"Oh, and Drake?"

"Yeah?"

"I hate you."

"I know."

Mrs. Hayfer just gives him a disbelieving smirk. She may not know that he knows the reason, but Drake Parker does know. The excuse: Drake is a punk who fails her English class.

However, that's not the real reason.

The real reason is much more intense than that, but honestly, he doesn't give a damn. It's his life and he can live it any way that pleases him. Who gives a rat's hat (he always did like that phrase Eric uses… or was that Craig?) what a stupid English teacher thinks of him.

Drake knows that her reason now has to do with his personal opinions and the way he thinks. When they first met, she hated him right away. He wasn't sure what it was at first, but then as time went on, he gradually found out what it was.

He noticed how she would curl her lip when he would kiss a girl without putting any feeling behind (uh, hello, it's kissing!) and how by the end of the day, with a few new phone numbers in his backpack, Mrs. Hayfer would try, with all her might, to give him detention on a Friday or a Saturday. That was when he thought she thought of him as a player; that wasn't the case.

The year after his first year of knowing Mrs. Hayfer, he doesn't have her as a teacher. His brother, Josh, unfortunately (in Drake's opinion), does. It was last period, in fact. So, sometimes, when Josh doesn't come out of class quick enough, he risks going to that classroom to see what was taking him. Most of the time, it was a test that he was just finishing up. But there was this one time Drake remembers.

Mrs. Hayfer was talking to Josh one-on-one, so he walks right in, thinking nothing of it. The English teacher stops talking once she notices him, though, and just gives him a disproving look. Then she looks back up at Josh.

"It's unfortunate for you to be milling about with him. Who knows what he'll do with you." Then, she glances between them quickly as if assessing them only to have her eyes land on Drake, glaring for all she's worth, "Don't you go messing up his life. He deserves to go down the straight path." She threatens him.

At the time, he didn't know how to respond to that, he didn't know what she meant, so he just looked at her like she was weird and dragged his protesting brother out the door. Later on, as he was strumming his guitar, he understood what she meant and didn't know whether to laugh or yell in outrage.

She thinks that he, Drake Parker, the guy who kisses a girl everyday, is gay.

How she came to that conclusion, he wasn't so sure himself. The rest of the night, he couldn't even think of his guitar as he was too busy trying to get rid of the headache that formed after fifteen minutes of thinking about it.

Days went by and he learned more about Mrs. Hayfer's hatred towards him. By the end of the year, he finally was able to learn the whole thing by her subtle hints and glares not only towards him, but to Craig and Eric. Though, the glares his way were always more lethal.

Basically, she thinks he uses the girls he goes out with as his cover and a denial that he really is into other guys. But, that's not all. Turns out, she also thinks he's into his stepbrother.

Now, as everyone who has ever met Mrs. Hayfer knows, she is an old fashioned woman. She isn't caught up with the times and isn't as open-minded as the next person is. So, when it comes to relationships, she still believes that boys should like girls and girls should like boy.

Her thoughts on him liking his stepbrother in a way he shouldn't made him number one on her list. In Drake's opinion, though, her thoughts aren't worth fretting over.

So, for the past year, he didn't worry about her opinion about it. In fact, it might've even struck something inside him.

As he leaves to go to his next class, he can feel the displeasing glare on his back from his English teacher. Ignoring it, he walks down the hall but before he gets even ten feet away from his last class, he feels a pull on his wrist. He follows the pull until they reach a secluded area. Looking up, he finds Josh grinning at him.

Before Drake could say anything to him, he feels a pair of lips on top of his own. Drake doesn't get the chance to kiss him back, though, as Josh pulls back.

"I missed you last period." Josh mentions as he wraps his arms around Drake's waist. The shorter teen tangles his fingers into the curly locks of the other teen and smirks.

"I know."