Jackson sat in his Algebra 2 class not paying attention at all. His teacher, Mrs. Portman, was going on about integers. Or, well, he thought that was what she was talking about. He couldn't remember what was going on five minutes ago.

Knock Knock

"Come in," Mrs. Portman called out.

The door opened two seconds later to reveal a girl that caught Jackson's eye. Her hair was chestnut brown and curled around her high cheekbones. She wore an off the shoulder purple tee and capris that was fitted quite well over her legs. Her arms were full of books and nearly tipped out when she walked up to the teacher to give her a not.

"Hello. Are you Mrs. Portman?"

"Yes," she confirmed taking the note. "You must be our new student Nadia."

Nadia nodded giving the class a wide nervous smile.

"You can just go ahead and sit next to Jackson." Mrs. Portman pointed in his direction.

Nadia grabbed a few strands of hair and pulled it behind her ear walking over and settling her books. She turned her head and gave Jackson another soft smile.

"Nadia," Mrs. Portman called out, "do you think you can handle this?" She a gestured to the white board consisting of a large algebraic problem. "You don't have to take the test Monday if you don't think you're ready."

"No, I think I'll be fine. We already covered this."

She nodded and went back to explaining the problem. Jackson then turned his head, looked at Nadine and gave her an extremely flirtatious smile.

"Hello, can I ask you something? What's the name of your perfume? 'Catch of the day'?"

She ignored him completely, he had simply hoped that she hadn't noticed. He leaned over and grabbed the tag on the back of her shirt.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Yep, made in heaven!"

"Jackson!" Mrs. Portman exclaimed. "Keep quiet." She then turned back around to the board.

Nadia focused back to the board and pulled out a green notebook writing the problem. Jackson tried to think of another strategy to get her attention.

BZZZ

There was the bell. Jackson ran up to Nadine seeing as she had already made it out of the classroom. He startled her when he grabbed her shoulder.

"Hey, I'm Jackson." Maybe, he hoped, the straight up approach would work better. Everything else was unsuccessful, what did he have to lose?

"Nadia," she said back.

"So are you new in town?"

She nodded. "Yeah, I'm from North Carolina."

"Hey, I love it there! I've been to Myrtle Beach once. There is only one way to describe it: beautiful."

"Uh…" she sighed, "that's South Carolina, not North."

He bit his lip in embarrassment. "Yeah, well, let's just forget about that," he said leaning his outstretched arms to the wall. Unfortunately, he slipped causing his books to fall along with himself.

"Oh!" she cried laughing. Nadine squatted down to help him with his books. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he said grabbing her hand to pick himself up.

"I'm sorry. I feel horrible for laughing."

"No," he said. Jackson went down to pick up his other book. "Don't worry, it's not your fault."

"Thanks. Anyway, can I ask you a question? Do you know where locker number 619 is?"

He pointed down the hall. "Go down, make a left, and pass the stairs. I think that's where it is."

"Thanks again. Oh, well, I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah," he said smiling gleefully.

Nadine raced passed the various students down the hall as Jackson watched her frantic movements.

OoOoO

A group of freshmen were crowding around and gossiping. Miley walked up to them and reached in for Lily and Oliver. They came out with a guilty smile. "Hi, Miley," they said in unison.

"What did I tell you guys about gossiping?"

They looked at her with extreme guilt. They mumbled words trying to avoid the subject.

"Without telling me first. Now what's up in the news?" She smiled evilly awaiting their answers.

"It's about the new girl," Lily said.

"Yeah," Oliver added, "people say she's from Russia and her family's super strict. She's said to have a thick accent."

Miley groaned. "I hate it when people start rumors about the new kid. You both know I was that way once. All alone, not knowing a soul."

Lily snapped her fingers in front of Miley's face. "Miley! Snap out of it," she demanded breaking her of her deep daze. "Let's get going, we don't want to be late for class."

They went to class casually and waited for Mr. Corelli to start class. Just as the bell rang, Nadia ran in panting.

"I'm sorry for being late, Mr. Corelli. I'm not in trouble, am I?"

"No, no. Just find an empty seat wherever."

She was exhausted as she walked slowly nervous. Lily, Miley, Oliver, and several other students looked back at her.

When Oliver saw her it felt like he couldn't breathe, nor did he really want to. He watched as her brown hair flowed past her bare shoulders. He couldn't keep his eyes off of her.

"Oliver!" Lily demanded. "Breathe, boy, breathe!"

He took a deep breath before nearly collapsing. But still, Oliver couldn't keep his mind off…

He didn't even know her name. He sat there nervously as she sat her books on the chair next to his in the back of the room.

Mr. Corelli's phone buzzed right then as he took it out and sighed. "Students! I have to get going. My mother locked herself out of the house. Again. You all know the drill, don't go anywhere until after the bell, don't make too much noise, and you don't say a thing and I won't say a thing."

He rushed through his statement as quickly as he rushed through the class. As soon as he did the students pulled out various MP3s, Phones, and other electronic devices.

"He just lets you guys alone?" Nadia asked looking in Oliver's direction.

Oliver only smiled without saying a thing. This gave Nadia an extremely creeped out feeling.

Miley, who sat in front of Oliver, gave him a quick slap on the side of his head before giving Nadia a comforting smile.

"I'm sorry about Oliver. Don't mind Mr. Corelli either, he's always like that." She extended her hand. "I'm Miley. What's your name?"

Nadia shook her hand, and then Lily's when she offered it. "I'm Nadia."

"Lily," Lily said. "So you must be the new girl."

"Yeah. Today's my first day."

For some reason, Olive finally snapped out of his seemingly everlasting gaze. "I'm sorry, I'm Oliver."

"Nadia."

His gaze started to come back just as Lily clapped her hands in front of face to prevent it.