Oh my goodness! It's like I've been gone for years! Okay, I haven't updated my story in months due to the lack of internet access. It's completely lame and I'm stuck without it for who knows how long. So, I'm trying to see if this is going to work. If it does, this will be one of the few updates I'll make until I get the internet back. I hope I get it back soon, because I know you guys have been waiting for the next chapters. So, hopefully this works and you have something to read for a while. Thanks for being so patient everyone! Peace.

-goodfortune14

Chapter 4

The second day of school always seemed to be worse than the first. Everyone was too excited about seeing their friends, and finding who was in their classes to really realize that another school year was starting. It wasn't until the second day of school that everyone felt that the school year was now in motion. Troy also didn't delay in his usual underclassmen tortures; starting out his morning by once again, bothering Seth.

"Such idiots." Seth muttered, walking away from his locker, Troy, Sean, and a few other members of the wrestling team stood near Seth's locker, watching him walk away. They had pushed Seth out of their way and dumped everything Seth had in is locker onto the hallway floor. Seth just couldn't find a way to make them stop picking on him, but he didn't want to deal with them the whole year.

Seth went through his first couple of classes, not really paying any attention to what was going on. He sat next to Mahea in physics when he got in the class. Mrs. Parker quickly got the class settled when the bell rang and took the attendance.

"So I assume this is where you've all decided to sit." She said to the class. "Then if you can, fill in this seating chart as it comes around." She passed the seating chart to the student nearest to her desk in the front of the room. As the seating chart went around, she checked off the few students who already had their books covered.

"Wow, that's awesome." Mahea said to Seth, leaning over to see him drawing on his textbook.

Seth was sketching out several music bands' names on the back of his book. He looked up and smiled at her. "Thanks." He replied. "You into this kinda music too?" He asked.

She nodded. "Oh yeah. I actually like a lot of different kinds of music. But mostly classic rock, 80's rock, alternative rock and pop, stuff like that." She told him.

"Me too." Seth said.

"But sometimes I can't help listening to a bunch of other music too. Oldies, ballads, 70's stuff, I grew up with lots of different kinds of music with my parents." She said.

"My parents were kinda boring when it came to music." He told her.

Mahea shrugged. "All parents are boring in something or another."

"Yeah, I know. But now it's only my mom who's boring." He said, his tone of voice changing. "My dad was killed a while ago." He told her.

Mahea nodded, looking at her feet. "I'm sorry to hear that." She replied. "I know what it's like to lose someone close." Seth looked up at her. "It was my grandpa, years ago." She said. "I mean, I know grandparents pass away and all, but I was really close to him. He taught me all sorts of things. It was just so sad when he died."

After everyone filled out the seating chart, she instructed the class to go to a lab table and pick a partner. Everyone quickly raced to the tables.

"You wanna be my partner?" Mahea asked, standing up.

Seth looked up at her and smiled back. "Sure." He replied, relived she asked him, since he didn't know how to ask her. They found the last remaining lab table, since everyone was already paired off and comfortably sitting on the stools at their lab tables.

Mrs. Parker had her students stay at their lab tables for the rest of the class since she went more in detail about their labs and the lab safety rules.

Lunch was just as busy as the day before. Mahea had stopped off at Claire's office before she went to lunch to let her know school was going okay so far. She quickly got her lunch once she got to the cafeteria and went to sit at Seth's table. They all started telling Mahea about the do's and don'ts at Chesapeake Heights, when a boy had been knocked into their table by Troy, making him drop his tray on Mahea's.

"Aww man, I'm so sorry." The boy said, getting to his feat quickly.

The initial surprise of the collision didn't hit Mahea until a few moments after it happened. Her tray with all her food was now covered by another tray of food.

"Oh no, it's okay." She turned to see Troy, the senior Reggie and Seth told her about, laughing in their direction. "It wasn't your fault." She picked up the empty plate and fork that fell next to her feet and placed it on his tray. That's when she looked up to see dark haired boy, with dark brown eyes and wavy hair looking at her. His shirt fit well on his body, his backpack fell nicely off his broad shoulders, and his long legs fit perfectly in his long black jeans.

"Sorry about that." He said, dusting off his jeans.

"No problem." She said softly, still looking at him. Everyone on the table, especially Seth noticed the look in Mahea's eyes as she looked at this boy. "You okay?" She asked him.

"Yeah." He answered, then finally looked at her. He looked up her and down, then smiled. "Uh, I'm Damien." He introduced himself, still smiling at her.

"I'm Mahea." She answered.

To break this awkward moment, Clarissa shifted in her seat. "You new around here?" She asked bluntly.

He lifted his head and looked at Clarissa. "Yeah, it's my first year here." He told them. "And I guess that was the welcoming committee or something." He said, making Mahea chuckle softly. He smiled at her, then said, "Well, I better get going." He picked up tray. "See ya."

