Senseless Attraction (2 page)

      “Hurry up and eat, girl, or you'll be late for the bus.” Momma gave me a quick kiss on the cheek. “I'm going for a shower, and I’ll see you tonight. Have a good day, hon,” she called over her shoulder as she headed down the hall to the bathroom.

      “Yeah right,” I muttered.

      I finished my plate, rinsed it, and quickly raced out the door as the bus travelled up my street. Right out the front of my house was the last stop before Freddy, the Santa- looking bus driver, dropped us off at school. His route took him to the snob zone first because they lived on the west side – the farther side – where all the mansions and estates were. I lived on a normal street that contained the smaller houses that were close to one another.

     Climbing onto the bus that would take me to my wonderful school—
feel the sarcasm?
—Mt. Henry, I showed my bus pass, and gave a small chin lift to Freddy. He grunted back, and then I sat down in the first seat up at the front, next to my friend Jessie Mitanni. I didn't bother looking in the back anymore, knowing that if I did, all I would receive is laughs and glares. Besides, the one I used to look for no longer attended our school. Actually, he no longer lived on the same continent.

      A high-pitched squeal touched my ears, causing me to shudder. I knew straight away who it was, Miss Donna Evans, the most popular girl in school. And I knew who she’d be sitting with, Kane Stanley, her rich—well, richer than her by a little—boyfriend, and some of their evil posse who chose to ride the bus with them.

      “S'up?” Jessie asked while applying her black lipstick. Unlike my momma, her mom couldn't stand her wearing any of this sort of makeup, so Jessie applied it in the mornings and removed it before heading home. At least her mom wasn't so grouchy when it came to the clothes both Jessie and I wore.

       I found that it suited Jessie more, with her slim figure, medium height, dark blonde hair, and light blue eyes. She was even lucky enough to have been visited by the boob fairy.

      “Not much, you?” I asked as I skidded down lower in my seat.

      “Usual. God, I hate Mondays.”

      “Tell me about it. I wish I caught some very long-lasting disease over the weekend, and then I wouldn't have to deal with being matched up with a partner in history today.”

      “Oh, man, that’s today? I feel for ya; I have that Friday.”

      “Just pray for me that I don't get any of those asses in the back.” I gestured with my head towards the back of the bus.

      “I'll pray as long as you do it for me. At least you know there's no chance of getting Trevor, Beth, or Megan, ‘cause they're in my class.”

      “Yeah, but they’re the better out of the lot.”

      “True, too true.” She nodded. “You have it first period, yeah?”

      “Yep.” I sighed loudly.

      “Best wishes, Sky. See ya at lunch.” She gave me a wink and flew past me to get off the bus. I just wasn't in the mood to move. I waited until the last person had stomped off, and then dragged my reluctant form from the bus to—
da-da-daaa
—History.

      I walked straight to my table in the middle of the class that I shared with another friend of mine, Mitch. Even though we were in the same classes most of the time, he should have actually been in year twelve. He was asked to repeat a year, so that made him eighteen, where I was still—
cry
—seventeen. Mitch and I got along really well. He had even chosen to hang with Jessie and me instead of the other crowd in year twelve that he used to hang with. Well, except for Javis, a skateboarder friend, and Massie, a girl who was into the same things as Jessie and me. Another reason Mitch was hanging around with us was because of a certain crush he had going for Jessie. Not that she was aware of it, or the fact that I’d figured it out, but I did hope he would make a move. They’d be good for each other.

      “Wad'up?” Mitch asked as I sat next to him.

      “Fretting, you?”

      “Nah, it should be all right. As long as we don't get any of the snobs. Jessie here today?”

      I gulped back my laugh and nodded at him as our teacher Mr Gavin walked in. He wasn’t bad for a teacher, besides the fact he wanted to try and fix everything by having the idea of 'share your midterm experience with someone you don't know'. He should’ve known it was useless; we mingled with whom we wanted, and that suited us. Though, no matter how many times students complained, or just didn’t do the assignment because of being paired with someone they despised, and then, in turn, failed the half-year assignment, Mr Gavin never backed down by changing. He still thought it was the right thing to do.

