Evan threw up his hands and made a giant show of throwing the banana into the trash can and returned to his seat. The chair squeaking against the floor.
“You may continue, sir.” Evan saluted and winked.
I rolled my eyes and turned back around to face Mr. Meservy. He wasn’t my favorite teacher, probably because he was freakishly young and reminded me somewhat of my dad. Weird comparison, I know. In all honesty he looked exactly like pictures of my father when he was young. I only know this because upon seeing him for the first time my mom nearly had a heart attack.
But that’s beside the point. Teachers aren’t supposed to be only a few years older than students. It’s just not right. He had to fight twice as hard to earn the respect due than all the rest of the teachers, even though he was three times as good and brilliant to match.
Mr. Meservy shook his head. “As I was saying…” He gave Evan a pointed glare. “Our school is part of an exchange program, and although we’ve never had any students utilize this wonderful opportunity, there are two students originally from British Columbia that have taken our school up on this offer.”
Two students? Were those the boys I saw this morning? Were they brothers or just friends? They looked like polar opposites. I bit my lip and began tapping my pen against my desk.
“Let’s all give them a warm welcome, and please try to be civil, people. We don’t want to scare them into thinking Seaside is filled with druggies and gang bangers.” You’d think Mr. Meservy was welcoming the president or something with all the warnings he was giving us, but then again, nothing exciting ever happened here so it kind of made sense.
A sudden knock at the door interrupted his speech.
Every head in the room turned.
The two guys from the hallway walked in. Alec, the brooding one, looked like he’d rather be run over with a car then be in the classroom. And Demetri had his perma-smile pasted across his mouth as if it was the most fun he’d had in years.
“Welcome, welcome.” Okay why was Mr. Meservy bowing to them? He clasped his hands in front of him as if he was in the presence of George Clooney and bowed. Yes, our very lame teacher from Seaside, Oregon just bowed to the exchange students. I could have died.
Shocked, I could only watch as Demetri smirked in my direction then returned Mr. Meservy’s bow with one of his own. Alec, however, was motionless. His eyes seemed to darken even more as he looked at every person in the room but me. I know because I was waiting for it. Stupid, but I wanted him to look at me. And again, I blame TV. I liked his brooding attitude even though I knew it was just a sign of his immaturity and lack of personality. I couldn’t help it.
Demetri winked at me then looked at Mr. Meservy and pumped his hand. “Thank you so much for the warm welcome. I also don’t think I’ve been on the receiving end of a bow since I played Prince Charming in first grade.”
Mr. Meservy blushed to the roots of his hair, probably just now realizing that yes, he had indeed bowed to the Canadians. “Well…” He cleared his throat. “Again, welcome to Seaside High.”
Demetri nodded and made his way to the back of the class. Alec trailed behind, but not before stopping at my desk. Our eyes met, and I couldn’t pull my gaze away. He was staring through me, uncomfortably so. I opened my mouth to speak but wasn’t really sure what to say. Finally, after what was most likely an awkward silence for everyone else in the room but us, Alec spoke.
“I think you dropped this.” He placed a pink pen on my desk and continued to his seat in the back. My heart thumped wildly in my chest. Mouth still hanging slightly ajar, I quickly clenched the pen and willed myself to look back at the front of the room.
It was as if nobody had seen the intense exchange between us.
Except five minutes later, I realized I was still clenching the pen and hadn’t yet opened my book. It was like I had spaced out or something.
“Geez, Nat, it’s just a pen,” Evan mumbled behind me. I laughed right along with him even though my heart was still hammering in my chest. The two new kids were gorgeous, that much was obvious, but a small part of me seemed to find them familiar. As if I’d seen them before?
I stole a peek behind me, irritated that Evan tried to block my view. Alec looked away but Demetri flashed me another heart-stopping smile.
And then it hit me.
I knew exactly who those boys were.
Unfortunately, my realization came at the same time as every other girl in the classroom.
The whispering grew louder and then some of the girls shrieked. I looked back at Evan who seemed to be slowly trying to figure out the same thing. He looked at me, then back at the boys, then back at me.
I rolled my eyes and pulled out my phone careful not to let my teacher see. I was so not going to give him ten dollars just because my friend was painfully disconnected from the world enough not to know who those guys were.
I searched AD2 on my phone and held it up to Evan.
“Holy sh— I mean, crap.”
Nobody ever said boys were intelligent, or tactful for that matter.
“Those are the dudes from AD2!” He did a fist pump and turned around to give them both a head nod which apparently in boy world meant, “What’s up, you’re cool, let’s hang.”
Because he got two very cool-looking head nods back. I rolled my eyes, a little disappointed that my fantasy had ended just as fast as it had begun. The day was no longer boring, but now I knew without a doubt that Alec would not be smoldering in my direction, and Demetri was fortunate enough to be the type of guy that had every STD listed and probably some of them that weren’t. The guy was known for his conquests. TMZ followed them everywhere, which begged the question — what the heck were they doing in Seaside?
