I quickly glanced down at my watch – 8.35am. Great, I was late for school again. No thanks to Sleepy and his rusty pile of junk he likes to call a car. We eventually arrived outside the front of the school and I grabbed my bag and slammed the door behind me, ignoring Sleepy's apologies.

After running recklessly through the corridors, I rounded one of the corners a little too quickly and almost crashed into Father D.

"Susannah! How many times must I tell you, stop running through the corridors"

I turned around and noticed he was pointing a finger warningly in my direction.

"Sorry Father D, it won't happen again" I replied, trying to sound believable.

He simply rolled his eyes and turned back to the people he was conversing with. Kelly Prescott, I noticed, was one of them. She was standing there with a smug look upon her face. The guy next to her however, was smiling at me. It wasn't a rude smile like Kelly would give you, no, his seemed polite and genuine. Where did he come from? I definitely hadn't seen this guy around here before I thought to myself.

"Shouldn't you be making your way to class, Miss Simon?" Father D suddenly interrupted my thoughts.

"Yep, right on it" I turned and headed over to my locker to get my books out.

Not that I was eavesdropping but I couldn't' help but overhear Father D's conversation between himself, Kelly and the new guy.

"So I trust you'll take good care of our new student. Make sure you show him around and make his feel welcome"

"I will Father. You can count on me!" Kelly replied a little too enthusiastically.

"Alright, well I suppose you should start by showing him to his locker. I hope you enjoy your time with us Mr. De Silva"

"Thank you Father Dominic. I'm sure it will be a pleasant experience" The new guy replied.

Hmm, it sounds like he's got a Spanish accent I thought to myself as I searched for my maths text book.

"Ok then, what number have you got?" Kelly asked in her high pitched, flirty voice.

"81" He replied.

I widened my eyes – mine is 85! As they approached, I continued rattling through my locker, determined to find that damn maths book.

"Oh… you're right here" Kelly said, noticing how close his was to mine.

"Excellent" The new guy said as I heard him open up the locker to check it out.

I glanced over to the left to take another look at this guy. When suddenly one of my books fell over and created a domino effect, causing everything to fall out onto the floor.

"Oh, shoot!" I muttered as I tried to catch some of them in mid flight.

Kelly thought it was hilarious and started laughing. "You're a total klutz!"

I sighed, and felt slightly embarrassed as I quickly piled the books back into my locker. Suddenly, the new guy rushed over and bent down.

"Here, you look like you could do with some help" He said, gathering up the rest of the books off the corridor floor.

"Oh, thanks" I said, watching in awe at his tanned muscular arms.

"No problem" He smiled, placing them neatly where they belong.

"Hold on -" I reached out and took my maths book from his grasp. My hand briefly brushed his for a second. "I need this one"

"I believe that I have mathematics now as well. Isn't that right Kelly?" He asked without taking his eyes off me. "We might be in the same class"

Kelly cleared her throat. "There are two maths classes running at the moment, so you're more likely to be in mine. Look, we better get going before Suze bores you to death"

"Soose?" He questioned, crinkling his nose in disgust. "I thought Father Dominic called you Susannah?"

"Um, well yeah, that's my full name. But I prefer Suze"

"Susannah suits you better"

"Kelly coughed loudly and placed her manicured fingers on his upper arm. "Come on, let's go already!"

The new guy obliged and followed her down the corridor, but not before taking a glance over his shoulder at me. I stood there feeling a little stunned. Ok, what just happened? And after all that, I didn't ask for his first name. I sighed and quickly made my own way to class. Everyone looked up from their text books as I opened the door. Mr. Walton stopped writing on the blackboard and turned to face me.

"Miss Simon. How nice of you to finally join us"

"I'm sorry Mr. Walton, um… Father D stopped to talk to me in the corridor and -"

"I'm tired of hearing excuses young lady. You're always late for first period"

Suddenly the door opened behind me, and in stepped that new Spanish guy. He looked a little nervous as he ran a hand through his dark brown hair.

"Hello, may I help you?" Mr. Walton asked.

"Please excuse me but I'm new, and I was told that I am supposed to be in this class"

"Ah, you must be Mr. De Silva. Father Dominic informed me we were getting a new student"

The new guy nodded and stepped forward so that he was now standing beside me. Mr. Walton walked over to his desk and wrote his name down on the roll.

