The bell rang just as Lucy stepped into the chem classroom, surrounded by Isabeau, Christabel, and Hunter. A middle-aged woman, presumably the teacher, shot them irritated glances, but couldn't formally punish them because they had arrived before the final bell had rung, even if it was by mere seconds.

"Please arrive sooner next time, girls," was all she said.

"Yes, Mrs. Doner," the four of them chorused.

Now that that was over with, Lucy searched the room for an empty seat. As she moved towards an empty lab table in the back, someone cleared her throat from behind her.

"I'm afraid we have arranged seating in this class...Lucky, is it?" the teacher said icily.

Lucy gritted her teeth. "I prefer Lucy." Christabel elbowed her sharply in the ribs, and she winced, then hurriedly added, "Ma'am."

"Your name on this attendance list says otherwise, Lucky."

Well, there went the fun chem class she'd been expecting. Instead of holding back her earlier happiness, Lucy was now doing all she could not to leap across the room and strangle the teacher for giving her such a hard time about her name.

A hand settled firmly on her upper arm. Glancing down in surprise, Lucy realized that she had unconsciously curled her hands into fists. She took a deep breath and tried to remember what her mother had said just a few nights ago, when Lucy had gotten angry about being forced to watch the neighbor's dog. It's bad for your chi, Lucky Moon. Her hands uncurled slowly, but the fuse was already lit. Now she was just waiting for the explosion.

"Lucky, your seat is over there." Mrs. Doner pointed at an empty seat right in front of the right wall of the classroom, in plain sight from the teacher's vantage point at her desk. Lucy gritted her teeth. This would be such a fun year.

She moved slowly to her new seat, then plunked her backpack down on the ground when she got there. The other seat at the table was empty. "Who's my lab partner?" Christabel shot her a meaningful glance. "Ma'am," she added again. Lucy sat down hard in the seat and looked to her friends standing awkwardly at the front of the classroom, then to the teacher. "I think she's actually enjoying torturing me," she muttered under her breath.

"What was that, Lucky?"

For an oldish lady, Mrs. Doner's hearing was remarkably excellent.

"Nothing."

Mrs. Doner narrowed her eyes at her. "Well, Lucky, your lab partner is"-she paused to look down at a paper in her hand-"Nicholas Drake."

Nicholas Drake. Probably one of the Drake brothers Isabeau had mentioned earlier. And probably also Solange's brother. She vaguely remembered Isabeau saying something about them just moving here, but her exact words had long since slipped Lucy's mind.

One by one, Isabeau, Christabel, and Hunter were all given seats around the class, and their lab partners. Mrs. Doner liked boy/girl pairings, apparently. Lucy and Nicholas, Isabeau and Logan, Christabel and Connor, and Hunter and Quinn.

Oh, and funny how all of their little quartet of friends had Drake brothers for lab partners.

Lucy groaned and placed her head in her arms. This was going to be an interesting year.

Mrs. Doner started class immediately, going over the Metric system and conversions and yadda yadda yadda. Lucy had learned this stuff in elementary school.

Her mind was fuzzy, and every so often she would find herself jolting awake randomly. Ugh. This was definitely not what she'd had in mind when she thought of Chemistry Honors.

The door to the classroom opened with a soft click, and a couple boys piled into the room. Mrs. Doner stopped to give them the evil eye, and the one in the front drew back slightly. Unfortunately, this caused the boy-one with slightly longish hair and blue eyes-to crash right into him when he couldn't stop himself sooner, and all four went sprawling.

Finally, something interesting happens. Lucy perked up in interest as she focused on the four boys who'd walked in fifteen minutes late and were now picking themselves up off the floor.

They all looked remarkably similar, and two of them actually looked identical. Their features were the exact same, but one had longer hair. As for the other two, they were about the same height, but Lucy couldn't tell clearly who was taller from her place in the room. One had wavy dark hair and piercing green eyes, and the other had messily cute hair and gray eyes as stormy as the clouds.

The one thing they had in common? Yeah, their facial structures were similar and they all had dark hair, but all of them were extremely good-looking. Stop it, Lucy! Look at what you've turned into! So what, it's just a couple of cute guys. Geez, she told herself.

She must have zoned out briefly, because when she focused on Mrs. Doner's lesson again, there was someone next to her.

"Hey," the person said. Lucy whirled in her seat, and almost fell out of her chair as a result. The boy who had sat down next to her burst out laughing.

She turned bright red. "That's not very nice of you."

"Well, I couldn't help it. Sorry. I'm Nicholas Drake."

So that was him. "Lucy Hamilton."

"But isn't your name Luck-"

"Call me that and I will jack you up, mark my words."

He held his hands up in a placating gesture, but she wasn't satisfied. She turned to look at him straight on. Which turned out to be a mistake on her part. His face was even more beautiful up close, like a marble statue from the Renaissance come to life. Dark, messy hair, pale gray-almost silvery-eyes, a straight nose and chiseled jaw... Was there anything about him that wasn't perfect?

She lifted a hand, and slapped herself across the face to break herself out of her stupidity and girlishness. Nicholas looked at her in confusion. "Did you just-"

"Slap myself in the face? Yep."

"But why-"

"For reasons you needn't know."

"Okay, then." He backed off, but Lucy felt his gaze land on her sporadically all throughout class.

Somewhere off to her left, Lucy could've sworn she heard Hunter chuckle at what she'd said. And she also suspected Hunter knew exactly why she'd slapped herself in the face.

Maybe chem this year wouldn't be so bad after all.