DISCLAIMER: I don't own any rights to characters other than the ones I create. I do not have any rights to Once Upon A Time In Mexico or the character of Sands. I've only visited Marco Island once, so some of the images and facts I use may not be true, but part of my imagination and creation.

After two weeks at her new school, Carlie was starting to feel like she really fit in. She was 'in' with the 'right' group and was adored by her friends. Just coming from the big city, she had all kinds of stories to share about fashion and appearance. Appearance was everything to Carlie…just like it was everything to all the girls in her previous school in New York. Carlie was on her way to popularity…everything seemed to be in her favor. Her friends thought she was awesome, the guys thought she was hot and her teachers respected her work ethic. But there was still Chemistry class; she and her partner were nothing alike: they were of two totally different social cliques; she loved attention, he was more of a loner; she was a top student, he didn't give a shit; she seemed to be easy to understand, he was more of a mystery. The differences were obvious, the similarities…well if there were any, they weren't so obvious.

Carlie looked up from her lab journal as Sands mixed some chemicals together. "You have 4 ml of HCl, right?" She asked

"Yeah." He replied, slightly distractedly as he poured the chemical into their mixture.

"Okay, now we have to heat the mixture until it turns milky." Carlie read from the procedures the teacher had handed out. She looked over as Sands produced another chemical. "Wait, that's not in the directions." She said, looking through the paper to see if she had missed something. "What is that?" She asked.

Sands smiled at her. "Just trust me, okay? This will be awesome." He said as he prepared to pour the chemical into the beaker.

"But…I don't think we should..." She said hesitantly.

Sands looked over at her. "Just trust me." He said with a sexy smoothness

She bit her lip and nodded, watching as he added the chemical and their mixture took on a dull pink hue before evolving into a more brilliant and bright hot pink that seemed to glow. "Wow." She said slowly. "How'd you know it would do that?" She asked.

"Actually I didn't know it would." He smirked and shrugged as the bell rang.

Carlie stared at him with disbelief. "You could have gotten us into so much trouble." She sighed and started to clean up.

Sands just shrugged and helped her clean up their equipment. "Try to have some fun, okay?" He smirked and walked out.

Carlie shook her head and walked out after him, meeting up with some of her friends. It was lunch period and kids were milling around everywhere. Carlie and her friends went outside and claimed a picnic table, waiting on more of their friends to join them. One of the girls noticed Sands leaning against a tree talking to another guy. "Isn't he hot?" She said to the other girls.

"I totally agree." Another girl said with a grin. "That smirk of his is to die for." She giggled.

Carlie looked over to see who they were talking about, when her eyes fell on Sands. "Sands? No way…you can't mean him." She said with genuine disbelief.

"Why not? You don't think he's hot? He's your lab partner, isn't he? I would so trade you anytime." The first girl replied.

"But…he's…what do you have in common with him?" Carlie asked. "He is so different from us…isn't that obvious? What could you like about him?" She asked again.

The girls shrugged. "There's something about a rebel…you've got to admit. And he's not bad looking, come on…just look at him."

"It's not like we said we wanted to date him. That would never happen. He's just real fine to look at." One of the other girls said.

Carlie looked over at Sands, right as he looked over at her. He broke out one of his signature sexy smirks as their eyes met. Carlie quickly looked away…none of her friends had noticed.