Chapter 1:
"Ann… Ann..." the monotonous voice of Mr. Marzgram cut through the Tuesday morning air with just a hint of annoyance. "Ann… Miss Fields… Miss Ann Fields!"
The blonde jumped to attention as Rachael Thornton poked her side breaking her trance that Logan Donner, the young star quarter back and pitcher for the campus, possessed over the entire female population.
"Yes, Mr. Marzgram?" Ann responded quietly.
Mr. Marzgram cleared his throat before repeating the question he had stated only moments before. "During Act II¸ how do the Romans feel?"
"Uh… well the Romans…uh…" Ann stated as she frantically flipped through her Julius Caesar book. "Um… well, Logan whom everyone loved was the pride of Rome…" Ann paused at the laughter around her. She looked behind her with a questioning face to her best friend Rachael Thornton who was trying to hold back a magnitude of laughter.
"Logan or Julius Caesar, Miss Fields? Which does Rome love more?" Mr. Marzgram asked with a twisted, amused smirk.
Ann looked down at her desk; her face had just turned beat red, and "Julius Caesar" she mumbled. And to save her from any further embarrassment, time was up to her morning English 1030 class at U-of-I.
As Rachael and Ann packed up their bags, Rachael burst into laughter. "I cannot believe you said that!"
"I know!" said Ann, "it was so embarrassing". As the two best friends were about to leave the room, Logan Donner grabs Ann's arm.
"So all of Rome loves me huh?" he asked with a cocky half smile.
"Uh, sorry about that, I didn't mean to say that out loud," Ann said with her face turning bright red once again.
"No worries, I found it quite entertaining," he said with a wink. "So Ann, do you want to come to my tent tonight? I'll show you my instrument," he said with a grin.
"What? Are you kidding me? She yelled in shock. "What kind of girl do you think I am? I'm not going to have sex with you when we aren't even dating Logan!"
"Woah girl, it was a joke. I'm just messing around. But seriously, do you want to come over tonight? I'll have the room to myself for a few hours; we can hang out and watch a movie?" Logan said.
"Sure!" she said delightfully.
"Okay hun, be over around 7," Logan said, his face brightening with a smile. Logan then smiles even more and walked out of the room, leaving the two girls alone together.
" What just happened?" Ann said turning to Rachael.
"I believe Logan just asked you into his 'tent' tonight"
"Oh shit Rachael! I have nothing to wear, I don't know what to do!" Ann said in a flustered voice.
"I guess we are going shopping once classes are over" Rachael said, excited to max out her credit card. The girls then walked to their next class discussing what Ann should wear to Logan's that night.
It was finally Rachael's last class of the day. She was sitting in her Communications class daydreaming about her current boyfriend Cameron Richardson and the great night they had before.
She had spent the night underneath the bleachers after the school had just won their homecoming football game. It was the time of her life until they got caught. Luckily it was just the running back Jason Owens who decided to walk by at the worst moment. Rachael, an earnest and accomplished young woman, had already made it through half of the football team at this point, and thankfully Jason was not one of them.
The whole freshman class thought that Rachael just slept with every hot guy on a sports team. The reality was that Rachael believed that she could find true love at U-of-I. Rachael usually dated almost an entire sports team each year ever since high school. It started off with the basketball players at her high school and has now escalated to the U-of-I football team. Cameron Richardson was already her seventh boyfriend that year but she still has yet to find that love she so desires.
As the brunette was daydreaming her way through COM, Ann was in the building over working on an experiment with her lab partner Jason Owens.
" Um, Jason how much hydrochloric acid do we need?" she asked confused.
"7 mL, make sure you add it to the mixture I just made." he responded.
"Oh, thank you," said Ann as she added the solutions together.
" So, I hear that Logan asked you out today," said Jason, leaning against the lab table to face her, the tight,bulky muscles in his arms clearly visible, as they were waiting for a chemical reaction to take place.
" Um, yeah he did. I am going over to his room tonight," she responded.
" Oh, ok. Just do me a favor and be careful. I'd hate to see an amazing girl get hurt."
" No worries, I'll be fine." Ann said with a slightly confused tone. She had no idea why Jason was acting this way towards her.
It was soon after that their Chemistry class had ended. Ann and Jason walked out together and met up with Rachael on the sidewalk across the street.
While Ann and Jason were mixing together solutions in Biology, Rachael was still off in her own little world in COM. She was sitting there with no idea that the class had just ended, doodling in her notebook. It was only when she heard someone yell her name that she snapped to attention. Rachael turned around to see that Mitchell Gavin was trying to get her attention.
"Are you okay?" he asked. "Oh yeah I'm fine, just not really paying attention," Rachael responded, packing up her things.
"Well, I guess I'll see you Wednesday then," Mitchell the red-head said while holding the door open for Rachael to pass through.
" Yeah, I'll talk to you later Mitch," Rachael said while she was walking towards Ann. Rachael then quickly ran over to her best friend and started walking to her black Buick LaCrosse to begin their shopping trip at the local mall.
Of course the first store hit in the was American Eagle, then came Rue 21, and next Deb. As the girls were in their last store, trying on dresses just for the fun of it, Rachael inquired, "Hey, Ann, are you nervous or something?"
"I-I'm nervous, I guess. Jocks tend to have a rep., ya know?" Ann hesitantly answered.
"Yea most do. But if Logan has one, it's small." Laughed Rachael.
"Oh, well if the female quickly creating a name for herself hasn't heard anything about the star sophomore, then I'm sure tonight will be G-rated."
"For your sake I would hope not. I would be disappointing."
Ann sighed as she hung back up on the rack the blue dress she had just tried on, "Yes, that would be a little disappointing."
Rachael put a hand on her friends shoulder, "you'll be fine. He's not your first, nor will he be th last unless your lucky."
"Thanks, Rae. Just cause you can't find your 'soul-mate'. But I know everything will be fine and dandy."
"Now, that's the spirit. Make sure you keep the control." Rachael told her with a wink.
Laughing Ann grabbed her hand in mock excitement and teased, "And then we can double-date just like we always joked about."
"Eh, don't get your hopes up, Annie dear." Rachael told the girl.
"What? Cameron not living up?" Ann asked with amusement.
"I don't know. It just has changed. There seems to be only one thing he wants…"
"And one thing is not all we want." Ann finished. She wrapped an arm around the girl as they exited out of the doors. "Don't worry, you'll find him one day, Hon. There's gotta be someone in this big wide world – for the both of us."
"I hope your right, cause I'm getting tired of this game."Rachael replied.