chapter two

he's off-limits

--

Massie walked down the halls of BOCHS to table 18. The guys and girls who sat there kind of adopted her into their tight-knit group. Well, all except Claire and Alicia.

It'd only been a few days, and they still were giving Massie the cold shoulder for reasons unknown. Everyone else had been surprisingly friendly. Not quite what she had expected, but it was nice to be welcomed with somewhat open arms.

She sat down at her usual seat—across from Derrick and Plovert, in between Dylan and Claire—and pulled out her sack lunch. She seemed to have been the first person at the table, because number eighteen was completely empty.

Massie sat and ate quietly for a few minutes, alone.

"Hey, are you the new girl?"

Massie looked up and stared at a somewhat attractive brunette. Her soft features made her seem friendly enough. "Um… yeah. Massie."

The girl smiled. "I'm Layne." Layne dropped her books on the table and took a seat next to Massie. "So what brings you here to Westchester?"

Massie sighed. "It's a really, really long story," she said, picking at her fingernails.

"It's okay if you don't want to talk about it."

Massie shook her head. "No, that's not it. Well… I'm from Indiana. My house burned down in a kitchen fire. My parents were asleep and… they didn't make it. And that should make me really sad and depressed right? Well, the weird thing is that I'm not. It's like I know that they wouldn't want me to miss out on anything, and like they helped me move on. Anyways, I had no other family in Indiana, and so my only option was to be sent here."

Massie smiled. "Sorry for dumping that one you. Told you it was long."

"No, it's fine," Layne said, opening her lunch bag. "Wow. I'm so, so sorry. If there's anything I can do…"

"Thanks," Massie smiled. "Woah, I really love your bag," She said, pointing to the canvas tote that was lying across the table.

"Thanks. It's one of those "go green" things that they sell at the grocery store. I got this once from Safeway. The only problem is that it rips…"

"I see," Massie said, nodding. "So you're a…"

"Senior," Layne said, nodding. "You?"

"Junior."

"Oh. Have you met my brother, Derrick? He's a junior, too."

Massie zoned out just as her phone vibrated in her pocket.

DERRICK: WHERE ARE YOU?

MASSIE: I'M AT YOUR TABLE. NUMBER 18?

DERRICK: UM. WE'RE NUMBER TWELVE?

MASSIE: I'M EATING WITH THIS GIRL LAYNE. MAYBE LATER.

DERRICK: :(

Massie looked up. "I'm sorry, what?"

"My brother Derrick is a junior. Have you met him? Blonde… brown eyes… total opposite of me?" Layne said, grinning."

"Maybe…" Massie trailed off and focused on eating her Fuji apple. Duh. Derrick. But Layne-Derrick? As in Layne's brother Derrick? It was a bit much for Massie to handle.

The same, soft bell rang, and Massie and Layne exchanged numbers. Massie picked up her books, threw away her lunch, and started walking away from table eighteen.

--

"Block."

Massie felt warm hands cover her eyes as a familiar, deep voice asked, "Guess whoooo?"

"No idea," she responded flatly, removing Derrick's hands from her face. "You didn't tell me you had a sister!"

"You didn't ask," Derrick said, shrugging. "And besides, she's a senior. How did you run into her anyways?"

They turned the corner, passing a group of blonde freshman, giggling into their palms as they saw BOCHS's It Boy walking with the new girl. Did Massie have a chance with him? Apparently not to them.

"I went to your table," Massie shot at him. "How strange," she said, rolling her eyes as she walked.

Derrick held his hands up in the air in surrender. "Not my fault that Claire told you the wrong table number! I'm sure she didn't mean it."

My ass, Massie thought to herself as her and Derrick walked up the stairs to the second floor. It had never occurred to her how big BOCHS was. There was the North and South campus with six buildings interconnected on each campus. And almost four thousand kids went there. It surprised Massie that she didn't get lost in the crowd.

"Well Claire didn't exactly give me a warm welcome, either," she retorted, checking her iPhone for the time. "And you're making me late!" Massie laughed, playfully shoving Derrick into the lockers to his left.

"Kay, fine then," Derrick said, pretending to be hurt. But he was smiling all the same. Massie looked into his big, brown, puppy dog eyes and the way his blonde hair swept messily into them. Plus he had nice teeth.

"Gimme a hug, you jerk," he said to Massie. His tanned, muscular arms wrapped around her protectively.