      “All right, class, we all know what today is. So once I call your names, please, one of you change your table to sit with your new partner. This will not only be for this half-year assignment, but for the rest of the year.”

      Groans erupted all around, myself included.

      I closed my eyes, leaned my head down on the desk, and sent out a silent prayer.
Please, no snob.

    
 He called names out that I didn’t care for, but then he came to Mitch’s name, and I had to look up and give Mitch a sympathy pat on the shoulder because he had just been paired with Dale, the class clown. It was going to be so hard to work with him. Poor Mitch would probably have to do all the work himself.

      “Skylar James—” I stiffened; here it was. “You are paired with Kane Stanley.” Mr Gavin moved on to call out the rest of the class, but I had stopped listening. I think I was in shock. How could he do this to me? Anyone but him would’ve been better.

      “Oh, babe. I feel for you,” I heard Donna say.

      It must have been obvious I wasn't moving, so Kane had decided to come to me and my table since Mitch had already moved to sit with Dale. The chair next to me was pulled out and Kane Stanley sat down.

      “Hi,” he said.

      “Yeah, hi. I'm, um, Skylar,” I uttered, looking at him for the first time. He was your usual jock type: tall, broadly built, with short dark brown hair that hung too long in the front, and nice, warm golden eyes.   

     
Nice? Warm? Where did I pull that from?

      He turned his chair a little to face me and smirked, flashing his perfect white teeth. “I know who you are.”

      Of course, he did; how lame did I sound? But really, it was the first time we'd met, wasn’t it? I mean, besides the fact that we’d known each other by association for some time.

      I couldn't help but look over my shoulder to see who Donna had been paired with. It was Kevin Meit, one of the smartest kids in school. No fair. She was going to breeze through the assignment by making her partner do all the work.

      Would Kane make me do that as well? He could certainly think again if he tried it.

      “Now, class. Take this time to talk to your new partner about what you think would be a good subject for this assignment. Remember, I have allowed you to cover anything in History.” With that, he sat down, and the talking around us started.

      Kane cleared his throat. “So, any ideas?”

      “Um,” I said while flicking through our textbook. I gave up and sighed. “Nope, none. You?”

      He smirked again; how could that make my heart race? Goddamn good-looking jock.

      “Let’s see. We have options of World War One or Two...”

      I rolled my eyes. “Boring.”

      “Okay then, what about a person from our history?”

      “Could work, like who?”

      He shrugged. “Hitler, Gandhi, Patrick Henry, Einstein, Thomas Jefferson...”

      “Or what about women from history? Like Martha Jane Cannary, Harriet Jacobs, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Victoria Woodhull. And that’s only to name some, but I'm sure
we
could look into others.”

      He let out a quiet laugh. “All right, what about we do both? What about Mrs Roosevelt and her husband?”

      “Sounds interesting.” And easy.

      “When do you want to get together and work?” he asked.

      I swallowed loudly and coughed it back up when it went down the wrong way.

      After clearing my throat, I said, “Why not here, right now, and then every time we have class?” I was not giving Donna any ammunition to start on me. And if Kane and I worked alone somewhere other than class, it was just asking for trouble.

      “It's due in a month, Skylar. We...”

      “Sky,” I uttered.

      “Sorry?”

      “Only my momma calls me Skylar. So call me Sky, okay?”

      “Sure.” He smiled. “As I was saying, we only have a month to do a written assignment, and then an oral; both have to sound totally different from one another. There’s a lot to cover for both people, and I don't know about you, but I need a good grade for this class.”

      “I'm not going to slack off if that’s what you’re worried about. I'm not like that.” I glared. “Fine, where and when do you want to do this?”

      “Monday nights are good for me, as well as Saturdays—early mornings though. We can alternate; one day I could come to your house, the other, you come to mine?”

      I couldn't help but stare at him. I shut my mouth with an audible click when he started looking confused.

      “Look, Kane, it’s real nice of you to try this ‘partner thing’,” I made air quotes, “but I cannot see you coming to my house and playing nice. And I really cannot see myself at your house. Come on. Your parents would freak if I walked in the door, and probably worry I'd steal something.” 

