Chapter 2: Two

You know that anxious first-day-of-school feeling you sometimes get the night before school starts back? Well, add that and my nervous seeing-Gabe-after-six years feeling, and I hardly slept at all. After finally falling asleep around 4:30 AM, I woke this morning feeling completely awful. I hopped in the shower, hoping the hot waterwould make me feel better, but I couldn't get rid of that sick feeling in my stomach. This was going to be a long day.

What was I supposed to say to Grant? Was I supposed to be friendly and act like I'd forgotten about the incident six years ago, or was I supposed to ignore him?

I tried on nearly twenty different outifts, and finally settled for a salmon-colored sleeveless shirt, dark wash skinny jeans, and gold sandals. I figured I might as well look cute either way. I dried my blond hair, leaving it naturally wavy. I looked in the full length mirror in the corner of my room, took a deep breath, and headed out the door.

Sitting in my car in the school parking lot, a whole new wave of nervousness set in. I just wanted Ryan to get here already!

Just as I thought that, Ryan's red Ford Escape pulled into the parking spot beside my car. I hurried to grab my stuff and met her as she got out of the driver's seat.

"Look at you!" She teased. "Someone's dressed to impress a certain ex-best friend." I suddenly realized how dressed up I actually was, looking at her American Eagle shirt and jeans. I rolled my eyes.

"Puh-lease. I couldn't care less about that jerk." I told her, but even as I said it, I didn't quite believe myself.

"Right. If you say so." She laughed as we headed towards the building.

Getting desperate to change the subject, I asked, "So, have you talked to Lina?"

"I texted her earlier. She's around here somewhere."

As Ryan and I walked through the parking lot, a black mercedes nearly ran us over. For a split second, I thought about shooting a bird at the driver, but then I realized who the driver was. No, not Grant! Worse. Trisha Mobley. Most popular girl and school. And complete and utter jerk to everyone around her.So instead of shooting a bird, I kept walking. Of course, being the complete bitch that she is, she honked the horn. Ryan simply ignored Trisha, but I was steaming.

"Who does she think she is?"

"Well, she IS the most popular girl in school. She could make our lives hell, Avery. I wouldn't do anything to anger her." Oh, but I wanted to so bad.

Ryan never got angry with anyone. I didn't know how she did it. I, on the other hand, could get mad if someone ate my last oreo. Well, not really, but you get the point.

We walked across the quad in between the school building and the lunch room, looking for Lina, when we saw her sitting by the fountain. And by fountain, I mean, The Fountain. Where all of the popular upper classmen ate lunch and hung out. Ryan and I stopped in our tracks when we saw her. We looked at each other with confusion in both of our expressions. She didn't seem to notice, though, when she spotted us.

"Avery! Ryan!" She yelled as she grabbed her oversized boho purse and slung her bookbag over her shoulder. We quickened our pace to reach her, not running (we didn't want to seem like complete idiots to the rest of the school).

"Lina!" Ryan and I replied simultaneously.

"How was your trip?" Ryan asked as soon as we both hugged her. Lina's parents were originally from France, but moved to the United States when her mom was prego with Lina. Although, Lina hardly had an French accent at all. Lina spent the summer with her family in France, and this was the first time Ryan or I had seen her since she left. Her olive skin was at least two shades darker, and her outfit was definitely not from a store in town.

"Beau!" She said. Two years of French taught me that it meant beautiful.

"How were the guys there?" I had to ask, knowing how boy crazy Lina was.

"To die for!" She nearly yelled, in English this time.

She began telling us all about her trip as she walked back over towards the fountain and sat down. We followed, hesitantly.

"Okay, hold that thought," I told her just as she was describing the Champs Elysées. "Why are you sitting over here by the fountain?" She knew exactly what I was getting at. Sure, we were juniors and finally eligable to eat at the fountain, but we weren't actually popular enough to be asked to the fountain. So we never even tried. Personally, I had never wanted to sit with the popular group by this stupid fountain, but I knew that Lina always had. That's what worried me.

"I was getting to that." Just as she said that, I heard a male voice yell her name.

"Lina!" All three of us turned to see Todd McCarthy heading towards us, with a smile that made the passing freshman nearly faint. Todd was one of the most popular guys in school. He wasn't quarterback of the football team. He wasn't even on the football team, but he had the looks.The golden tan, blonde hair that hit just at the ears, teeth that were bleach white, and gorgeous baby blue eyes are what made him popular. As he made his way towards us from the parking lot, I turned abrubtly towards Lina.

"Explain," was all I said.

"Well, I can't go into major details right now," she started to whisper as she spoke quickly. "But we were facebooking all summer!" I rolled my eyes and looked at Ryan, but she just shrugged at me.

Before I could say anything else, Todd reached us. "Hey babe," he told Lina as he pulled her in for a hug. "Hey Anna, Rachel." What the?

"It's Avery and Ryan," I spat. Ryan just waved silently. Lina looked at me, pleading me to be nice with her eyes.

"I'll see you in homeroom, Lina," I said, and with that, I grabbed Ryan's arm and headed towards the school building. I didn't look back to see Lina's expression, and I was so annoyed I didn't care. "What is wrong with her?" I said as soon as we entered the building, where I knew she couldn't hear us. "Has she gone insane?"

"Maybe they really like each other."

"Bull mess! He probably just wants to get in her pants!" I threw my bookbag down by my locker. Ryan looked wide-eyed first at me, and then at something down the hall. When I turned around, I saw what she was looking at. Him. Grant.

I suddenly forgot about Lina and Todd and focused on him. He was talking to Mr. Pevelki, our History teacher, and didn't seem to notice me watching him. He had gotten taller since I'd last seen him, but he still looked like the same guy I had fallen for six years ago. I looked back at Ryan, and she knew I was about to freak out. "You can do this," She said to me, placing her hand on my shoulders. I nodded slowly, and took a deep breath.

After I had finally calmed down, I opened my locker and started arranging my notebooks to pass the time. Ryan casually played look-out for me, telling me what he was doing. "He's coming this way," she said, and my pulse quicked. This was it. What the heck was I supposed to do now?

"Let's just hurry and go to homeroom," I said as I threw the last notebook in my locker and slammed the locker door. I hurridly threw my bookbag over one shoulder and started towards Mrs. Smith's room for homeroom, but in an instance, I was tugged back to my locker. I fell to the flat on the floor in front of everyone.

"What happened?" Ryan squatted down beside me and began picking up the pens and pencils that had fallen out of my bookbag. I looked up at my locker and realized that in my rush to get to homeroom, one of my bookbag straps had gotten caught in my locker. My bookbag now hung upside down, and all of my belongings were scattered on the floor.

"Great. Just great," I mumbled as I sat up and began picking up my stuff. Suddenly, there were black Tom's in front of me on the floor, and I looked up to see Grant smirking down at me.

"Well, if it isn't Avery Montgomery." I stood up slowly and crossed my arms over my chest.

"Hello, Grant." I was secretly freaking out, but I wasn't about to show him that. He wasn't going to get to me this time.

He picked up a pen off the floor and tossed it to me. I caught it, and he said, "That is exactly how I remember you."

"What?"

"Always making a fool out of yourself." He laughed and smiled as if he was the cutest thing in the world. And right then, he was anything but that to me.

"Yeah, well, we can't all be as much of an asshole like you." I knew it wasn't a good comeback, but that was the only thing I could think of to say. I picked up the last of my stuff, and headed off the homeroom with Ryan. First encounter with Grant, complete fail. I would have loved to just avoid him for the rest of the year. Unfortunantly, I knew that was going to be impossible.