"You forgot to let me go," Massie mumbled, her voice muffled as she spoke into his chest.

"Nope. This is just really comfortable."

She squirmed her way out of his embrace and flashed him a smile as she walked into Mr. Jermillo's Foreign Policy class. Massie walked to her seat and sat down in her seat, which was conveniently right next to Claire Lyons.

A heated discussion was already starting about last night's debate with McCain and Obama. Mr. J was, as usual, struggling to get a hold of the class and maintain order as his fifth period juniors came back from lunch.

Mr. Jermillo was the type of teacher that everyone liked. He made fat jokes about himself and taunted his students, but always "in a constructive way, so that nobody gets sued." Everyone looked forward to his class because it resembled a free-for-all for the first ten minutes.

"Obama has no foreign policy!" Josh protested to Plovert as he was rigorously writing something on his notebook.

"That's not even what the debate was about!" Chris shouted, exasperated.

"Well I don't see Barack coming up with a grand-slam idea for our economic mess," Kemp said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Who do you think let the offshore drilling law to expire?" Josh shot smugly.

"What does that have to do with anything?!" Plovert shouted.

"Quiet, quiet quiet!" Mr. J said in monotone. "We have issues needed to be discussed…"

Massie zoned out and concentrated on searching for split ends. There was virtually none, but she liked the challenge anyways.

A slam of books next to her was heard throughout the room, and there was silence for about three seconds; then everyone started arguing again.

It was none other than Claire herself.

"What," Claire began, speaking slowly to Massie as if she was speaking to an ilitierate two year old. "is with you, flirting with my boyfriend?"

Claire's voice had esclatated into a shrill whine, and by now the class was listening intently on her and Massie's "conversation." Nevertheless, Massie looked around and acted innocent. "Who, me?" She asked, a small grin escaping her mouth.

"Oh, don't you play dumb with me, Block," Claire snapped. "I don't know who you think you are to just waltz right in from munchkinland and drop your house on the wicked witch of the west, okay? And frankly, I don't care. Just click your heels and go back to Kansas, where you and Toto came from, 'kay Dorothy?"

Claire crossed her arms smugly across her chest and leaned away from Massie.

"'Kay, first of all, Indiana, Kuh-laire," Massie glared back at her. "I'm not some country hick. I'm about a country hick as you are a snotty, rich, spoiled Upper East Side brat. And as much as you act like one, face it, its dreams, and the only way to make that come true is to wake up."

Anger flashed through Claire's eyes. "Qui cette fille croit-elle qu'elle est, juste valser dans à notre école et ruiner le système entier que j'ai monté ? C'est inacceptable. Quelque chose doit être faite. Et je serai celui pour le faire!"

Silence throughout the room.

"WTF does that mean?!" Josh cried to the ceiling.

"It means she doesn't have the guts to diss me in English," Massie said, rolling her eyes. She crossed her arms over her chest and stuck her lower lip out. The rest of the class stared expectantly at Claire for her reaction.

"Class, Class," Mr. Jermillo shouted. "Whoever speaks out of turn next gets one of two things: a referral to the office or they get to have me sit on them."

"He's so mean to himself!" giggled Olivia to Cam.

"So as many of you know, fossil fuels are limited and are predicted to run out in about 100 years. Does anyone have any guesses on what will be our electricity source next?" Mr. Jermillo asked the class.

"Human blood!" shouted Chris. He turned around and grinned at Massie, who started to blush uncontrollably.

"Lord help us that it's not yours," Mr. J said as he looked to the ceiling, exasperated. "Anyone else have an idea?"

Claire looked smugly at Massie. "Hydrogen fuel cells. I think that's going to be a predominant source of energy, once the government gets it in their heads that hydrogen cells hold our future."

"Obama wouldn't," Josh mumbled to himself.

"Very nice, Claire. What's your opinion on that Olivia? ..."

Massie glared at Claire and scribbled something on her notebook. She shifted the paper over to Claire's side of the desk.

Claire-

Provoquez-le.

-M

I loved translating things into French. It's so… sophisticated. I think I had parent trap déjà vu. Lindsey Lohan, anyone?

Anyways, review please. Updates are being kinda slow due to school and all, but I will usually type up like four hundred or so words every couple of days. Hopefully once I get into the groove of things, updates will come faster.

-Logen :)

PS- (review?)