cl;

Mid-way through the day, I get a text from my mom. I need to go to the office earlier than I expected. Come home now and look after Todd. I'll e-mail your teachers. And I sigh. Our last caretaker for Todd had just quit, and neither Mom or Dad has found the time to look for a new one.

I stand up from the bench Massie and I occupy during lunch, then wince. Massie had given me a ride here today. Her driver had dropped us off. I didn't have any way to get home. I groaned. I hated when my mother put me in situations like this. She pulls me out of my classes, but doesn't think about the consequences.

"Massie," I say.

She's lying down on the bench, her feet flat against the wood and her knees in the air. Her sunglasses are on, and she's smoking another cigarette. I wonder if teachers genuinely don't see her break the rules, or they just focus on the big library/computer lab/technology center in the middle of the campus nicknamed "The Block" for more reasons than one. (Her dad had made the generous donation to build it around the same time she had [allegedly] started a fire at the school.)

"Yeah?" She asks.

"Would Isaac be comfortable giving me a ride home?"

"Depends on what time it is."

I glance at my phone. "Twelve forty."

Massie puts the cigarette to her mouth and blows out a stream of smoke. "I think he's picking up my mom – sorry, mum – from the airport. He'd be at the JFK right now." She slides her sunglasses down to the tip of her nose. "Sorry, C. Why?"

"My mother has to go to the office, and we haven't found a new caretaker for Todd yet," I explain, sighing. My phone vibrates with another text. Now, Claire.

I look around. I didn't talk to a lot of people at this school – I'd tried that when I first came here from Florida, and then we'd get onto the topic of my brother, or coming over to my house, and it just got awkward.

Derrick Harrington and his soccer groupies walk by.

Before I can stop her, Massie has called out, "Hey, Derrick." She sits up, hugging her knees. "Claire needs a ride home. She has a stomach ache. I mean, I told her not to eat the school food, but..." Massie trails off, looking at me. I give her a look. She shrugs. "And I figured, since you guys are science partners, you'll be seeing a lot of each other anyway." She ends her sentence with a smile that makes every guy in the group sweat and every girl in the group jealous.

I think I might kill Massie. Girls don't get rides home from Derrick without shit happening. I want to keep my virginity, thanks. And my dignity. And a whole slew of other things I would lose if I were seen in a car with Derrick Harrington. "It's fine, I'll get one from uh, Kristen Gregory."

"No, it's okay," Derrick says. "I don't mind."

Yeah. I'm sure you don't.

"I really can't-" Massie smacks me very non subtly. "Sure."

Massie gives me a lofty wave. "I'll text. Say hi to Todd for me."

I put my bag over my shoulder and follow Derrick out of the front gates. Suddenly, I see something very morally wrong with the whole situation (besides the fact that I'm getting in a car with Derrick Harrington.) "Um, aren't you technically ditching school right now?" I ask.

"It's lunch, nobody will notice," he replies.

"But you're still breaking the rules," I point out.

We reach his car and he opens the door for me. "Sometimes people break rules, Claire."

"But this is a big rule. You could get, like, suspended, or even expelled," I begin to ramble as I get into the car. "Do you know what that's going to do? It's going to go onto your permanent record, for like, ever, and you won't be able to get into college, and your whole life will be affected because you won't get a good career and you'll end up asking people, You want fries with that? And-"

I stop talking when I see a box of condoms on the floor of the car. And it's just like, staring at me. I look out the window and try not to think about the shit that happens in the passenger's seat of Derrick Harrington's car.

He doesn't seem to notice, because he asks, "Where do you live?"

"Turn left here," I mutter. "Then left again. Then straight."

There's two seconds of awkward silence before Derrick says: "So what do you want to do for our project?"

Nothing. I want nothing to do with our project. Our project can go screw itself in its ass. Our project is now officially the bane of my existence and it's only been in my existence for four hours. Why do I have to be paired with such a promiscuous, self-righteous, egotistical-

"We could do a short demonstration and a Powerpoint," I suggest. "Or a long demonstration and no Powerpoint." I blink and look down, see the condoms, and look up again.

"Pyrology? That's like, the study of heat, right," Derrick asks. "And fire and shit like that." I nod. "So, what, we start a fire in the classroom?"

I stared at him for three seconds, in small shock, like how the hell did he know? Then I recover. "Um, like a very small controlled one."

There's another three seconds of awkward silence and he just comes out and says it. He really doesn't seem to care what other people think (although, when everybody loves you, I guess you wouldn't.) "Do you hate me or something?"

"That is a very direct question," I stall. "Um, and I suppose the answer is no, because I think if Derrick Harrington found out somebody didn't worship the ground he walked on he would disintegrate. Like a fairy."

He gives me a sidelong glance and pulls his Bimmer to a stop outside of my house. "Good, because if we're going to do this love-hate thing, we should do it right," he says, cutting the engine. I get out of the car.

"Right, okay, thanks for the ride," I say. Then, just as he pulls away, I realize what he's just told me and yell after him, "Wait, who said anything about love?"

"sometimes i think the stupidest things

because i never wonder

how the girl feels"

dh;

I'm not like a fairy. No matter what Claire fucking Lyons says.

author's note: the actual nickname for a BMW is "bimmer", "beemer" is for the motorcycle made by BMW, not the actual car. i found that out like, a week ago and wanted to use it somewhere [: please review.

(lyrics, again, franz ferdinand. i'm trying to use different artists but franz ferdinand takes up most of my ipod, haha)