"Okay lab partner assignments!" said Mr Fisher as he looked at us, probably to see which students were present. I watched as he took his eyes from us to look down at the lists he had in his hand. He glared at me for a second before a wide smirk spread across his face.

"Brooke Davis, you'll be partnering with (Please God no one stupid, or annoying, o g) Jay Halstead."

Oh great, probably just as bad. The new kid. So I was going to have to play babysitter. He was sitting at the opposite end of the room to me and I watched as he moved over to the side where I was. I squirmed as he got up out of his chair and came to occupy the one next to me. I felt my chair bump a little as his collided with mine. Wow, so much for personal space. Did he want to sit on my knee or something?

Professor Fisher finished his list, but I zoned out thinking about how I was gonna have to cope with working with this boy. The boy who I hadn't even said two words to since he appeared in this class two weeks ago. The boy who was sitting next to me now, making notes. Pages of notes. Nerd.

I turned around to find him still in the same position as before. He had so much of the desk and I was leaning as far away from him as possible, in a bid to have breathing room. He was scribbling quickly into his notepad, he didn't even seem to notice that I was looking at him. Or that this project was supposed to be a joint effort apparently.

I made an effort to clear my throat and he slowly dropped his pen onto the desk. He eventually turned to me, gave me a smile and a shrug. It took him a second to open his mouth but, when he finally did, Fisher interrupted.

"Okay class, so this project is gonna be happening for the rest of the semester. I want you to take this seriously. Your task is to pick a famous figure from history or present time and tell us, the rest of the class about them. Why are they important?"

I fought to not clasp my hands together, I had so many ideas.

Fisher continued. "Now I want this task to be thorough," he raised his eyebrows, scanning the room at the pairs he'd just created. "So that means you're going to be spending a lot of time together."

Awesome. So if having to be with the new boy wasn't punishment enough, I now had to hang with him on my personal time? Didn't Prof Fisher realize I have a social life? I don't need to be spending hours of my day with this Jay Halstead, I had better things to do.

If I didn't want to have to work outside of class, I was gonna try my hardest to get the work done while we were still in it.

I pushed my hair behind my ear and turned around to face Jay. He'd stopped writing, shock, and was staring at me instead. Like, staring at my body. It was as if he hadn't seen a girl before, like he was inspecting my skirt and my tank. I folded my arms across my chest.

"And just what do you think you're doing?" He jumped when I spoke, and I figured he hadn't realized I saw he was staring. His eyes went wide and he looked back at his notepad.

I tried hard not to laugh at his reaction, I was used to boys staring but not boys like Jay. He turned so quickly and I swear there was color that flushed his cheeks. It was almost like he was embarrassed that I caught him.

His notepad was full of written pages, so I reached across to move it closer. In an attempt to read what he'd already written. No doubt he'd picked something or someone and I'd have no idea who they were. My hand reached the spine of the notepad before he tugged it back in his direction. I found it weird.

I raised my eyebrows at him, but he still didn't look back at me. "You've kinda gotta share if it's a group project." I notioned towards the book and laughed. "Come on, let's see what you've been working on."

It was like he didn't want me to see what he'd written already and made no attempt to let me see what was in the book. When I stopped with the question, he finally lifted his head and looked at me again. This time, he managed to find my face.

I realized I'd never heard him speak before, so was surprised when I heard the out-of-town accent.

"That's not for this class, it's … other stuff." His voice was quiet but I managed to figure the New Yorker in him.

"Okay, fine." I crossed my legs beneath the desk and rested my elbows on top of it. Jay's eyes travelled to where my tank had dropped, but he averted his eyes when I cleared my throat. "So did you have ideas for this one? Maybe you should work on stuff for this class in this class." I got that he was the new kid, but I wasn't gonna work by myself on this. He was going to have to put work in too.

He looked a little taken back, but I hadn't said it to be harsh. I just figured if we got work done here, I would have to spend time with him outside of class. I saw him turn to a different section in his notepad.

"I have a few maybe you could look at them?" This time, he slid the pages towards me and I felt my eyes widen as I looked at his list. There must have been twenty or so individuals on there, and I hadn't heard of any of them. I felt my brow furrow as I continued to look down the page. There were names at the end that I did recognize.

"Shakespeare?" I turned my head towards him. "Really?"

"I like Shakespeare." He said bluntly.

As if he could be any more of a nerd. "I am not writing about Shakespeare. How about Coco Chanel?"

"Who?"

Was he serious? He didn't know who Coco Chanel was? One of the most famous fashion designers to ever have lived? Had this boy been living under a rock? Was he having me on?

By the look he was giving me, he wasn't. He was waiting for me to answer him. Oh God, he was serious.

I rolled my eyes, trying to hide it from him but I think he saw. "Okay so Coco Chanel is a no-go." I scanned the rest of his list quickly and didn't have a clue who the majority of the names were. I must have been too quiet for too long because he spoke to me soon after.

