“Cassie, will you do me a favor and hand me the green eye shadow?”
“Uh, okay. Wouldn’t you like your clothes instead?” Her brown eyes looked everywhere except directly at me, her face turning pink.
Chuckling, I twirled a lock of hair around the curling iron. Cassie was definitely not used to my dressing routine. Every morning before the first class bell rang, I stripped off the goody two shoes, Catholic schoolgirl outfit and put on what I considered to be normal clothes that any teen girl would wear. Well, any teen who wasn’t from Texas, that is. I guess she wasn’t comfortable seeing me in my undies while I got ready. And by the look of the other girls who walked into the restroom and immediately walked out, they weren’t either. I couldn’t help that my boobs were twice the size of theirs.
“I will. After I finish curling my hair. Wanna use my iron?” Cassie was a natural beauty with those big brown doe eyes and a natural pink flush on her cheeks. She didn’t need any makeup. Some girls had all the luck.
“I have to stop by the main office before class.” She handed me the eye shadow.
“Oh, really.” I raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure you’re not just going to wander around the halls looking for Cody?”
“No.” She looked down, playing with a loose thread on her pink blouse. She was too cute. She couldn’t hide anything from me.
“Uh-huh.” I turned my attention back to the mirror.
“Really, I’m not. I’m not even sure we’re friends anymore. He didn’t even write to me once when I was in Houston.”
“Come on, Cassie. You know Cody. It would’ve been more shocking if he had written you. The man barely talks. He’d probably send a piece of paper with the word ‘Hey’ on it.” I plopped the shadow back into my bag and started putting on the first of five layers of mascara. “Besides, I have a feeling he’ll find you.”
“Really?” Her face brightened.
“Yeah. At Tricia’s party he—”
The first bell rang, followed by the loud twang of Willie Nelson’s voice filtering through the speakers.
“Why are they playing country music on the loud speaker?” Cassie asked.
“Last year some moron decided that it’d be a good idea to play music in between classes so that we’d know how long we had to get to class.”
“Ooh, that’s a good idea.”
“It would be if they didn’t only play—ugh, gag me—country music.”
She chuckled. “I’m surprised you haven’t slipped into the office and switched all the CDs with Rick Astley.”
“I did. I got Saturday suspension too. It wasn’t pretty either. Mom totally flipped out. Have you ever seen her mad. Spanish flies out of her mouth a thousand words a minute. I could barely understand a word she was saying, she was so pissed.” I slid red lipstick on my lips, and then blotted with a tissue. “Hey, you better hurry up if you’re going to the main office first.”
“Okay. See you at lunch in the courtyard.”
“Yeah,” I said, slipping a green blouse over my head. “If I survive Mr. Boney’s AP calculus class.”
There should be some kind of Olympic competition for running in heels because if there was, I’d totally win the gold. Seriously, with my books and purse, I was probably carrying at least fifteen pounds. My necklaces bounced against my chest and my bracelets clinked as I dashed down the hall. Mr. Boney, who I liked to call Mr. Bonehead, was a major a-hole. Word in the school was that he was some brilliant math god or something from Columbia University, who couldn’t keep a steady job because of his drinking problem. Apparently, he was some distant cousin of the principal, and that’s how he’d gotten his job at Koppe High.
Willie Nelson stopped crooning just as I reached the door.
“Ms. Ruiz, I see that we are fashionably late.” Mr. Bonehead eyed my outfit as I panted, leaning against the door. “Will we be making this a habit as you did last year?”
I could feel at least a dozen pairs of eyes on me. I was used to their staring. Everyone knew everyone at this school. They were either all related or they’d grown up together since birth.
Mr. Bonehead’s beady gray eyes watched me carefully. He was trying to take me down a notch. He tried to do the same thing last year, telling me that he didn’t think I had what it took to pass his class. That just pissed me off, and gave me all the determination I needed to earn an “A.”
“No, Mr. Bonehe—uh, Mr. Boney.”
His face turned red at the flurry of giggles from the front row.
Clearing his throat, he said, “Well, see to it that you don’t, Ms. Ruiz. You may have been able to squeak by last year, but this is AP calculus.” He then turned to the class. “I’ll be teaching the course on the same level as a college freshman course. I anticipate at least half of you will dropout before the end of the week. Ms. Ruiz,” he turned back to me, “if you’ll please take your seat. We have the same seating arrangement as last year.”
Ugh! What a dick! I gritted my teeth at the insinuation that I wouldn’t last a week in his class.
“Whatever,” I mumbled under my breath as I walked to the back row, my heels clicking against the floor.
I shouldn’t have been surprised. Most of the teachers at this school thought the same way. They took one look at me and, for some reason, thought that I couldn’t handle honors courses. And when they got my first test back, they were even more surprised. One teacher even thought I was cheating. She didn’t accuse me outright. She just kept passing by my desk whenever I took a test. Mr. Bonehead was the only teacher who was cocky enough to say things like that to my face.
