Junior Hearts

Chapter Two

As soon as I walked into the classroom I saw Avery sitting in the back with her bag on the seat next to her.

"Bradley! Over here, I saved you a seat." Avery enthusiastically called over to me as I walked towards her.

"Thanks." She pulled her bag off the seat and I plopped down.

"Hey," she leaned in close to me, a huge grin planted on her face, "who's the hottie you walked in with?" I felt my face flush red before I answered her.

"Oh, him?" I tilted my head in the boys direction, "I don't know his name, he just needed help finding the classroom. Nothing special."

"Ooh okay, well he's cute, I'd call dibs if I didn't already have Mason. Just kidding, haha!" I'd known Avery long enough to know that even though she acted like she was kidding, she wasn't.

"How is Mason? I barely saw you all summer because you were so busy with him." I quickly asked, glad she'd given me a chance to change the subject.

"He's great! We hung out almost everyday, he even came to my parents lake house with me. This one day that we were up there my parents left us alone so we went up to my room and-"

"Okay, I get the idea, I don't need any details." I quickly cut her off, I'd heard enough details about her times alone with Mason, and it wasn't something I enjoyed.

"Whatever," she said, giving me a slightly annoyed look, "if you had a boyfriend I'd let you tell me about you and him."

"Um that's not something I'm going to be sharing with you or anyone."

"Yeah just wait until you have a boyfriend, you'll want to talk about it."

"I doubt it." As soon as I said it the bell signaling the beginning of class rang. Avery and I both turned back toward the front of the class to wait for our teacher to start talking.

"Hello class, welcome to AP Calculus, my name is Mr. Johnson. Everyone please quiet down." He waited a few moments for the noise to die down before continuing. "Okay, we're going to go around the room and I would like everyone to introduce themselves." I listened as everyone said their name, even though I knew most of them, until it was my turn.

"I'm Bradley Shire." As I said it I saw that the new boy was looking at me, we locked eyes and I blushed before looking away. Everyone continued to say there names, the last one to go was the new boy. I turned my attention to him, excited to hear his name.

"I'm Caden Miller," he said, looking slightly bored. 'Caden,' I thought, 'I like that name.' I tried not to stare at him, like every other girl in the class was, although he didn't seem to be paying too much attention to any of them, me included.

"Bradley," Avery whispered to me, "try not to drool. Haha."

"I'm not." I whispered back. The rest of the class was pretty boring, Mr. Johnson just went over the syllabus and passed out a take-home pre-test for homework to "find out where everyone is at" as he put it. After what seemed like forever the bell finally rang and everyone got up to leave.

"I'll see you third hour, I'm going to find Mason." Avery said before walking out of the class. As I grabbed my bag I heard someone walk up to me.

"Hey, Bradley right?" I looked up to see Caden standing there.

"Oh yeah. Do you need something?"

"Do you have AP Human Anatomy next?"

"Yeah I do, want me to show you where it is?"

"Yeah, thanks."

"Alright, follow me." We walked out into the hall, he was next to me this time, instead of following behind me. I decided I would try to have a conversation with him this time. "So, did you switch school or did you just move here?" He seemed surprised that I was talking to him.

"I just moved here over the summer."

"Oh cool. Where did you move from?"

"California." I tried to keep the conversation going, even though he seemed like he didn't really want to talk to me.

"That's cool. I've never been there. Why'd you move out here? California is a lot more exciting than Missouri."

"My parents got divorced, so I moved out here with my mom and little sister." He said it like it was no big deal, but I could sense that it was a tough subject.

"Oh, uh sorry." I didn't know what to say, but luckily I heard Sam calling me from behind.

"Hey, Bradley, wait up!" Sam ran up next to me, then he turned to Caden. "Who's this?" He sounded annoyed, which was weird, it wasn't like him to be weird around other guys. I was about to answer him when Caden spoke up.

"Hi, I'm Caden, is something wrong? Bradley is just showing me where our next class is." He said it nicely, but he looked irritated. I could already tell that the two were not going to like each other.

"Hi Caden. I'm Sam. Nothings wrong, just wondering who the new kid walking with my best friend is."

"Well, it looks like we're here, so don't worry. She's all yours." We had reached the classroom and Caden started walking in, "Thanks Bradley," he said, before entering the room, leaving me and Sam alone. I was annoyed that he had been so rude to Caden, but I decided to leave it alone.

"Calm down Sam. Come on, we're going to be late if we don't go in there now."

"Whatever." Sam followed me into the room and we sat down at an empty lab table just as the bell rang. Our teacher, Mr.Brown, stood up from his desk to address the class. After going over the syllabus we still had a few minutes left in the class so everyone starting chatting amongst themselves. Sam was turned around talking to one of his friends from the football team so I was just sitting quietly on my iPhone scrolling through tumblr.

"What are you doing after school?" Sam asked, snapping me out of my phone.

"Huh? Oh, I have to pick up Noah and Liam, take them home, and then go to work." I worked at a small record store part-time, and my manager, Chris, decided I should work on the first day of school, even though I asked not to be scheduled for it.

"Well when do you get off of work?"

"At six, why?"

"Do you want to meet me at Belle's Diner after? We can get dinner." Sam and I hung out a lot, but this felt different.

"Okay, I'll meet you there at like 6:30."

"Alright cool." He flashed me a smile, the one that made my heart sink every time I saw it.

The rest of the day went by pretty quickly. I found out that Caden had all his classes with me, but he didn't talk to me for the rest of the day, probably because of Sam. After the final bell rang I headed to my locker to put my textbooks away and grab my jacket. While I was putting my things away someone walked up behind me.

"Hey." I turned to see Caden standing behind me. I was surprised because he hadn't talked to me since before second hour.

"Oh hi." I wasn't sure what he needed, so I just waited to see what he was going to say. He seemed a little uncomfortable, and after a few seconds of silence, he finally spoke up.

"So can I have your number?" I was shocked that he'd asked me, and I'm sure he could tell because he immediately added, "I mean since we have all our classes together and I don't really know anyone else I figure you can help me if I need it." 'Oh, duh, of course he just wants help with school,' I thought, I didn't know what I was expecting, but I had been hoping he wanted it because he was interested in me. I shook off the feeling of hurt and answered him.

"Oh right. Yeah let me see your phone." He handed me his iPhone and I typed my number into his contacts. "Okay, there you go." I handed his phone back to him.

"Thanks," He gave me a half smile, "well, I'll text you if I need anything. See you tomorrow." He turned and walked down the hall. I sighed and shut my locker and headed down the hall towards the parking lot where I bumped into Sam again. He was huddled around someones car with a bunch of his friends.

"Bradley! Don't forget about our date!" He gave me a teasing smile before turning back to his friends. He joked with me a lot, but I couldn't shake the feeling that he was being somewhat serious. I finally got to my car and headed to pick Noah and Liam up. It had been and interesting first day.