Oh, It's On

Chapter 2

The line outside the biology room is crowded—we’re starting our pig dissections and everyone can hardly wait.

I’m flipping through the small package our teacher, Ms. Randall, handed out to us the day before when Tina rushes up to me.

“Oh my god,” she says, panting hard from her running. Her face is white as a sheet.

“What’s wrong?” I ask.

Tina hunches over and puts a hand up against the wall to support herself. “I think I’m going to be sick.”

“I thought you were excited about the dissection,” I say, patting her on the back.

“Oh, no, not the dissection! Him.”

“Who?”

“You know that new guy? The one that’s so hot.”

I roll my eyes. Here we go. “You mean Jace?”

“Yeah, him!” Tina nods vigorously. “Wait…how did you know his name?”

“Long story. Anyways, what about him?” I ask her. There were more girls listening in our conversation now. I guess they all think he’s pretty hot too.

“He’s in our bio class!” Tina says excitedly.

“He’s in our bio class? In our advanced bio class?” It’s not really a question. More like a statement of extreme doubt and scepticism.

The girls around us giggle. A few whispers mention the words “hot and smart” and “I call dibs”. I, on the other hand, do not believe a second of this. If he got into our advanced biology class, he either charmed his way through the guidance office, or paid some willing geek next door to do all of his homework.

Tina shares the excitement of the other girls. “Yeah. Can you believe it Stella? A guy who’s drop dead gorgeous and incredibly smart. You know how you always say brains over bronze? Well this guy has both!”

I roll my eyes again. “Okay, first of all Tina, it’s brawns not bronze. Aren’t you like in advanced English too? Second of all, I highly doubt that he’s in our advanced bio. I mean, don’t you have to have like a 90% average to get into advanced bio? You probably saw wrong, or heard wrong.”

Tina opens her mouth to protest but is cut off by another voice.

“Nope, she saw and heard right. Looks like I’m in your class Stella.”

Jace is standing behind Tina, with one arm stretched out and hand pressed against the wall and the other arm in his pocket.

I glance at Tina, face white as a sheet again and eyes popped wide open. Then, I look back at Jace who still has that stupid smirk on his face. I’m beginning to wonder if he was just born that way and his face is just always scrunched up in that unattractive smirk.

“How nice,” I say in an uninterested tone. Tina gapes at me.

Jace is about to say something but I look away from him and start talking to Tina.

“Hey Tina, you know the package that Ms. Randall gave us yesterday? Did you get question 5, cause I’m a bit unsure.”

“Stella!” Tina hisses quietly, her eyes darting behind her. I can almost hear her screaming in her head: Stella what are you doing? There’s a totally hot guy behind me and you’re asking me about science homework?!

“Tina!” I reply, mocking her.

Just then, Ms. Randall hurries towards the classroom door, apologizing for being late while opening the door at the same time. We all file into the classroom and sit silently into our seats, eager to start the dissection. Jace stands in the corner of the room, unsure where to sit. His eyes land on me and the empty seat beside me (Joanne, the girl who usually sits beside me is sick with the flu). The smirk on his face grows wider and he makes his way over to me.