Thanks again for all the reviews, I am so glad you liked the last chapter, I really wasn't sure about that one, but I've got a feeling that most of you will like this one :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Hart of Dixie

10. The Ice Queen

Wade woke up early, or at least early for him, and went down for breakfast.

"Good mornin', Earl" he said, cheerily.

"What's gotten into you? Were is the usual snappy attitude?" his father asked, looking up from his cereal with a confused look on his face.

"Oh, nothin', just got a feelin' it's gonna be a good day"

"Mhm. Who's the girl?"

"What, there's no girl. Why on earth would you think that? Been puttin' beer on your cereal again?" Wade asked, his attempt to divert his dad from the subject of girls. Unfortunately, Earl hadn't put beer on his cereal, in fact he was more sober than he had been in days. Still drunk, but a lot less than usual.

"Son, I maybe a drunk and a lousy father, but I'm not blind"

"You sure? Seen the doc lately?" Wade said, trying to sound pissed off but he couldn't wipe the smile of his face.

"I think I don't need to see a doctor to know if I'm blind or not"

Wade just shrugged, he was in too good a mood to get into it with his dad. Ever since he'd made his decision last night he hadn't been able to stop smiling. It was weird. He never thought he'd be someone to get so attached to a girl, but there it was. Now all he had to do was make her stop hating his guts, he thought, realizing that it wouldn't be an easy task, but he was prepared for it.

He finished his cereal and got up from the table. "I'm gone off for school, see ya later, Earl" he said as he walked out the door.

As he opened the front door he glanced to his right and saw Zoe walking out of her house.

"Dad, I can walk to school on my own, I'm seventeen years old, for God's sake" she said to her father who was now standing in the doorway.

"I know you can, but with all that's happened, it's no problem to drive you"

"Dad, common, it's been a week since the only criminal to step foot in Bluebell in a hundred years made an unsuccessful attempt of attacking me and now he's gone and we'll have to wait another hundred years for the next criminal. The school's only a few blocks away, I think I'll be fine" Zoe said, then walked up to her dad, gave him a peck on the cheek and then headed down the driveway.

"Alright then, have a nice day, dear. And don't forget to come straight to the practice after school" Harley called after her and then dreadfully turned back into the house.

Wade had been waiting on the end of his driveway, watching Zoe's encounter with her dad with amusement. Dr. Wilkes was such a caring person, it was impossible not to like him, and him being overprotective of his daughter was very cute. Man, since when did he think things were cute, Wade thought and shook his head.

When he looked up he saw Zoe starting to walk off towards the school.

"Hey, Zoe, wait up" he called after her and ran over to her

"Wade" Zoe said, an edge to her voice. "What do you want?"

"Uh, nothin', just thought I'd walk with you" he said, a little taken aback by her coldness, but then he remembered that he'd been avoiding her for a week and that they'd never been friends. She wasn't in on his change of heart.

"Like I said to my father, I can walk to school on my own" she said, turning away from him and starting to walk off again.

"I know that, just feels stupid to walk a few steps behind ya all the way" he said, grabbing her arm to prevent her from taking off.

"Well, it suits you then" she said, pulling her arm from his grab. What was his problem. Why the sudden interest, she thought as she started to walk off again.

Wade just stood in the same spot, dumbstruck. Okay, his plan had not gotten off to a great start. Well, he never thought winning her over would be easy, but he was determined to try again and again, as often as it took, she must come around in the end, right? After all, he was Wade Kinsella. A girl had never turned him down in all his life. Yeah, she'll come around, I just have to keep going, he thought to himself and finally started walking to school.

"Hi, Zoe" Annabeth called out to Zoe as she walked up the steps towards the school entrance.

"Oh, hi, AB" Zoe said as the other girl caught up with her.

"So, how are you doing today"

"I'm fine" Zoe said, with a confused look on her face.

"You don't look so fine, something bugging you?" Annabeth asked, looking at Zoe's face, trying to figure out her expression.

"Nah, it's just Wade"

"Oooh, Wade" Annabeth said in a teasing tone.

"No, AB, it's not like that, we hate each other, remember? That's why I'm so confused by him wanting to walk with me to school"

"Zoe, you are the smartest girl in this entire school, but sometimes you can be really dumb. Wade obviously likes you"

"No, he doesn't, ok?" Zoe said, in a very dismissal tone.

"Ok, sorry, I won't bring it up again" Annabeth replied and the two girls walked through the halls of the school in silence.

"Hey, won't Lemon be furious of you talking to me?" Zoe suddenly asked when they'd almost reached the classroom.

