It was hot, as usual. Jessica kicked off her sandals and began to fan her flushed chest with a half finished sheet of homework. "Why can't we sit in your car again?" She turned towards the petite girl to her left.

"I'm running low on gas so if you want to give me thirty bucks to fill up after the air conditioning runs for fifteen minutes then be my guest." Nicole snapped, pulling her hair off her damp neck. Jessica sighed and cupped her chin in her palm, trading looks with the statuesque brunette lounging across from her. Ever since the girls had been spending lunch sitting in Nicole's truck bed, the tiny Japanese beauty had developed a severe case of 'stick stuck up ass'.

"Oh there are the boys!" Lisa hopped onto her bare feet and waved frantically at the distracted group of boys wandering in the other direction. They caught sight of either her flailing limbs or platinum mane and came bustling towards them. Jessica's head jerked up at the exclamation to her right but her eyes found a completely different male.

He sat on the other side of the parking lot fence, back straining against the thin criss crossing metal links. She knew immediately who it was despite his face being turned away, it was the ratty red hoodie he wore every day that gave him away. His head slowly pushed back against the mesh supporting him, he appeared to be looking up at the tree above.

"What are ya staring at Jess?" Her head jerked to the side in alarm. Connor stood before her, hand cupped over his eyes, squinting towards the lone boy. "Is that Jack?" He guffawed turning back to her, grinning widely.

"Jack? Jack who?" Cassandra pursed her lips, staring hard in the wrong direction, apparently peering at the gym doors.

"Jack Napier, the biggest skid in the damn school. Wow what a loser." Connor's snorts evolved into belly laughs as he braced himself on Jessica's knees. She jerked them away and he fell against the hot, hard plastic of the truck bed. "Awe Jess don't be like that, I should be the one offended that you have your eyes on another guy." He repositioned himself against her shin and grinned up at her, his hands sought hers and she grudgingly accepted. Their 'flirtation ship' had been ongoing for weeks and she was beginning to tire of his constant foot-in-mouth syndrome, especially regarding this most recent tilt in conversation.

"He sits by me in physics and smells like shit." Drew stated matter of factly, glancing at Lisa out of the corner of his eye as she wrinkled her nose in disgust. "I doubt he ever showers I mean look at how greasy he is." Cole added, hopping up into the car bed. The truck let out an almost imperceptible groan and Nicole shot him a glare.

"Where are all the other girls?" Jessica would have been grateful for Drew's change of topic if it hadn't been just to make Lisa jealous, as if by clockwork her face tightened as soon as the words left his mouth.

"Melissa and Leah are at volley ball tryouts and Caitlyn and Alex are skipping the afternoon to go to the mall." Nicole ticked off the offended on her fingers as she named them. They did have an unusually large group of female friends, most other girls in the school could only stand to be around a small number of the same gender. Jessica summed this up to a certain level of immaturity, the constant paranoia of "competition". Although she might be a little threatened by Nicole if she didn't already have a boyfriend that attended a different high school.

"I feel bad." She sighed aloud. All heads turned to her in puzzlement. "About what?" Lisa asked.

"Yesterday, I yelled at Jack in English for not lending me a pencil." She admitted grudgingly, picking at her well-worn denim shorts.

Everyone began to laugh. "Oh my god Jessica you're such a brat." Her mouth fell open.

"Shut up! I am not!" But even as the words slipped out she began to laugh, realizing the absurdity of the situation. "Whatever," Lisa said darkly. "It's probably better that he didn't give you one, he probably would have made you give a blood sacrifice or something."

"Yeah," Nicole nodded sagely. "I bet you he's like a serial killer or something. I mean one time I bumped into him in the hall and he gave me the creepiest look. It was like he wanted to rape me or something."

"Guard your carnal treasure!" Jessica exclaimed, grinning broadly. The boys snorted as Nicole blushed and slapped at her friend's knees.

Jessica looked back up, searching for the faded scarlet sweater against the fence while her friends were distracted. Her eyes scanned the sea of green for his form but found nothing. She turned back to Connor, accepting his invitation to come over after school.

English was awkward to say the least. Jessica sat with her head bowed, taking careful notes with a freshly sharpened pencil till Mr. Howards decided to end the torture and make calls at his desk for the remainder of the lecture. Jack pulled out a chemistry textbook and hunched over it, completely consumed. Jessica chewed the end of her pencil nervously, already feeling red in the face. "Jack I'm sorry I yelled at you." she said in a rush.

He paused for an excruciatingly long time, head perked in her direction. She was starting to think he was just going to accept her apology in silence and she had to remind herself not to get flustered. "Pardon?" He intoned, turning to face her.

"I'm sorry that I yelled at you yesterday." she repeated, slightly louder. "Pardon?" He taunted, his mouth twisted into a smirk.

Jessica ground her teeth noisily, focused on taking the high road, being the bigger person, Zen mantra all that crap. "I said that I'm sorry for yelling at you." She enunciated slowly, daring him to piss her off again.

"Jessica I have no idea what you're saying, if you want to say something to me then speak clearly please." Before she had any clue what was happening her binder was in her hands and falling on his shoulder in purposeful blows. She dropped the offensive plastic into her lap and clapped her hands over her mouth. Jack sat in shock.

"I'm so sorry." She mumbled between closely knit fingers. He turned to her, annoyance clear on his features.

"Did you just hit me?" He stated, slowly and clearly.

"No no, I mean well yes...but you made me!" She was totally panicked, fears of blood sacrifice and serial killer-ness running rampant. She wouldn't have even fluttered a lash at the thought of yelling at anyone else in the entire class, but Jack was different. Something about him was pretty friggen terrifying when it reared its ugly head, as it was doing now.

"I'm sorry I'm sorry, here take this granola bar." She shakily extracted a cranberry nut bar from the depths of her purse and slid it across his desk. He looked slightly appalled. "Are you trying to bribe me...with food?"

"No I just-" Oh god would this awkwardness ever end, she hadn't meant to offend him. "It's just a peace offering!"

He paused for a moment, examining the package before him with an air of trepidation. He picked it up and un-wrapped the thin white foil before breaking off a piece and chewing it slowly. He gave her a dismissive nod before turning back to his text book. They didn't exchange another word the rest of the period but as he crumpled the noisy packaging into a ball with his fist, Jessica felt a misplaced flood of relief. His eyes caught hers for a moment when the bell rung as she hurried off, blushing for god knows what reason.