Resisting Temptation

Chapter 4

My first class was calculus; more like an orientation or calculus. I was one of the very few to come in the room, along with five others. Unfortunately, that didn't include Luisa. That did however include Mean Girl 1 who enjoys slamming people against buses, with her possey following. Next came in Zac, with some blonde kid by his side. His tie was loose and hanging like a scarf around his neck. Mean Girl 1 came up to my desk and sat on the table.

"Can I help you?" I asked her.

"Nice moves today, do they teach those shitty moves back in the land of maple leaves and polar bears?" she asked. I looked around.

"Sorry, are you talking to me? I don't usually talk to girls with straw for hair." I said.

"Are you trying to tell me I'm some kind of Southern Whore?" she asked.

"Why, if the Bejewelled Barbie Coyboy Boot fits." I replied in a southern accent. The girl scoffed and went to her seat at the front. I just smirked and sat back in my seat, waiting to start.

A man wearing thin riimed glasses and a comb-over came in with a slam of the door. He sat at his desk and began roll call, that is, until he came onto my name.

"Daniella Lavek. You're the new student in my class." he said.

"You figured that out huh professor?" Zac's friend asked. The teacher ignored his snyde remark.

"Daniella, why don't you tell us something interesting about yourself?" he asked me. 

"Seriously? Are we in the fourth grade or something?" I asked, which earned me a few laughs from students. The teacher scowled at me, telling me to go on.

"Right. Alright, I'm a decendant of Henry the Eighth, I just don't like chopping off people's head if they can't produce children." that was a joke, but it got the class to like me. I think the teacher even tried to hold back his smile.

"Daniella, please be serious." he said. Alright, alright, enough's enough.

"Kay, I just moved here from Ontario and I like gymnastics." I replied.

"And boy is she flexible." that was Zac's voice, who just happened to be two seats away from me. The way he said that made me cringe, and not in a shy way either if you get my drift.

"Mr. Trenway, this is hardly the time for your vulgar comments and I'm sure Ms. Lavek doesn't appreciate them. Speaking of which, could you please move into that empty seat. You know the rules of my classroom-"

"Everyseat must be neatly filled and there will be no empty spaces. We know." one of the Mean Girl's possey said. The teacher switched his scowl from me to her. It seems Zac didn't have a choice as he got up and came and sat right next to me. I don't know what it was, but something about this Zac screamed trouble. He didn't look like his usual quite self like when he was at home. This was...different.

The teacher -- who I learned was named Mr. Smith, real original -- was drawling on and on about what we'd be learning for calculus this year. I was taking notes on everything, because...that's just what I do, then I heard a chair and table scraping. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Zac had moved in closer, he was looking at me.

"How ya doin?" I asked quietly.

"How's your first day of school going?" he asked.

"This isn't school, this is orientation. There's a difference." I replied.

"If I have to get up at seven in the morning and leave at three in the afternoon, then I consider it school." he said.

"Well that's new." I said.

"What is?" he asked.

"You're actually talking to me." I replied.

"That's 'cause I just discovered my soon-to-be-step-sister has a sense of humor...and a good one at that." he said.

"Just taking a friend's advice: playing my cards right so I won't get shoved into lockers or slammed into walls." I replied.

"That friend is smart. We should hang out like this more often." he said.

"We live together." that should be all he needs.

"I know, but I didn't know you were cool." he said.

"And I didn't know you were such a douchebag. Personal space." then I lifted my foot and pushed him and his desk back to it's original spot.

-

After calculus ended, I felt someone wrap their arm around me. Lucky me, it was my own soon-to-be-step-brother.

"What do you want?" I asked him.

"That's a cold tone, you talk to everybody like that?" he asked.

"Only arrogant people like yourself." I replied.

"I'm not arrogant you know." he said. I pulled his arm off me and stopped dead.

"Really? The entire time I've been living with you, you've acted like I don't exist! So why're you paying attention to me now?" I asked.

"And that makes me arrogant?" 

"It makes you an asshole! It's people like you who drive me up the wall." I said.

"How so?" he asked.

"You know, you think you're all tough shit, but I can see right through you!" I told him.

"And what the hell do you see? You don't know me." he said.

"You're right, I don't. But you don't know me either. And we wouldn't be having this conversation if you had just taken the time to know me. You're a wannabe, and when we walk through these halls, I'll pretend I don't know you to save you from further embarrassment. Later asshole." and with that, I turned on my heels and headed for my next class.

-

Lunch quickly came, and I took a seat next to Luisa, who was occupying an empty table. "Hey."

"Hey Canadian Girl, how was calculus? Did Mr. Smith make an impression on you or what?" she asked.

"Does he live with his mother?" I asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"I can tell." she snickered at my comment, I guess I've become a new school comedian.

"Did you make any new friends? Or are you still a loner?" she asked.

"Still a loner." I replied.

"That makes me your only friend. That didn't sound as sad in my head." she said. Gee, thanks Luisa.

"Hey, I did talk to somebody if it makes a difference." I replied.

"Don't tell me it was your imaginary friend." she said. Really?

"Yeah, I have an imaginary friend. His name is John and he eat cotton candy and ketchup packets for dinner." I joked.

"Cute, who'd you talk to?" she asked.

"Zac Trenway, and some skinny brunette with red lips." I replied.

"You talked to Zac Trenway and Sandy Lawrence? Are you for real?" she asked.

"Yeah. Well...Zac's dad is marrying my mom, that's why we moved out here. And I think Sandy got mad from me doing a handspring from earlier." I replied.

"That girl looks as innocent as kitten, but let me tell you, her bark is worse than her bite." she said.

"Honestly, and for our own well-being, I hope you're right."