I scrolled through the pages on my phone trying to find any sort of rumor as to why they were going to school rather than touring or whoring around.
“Miss Murray, your phone.” Mr. Meservy held out his hand. Irritated, I slapped it into his hand, but not before clicking the top of it so he’d have to use a password to get in.
“Anyone else want to tempt fate today?” Mr. Meservy looked around the room challenging more students to pull out their phones.
Someone made a choking noise behind me, and suddenly Alec was at the side of my desk. “Um, actually that’s my phone. She was probably confused which is why it was out on her desk.”
Mr. Meservy rolled his eyes. “Fine, I’ll play. And how would she have your phone?”
“She tripped.” Alec shrugged giving a cool smile to the teacher. I shivered when his hand gently touched my shoulder. “Her books and phone fell out of her bag and then the bell rang. I helped her grab her stuff, but had to set my phone down on the floor to do so. Simple mistake.”
Even I believed him, and I knew it was a bald-faced lie.
“Besides…” Alec leaned his tanned hands against my desk and smirked. “We all know how many times my phone goes off. It was probably burning up in her hand.”
At this the entire class began chuckling, because really it had to be true. The guy was a celebrity. Grown women wanted to rape him. Naturally, his phone would be blowing up the cellular universe.
“Fine, Alec, you’ll get your phone back at the end of class.”
Alec turned his back to Mr. Meservy making me want to gasp. You didn’t turn your back on teachers. Clearly I was sheltered.
“Here’s your phone, Nat.” His smile disappeared. He handed me the iPhone 5, slipping it into my hand before walking back to his desk. It felt sleek in my hands, and insanely more masculine then my sad little free phone with its pink cover.
“Thanks,” I mumbled.
I now had two things he had touched and I was ready to fall out of my seat. Seriously. Must. Stop. Watching. TV!
Chapter Two
By lunchtime, word had spread and it was nearly impossible to see Alec and Demetri without a swarm of people stalking them down the hallways. It made me wonder why they chose Seaside of all places. Granted, we were on the Oregon coast — far away from their homeland of Canada, and nowhere near L.A., but still. We had the Internet. We had phones. They were in no way invisible to our sleepy town. It was only a matter of time before they high-tailed it out of here. I mean, they didn’t even have body guards!
With a sigh, I fished out my lunch money from my back pocket and looked at the choices of the day.
Tacos or a salad.
Or, I gave a mischievous smile, taco salad. I quickly made my little concoction and grinned even brighter.
“I must say…” A deep voice said from behind me. “I’ve never seen a girl get so excited over a taco salad.”
“Well,” I turned to face Demetri, of course it would be Demetri. “I like food. And I think I get a gold star for being creative.”
He laughed and leaned in closer his golden hair falling gracefully across his forehead. “Think you can make me one too?”
I put one hand on my hip. “That depends. Are you asking me so you don’t have to make your own, or are you just wanting an excuse to talk to me?”
“Both.”
I laughed. “Fair enough. But be warned, perfection doesn’t often happen twice in a row.”
He smirked and stood next to me as I made him a similar salad. “So, where are all your admirers?”
“With Alec.” He nodded his head toward the other side of the cafeteria were Alec was holding court with at least fifty people. His face was as handsome and stern as ever.
“Does he smile, like ever?”
Demetri shook his head, a bright grin creased his lips. “He smiled at you, didn’t he?”
“That was a smile?” I handed him his tray. “I thought it was a grimace. Easy to confuse the two on his face.”
“Don’t let him hear you say that. He may just fall in love with you if you tease him.”
“No danger of any guy falling in love, no worries.” I kept my head down so I wouldn’t have to look at his gorgeous face and walked away, but felt his hand touch my arm.
“Hey, where are you going?”
“To eat, like normal people. It is lunch time and we only get fifteen minutes.”
“Sit with me.” His blue eyes sparkled, and his dimples seemed even more pronounced as his smile spread even wider across his face. Stupid rock star.
“Um, no thanks,” I said as politely as I could.
His smile faded. I continued walking to my usual table, when I felt a hand on my arm again. “No thanks?”
Demetri sure was persistent, but I didn’t want to be a part of his harem. “Let me guess, you’ve never faced rejection before.”
He looked a little less confident as he shuffled his feet, his eyebrows drew together. “No, um, not really.”
“There’s a first for everything, Demetri. Enjoy your salad.” I patted him on the shoulder and continued walking in a straight line even though my legs were wobbly. Why the heck did I just turn down a lunch date with the hottest guy I’ve ever seen?
I turned back around to see if he was following me. Big shock there, he was surrounded by at least twenty girls, each of them touching his arm or shoulder, even his butt. Disgusting. And that was the reason I wasn’t sitting with him. I wasn’t them. I would never be that girl.