I glanced at the back row, expecting to see Tricia, who had sat behind me last year. Sitting in her seat was Nic Marcelli. He smiled widely, those gorgeous hazel eyes lighting up as I approached him.
I froze, glancing at the empty desk in front of him.
No way! There was no way I was going to sit in front of Nic Marcelli for an entire semester.
“You’re in the wrong seat. Tricia’s supposed to sit there,” I said, glancing over at Tricia, who was sitting in the desk across from him, her nose conveniently buried in a textbook.
He grinned. “There’s been a slight change in seating arrangements.”
“Oh really? Well, we’ll see about that when Mr. Boney does roll call.” I slid into the chair, sitting forward, careful not to touch the back of the seat. Although the same students had been in this class last year, Mr. Boney was a stickler for the rules and called out roll every morning, even though he could tell who was absent with a quick glance.
“I guess we will.” I jumped when his warm breath hit the back of my neck, sending a delicious shiver through me.
He chuckled. “What’s wrong? Do I make you nervous?”
I clutched my textbook, ready to whack him on the head with it if he didn’t back off. The moment I’d first laid my eyes on him at Tricia’s party, I knew he was trouble. Those gorgeous, hypnotic eyes and that sexy smile had thrown me off guard, but only for a moment. One look at the designer clothes he was wearing followed by his bragging about being quarterback and I knew that he was one of “those” guys. You know, the kind of guy who was used to getting his way because he was good looking and had loads of cash. The kind of guy who, once he’d gotten the girl, he’d throw her away like trash and move on to the next. If Mr. Miami Vice thought I was going to be another notch on his belt, he thought wrong. I knew the games these rich dudes played. He could just stop it with the dreamy eyes and sexy voice. I was totally not buying what he was selling.
“Puhleeze.” I rolled my eyes, twisting around to confront him. “You can’t be—”
His flawless face was an inch from mine. Damn! My breath caught in my throat as I stared at way too sexy lips. They were moving. Shouldn’t sounds be coming out?
Oh my God. I’ve gone deaf. I can’t hear anything.
“Uh, did you say something?”
“You never finished explaining what the Rick Astley song was about. Why don’t I take you to dinner and you can tell me about it?” He leaned in closer, and I caught a faint scent of his cologne. I inhaled. He smelled soooo good.
Somehow, I was able to keep my focus and not fall for it. But man, he was making it hard.
“No, thank you.”
“Why not?”
“I’m not interested.”
His handsome face fell, and for a moment, just one brief moment, I felt a tug in my heart. I didn’t mean to hurt his feelings.
I was about to change my mind when he flashed his sexy grin and said, “I think you are.”
Ugh! He’s so cocky.
“Ms. Ruiz!”
Crap!
I spun around at the sound of Mr. Bonehead’s voice calling out my name.
“Here!” I was so mad I could spit thumbtacks all over Nic’s cute ass. It was bad enough that Mr. Bonehead had it out for me. Now my stupid hormones were going to kill my chances of getting a full ride to college.
“Is there a problem, Ms. Ruiz?”
“Yeah. The new guy is sitting in Tricia’s seat. Right, Tricia?” She peeped up, her green eyes wide behind her glasses.
“Uh.” She looked from me to Nic and then back down to her textbook, mumbling, “I don’t know anything about this.”
I balked. Tricia traded seats with Nic! I scowled at Nic’s annoyingly sexy, but smug expression. She totally sold me out. I gave her my best evil eye, hoping she could feel it, even though she wasn’t looking.
“Nic Marcelli.” Mr. Boney beamed. “May I say it’s a great pleasure having you in my class. Your father was the Vice President of Student Affairs when I was at Columbia. Texas University is very lucky to have him.”
“Thank you, Mr. Boney,” Nic said.
“Ms. Ruiz, you should consider yourself lucky. Perhaps having someone like Mr. Marcelli near you will keep you focused. Now, class, take out a blank sheet of paper; we’re going to have a quiz. Let’s see what knowledge you managed to retain over the summer.”
My jaw dropped as I watched Mr. Bonehead pass out the quiz. He was brown-nosing Nic. When he placed the quiz on Nic’s desk, he patted his shoulder and said, “Just do your best for today. I’m sure you’ll catch up if you need to.”
I looked from Nic back to Mr. Bonehead. Mr. Bonehead was never this nice to any of the students. Then again, none of the students came from rich, powerful families like Nic’s.
I glanced down at the quiz and smiled at the familiar questions I could answer in my sleep. Screw him. I didn’t need powerful parents or money to make my way in the world. I had a brain that was going to get me a college education. And no one, especially Nic Marcelli, was going to get in the way of that.