

He laughed, completely unapologetic, "Sorry. Slipped."

I grabbed a rag off the supply shelf and whirled back to look at him. He was at the door. "You didn't slip! That was on purpose!"

He shrugged. "It's just rainwater. You'll live." He offered me a wink. "See you later, Ranch Girl."

...

Ashely and I sat outside, enjoying the last of summer's warmth as we ate lunch. I stretched out, trying my best to ignore the wet material that clung to my skin. The smell of freshly cut grass filled the air, dulling my irritation.

The cafeteria had always been too loud and echoey, blaring with unnecessary noise that made my bones vibrate with the overwhelming chatter. The flickery lighting made even the best food look unappetizing. So I spent every lunch period outside with Ashely, who joined me most days, unless there was even a remote threat of rain. In which case she would stay indoors, refusing to get any part of herself wet, like a cat giving a pool a five-foot cautious birth just in case the water tried to harm her. Ashley claimed it would ruin her hours of painstaking work on her hair and outfit choice if she got wet. Why people acted like rain was their undoing, I wasn't fully sure.

Ashley took a long swig of her water bottle, pausing her detailed story of her date the night before with a boy named Brick.

Already his name had proven to be a bad sign. She shook her head, a tight smile on her face as she continued. "He accidentally texted me during our date instead of his friend. He told him he was planning on going to the bathroom and then ditching me with the bill!"

My eyebrows shot up. "Please tell me this ends well."

Ashley grinned, tossing her hair over her shoulder with flair. "Ends well for me," she laughed. "I called the server over, reached into Brick's jacket, which he had offered me when I was cold, pulled out his wallet, and paid the bill with his credit card. Then I stood up, texted him back a few colorfully choice words, and left."

I laughed, impressed. The girl had confidence. "You're incredible."

"I know!" She giggled. "You don't ask me out and then try to ditch. I'm worth more than that!"

"I can't even imagine doing that," I admitted leaning back on my elbows. I enjoyed Ashley's stories, living vicariously through her crazy adventures and she enjoyed having me as her audience. It was a win-win.

Ashley rolled her eyes. "Oh please. You have it in you." She glanced over my shoulder. "I mean you've sassed Orion a few times and you've known him for what? A day and a half?"

I laughed. Why did it feel like I knew him for longer? Time slowed down when he was around. Painful, never-ending, pull my hair out slow. I turned to see what she was staring at.

Orion sat under the shade of a tree, his eyes glued to a book in his hands, oblivious as Kristi and several others who had called me ranch girl the day before walked up to him. Kristi reached down and touched his arm. He looked up at them and smiled. I could hear small parts of their conversation.

"Do you mind if we join you for lunch?"

Orion nodded his head. "I'd prefer to read alone." He looked back down at his book without another word. Ashley and I shot each other an amused look as Kristi looked down at him, confused by the brush off.

"Is it bad that him doing that makes him less terrible in my mind?" I asked, trying not to laugh.

Ashley shook her head, grinning widely. "Nope. Makes sense to me."

"Come on Orion, don't be like that," Kristi laughed and sat down, ignoring his request. She motioned for the other girls to follow. They all sat down close to Orion and pulled out their lunches.

Orion stood up without a word, and walked away, his eyes never leaving his book. The girls stared after him, shocked by his abrupt departure.

"Dang," Ashely said, watching him walk away. "He wasn't kidding. He's normally so friendly. What's up with him?"

I shook my head. "I have no idea."

---

Thank you for reading chapter four! I hope you are enjoying the story! Or are at least curious to see where it goes!

UPDATE DAYS - A NEW CHAPTER EVERY WEDNESDAY AND FRIDAY!

Strange things seem to be happening. Is Orion the cause?

Why did Orion brush off Kristi?

What do you think of Alina's friend Ashley? Would you be down to listen to her crazy dating stories?

CHAPTER QUESTION - Have you ever had a bad date? What happened?