Um... Thanx 4 all reviews!

_____________________________________________________________________________


By fifth period Ren had heard the rumors circulating about her "boyfriend", and was severely pissed off. It had prevented all the boys from responding to any flirting she did. She decided to break this little rumor.

She went out by the bleachers, sat down, and started to weep. She had been crying only a minute and a half before a boy approached. It was Brett Marshall. He was not only the hottest boy in the entire school, but junior teacher's assistant for the Spanish professor, AND he had his own band. A lot of girls had gotten the sudden urge to learn how to say the Spanish alphabet, but so far, Brett had remained unattached.

YES!!!! thought Ren as she saw him.

"What's wrong? Your name's Ren, right? Ren Stevens?" Brett was so close, she could smell his cologne.

"Yeah, that's my name. MY BOYFRIEND JUST BROKE UP WITH ME!!!!!" she made a show of breaking out in fresh sobs.

"Oh. Well, I'm sure he wasn't THAT great of a guy. Most of the boys are saying he's a muscle-bound jerk who wouldn't leave you alone." Brett said. He put his arm around her and pulled her close.

She looked up. "Yeah, he was pretty bad. Your name's Brett, right?"

I wonder if Larry's watching now. Ren thought.


Larry was on th other side of the bleachers, watching Ren and Brett with avid interest. He watched Brett put his moves on Ren, and felt like he could drop him off a cliff without any remorse.

"Yo, Dude!" It was Kevin. Larry stiffened.

"I heard Ren and her big bad boyfriend broke up. Help me think of something." Kevin said to Larry.

"Hmmm.... Ok, what if I sent her flowers?" Kevin sat down on the bench next to him.

"No way, dude. She's allergic." Larry remembered the time he put a huge bouquet of daisies in her locker, just to make her sneeze all day.

"What about candy? Oh, I can send her some of those really awesome toffees from–"

"No way. Bad braces incident." Larry remembered that, too. Her teeth were stuck together because the braces were covered in the caramel. He nearly died laughing.

"Well, what about a nice stuffed animal?"

"Man, with Ren you can't be 'traditional'. You have to focus on what she likes." Larry barely knew the words were coming from his own mouth. "She likes Shakespeare. She likes opera. She likes the kind of things that hardly any other girl likes in this day and age. She's special. Traditional. You gotta treat her with respect."

"If you know her so well, than YOU can ask her out." Kevin got up and left.

No way, Larry thought. Never gonna happen.

Still, how did he know so much about her? Had he really been watching her THAT close?

And what about her?


Ren was walking on air by the end of the day. Brett had cheered her up, cursed off her "ex-boyfriend", and asked her out. All in less than twenty minutes. Oh, this is soooooo Awesome!! Wait! Stop thinking ditzy! You're already talking like one, you don't want to become one!!! Stupid bet. Ren thought. However, she still didn't come down from her cloud nine,... UNTIL, that is, she bumped into a certain "Mr. I'm-So-Cool". Larry caught her arm before she fell flat on her face. She looked straight into his eyes, seeing the silent challenge within, and quickly straightened herself before speaking.

"Like, hey! I was just totally looking for you! Like, where were you?" She loved annoying him with her ditz act. She saw a glimmer of something in his eye, but she couldn't quite see what emotion it was. Anger? Annoyance? Amusement? It was gone before she could tell.

"Time out on the bet for a minute, Ren. Just answer these questions." Larry still gripped her arm.

"Larry, what's going–"

"Just answer them, Ok? First one: How long did Brenda Gibson and I go out?"

"Uh... That slut? Three weeks. Why?" Ren said, confused.

"What were the last two awards I received?"

"Scholastic Achievement and our school magazine's Sexiest Smile. That stupid picture in the school newspaper, the one where Wexler was giving you the award, was courtesy of me, by the way." What was wrong with him? Why was he asking her all these questions?

"OK, what was my grade average last year?"

"Uh, A+, same as mine. Larry, tell me what's going on?"

Larry let go of Ren's arm and put on his usual smirk.

"Bet on." he said as he put on his glasses and walked away.


They were all right! Every last one of her answers! How? Larry was the most confused person in the world right then. He knew all about her, and from the looks of it, she knew all about him. What was with him? It's just Ren! Ren, with her sexy smirk, and chocolate eyes...STOP DUDE!!! YOU'RE DOING IT AGAIN!!!! He decidded to check out the test scores for writing. She couldn't be tied with him in BOTH subjects... could she?

He went up to the board, and saw the only two A+'s by their names.

Does that girl ever get tired of being such a genius? He thought.

Smiling, he took his seat and prepared for the next lesson.