Trinity High (Book 1 of the Trinity Series)

Chapter 4

The incident with Trey occupied my mind the rest of the day.

The more I tried to shove it out of my mind, the more I thought about it. It frustrated the hell out of me. I didn't want to be thinking about him. But for some reason, I could still feel the place where he had grabbed my arm buzzing, even six hours later.

I sat outside under a large willow tree. The droopy leaves hung around me, obscuring me from the view of passerbys. I had my books spread out in front of me. Although we hadn't learned anything in Calculus, Professor Mika decided to assign homework anyway. I decided to work on it now instead of wait until the next day. Mostly, though, I wanted to distract myself from the thoughts that kept running through my mind. Doing vigorous math homework would do the trick.

It seemed to be working, when I heard a rustling. When I looked up to see who had disrupted my peace and quiet, I was annoyed to see one of the skater boys standing there with a goofy grin on his face. He didn't see me at first and pulled out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket. Then he lifted his head and his eyes met mine. His grin dropped.

"Oh, I didn't realize someone was here..." he mumbled, shoving the cigarettes back into his pocket quickly. I rolled my eyes.

"Can I help you with something?" I asked pointedly when he didn't go away.

"You're the dean's daughter, aren't you?" he asked, ignoring my subtle hint.

"Genius," I mumbled, returning my attention back to my work.

"You're totally hot," he said, his goofy grin back on his face.

"Really, that's not any way to charm a girl," I replied, not bothering to look up at him. He had the typical look of a skater slash punk rocker. He had the emo bangs, tight pants, printed hoodie and Vans.

"I'm Lance. Lance Mayor," he said. I felt my eyebrow twitch with annoyance. How was it that I attracted the most obnoxious people? Did I have some sort of large blinking sign over my head that said, "HEY! COME OVER HERE AND BOTHER ME."?

"That's fantastic, Lance Mayor," I said, finally looking up at him. I gave him a tight, sarcastic smile. "Now I have a question for you," I said.

"Ok. Shoot," he said, wiggling his eyebrows at me.

"Can you leave me alone? I asked. His grin slipped off his face once more.

"Ouch. That hurts, you know," he said, regaining his relaxed composure and cocky expression. I frowned. This guy wasn't about to leave any time soon.

"You know what? Fine. I'll leave," I said, gathering my books. To my dismay, he followed me.

"Wait! We were only just starting to have fun!" he shouted. I began walking faster. In my effort to avoid him, I bumped into someone who I wanted to see even less.

"Ugh! No!" I cried, as my heavy books fell to the ground.

"You really need to stop doing that," Trey said, rubbing the part of his chest I had run into. I glared up at him, a stony expression on my face. I bent down to gather my books and he reached down as well, to help me. I snatched my books from him and stood, glaring at him.

"You really should smile more often. I heard you get more wrinkles if you frown," he said. I was trying to think of a clever and witty retort to this, when I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Hey! You can't get rid of me that easily!" Lance said. I could smell his True Religion cologne from our proximity. As his scent enveloped me and I saw Trey narrow his eyes at Lance's hand on my shoulder, I felt a lightbulb turn on in my head.