      Okay, he looked angry. “Is that how it is then? You obviously already think I'm some rich asshole who’s already judged you not worthy of my time; therefore, we cannot get along enough to get this assignment done.” He took a deep breath. “Not all people judge a book by its cover,
Skylar
.” I scoffed and looked to Donna. He snorted and added, “I said
not all
.”

      I growled in frustration. Fine. If he wanted to play it that way, he could just come and see how the other side lived. But I would not make it easy on him at all.

      “Whatever, Kane Stanley. Let’s do this. Come to my house tonight. The address…oh, you should already know. The bus pulls right out in front of it every morning.”

      “Good. I'll see you there later. I have a few things to do after school first.”

      “Yeah, sure.” More like he was worried that if he got off at my spot, people would start talking.

      He rolled his eyes as the bell rang. Donna came up beside our desk and leaned over to give him a big, show-off kiss.

      Like I didn’t already know she owned his ass.

      I walked out of the classroom before they started stripping.

      Mitch caught up to me at the door and flung his arm around my shoulders. We had the next class together. “I don't know who dibbed out worse here,” he sighed.

      “Yeah, me either. Give me a couple of days, though, and I'm sure I'll be ripping my hair out from all the talk about the rich life.”

      Mitch laughed. “Don't worry, pet. I'll be there doing it with you.”

      “Hey, punk. Get ya hands off me woman.”

      I laughed as Javis came up beside us. Mitch didn't move his arm though; we both knew Javis was joking. Like he always did.

      “So, what’s da verdict?”

      “I got Dale, and Princess Puff Cake here got Mr Charming himself, Kane Stanley,” Mitch explained.

       That was my new nickname. Ever since I ate five puff cakes with cream in one afternoon when we visited the bakery, Fat Papa’s. I wouldn’t usually eat that much, but that day I had some extra spending money from my birthday and splurged on my all-time-favourite: puff cakes. For some reason, I couldn't stomach them these days, especially after I spent the night throwing them back up.

      “Whoa, no way, man. Damn it, if it's like that for you guys, there’s no telling who Jessie's gonna get. Glad I've already been through that last year.”

      “Yeah, and who were you with?” I asked.

      Javis pretended to shudder. “Byney Steill, who I thought was the love of my life at the time.” He shrugged and added for me, “Sorry, babe. But once I got to know her, found out she didn't have a brain, and was a robot, it was off. All she could talk about was clothes, Brad Pitt, clothes, Brad Pitt, and...”

       “Clothes,” both Mitch and I answered.

       “Right. Anyway, better fly before I'm late and get into trouble once again. See ya’s at lunch.”

       He ran two doors down where he had Science, as Mitch and I walked into Social Studies.

* * * * *

      At lunch, Mitch, Javis, and I walked into the loud, already-busy cafeteria. After grabbing some lunch, we headed to our usual table where Jessie and Massie were seated. As I walked over, I noticed Jessie’s somewhat eager expression. I rolled my eyes; she must already have known who my history partner was.

      “Princess Puff Cake, you seem to have caught not only Mr Charming’s attention, but Miss Evil’s as well,” Mitch casually said.

      I glanced out the corner of my eye to the far corner where all the popular kids hung out, and for some reason, as soon as I saw Kane staring at me, my heart jumped and my stomach started with those annoying butterfly feelings. That was until in the same second, I saw Donna sending her deadly glare my way. If looks could kill, I would be dead. I had no idea what for though. It wasn’t like she should feel threatened by me; Kane and I had only met today. No sparks flew when it happened.

      “Sky? Sky, come on! Tell all. How lucky are you to get Mr Hottie?” Jessie exclaimed while grabbing my hand and dragging me into the seat next to her.

      “I wouldn't say he was hot,” I said. Maybe good-looking, but not hot.

      “I'd have to agree with you there, Sky. He does nothing for me,” Massie mumbled around a mouthful of sandwich.

      “Me neither,” Mitch said. Jessie glared at him.

      “So fill me in; what did he say? Does he sound nice? Or is he a richy and thinks he's too good to talk to you? Come on, spill.”