"Bye." Mahea replied and watched him walk off. Seth looked at Mahea and then switched to Damien who was walking towards a trash can.

"That was weird." Dylan commented. Everyone seemed to go back to their lunch and their conversation.

Seth looked to see Damien turn around and glance one more time at Mahea before he walked out of the cafeteria. Seth didn't know why, but he already didn't like this Damien, even though he didn't know who he was. For some reason, he didn't like it when Damien smiled at Mahea that way.

In Theatre Performance, Shane had yet another 'ice breaker' game that took the whole class period to do. Each student had to write one famous person down on a piece of paper. Then three other classmates picked a paper, and tried to give hints to the person in the 'spotlight' about who they were.

"Wait, isn't this a game, wait, I saw it somewhere…" Dylan said before the game started.

Shane nodded and smiled. "So I might've taken this from Whose Line Is It Anyway." He confessed as a few laughs went around the room. "But it's still a good game."

Keith, a senior was first in the 'spotlight' and Julie, Mahea, and Reggie were his 'helpers' to help him find out who he was.

"So, does your top hat actually add to your height? Or are you actually that tall?" Reggie asked, emphasizing the word 'height'.

"Uh, no, the hat doesn't add to my height." Keith answered, thinking about what Reggie said.

"But what about your honesty? I mean, you must be really honest about everything, right?" Julie questioned.

Keith shrugged. "I guess so." Still trying to decipher these clues.

Mahea smiled, knowing he'd get it after she asked him this question. "And you like theatre right? You loved going with your wife to the theatre, didn't you? Watching from high above in the box seats?" She hinted.

Keith nodded his head. "Oh yeah, I love theatre, and my tall hat, and I'm real honest, since they now say "Honest Abe" after me, Abraham Lincoln." He smiled. The class clapped for the four students who stepped off the small stage, then a next set of students went up on the stage. The game went on for several rounds until the bell rang to end class.

Wednesday was just as the one before, the school mode finally kicking in. Seth, Mahea, Reggie, Dylan and Clarissa all met at the benches under a tree near the school entrance in the morning before going to their homeroom. Mahea told them she had to leave early to go to her locker, and Seth went along with her.

Mahea was closing her locker when she noticed someone standing next to her. She looked up and saw Troy, Sean, and a freshman, Cory, who was on the wrestling team.

"Well, I never was really into younger girls, but I think you'll be an exception." Troy said to Mahea, looking her up and down, grinning.

"Excuse me?" She asked sternly, not finding it as amusing as Sean and Cory were.

Troy smirked. "Maybe you might wanna hang out sometime."

Mahea raised one eyebrow at him. "No thanks." She answered.

"Oh c'mon, I can be a whole lot of fun." Troy said, gently touching Mahea's cheek, then she quickly slapped his hand away.

"Hey man, just leave us alone." Seth said, stepping in front of Mahea, looking at Troy.

Troy grunted. "Whoa, Creeper's standing up to me!" He said, acting surprised. "Why, are you with her?"

Seth looked around frantically. "Uh, no…" He said.

"Then I don't see why we can't hook up girl." He reached for Mahea's hand who snapped it away.

"Look, why don't you just get lost." Seth said strongly.

Troy looked at Seth for a few moments, then his eyes narrowed. "Why, what are you gonna do about it, huh, Creeper?" He said, pushing Seth's shoulders.

"Hey!" Shane said, making everyone turn to look at him. He walked up to where they were standing and crossed his arms over his chest. "Do we have a problem here?" He looked at Troy fiercely.

Troy took a few steps back. "No man, no problem."

"Good." Shane said. "Then get to class." Troy, Sean and Cory turned around and walked away. "You guys okay?" He asked Seth and Mahea. They nodded their heads. "Okay, well the bell's gonna ring, you better get to your homerooms." He told them, then walked off in Claire's office's direction.

"You didn't have to do that." Mahea said as they began to walk to their classroom.

Seth shrugged. "It's okay, it's not like I could do anything to make him hate me anymore." Seth said. "Besides, it wasn't cool, what he was trying to do." He said to her.

Mahea nodded. "Yeah, I hate guys like that. But thanks, for sticking up for me." She said, and lightly kissed him on the cheek. "See ya." She smiled and walked off in her homeroom's direction.

Seth stood there, not able to move. For his entire life, he never had a girl who liked him, none the less kissed him. He didn't really know if Mahea had liked him, and it was only a kiss on the cheek, but it was more than he's ever gotten before he met her. He stood there long after the bell to start homeroom rang, but he took his time getting to his class, thinking about what just happened. He didn't know what it meant, but he hoped it was something good.