I pulled up to my house after school that day. It was noon so I was perfectly ready for lunch. My mom's car was in the driveway and I was hoping she would have something ready for me. Sure enough, when I walked in there was a sandwich and a bag of chips sitting on the table.

"Mom you're the best, you know that?" I heard her laugh from the kitchen and I smiled. My mom is one of the happiest people I've ever met. I hardly ever see her not smiling. She has long, brown hair and her eyes are hazel. She's only barely taller than me and soon I would pass her up.

"So your birthday is in two weeks." She said, walking into the dining room. I grinned at her with my mouth full of food. "What do you want for your birthday?" I swallowed my food.

"Derek Hale." I said matter-of-factly. She laughed at me, shaking her head. My mom is the only one I've actually told that I like guys. I told her last year and she had smiled at me and told me there was nothing wrong with it. She said I could like whoever I wanted to like. I still hadn't told anyone else because it was too personal. Maybe eventually I would.

"I don't think I can get you Derek. You'll have to do that on your own." She winked at me.

"He talked to me today. Well, kind of. He asked me if I was going to play baseball." Mom raised her eyebrow.

"How did he know you play baseball? You haven't played in a couple years."

"He said he's seen me play before and that I looked pretty good."

"Does he know you haven't played in a while?"

"He said something about how I could relearn. I don't know."

"Well maybe you should. Who knows, maybe he'll fall madly in love with you when you show him your epic baseball skills." I tried to keep a straight face, but that was a losing battle and I laughed.

"Mom. Just no. Don't ever say epic and skills ever again." She put her hand over her heart, pretending to look offended.

"Why not? I'm hip!"

"You might throw out your hip." Mom raised her eyebrow and pointed her finger at me.

"Hey, watch it. I brought you into this world, I can take you out of it."

"Oooo I'm so scared." I retorted sarcastically. She dropped her finger and started to laugh. I picked up my sandwich and she came up behind me, hugging me.

"I love you Stiles."

"I love you too, mom."

The next day I made it my first 5 classes and lunch flawlessly. Now, though, it's time for sixth hour, which means Derek. It wouldn't be that bad as long as I managed to not stare at him all class period. That was almost like an Olympic sport though. I mean, really, have you seen the guy?

When I got to the classroom I did not like the sight. The desks were pushed together in groups of two, facing each other, and my desk was grouped with Derek's. Thankfully he wasn't there yet, so I was able to slip into my seat without feeling utterly embarrassed. I pulled my notebook out of my bag and started to doodle. I didn't look up from my notebook, not even when Derek sat down across from me. I was drawing a wolf, since it was my favorite animal, and hoping this wouldn't get any more embarrassing. I could feel his eyes boring into me and I was trying not to fidget. It was a moment before he spoke.

"Stiles." My stomach immediately went into knots hearing his voice. My name had never sounded so awesome before. My eyes darted to his and I blushed, looking back down to my drawing.

"Hm?" I responded. I didn't trust myself to speak.

"Have you thought about it?" he questioned. I looked up, confused.

"Thought about what?"

"Baseball."

"Oh, um, yeah. I…haven't decided. I just…I haven't played in awhile and…I don't know how good I would be."

"Come on, it's like riding a bike. You never forget."

"I remember, I just think I would be more trouble than I'm worth." I met his eyes again and they were dark, emerald green.

"You could never be more trouble than you're worth." I was surprised by the passion in his eyes. This was only the second time in my life that I had talked to him and he looked angry at what I had just said. I tucked that away in my mind to examine later, and it took me a minute to respond.

"Well…that doesn't diminish the fact that I probably need a lot of work." Derek smiled at me and I couldn't help but notice how perfect his teeth were.

"We could start now. Baseball starts in March so we would have plenty of time to practice." The thought of me humiliating myself in front of Derek made me cringe.

"I'll think about it." Derek's smile widened and he had a satisfied glint in his eyes. Ms. Leake chose that moment to begin class.

"Ok, guys, I'm sure you've noticed that the desks are in groups of two. That's because we're starting a project today and the person sitting across from you is your partner." Crap. "I want you to choose a topic that relates to the history of Washington D.C. I'm sure you know about the trip that we take every year during the summer to D.C, and I know it's a little early to start studying it, but it's better to start now. So pick a topic and clear it with me." She starts passing out papers with the criteria for the project while I was having a mini panic attack. She handed us our papers and I immediately focused on it, glad for the distraction.

"So we have to do a five page paper and a presentation of some sort." Really I could sit in one spot all day and listen to Derek talk. There was an amused lilt to his voice that nearly made me melt in my spot. But I'm a guy so I refuse to do that. "The presentation has to be two to three minutes long. A powerpoint or poster or just anything that will get the information across."

"What do you want to do?" I asked just to hear him talk some more. His eyes focused on me and I froze. I suddenly felt very self-conscious. I felt like he was studying me from top to bottom and when he finally glanced away I relaxed, breathing a sigh of relief.

"I don't care. But we're going to have to meet up to work on it at some point. It says on the paper that today and tomorrow are our only days in class to work on it." I bit my lip and looked down at my desk.

"Um, do you want to do the Washington Monument? We could do a history on George Washington and say why it was built." Derek smirked at me and nodded, knowing that I changed the subject on purpose.

"Sounds good to me."