"Look, Lemon's my best friend and I love her, but I can have other friends, she doesn't own me" Annabeth said proudly

"Good for you, girl" Zoe said and smiled at her.

"Oh, I can't believe I haven't asked you this yet, but how did it go at the dance, with Simon? Are you the Queen Bee yet?"

Annabeth laughed nervously. "Oh, no. I mean, the dance was great, and we had fun and then we went out again last Friday, but it's not like we're an item or anything"

"AB, that's awesome. You went out Friday? What did you do? Where did you go? Was he nice, did he pay, did you kiss?"

"Wow, slow down there girl" Annabeth said, laughing at Zoe's enthusiasm.

"Sorry, I haven't really had any gossip for ages" Zoe said, blushing.

"It's okay, just thought you might need a pause to breathe" Annabeth said, smiling at Zoe. "Anyway, he called me after school on Tuesday and asked if I wanted to maybe go out again and I said yes, then on Wednesday he came and talked to me during lunch, said he'd been wanting to check out this movie and if I wanted to maybe see it with him, again I said yes. Then on Friday he came and picked me up, had to endure a lecture from my idiot of a dad, but he drove us up to Mobile, we saw the movie and then went for ice cream after. Then he drove us back to Bluebell, walked me to my door and gave me a good night kiss"

"That's awesome, AB, I'm so happy for you" Zoe said, smiling to her ears.

Before they could get any further in discussing Annabeth's date, the doors of the classroom opened and they were beckoned inside by the old and wrinkled chemistry teacher.

Wade was late, again. However, this time it wasn't for Mrs. Trent's class but chemistry with old Mr. Allan. He was a foul creature that enjoyed enforcing misery, as was visible with his subject, chemistry. He stood in front of the door, trying to find the courage to walk in. He'd been pondering just blowing it off when the principle, Mrs. Jerkins came up to him.

"Mr. Kinsella, why are you just standing outside, is the door not working?" she said in a strict but joking voice.

"No, I think you need to have a mechanic look at it" he replied, playing along with the joke. He liked the principle, she was strict but fair, and he'd spent a fair amount of time in her office, they'd built some sort of a relationship.

"I'll make sure I remember that. Now, I still think you'll probably manage to get it open and go in, because, if not, I reckon we might have to reconsider if you really belong at this school level"

"Ya know, I think we should do that, I feel like I haven't quite grasped the concept of kindergarten yet" he said, smiling his famous Kinsella smile.

"Common, Mr. Kinsella, you've already missed almost half of the class, get in" she said as she went for the door and edged Wade inside.

"Mr. Kinsella, how nice of you to join us" Mr. Allan said as Wade walked in. "Unfortunately, your lab partner, Mr. Tucker, is home sick so you have to partner up with Miss Hart for the day" he continued, gesturing towards where Zoe was sitting, working on her own.

"No, Mr. Allan, I'm fine working on my own" Zoe started to protest but was shut down by Mr. Allan raising his hand.

"No nonsense, girl. I gave you permission to work alone because your regular partner is also distant, but now that you have a partner available it is no longer an option" he said and turned away, leaving no room for more protests.

Wade sat down, trying to hide his smile. This was perfect. Now he had forty minutes to continue his mission of winning Zoe over. He looked over at her, sitting there in the required white lab coat with the protective goggles pushed up on her forehead, she looked absolutely ridiculous, but still somehow the look fit her.

"So, what are we doing?" he asked her.

"We aren't doing anything. I am mixing different salts to find which are easily dissolved and which aren't" she said as she turned back to her project.

"I thought we we're supposed to partner up, and I know you never disobey a teacher" he said in a mocking voice.

"You show up half way through the class, and without a doubt unprepared and expect me to just let you swoop in and take half the credit for my work. No way" she shot at him. "Oh, and I do to disobey the teachers sometimes, when they are just talking nonsense"

Wade didn't say anything back, he just sat there, watching, as she pushed her goggles back in place and started working on the project again. She looked so cute, determination in her eyes and her tongue sticking out of the side of her mouth as she concentrated on measuring exactly right.

Half an hour later Zoe looked up, pushed the goggles of her head and put them on the table.

"You finished?"

"No thanks to you." She shot him a glare.

"Hey, you wouldn't let me"

She was starting to say something back when Mr. Allan raised his voice. "There are only five minutes left, please start packing up the materials. I want a thorough report on your findings on my desk by Thursday"

"But, Mr. Allan, that's two days from now"

"Yes, Mr. Gordon, I am aware of the fact"

"But..."

"No buts, my word is final" he said dismissively and sat down at his desk.

"You can go now, I don't need your help cleaning up" Zoe said as she started packing up the materials she'd used.

