"I got Ms. Patty for AP Bio", Gavin sighed and put his head in his hands.

"Ooh, good luck on that"

"She's the strictest Bio teacher of the entire school, and she smells like ham" he grumbled.

"Maybe your just jealous that she attracts puppies" I poke him in the ribs with my finger, he jerks and grabs my finger. I laugh when he tries to poke me in the ribs with his finger. 10 seconds later, we're wrestling and we're gasping for air by the time we're done.

"Let me see your schedule" Gavin says still smiling.

"No"

He raises an eyebrow, "Why not?"

"I want it to be a surprise if we get a class together."

He rolls his eyes and looks at the time on his watch. That's another thing I love about Gavin, he's old fashioned. He still has a flip phone, because he thinks smart phones suck the life out of people. And he wears a watch to check the time instead of checking the time on his phone. He also has perfectly combed hair, and dresses incredibly well.

I realize I'm staring when I realize that Gavin's staring back. I look away casually, "What time is it?"

"8:25"

I grab my book bag off the floor, "Then I guess we should get going"

His hand suddenly is around my wrist, "Wait, I wanna ask you something." I see a different look in his eyes, discomfort.

I swing the arm he's grabbing back and forth playfully. "We're gonna be late, does it have to be now?"

"No, but I'm going to lose the nerve later" I give him a weird look and say "Did you kill someone?"

He narrows his eyes, "If I killed someone you wouldn't be the first one I would tell"

"What?! Why not?"

"Because you suck at keeping secrets. You get all nervous and your eyebrow does that cute twitchy thing"

My hand goes straight to my eyebrow, "Does not"

He chuckles then huffs, "Stop getting me off topic!"

Before I tell him to continue the first bell rings. Which means there's only 2 minutes left before first period starts.

It startles me and I yank my arm free from his grip. "Tell me later, I gotta go. We BOTH have to go" I pulled him off the bench.

When I walk into Physics, everyone is standing by the door, which means that the teacher is assigning seats. I look around the room for familiar faces and see Tim from British Literature from junior year. And I see Hannah from art class from second period. Hopefully I get seated next to someone I already know so I can avoid awkward small talk.

Mr. Griffin announces "Now I don't want any complaints, I picked these seats at completely random. If you really have issues with your lab partner, come talk to me and we can work something out"

I cross my fingers and continue to scan across the room for more familiar faces. And then I find myself counting faces, 1, 2,3,4,5.

"Ally Dawson!" Mr. Griffin calls out.

I realize that he is pointing to a seat in the middle of the room, and everyone is staring at me. Oh god, how many times did he call me name? I can feel my face burning when I pace toward to the seat he is still pointing to.

I want to cover my face with my hands and hide but some people are still staring. I can even hear some girls giggling in the background.

I take out my textbook and binders to do something with my hands. I act like I'm writing something in my agenda since my face is still burning.

"Austin Moon"

I roll my eyes at that name but then I realize that he is pointing at the seat right next to me.

"Wait what?" I blurt out. Austin pauses and raises an eyebrow at me. People start laughing including Mr. Griffin.

Austin and I meet eyes, and he winks at me. I roll my eyes and continue to scribble in my agenda. Mr. Griffin continues to call out names when Austin takes a seat next to me.

"Disappointed?" Austin asks me.

I shrug, "Depends on whether you can pull some weight in this class"

"Geez harsh"

I didn't respond. Austin Moon is the type of person I would never associate with. He's popular, he's on the football team, he dates a new girl every 3 months, and he only hangs out with hot people. Why? Because hot people only hang out with hot people. Not that I think he's hot. UGH. How do you turn off the voices in your head?

My pencil snaps. I sigh and dig in my book bag for another pencil. Why did I not buy mechanical pencils? Why the hell did I choose wooden pencils?

A pen lands on top of my pink notebook, I look up and meet Austin's eyes. I look away quickly and mumble a thanks, not caring if he heard or not. Mr. Griffin announces that our first lab will be tomorrow and we can use the rest of class time to get to know our new lab partner. Gee sounds delightful.

I have no idea what to say so I decide not to say anything at all. Austin Moon is the guy that everyone is friends with, he's not like the dumb, douchie jock from coming of age high school movies. He's actually really smart, he's the student body president, and works for the school newspaper. Not that I pay any attention to that stuff.

I also heard that he's been offered football scholarships from three different universities already. He doesn't seem to be a bad guy it's just exactly this moment right now. People are staring in our direction. Waiting for something between us to happen so they can tell their friends and their friends will tell their friends. Then I have to deal with all that bullshit.

Austin's dated all the prettiest, smartest girls in school. I'm obviously not in that category, and Carrie would never stop bugging me if she ever saw me hanging out with Austin Moon. So it makes perfect sense for us to never ev-

"So" Austin leaned on his head into his arm so he is facing directly towards me.

I pretend not to hear him and act like I'm texting someone. "Are you really going to keep ignoring me? We're going to be lab partners for the rest of the year you know"

I put my phone down and look at him. He seems like he's genuinely trying to make conversation. I sigh and say "Sorry. I'm being a bitch, I didn't mean to come off that way"

He shrugged, "Mondays are stressful"

Mr. Griffin stands in the middle of the class room, "Alright guys tomorrow, we're doing something fun, we're making electric motors! So you don't want to be absent tomorrow, you and your lab partner are going to test your team work"

Oh yay.