I couldn’t believe that I was the one that had Ethan Lowry as a lab partner, and this wasn’t in good way that most girls would be getting their panties all wet over. Ever since I saw all the shit that the Hawks and Hawkettes liked to do that made everyone else’s life miserable, through my sister’s association and leadership role, I stayed far away as possible from this group. Not that it was friendly invites, but ones that my sister probably had ordered, but I’d been invited to several of their parties over the years and had gracefully declined with a ‘hell no.’
Our science teacher went on to discuss what we’d be learning over the course of the next nine months. As I assumed, the seats that we’d picked today would remain our permanent seats along with the person seated next to them as our yearlong partner.
Everyone high-fived each other because they would be partnered with the one that they wanted, except for me. I sat there looking stone-faced at the teacher like she just committed one of the seven deadly sins. Although I didn’t look over, I was quite sure Ethan had the same outlook as me on the whole situation…the ‘what the fuck’ attitude.
The bell rang signaling to us that this first period of hell was finally finished. I scrambled about stuffing all the handouts into my backpack and getting away from our lab station as quickly as possible. I never said a word, or even a friendly hello, to my new yearlong lab partner. He was still seated at the desk when I pushed my way past all the other students. I was bumping into everyone as I made my way down the crowded hallway to my next class. I wasn’t sure if I was in a hurry to get to my second period or in a hurry to get away from Ethan.
***
I couldn’t concentrate on the next three classes. I took the beginning of the year handouts that explained what the requirements were to pass the course, but other than that I couldn’t tell you one word that my teachers said. I was fired up about Ethan being partnered with me in Human Anatomy and Physiology. I really didn’t know him, as in on a personal basis, but I’d heard enough stories about him and saw the way that he acted to know it was going to suck in that class the rest of the year.
I could always ask for a transfer, or maybe we could do the labs on our own, but most of the time the secretaries and teachers didn’t like to change things around unless it was a life or death matter.
It wasn’t that Ethan was ugly, far from that, and it wasn’t like he’d been the one that was rude, it was his friends most of the time, but I just didn’t understand why I got nervous around him. I was always able to stand up for myself in most situations and talking with other people had never been much of an issue since I was captain of the debate club, but there was something about Ethan that made me clam up. I knew if I’d try to say anything it would probably come out as a garbled mess.
There would come a time that I would have to talk to him, but hopefully, that was a long way down the road.
***
Last class of the day. The final forty-five minutes of listening to a teacher go over the same shit that the past six had done, and then I would be free to go. There wasn’t any debate club meeting today, so I was able to leave at the regular time.
As we got further into the semester, the late days at school would become all too numerous as preparation time came around for the team to hone in on our skills. We had two debates a month with other schools around the area, and I refused to allow us to come in second place. I’d worked too hard to make the team what it was, and last year we had won every debate; thus we were recognized as the district champs.
Not that it really mattered to anyone else except the five of us.
The school usually made an announcement after each competition about us winning, but it was always a soft-spoken gesture.
The soccer team, however, got a screaming announcement and pep rallies held in their honor.
‘What the fuck, right!’
My day was going…like really slow. The rest of my classes were with a majority of my group, and they kept the classroom entertaining, but I couldn’t focus on anything except Morgan. She had totally ignored me the entire first period, that was shit I just wasn’t used to.No lie, but I had girls trying to get somewhere in class when I sat beside them. At those two seats at some station desks, I had one girl who kept trying to get me off with her hand underneath the desk. I solved that problem quickly…I did her in the bathroom.Thankfully, she wasn’t one that demanded more attention or promises of forever, which no one ever got. I know that makes me sound as bad as the girls that give out to everyone, but I’ve never initiated any of the sexual moments that I’ve been involved in. I won’t say no to one of those moments, but I won’t be the one out looking for it either.I walked down to the lunchroom wit
‘What the fuck.’ I just couldn’t believe the chances of this happening again, but holy shit Ethan Lowry just had to take the seat right beside me, again. We had classes together before, but there were always other Hawks or Hawkettes in the room for him to sit beside.It would be okay if these seats weren’t connected together, but these particulars had two chairs joined together at every desk station.I felt the body heat radiating off of Ethan, and smelled the sweetness of his cologne. I would have to give him the credit of being the pretty boy, smelling really good, and…well that was about all. His attitude and whole demeanor made the rest of him unattractive.I tried to keep my focus on what the teacher was saying, but the presence of having Ethan sitting this close once again was proving to be too much of a distraction.I’d seen the little show that was put on at lunchtime today. It seemed
