Chapter 2

I slammed my body into the heavy entry door of the school, absorbing with pleasure the impact against my seething, angered muscles. A few people jumped out of the way - ha. If they knew what I'd been through that morning, they'd be running a lot further.

Mom and Dad really gave it to me. Well, Dad did anyways. Mom tried to talk him down but there's no controlling that man. I was grounded for a week. A whole week! How was I going to survive an entire week being home every evening? What was I going to tell Emma? We had a great weekend of parties planned.

I glared ahead as I stomped through the school, ignoring the wayward glances.

"Teddy, snap out of it," came a hoarse whisper next to me. It was Phoebe.

"Go away," I snapped, rolling my eyes. My sister could be so annoying, always nosing around in my personal business.

"Teddy, you're blowing through school like a friggin tornado here. Take a chill pill, it's embarrassing." I finally looked at her to see her cheeks flushed and her eyes pleading. I felt a tinge of guilt. Sophomore year is tough, and she was having a rougher go of it than I did.

I sighed in annoyance, but slowed my pace and tried to temper the raging psychopath within.

"I'm fine, now get away from me."

With a victorious smile, she obliged.

God, I hate it when she does that.

I looked around for Emma but she wasn't in the commons area. I remembered she had a make-up test that morning. Good. I was in no mood to talk about the morning's events and she would never let it go if she saw me like this.

I threw my backpack by my desk in class, looking forward to the distraction of my hot and saucy math teacher.

"Teddy!" I looked up from my group of friends huddled around the red lunch table in the middle of the commons area. Emma!

Keeping my excitement under wraps, I granted her a nonchalant nod as she danced over, wrapping her arms around my neck from behind. I loved it when she did this. This woman just took over when she was with me. But of course, I feigned disinterest and tossed her brief glance and a smile.

"What are you doing?" She greeted, her tone accusatory. "I thought we were supposed to meet outside my class."

Oops.

"Oh yeah, sorry, I forgot," I replied, masking my apologetic tone and hoping the guys weren't listening. I awaited her standard barrage of questions, but to my surprise she simply shoved my buddy Alex over and squished in with the rest of us. Damn, this girl could be bold. I lazily put my arm around her and went back to eating my sub sandwich.

"How was your make-up test?" I asked, my mouth gnawing away noisily at my sub.

Her eyes lit up - she always got so excited when I asked about her. It always annoyed me.

"Good I think!" She said. "I don't know if I'll get an A or not, but I think my chances are good/." And off she went, rattling off the details of her test, her grades, and all the things she needed to accomplish before graduation. I was grateful for the opportunity to dive into my waiting lunch, throwing in a grunt here and there to indicate I was listening.

As she continued to babble, I noticed someone in a red hoodie jacket walking slowly toward the lunch line, arms crossed, head down, light brown hair sitting unglamourously on her shoulders. And the signature plaid skirt and white socks - God, I loved that plaid skirt. I watched with interest as she stood in line, glancing around every now and then with impatience, tapping her foot on the linoleum floor.

This girl had been intriguing me for weeks. I had no idea why, but I suspected it had something to do with that red hoodie and skirt. I'd noticed she'd wear the hoodie every day - rain or shine - but the skirt less often. Which is too bad because I'd come to look forward to admiring it. It was a daily mystery wondering when those sexy legs would wander into my view again.

She scratched her leg and adjusted her skirt as she stepped closer to the register. I'd have liked to scratch that leg.

What on earth goes through that pretty little head of hers?

"Teddy, did you hear me?!" I snapped my head back to attention - shit, did Emma catch me staring?

"Huh? Yeah, you were talking about school?" She heaved a sigh.

"Yes. Five minutes ago. I was asking what time you're picking me up Friday. I have FBLA after school and I might not be home until 6."

"Uhhh.." Shit, how was I going to tell her? She was going to kill me. "Well, uh… I don't know if I can go." I dove back into my lunch hoping the camouflage of my chips could save me from oncoming hurricane.

Her eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?" She muttered through clenched teeth.

I looked around trying desperately to find something to distract us from this conversation, but the lunchroom was disturbingly void of activity.

I sighed with frustration.

"I'm grounded," I finally muttered, sending a comical sprinkle of chip pieces in my wake.

Staring at me with distinct displeasure, Emma extended her finger to her nose and, with an acute combination of sassiness and sophistication, gently flicked a chip piece from her cheek. I suppressed a laugh.

That didn't help.

She stood up from the table and glared down at me. "Teddy, I told you how important this was to me! How could you go and get grounded? God, I could kill that stupid dickhead father of yours. Just tell him to go to hell!"

I didn't want to do this; particularly not in front of all my friends who were now staring at me, barely containing their smiles.

"Emma, we'll talk about this later, ok?" I insisted, returning her glare. "Don't you have a class to go to?" I knew that would get her off her high horse.

"Fine!" She seethed. And with that, she stormed off.

"Oooooh poor little Teddy-Weddy is in twubble."

Oh God, not this...

"Teddy, how could you? I thought I had you whipped. Do you need more training?" Bobby and Liam were leading the pack, flinging comment after mocking comment. Why did Emma always put me in this position?

I laughed it off, helplessly jabbing back at my friends about their deserted sex lives and lame evenings of Dungeons and Dragons. Eventually they found someone else to tease and I escaped, embarrassed and flustered into the hallway towards gym class. I turned the corner and threw open the gym door.

Thwack!

I hit something. Something hard. Maybe someone? I walked gingerly through the door and spotted black shoes, socks…and then as I peeked around the door - a plaid skirt.

Ah fuck.

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