As if on cue, the lunchtime announcer carried on, "…and the new Phys Ed teacher will be Mr
Roman Kurt. He will be replacing Mrs Maria as she has recently resigned. Seniors having physical education up next will be taught by Mr. Kurt."
Avery and I looked at each other in a flash. I felt a small smile grow on my face. What a pleasant surprise.
It looked like I would be seeing more of the devil up next-who went by the name of Roman Kurt.
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"We're going to die," Avery sighed dramatically, palming her face in exasperation as we quickened our pace into a slow jog. We had been assigned the unfortunate role of leading the entire class on a thirty-minute run around the school. Trust us to have had been in Mr. Belikov's vicinity as he looked for volunteers (and there were none).
I was fine-in fact, I very much loved running. It got my mind off things; and I reveled in the feel of the wind against my face. A smile slowly spread across my face as I pumped my legs faster and faster, ignoring Avery's complaints as she fell behind me.
"I don't mean to inflate your ego, but your timing is beyond others', even better the guys." I dried myself off at the finishing point, very aware of the Russian hunk looming behind me, a small smile painted on his face. "You work out a lot, Rose?"
"Definitely. I have several partners who teach me all kinds of maneuvers… and boy, do they know how to make me sweat. Come to think of it… you can too." I winked at him, slipping my usual behavior.
Dimitri's face immediately turned colour, the disgust in his eyes evident. I cringed, dropping my gaze to the floor. "You should put a diaper on your face-that's where all the shit is coming out from."
Ouch.
I winced at the harsh tone of his voice. Overreact much? Was there really a need to shoot me down like that?
I skulked off to the side, sulking and more than a little taken aback by what had just happened. Just as well, Avery caught up to me and thankfully, she was panting heavily. "R-r-rose… …" She sighed, "It's your entire fault for making me look like a wimp in front of Sex on Legs."
"Nobody asked you to run so slowly." I bit out the words, pissed off.
"What's crawled up your ass, Hathaway?" Adrian slung an arm over my shoulder, raising an eyebrow quizzically at me. Firstly, was my annoyance that obvious, and secondly, was I the only one in the whole world who couldn't raise an eyebrow?
Exactly. What exactly had crawled up my ass? When did I start caring about what Dickitri said? When did I become a softie?
Fortunately, the class was rounded up and I had no need to answer Adrian's perceptive question.
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"Rose, rose! Wait up!" Through the massive crowd of students, I could barely recognize Mason's voice floating to me from behind.
I stopped abruptly, causing two girls to bump into me. "Are you fucking retarded? Who the hell stops in the middle of the hallway just like that?"
Without bothering to look at Mia Rinaldi, the skanky attention-seeking whore who had snapped at me, I muttered back under my breath, "And you're the reason God created the middle finger."
"What? WHAT did you say?" With a shocked, overly theatrical gasp, Mia stopped in her tracks and gripped my shoulder, being extremely careful not to damage her manicured nails. Her friend, Vasilisa, also stopped.
Unlike Mia, however, Vasilisa was as docile as a sheep. From what I'd heard of her, she couldn't bring herself to hurt a fly. She was the stereotypical package of a good schoolgirl; she studied hard, did her homework, was polite to everyone, never uttered a vulgar word and avoided crazy parties where everyone got drunk. I, on the other hand, sometimes really wondered how she never committed suicide from boredom.
It wasn't like I attended parties conducted by the students of St. Vladimir High, though. It was too risky and my mother, Janine Hathaway, the mayor, was all about reputation. She would never let her daughter, a lowly seventeen-year-old, create the slightest dent in her 'perfect' image by going to a party. Nope. None of it at all.
With a start, I realized that the students passing us had noticed a storm brewing between Mia and me. All of a sudden, a wave of fatigue crashed over me. I just wanted to get to my next class without any more drama. Was that too much to ask?
"I was saying, Mia, that you don't have to worry. I completely understand. Trust me… I really do. I have many gay friends - it's alright. You were born this way, it's not like you can help it. It's really okay, I'm not freaked out or anything," I shrugged, a light smile on my face, trying to suppress the roar of laughter in me. "It's just… I have a boyfriend. If I swung… well, a different way, I would definitely return your feelings, Mia, weird as it sounds."
The surrounding people immediately broke out in giggles, some not bothering to hide their full-blown laughter. Even Vasilisa was trying in vain to hide her smile as Mia's cheeks turned red. Her baby-blue eyes were round and furious as her lip twitched. "You-you… …"
"Not taking rejection well, are we, Rinaldi?" Ah. My favourite smartass was here to save the day. He came in a form of jet-black hair and crystal blue eyes, not to mention a signature snarky smirk.
Christian's comment ignited even louder laughter from the passers-by as he came to a stop beside me, grinning lopsidedly at Mia, who was spluttering in anger and bewilderment. Finally, Mia grabbed Vasilisa and stomped off-but not before looking over her shoulder and screaming at the top of her lungs, "You'll pay for this!"
Chuckling heartily, Christian and I sauntered off. My mood considerably lighter, I said, "It feels amazing to be able to make a bitch like her truly suffer for once. All the sucking-in of comebacks all this while hasn't gotten to me, has it?"
"I doubt it has, Hathaway." Christian smiled, but it quickly dissolved. "So… I heard from a little birdie that you were upset by Mr. Belikov earlier?"
"Who told you that?" I was going to kill Adrian.
Dodging my question, Christian replied, a teasing smirk growing on his face, "Does someone have a little crush on our physical education teacher?"
I immediately felt the blood rush up to my cheeks. I avoided Christian's knowing gaze, seeking solace in the floor like what I did earlier. "N-n-no… Don't talk rubbish. That's ridiculous. He's a fucking jerk with a stick shoved up his ass. Totally doesn't know how to respect women." My voice grew louder as I spoke, trying to make Christian believe me.
"Russian." Christian was murmuring something, but thoughts were running through my head. How did he know I kind of liked Dimitri? Was it really so obvious?
"What?" I asked, whipping my head around to look at Christian after he had hit me on the arm hard.
"Russian! Russian at 12 o'clock!"
What?
My mouth hung open as my eyes met the cold, steely gaze of Dimitri.
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A/N: Hey guys. So…137 visitors but 10 reviews… but I'm definitely not going to complain. ;) I hope you guys like this chapter better. :)
Pretty please review with Dimitri on top!