Stay Wild: A Curly Shepard Love Story

- Chapter 1 -

Curly Shepard's Point of View
"Mr. Shepard," Ms. Lucas says, standing up from her desk. I roll my eyes and look across the classroom. One empty seat is left in the back of the class. That works out pretty well for me. Damn, wouldn't expect her to put me there. 

"Come on, I'd like to speak with you." I follow her out to the hallways and pull a cigarette out of my pocket. "No smoking, Curly. You know the rules." 

"Come on, Lucas, just 1," I tease back with a smirk. She glares with a small smirk. As much as she tries not to show it, I know she likes me. She thinks I'm pretty funny, but you wouldn't know it from what she says next. 

"Curly, you missed a lot. I'm willing to give you an extension, but if you can't meet that you'll be held back." I shrug. I don't wanna get held back, man. I wanna get out of this hellhole, get my diploma and get out of this shit town.  I wanna run off to California, maybe Vegas or something too. I can't get held back. 

"I've asked some of my accelerated students if they'd be willing to help you, but let's face it you don't have the best rep, kid." I shake my head and scoff, rolling my eyes. 

"I don't need a smartass' help, man. I-"

"Yes, you do, Mr. Shepherd," she interrupts. "You're lucky you're not automatically failed. I've sat you by the one student that agreed to help a boy like you." Her voice was stern, scarily stern. She's never talked to me like that. We have a mutual agreement not to make each other's lives hell, but I guess not anymore.

"She's going to help you during class and after school as needed and don't put it all off until the last week, Curly." I curl my lips in and nod. It's not worth fighting it, I know I won't be able to get out of it and Tim's already mad enough at me. I don't get why he takes my school so seriously, he didn't even go to college. 

"Fine," I sigh. Whoever it is is gonna regret that decision surely. I can't do math to save my life, I'm surprised I've made it this far. It couldn't have been the nerdy kids, they're all mortified of me, as they should, and it can't be anyone I hang around, they can't do math neither. Are they a greaser? They've gotta be. 

"Can I go now?" Ms. Lucas sighs and nods. I walk back inside and towards the back of the room, but she stops me by calling my name, "Curly, you're gonna be sitting up here." She taps a table at the front of the room. There are 2 people there currently. 

One is the nerdiest guy in the class, a real asshole too. A soc most definitely, the type that acts tough but could be scared shitless with ease. He looks up ad Ms. Lucas and closes his textbook. 

Next to him is a girl, she doesn't even look up. Her wavy blonde hair is pulled back in a ponytail and she writes furiously on a piece of graph paper. I don't remember ever seeing her before. The teacher clears her throat and the girl looks up, taking an earbud out. 

"Vincent, you'll sit back there. Curly, up here." People snicker. I roll my eyes and flip them my middle finger. I plop down next to the girl, fiddling with the pencil in my hand. It's the only thing I brought. The girl glances at me and scoots away a little bit. Is she sure this girl wants to work with me? 

"Hey, blondie," I whisper, looking her up and down. A leather backpack rests at her feet next to her white tennis shoes.  Her white shirt is tied at the bottom of her sternum so her belly is exposed. She glances at me, nods slightly, and looks back to her paper. 

"I'm talking to you, blondie." She puts the earbud in again. I grab the cord and yank it out, wrapping it in my face. "You know, when someone talks to you, most people respond." She looks at me with icy blue eyes, piercing my own. They distract me as she yanks her earbud from my fist. "Retard," I mumble. 

I feel the heel of a boot stomp onto the toes of my sneakers. My hand wraps around her bicep, fingers dogging between her muscles where Tim taught me. As soon as I saw her reaction I regretted it. Her breath hitched and shook as she stopped writing. I knew how bad it hurt, Tim did it to me loads, but from the look on her face, I did it harder than Tim ever did. 

I didn't mean to hurt her, but you don't just do that and get away with it. Sadly, I didn't get away with it. Ms. Lucas saw and glared at me. I let go and I swear I saw a tear on her cheek before it was wiped away. She sniffles and I laugh a little bit. Nobody else needs to know I feel bad. 

The bell rings loudly and the girl next to me stands up fast and rushes out of the room before she even had her book closed. As I stand, Ms. Lucas calls me over to her desk. Right back to the dean I go, per usual. It's not usually her that send me though. 

"Really, Curly. The one person willing to help you and you do that. Why?" I don't really have an answer, so I shrug. "I recommend you apologize to the poor girl." I don't apologize, especially if I don't mean it. If she didn't want to get hurt, she shouldn't try to hurt me. An eye for an eye, girl or not. Helping or not. I don't care. She didn't need to be such an ass to me when I didn't even do nothing. 

"Go to your next class, I can't believe you." I know she could believe it, but I turn and leave, just to see the guys at the door. 

"You see her face?" they shout with laughter and I laugh along with them. "You sure taught her, huh, Curly." I nod and nudge them with my elbow. 

"Can't believe she sat me in the front," I grumble. 

"And by that nerd," Ricky chimes in. "Who even is she?" I don't know. She doesn't even look vaguely familiar. Did she move here while I was at the reform? She had to, I would have seen a girl like that. She was pretty and I hated to admit it. 

The way she had her makeup, not heavy like Angela, but she could definitely pull it off. One strand of hair had hung out of the ponytail, the more I think about her, the more I remember. She had tucked it behind her ear after I grabbed her arm, it was shaking real bad. 

"You guys seen her around before? She move here?" They shrug, offering only an 'I don't know.' I would've been her before. I had to. No smart person in this school would help me if they knew me.