"I can help"

"I said you didn't need to, okay? Just go, I know you want to" she said and turned away from him.

Wade decided to get up and leave, she clearly did not want him around. His good mood from earlier had vanished. She'd never been so cold with him before. Yeah, they'd always been shooting at each other with clear dislike, but it had never been so cold before. Had he done something to make her really hate him? He thought back to the events of last weekend, that moment when he'd found her in the woods after Jonah had just broken up with her. Yeah, he had almost kissed her, but that wasn't cause enough for her icy attitude, even if she'd just been dumped. And then of course there was the attack, but he'd actually saved her, she couldn't be mad about that, could she? Maybe she was mad because it was he who saved her, and she'd have to be grateful. Could she really hate him that much? Then there was the second time in the woods, after they'd been released from the hospital. He remembered how sad and vulnerable she'd looked and how much he'd wanted to hold her, to kiss her, to comfort her, and how she'd walked off. She couldn't be mad about that, because he hadn't done anything. He'd just sat there and she'd taken off.

He slammed his locker shut. He couldn't let it go and move on just yet, he needed to find out why she was so cold and see if he couldn't fix it.

Wade had blown off the rest of the school day. He couldn't stand the icy looks he got from Zoe and he didn't want to confront her at school. He'd gone to his hideout in the woods, there was no need to avoid it any longer.

He had been sitting there, trying to figure Zoe out, but coming up blank. He had gotten nowhere and it was pissing him off. He turned around and started walking off when she came into the clearing.

"Sorry, didn't expect to see you here" she said.

"Why not? This is my secret hideout. Where else would I go?" he said, not bothering to try to hide his frustration.

"Like I told you before, it's been my hideout for years too"

"You know, I don't really believe that. For one, why the hell do you need a hideout from your bloody perfect life, and second, if it's been your hideout for years, why haven't we run into each other?"

"You don't know anything about me, my life isn't perfect" she shot back at him, now growing angry.

"Oh, no, far from it" he said sarcastically, his voice dripping with venom.

"Argh, you are so infuriating. Keep your bloody hideout. What the hell do I care" she shouted and stormed off.

Zoe's head was spinning. She'd gone to the woods to try and escape her father and Pauline for a moment. She knew they were only trying to make her feel better, but it was just to much sometimes, and their constant fuss only brought back memories.

What the hell was Wade's problem, she thought. First he was all charming, wanting to walk with her to school and helping with the chemistry project but now he snapped at her. Why wouldn't he just leave her alone. What did he have to gain by being nice to her, it's not like he could be remotely interested in her.

She stopped and turned around, back into the woods.

"Why?" she said when she reached the clearing.

He was sitting on top of a rock, dangling his feet inches from the surface of the water, throwing rocks into the pond.

"Why what?" he finally asked, after he'd pondered just ignoring her.

"Why the sudden change of heart. You've always hated me, then you save me, go back to hating me, and even purposely ignoring me, which you never did before, and then today, acting all nice only to turn around and yell at me. What the hell, Wade?" When she finished she could feel the tears building up. No, she would not cry, this was not the moment for that.

Wade turned his head towards her, but she couldn't read his expression.

"What was I supposed to do, it's not like my niceness was welcomed with open arms" he said, turning back towards the pond.

"You'd just spent the week ignoring me" she replied, starting to get really confused. It wasn't helping that those stupid butterflies in her stomach kept going on like crazy every time she looked at Wade.

"So what, that means I can't be nice?"

"Yeah, Wade, actually it does. When have you ever been nice to me? You hate me" she said, the tears really threatening to make an entrance.

He turned back towards her, shocked. He didn't hate her, how could she think that? He liked her, hell maybe even more than liked her. He looked at her and saw that she looked like she was on the verge of tears. He jumped off the rock and walked over tho her.

"I don't hate you" he said as he stopped, a few steps from her.

"Then why did you spend so much effort in ignoring me?"

"Because..." he trailed off. He didn't really know what to say, but she just stood there, looking at him with those big, beautiful, brown eyes.

"I guess I didn't think you wanted me around, bringin' up memories or somethin'" he finally said, or mumbled rather, looking down at his feet.

She didn't say anything, just stood there, looking at him. He looked up from his feet, into her eyes.

"You know, if I would've done what I wanted that night, maybe none of this would've happened" he said, finding his courage as he looked into her eyes.

"What was that?" she asked, even though they both knew what he was talking about.

"I should've kissed you" he said as he grabbed her face with both hands and leaned in and kissed her. She was a little shocked at first but quickly gave into the kiss, kissing him back, placing her hands on his back.

"Yeah, you should've" she said when they broke apart, smiling.