"Come on Brooke Davis, you must have ideas on who you want to write about. Somebody who I might know too."

Oh so he could talk. His accent was kind of mesmorizing to me, the kind I'd only heard before in movies and the kind I thought ceased to exist in real life.

I quickly told myself to snap out of that mindset, telling myself that the accent was the only attractive thing about him. For sakes, he was the new kid.

"Well, I don't." I shrugged, registering the fact he was still staring at my face. I was stuck with this creep who didn't know what personal space was, knew nothing when it came to famous fashionistas and apparently liked to stare.

There was no way I was going to do this project on somebody like Shakespeare, i couldn't understand his stupid language and I had no intention of changing that. At the same time, it was apparent Jay wouldn't write on someone from the fashion industry either. I realized we had to find common ground and we had to find it quickly.

It was a harder task than I imagined. Who knew two people could be so different. Every possibility I brought up was a no-go for him.

"Brad Pitt?" Everyone knew who Brad Pitt was.

Jay scrunched up his face. "Ass." I watched as he shook his head, dismissing again my idea from the circle.

The fact that he cursed made me laugh. He'd barely strung two sentences together to talk to me and apparently already felt comfortable enough to cuss. I didn't know how to respond, but I think he heard me laughing. "I didn't think you'd be one to swear," I shrugged, maybe thinking I'd gotten his character wrong. I'd been guilty of doing that in the past and God only knows how many times people had done it to me.

"You clearly don't know me well enough then Brooke Davis." (Okay, hello ballsy!) "And I think we have to change that."

Okay, this was the point where I didn't know what to respond. He'd gone from the quiet new kid to my lab partner and somebody who told me to get to know him. And after the way he spoke, I kind of did. I did want to know more about him. He clearly wasn't the shy kid I'd got the vibes of. There was something there that was intriguing.

I opened my mouth to respond, to tell him we had to find common interest for this project. It just kind of ended up hanging in the air, because the school bell sounded before I got the chance.

It was the end of the school day, I was going home but Jay clearly had somewhere to be. I watched him as he quickly gathered together his stuff and shoved them in his bag. He headed back to the other desk to retrieve his jacket before sliding his arms through it then putting his rucksack around his shoulders.

Just as I thought he was about to leave without saying anything, I felt a hot breath beside my ear.

"I'll see you around Brooke Davis." With that, he walked away.

I fought hard to ignore the shiver I felt travel my spine, packed together my things and headed for my car.

Peyton Sawyer was waiting for me when I got there. Shoot, I'd forgotten I'd carpooled my best friend in today. She was leaning against the trunk and stood as soon as she saw me.

"Hey B Davis there you are. Where have you been?" She threw her hands on her hips, as if she was allowed to scold me for being late. That was always her job.

I raised my eyebrows at her. "I've been in class," I said as I unlocked the doors. "Now get in, I wanna leave."

"Okay feisty, what got into you? What class did you just come from?" She said as she shut the door at her side.

"Professor Fisher's," I rolled my eyes as I spoke and I heard her groan in response. We both knew what Professor Fisher was like, if his class was last period then we were never out on time.

"I should have known," she commented as I put the car in drive. "What did he have you guys doing today?"

P Sawyer had to know every last detail when we didn't have class together. I kept my eyes on the road and we made it out of the school parking lot.

"He paired us to do a project on-"

"Who did he put you with?" She cut in, obviously making sure I hadn't left class with a new BFF or something. Of course, that would never happen.

"He put me with Jay Halstead, you know.. the new kid."

"Oh the new kid! What's he like?"

I struggled for a second to find the right adjectives to describe him. I couldn't tell her the trth yet, until I figured out the truth myself. "He seems nice."

Peyton raised her eyebrows. She knew me and she knew when I was bullshitting. "He seems nice?"

"Yeah," I pretended to focus extra hard on the road in front of me but I could feel her eyes burning the side of my face. "What?"

As soon as I turned to face her, she pretended not to be looking at me. She stared straight ahead. "Oh, nothing."

"No come on, what is it?"

"I know that look, B Davis. There's something you're not telling me. You think he's cute."

I gasped at her. "I do not think he's cute!"

"See that there, that's denial. You think he's cuuute." She repeated.

"No I do no-" I fought to protest.

"Yes you do." Okay fine Peyton you win.

"Fine. I guess he's cute."

"Aha! I knew it! So a project together huh? That means spending time together. What's Brad going to think?"

She finished her sentence just as I reached home. Brad's truck was already in my driveway. I wanted to groan, but not in front of Peyton.

"Relax," I said. "I said he was cute, not that I wanted to date him."

Peyton said nothing as we got out of the car, but I swore I saw a smirk on her face.

So I hope y'all enjoy this one. Please Review!