Chapter Three

Chloe sleepily made her way into her first period Life Skills class. She had only gotten one hour of sleep due to her mom and Lucas' incessant arguing. She had thought about taking one of Chase's sleeping bags and going up to the roof but sided against it. Chloe let her eyes scan the room for any sign of Carter since Life Skills was one of the classes they had together but didn't see him. However, she did see Nathan Karakis, he was Chase's other close friend and Philip Karakis' only son. To say they occasionally couldn't get along was putting it mildly; they had a long screwy history. For example, even back in pre-school while most of the boys went out of their way to protect her Nathan was the one that got enjoyment out of pulling her hair and chasing her around the playground. As they got older, he started asking her out but she kept saying no and she had more than one reason, he had gotten a reputation as a skirt chaser plus, he was popular. That fact alone meant she didn't have any chance of being with him. There was a small group of popular kids in the whole school. One of the other popular kids she had problems with was Ashley but it really wasn't worth the time to explain their whole history. To sum it up they had pretty much hated each other since grade school and once they got in the higher grades boys got involved and that only fueled their hate for each other. Chloe's thoughts were interrupted by Nathan plopping down in his seat and leaning in closer to her as if he were going to whisper something in her ear. Before he could do so, Chloe turned to her left so she could face him.

"What do you want?" Chloe asked coldly.

"You know I might ask you out again if you would stop being so defensive,"

"What do you want Nathan?" Chloe repeated ignoring his attempt to flirt with her.

Before Nathan could respond Mrs. Holmer the Life skills teacher walked into the room and instructed the students to open up their textbooks to page 215.

Chloe held back a groan once she realized she had forgotten to get her Life Skills book out of her locker. She looked in the direction of the desk on her left to see a girl whose name she couldn't remember but she knew she had a reputation for being a blabber mouth and then she looked to the left of her and there was Nathan. It was a lose-lose but she guessed Nathan was the better choice.

"Nathan," Chloe whispered trying to catch his attention.

Nathan quickly turned his attention away from the textbook and looked at her.

"Did you change your mind and you actually on wanting to go out with me already?"

Chloe rolled her eyes in annoyance.

"You're unbelievable, does every word out of your mouth have to be a freakin' come on?"

"That's what I'm told," Nathan replied ignoring her second comment.

Chloe rolled her eyes and muttered something under her breath while thinking of what a huge jerk Nathan was.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the teacher speaking up.

"Chloe, Nathan is there something more important than this assignment that needs to be discussed?"

Chloe's first thought was

"No Mrs. Holmer there isn't a problem I was just answering a question Nathan had about the assignment,"

Mrs. Holmer nodded.

"Well since you two were talking in class you two have are going to be partnered up for this assignment," Mrs. Holmer said handing each of them a flyer.

Chloe read the top of the flyer and automatically knew she was in big trouble.

The flyer read: Get to know you project

Write down 5 questions you want to ask your partner on note cards.

Then go to a secluded spot in your school.

Start the questioning forgetting any of the preconceived notions you had about that person.

After you finish you are to write a report on what you learned about that person and share it with the class.

This is due on Friday and is worth half of your Life Skills grade.

Chloe glanced in Nathan's direction. It was official: She had a big problem.

EJ sighed as he sat on the couch of the apartment and mindlessly flipped through the TV stations. He was supposed to be at Mythic trying to clear up the mess with the SEC but, he had called in sick because over the weekend he had started to not feel very well and during the night had developed a fever but the truth was, maybe it was a good thing because he really needed a break from work. He clicked the off button on the remote control, sat it on the table next to the couch, and caught a glimpse of a picture of a five-year-old Chase holding a blue cast in his hand. EJ just shook his head as he remembered what happened that made Chase have to get that cast…

EJ walked into Chase's bedroom and sat on the edge of the small sized bed stretching out his long legs.

"My leg hurts," Chase complained pointing to the blue cast on his right leg that stopped at his knee.

"Well it probably will hurt for a while you fell on it pretty hard,"

"I shouldn't have jumped off your bed," Chase admitted lowering his head in an attempt to avoid EJ's gaze.

"No, you shouldn't have you could've really hurt yourself,"

"I'm sorry,"

"I know you are, just don't do it again okay?"

Chase simply nodded.

EJ smiled and ruffled Chase's dark black hair before leaving the room.

EJ smiled, he was sure if he had been given the chance during his childhood he would've done some---most of the things Chase had done. EJ had always swore that when he had kids he wouldn't repeat his fathers mistake of training his children to be a certain way, he would just let them be their own person and make their own mistakes. He would just have to hope they would learn from them and not do repeat them over again. EJ sighed and reclined on the couch soon falling into a light sleep.

Later that evening Chloe and Sami were sitting in the living room watching their favorite episode of Greys Anatomy while Chase was in his room working on the Life skills project, he ended up getting paired up with Joy, Chloe Lanes younger sister and Lucas was out doing god knows what. Chloe really didn't care. Watching Greys Anatomy was usually Chloe's time to relax but she couldn't seem to, maybe it was because she knew she'd have to spend an hour with Nathan, or maybe it was because of what Lucas had told her. Maybe it was a combo of both things.

"Mom, I need to vent,'

Sami automatically turned her attention on Chloe.

"Okay what's wrong sweetie?"

Chloe didn't say anything she just handed Sami the flyer her teacher had given her earlier.

Sami quickly scanned her eyes over the flyer.

"I don't see any problem, this actually sounds fun,"

"Yeah it would be if I had a better partner," Chloe grumbled.

"Who's your partner?"

"Nathan Karakis," Chloe replied.

Sami nodded.

"Oh ok, so this is because you got paired up with a guy you like,"

Chloe gave a horrified expression.

"That's not the problem, I so don't like him, and he's a jerk!"

Sami held back a laugh and nodded.

"Well think about what the projects about, it's to get to know that person better. Maybe you'll realize he's not as big of a jerk as he lets on," Sami advised.

Chloe nodded.

"Yeah maybe,"

After that they went back to watching Greys Anatomy in silence.