“Dude, you should’ve been all over that by now.” Brandon kicked the ball over to the side so that I would be able to run it in. We were practicing one of the new play designs for our next soccer game while talking about how I was going to wine, dine, and make Morgan feel fine challenge.“It’s only been twenty-four hours since dickhead told me. There’s lots of time.” I ran to one side of the goal and then quickly changed directions once the goalie followed. I kicked the ball hard and drove it deep into the net. I held up my arms indicating another success on my part.“I don’t know.” Jason followed behind us on the field. “She seems like a hard one to crack. If this were anyone else, it would have been a slam, bam, thank you, ma’am, already. I think she’s going to be a challenge.”“I’m good with challenges.” I grabbed the soccer ball and started to do leg dribbles
“How was the first day?” Mom greeted me as I came into the family room. I’d just gotten back from my first day of senior year, and she looked eager to hear all about my day…not.“It was alright. Just like every other year. You sit, listen, and then go on to the next.” I grabbed a handful of M&M’s that were in a bowl on the coffee table.“Dinner will be in an hour. I think Clarissa is coming by.”I noticed mom eyeing the candy in my hand. I tossed it back into the bowl. “I think I have work to do. I’ll grab something later.” I turned and walked back to my room.The automatic light came on as soon as I walked into my bedroom. I dropped my heavy book bag onto the floor then collapsed onto the bed.Mother never made a verbal comment about me eating junk food, but I could always tell by the look in her eye and the reference of how close the next meal was that I shouldn’t
The next two weeks of school were spent on note-taking and preparation exams. There wasn’t any time for me to even think about Ethan, which was a good thing. In class, we barely got out a hello let alone a full conversation before our instructors started on our test material.Tara and Rynae were really starting to get on my last nerve about what was going on with Ethan.Did he say anything to me?What’s he like?You know questions that someone would ask if they were interested in a certain person.I questioned them if maybe they had a crush on him, but they would always deny that factor and just insist they wanted to know if he was as big of a douchebag on his own as he was when he was around the Hawks.Somehow, I just never believed them.I could see why they would have a crush on him if they did, not that I did or anything, but he was quite the male specimen.&
I tried to keep my concentration on what we were supposed to be doing, but this whole thing with working on the reproductive system and sitting this close to Morgan sort of challenged my ability to focus.She was stunning, but not in an overdramatic way. She wasn’t painted up with makeup like a lot of girls, seemed she had the bare minimum on her face. Her hair was full and shiny, unlike the Hawkettes who always seemed to be highly flammable with a ton of spray, gel, or mousse.Morgan was a little larger than the girls I usually went out with, but not in a repulsive way. She looked like she’d be able to handle herself in a fight and then turn around and be a big turn-on in the bedroom with the large breasts and nice round ass that I could spank all night.I focused back on the hand-out and tried to control the hard-on I was getting from all the images that had just flashed through my mind.There were tons of lines to be filled out on each of t
What the hell did I just say okay whatever too? I didn’t want to go over to his house, and I definitely didn’t want him over mine.My God that would be a wrong choice. My mom, and most likely my sister, would be there acting worse than a peeping Tom. I’d never brought a boy home unless it was just for debate club purposes or they were doing the group dance thing, but never someone who was on the Ethan Lowry level of importance.Maybe I could think of another place to go that would save each of us from having to do the home visit thing.I made it through my next few classes without any issues. Other than Tara, and Rynae being in two of them and their constant harassment of how did Ethan act today, it went fine up until lunchtime.There I was with Tara and Rynae standing in line still listening to them go on about Ethan when the Hawks showed up.Wonder why they didn’t have their little minions getting and delivering? Ethan was
As we made our way up to the lunch line, I saw Morgan standing with her two friends. She looked agitated by whatever the one girl was saying to her.Jason nudged me and nodded towards the three girls I’d already seen. I just waved him off like it was no big deal, but kept her in my side vision just to see what she was doing.Our group sort of cut the line in front of other students who’d probably been standing there awhile, but I wanted to get closer to hear what Morgan and the other girl were talking about. Of course with the guys being obnoxiously loud and Morgan’s friend whispering, I couldn’t really make out too much of the conversation.For the next five minutes, I tried lip-reading and found out my skill wasn’t very good. I could only make out certain words, mainly the word no was used a lot.Morgan knew I was there, she looked right at me. I tried to be as friendly as I could, shit I probably even looked like a total g