"So, looks like you weren't in Kelly's class after all?" I whispered.

He gave me a small smile and whispered back "Guess not"

"What is you're first name?" Mr. Walton asked.

"Jesse" He replied, once again without taking his eyes off me. It was as if he was personally telling me his name.

"Alright, there's an empty seat up the back next to Adam" Mr. Walton added.

Jesse finally took his gaze off me and walked towards the back of the room to the empty seat.

"As for you, Miss Simon, I'm going to have to give you an after school detention. Maybe this will make you think twice about coming late to my class again" Mr. Walton said, pulling out a green detention slip.

Before I had the chance to protest, Jesse had already started talking.

"If you don't mind me saying Sir, I was the one who was partly responsible for holding Susannah up in the corridor…"

Mr. Walton waved his hand in the air. "Ok, I'll let you off this time. But make sure you arrive on time from now on" He said to me in an annoyed tone.

"Yes, Sir" I replied hastily.

I turned and made my way to my seat next to Cee Cee, noticing her excited facial expression. Just before I sat down, I mouthed 'thank you' to Jesse who was sitting at the desk behind Cee Cee.

'What was all that about?' Cee Cee wrote down on a piece of scrap paper for only me to see.

'Nothing' I scribbled underneath her message.

'That was not nothing! You should have seen the way he was looking at you' She wrote back.

I ignored her and started to copy down the equations off the black board.

"So, which school did you used to go to?" I heard Adam ask behind me.

"I've actually been home schooled my whole life" Jesse replied.

"Are you serious? Geez some get it easy" Adam scoffed.

"It hasn't been easy. My father is a strict man and -"

Mr. Walton coughed, motioning for Jesse to be quiet. Adam muttered something incoherent under his breath.

The rest of the lesson went rather quick, and before I knew it the bell rang.

"What have you girls got next?" Adam asked, standing beside me.

I stood up as I gathered my things and double checked my timetable. "We've both got art. You?"

"Sport" Adam sighed. "Remind me why I took that again? It's killing me"

Cee Cee laughed. "You said you wanted to get fit didn't you?"

"Hmm. Starting to regret that…" He said, rubbing his back.

I tuned out of the conversation and noticed that Jesse was still seated, studying his timetable.

"Are you alright? You look slightly confused"

He looked up directly into my eyes, and then back down at the piece of paper.

"I am having a little difficulty understanding this…"

"That's ok. Let me see if I can help" I said as he handed me his timetable. "It's the least I can do, seeing as though you helped me with my locker crisis this morning"

He chuckled and stood up in front of me. I looked up for a moment, realising how tall he actually was up against me. Forcing my gaze back onto the paper, I swallowed and explained it to him.

"As you can see you've got the columns labeled from Monday to Friday, and the rows are labeled from periods 1 – 4. Now it gets confusing because in each box, they put the first two letters of your subject, then you've got which room it's in, and then you've got the teacher's initials"

I stopped and looked up at him. He was studying the page, gently nodding his head. I looked back down at the page again.

"Ok, so let's see what you have next" I guided my finger to the appropriate box. "Ph… Wow, you're studying Physics"

"Yes, I find it quite fascinating" He informed me.

"Ok…" I scanned the rest of his sheet, seeing what else he took. "You do enjoy you're science don't you, you're studying Chemistry as well… And extension Maths, geez! Why would you want to do extra Maths, are you crazy?" I laughed a little.

He seemed a little uncomfortable with my laughter perhaps, so I stopped abruptly.

"Well, I thought those subjects might help with my future career"

"I see… You must be intelligent. What are you planning on becoming? A doctor or something?"

"Funny you should say that, because -"

"Jesse!" The sound of Kelly's hideous voice filled the air, causing him to stop what he was saying.

I rolled my eyes and handed back his timetable. "So you think you'll be alright with that?"

"I hope so. Thank you for taking the time to show me, Susannah"

"Argh! Don't listen to a word she says, this one isn't very smart you know" Kelly said, fiddling with one of her blonde curls.

I called her a bitch as I walked past, just loud enough for her to hear. She huffed and stomped her foot like a spoilt brat. I thought I heard Jesse call my name, but as I stepped outside, there were too many voices muffling the air. I might have imagined hearing it.