The Hart Game

Chapter Three

CASSIE

I stood there at my locker looking over three letters I received in the mail this morning. All I had to do was choose carefully between the three that will change everything after High School. University of Notre Dame, New York University and Oxford University, UK. Three schools far away from here. One of which was my mothers alma mater, Notre Dame. I've never considered going there, I just applied just to make my father happy. Thats the place where they fell in love, where their story began.

"Hey bitch!" I turn slightly to see my best friend, Erin, leaning against my neighbors locker which so happens to be my brothers. I quickly folded all three letters and stashed them into my backpack. I had planned on going to NYU with her, Dean and Jordan. The four of us taking on New York together. But with Oxford offering a full academics scholarship I was suddenly having my own dilemma. I don't know if I have the heart to tell Erin that I really wanted to go to Oxford. I really don't want to disappoint her, she was the first girl to ever befriend me, the rest were either jealous, scared or just hated me. "You ready to head to the cafeteria? I'm hungry."

That's Erin for you. Always thinking of food, I don't know how she stays so tiny when she can easily finish a whole large pepperoni pizza all by herself. But that is just her and that is what I love about her. She doesn't care what people think of her, she just does what she does, says what she says and everything is fine. Me, on the other hand, I'm well reserved and I prefer it that way. I hate it when people are in my business when they have no right to be in. There are only three people in this world that know the real me. That I will entrust my life with everything that makes me who I am today, my two older brothers and my best friend since forever, Dean.

I was about to nod and close my locker when there was a loud Bang! We both turned our heads to the direction of the sound and we see students running to catch the action. "What the hell was that?" We turn to see Dean walking towards us, I guess he heard what we heard. When he stops besides us he's about to say something else.

"HEY! BACK OFF!" Suddenly all the chattering becomes silent. A pin can be dropped and it could be heard half a mile away. I look to Dean and realize that we might need to step in like we always do. So much for a quiet first day.

When we get to where everyone is there are a lot of people around, it's like everyone thinks this is WWE. Dean and Erin shove people out of the way so we can get to the front of the crowd, and what I see shocks me. The new kid from this morning is being held back against the lockers by Clyde and Dylan. I can see it in Christian's stance that he is about to fight. No, we can't have that. Both Dad and Teddy said one more slip up and they're sending him away.

"Then I guess we do have a problem now." The new kid, for some odd reason, this kid has me curious. The way he was looking at me this morning was like he was looking straight through the walls that I built a long time ago. And now he is standing up to my brother. I need to think fast before Christian throws that first punch, and I can tell the new kid has a fighting chance even though Christian does not see it. Right when he was about to through the punch I decide to step in.

"Hey! What the hell is going on here?!" I say with the confidence I try to build up. Christian is frozen mid swing. And the new kid is looking at me, and suddenly I feel naked under his gaze and a flutter in my stomach. What is this kid doing to me? I catch him checking me out and I can see the tint of red on his cheeks and neck, that has the butterflies fluttering like crazy. He's about 6' lanky but from the broad shoulders it's clear that he can fight even though it doesn't look like he has any muscle on him. And those captivating amber eyes are going to be the death of me if they keep looking at me like that, but I won't be admitting that anytime soon to any one for that matter. "Well is someone gonna answer me or not?!"