Authors: Chloe Smith
"Scarlett with Tristan..."
NOOOOO!
Scarlett's insides screamed with denial and regret. She absolutely hated Tristan with all of her guts. He was the most popular boy in school; most girls would have loved to have this once in a lifetime opportunity, but not Scarlett. She believed Tristan was an egocentric, narcissistic, all-about-me jerk. And she did not want to fail this assignment because he was too lazy or didn't have time because of football practice.
This is so typical that the school's biggest nobody would get partnered up with school's biggest celebrity,
Scarlett thought to herself,
just so freaking typical.
He knew Scarlett was the school's biggest nerd, but what was really wrong with that? A nerd was someone who merely cared for his or her grades. Was there really anything wrong with caring for one's grades? Caring for your grades would come in handy later on in life. When you were thirty or forty, were you really going to care about what jeans you wore or what shoe was in style in 2010? What will really matter at age thirty is what you learned and how you used it.
Maybe working with Scarlett wouldn't be too bad. But Tristan's reputation might be tainted by a single, public A+. Would his friends laugh and mock him because he was actually smart and not dimwitted like they were? Maybe; maybe not, but in the end who really cared? Maybe he could convince Scarlett to just get a B average. But, no, he didn't want to do that because he didn't want to ruin Scarlett's perfect grade. She had, like, a 4.8 GPA; she was considered the smartest girl in school, not that that was really praised at this school. Sometimes Tristan wondered why Scarlett didn't attend Xavier Prince's High School for the Gifted; she would fit in so much better there than here.
So, he would work with Scarlett and be done with it. That was the only solution to this minor dilemma. And the faster he could get this whole ordeal out of the way, the better.
Soon enough, last period ended, and Tristan met up with his friends as they all walked to their lockers to exchange books and then headed out to their cars in the parking lot outside.
"Can you believe I got paired up with Jenna? She's, like, a total slut. Do you think she is going to try and hit on me? Because I don't know, she is kinda hot if you really think about it." Parker was blabbing on and on while Tristan and a couple of others walked to their cars in the school's parking lot.
"Okay, well, I'll see you tomorrow." Tristan said as he reached his black Corvette. He pressed the unlock button on his keys and he heard an electronic beep as the car doors opened.
"Hey, sexy." a seductive, female voice said from behind Tristan.
Tristan turned around to see Alice, the Head Cheerleader. The Head Cheerleader was just as good as being the MVP and/or Quarterback of the Varsity Football Team. And since Tristan was both MVP and Quarterback, the unwritten rules of high school said that Alice Barrington and Tristan Cox should be "The It Couple". The couple everyone talked about. The couple everyone wanted to be. The couple everybody knew was going to happen sooner or later.
"Hey, Alice." Tristan mumbled. The truth was Tristan was really annoyed with Alice. She was always hinting that they should be going out and, more importantly, going to prom together. But Tristan didn't want her to be his girlfriend. Alice was too clinging, too needy. She was just that typical, hackneyed cheerleader who was most likely going to be prom queen and knew it.
"So, what are you doing this weekend?" she asked, casually leaning against his car, effectively blocking his way in and his escape from her.
"Uh...I...um...I'm..." Tristan's attention was caught by a slim, redhead, and an idea clicked, "I am working on that lab project this weekend with Scarlett."
"Scarlett White? That loser?" Alice pointed her French manicured finger toward Scarlett, who was hustling to her little, lime green punch-buggy.
"Uh...yeah, I wanna get a head start on that project, so I won't have to worry about it."
"You. Want. To.
What?"
"I want to get a head start on that project." Tristan repeated slowly, hoping that Alice would be able to comprehend it this time, "Look, I really need to go make plans with Scarlett. See you later."
Not.
The last person Tristan wanted to see later was Alice; Alice was even after Scarlett in his line of who he wanted to see later. And Tristan and Scarlett had absolutely nothing in common.
Scarlett pulled out her rusty car keys to unlock her hand-me-down buggy. She opened the back door and threw her backpack in the backseat. When she turned around to go to the front seat and take off, she almost ran right into...she looked up and saw Tristan smiling down at her.
Scarlett's cheeks burned with embarrassment from almost falling in front of him. Not because she liked him—which she absolutely did
not
—but from tripping in front of the one person she believed was the most egotistical person alive.
"Scarlett, right?" Tristan asked with a small smile on his lips.
"Since the day I was born." Scarlett replied, looking up at Tristan in confusion. "What do you want?"
"Right, well, we are partners for that lab project, and I just wanted to go ahead and get started on it. So, when are you free?"
Scarlett's mind went blank. She thought she was going to have to practically drag Tristan and sit him down in front of a desk to get that project done. Now he was all enthusiastic to finish it. This wasn't at all what she had been expecting from him. Why was he so wholehearted and excited to jump on the project even though they had a whole month to finish it? And then it struck her.
I bet he wants to get it done with because
I
am his partner, and he doesn't want to be seen hanging around me,
a small voice whispered in her mind.
Scarlett's eyes narrowed. That was it. Tristan didn't want to be humiliated about being her partner, so he wanted to finish the project as fast as he could and pretend he never had to be paired with her.
"So, are you able to work this weekend or not?" Scarlett was able to hear the impatience in his tone now.
"No, sorry, I have to go...somewhere this weekend."
"Where?" The impatience was gone from his voice now, and curiosity had taken its place.
Crap
, she hadn't meant to make that hesitation, she hadn't even meant to bring
that
up.
"Somewhere. Now, I have to go. Maybe sometime next week, we can finish that project."
Scarlett went to open her car door, but a strong arm was leaning against it. She glared up at Tristan now, "Move out of my way." she hissed through her clenched teeth.
"Where do you have to be?" Tristan seemed at ease.
"That's none of your damned business. Now, get the hell off my car." Scarlett said as her eyes narrowed up at Tristan's.
Tristan seemed reluctant, but he moved; nonetheless, sensing Scarlett's building anger. As Scarlett drove out of the parking lot, she could sense Tristan's stare on the back of her neck. Why was he so nosy? Now, she could add that to the list of adjectives about him: back-stabbing, arrogant, self-absorbed
,
egocentric, narcissistic, all-about-me, jerk, egotistical, and nosy.
Tristan watched Scarlett drive out of the parking lot flabbergasted. No girl had ever turned him down for anything. A date, dinner, movies, dance, club, a study group, anything. He was actually amazed at her bravado and the way she stood up for herself. Covering a mistake she hadn't meant to make by cursing at him. Normally, Tristan would have been outraged, but something about her made him almost giddy.
Tristan pulled out of his reprieve and turned around to see an empty parking lot. Tristan laughed at himself for being so day-dreamy lately. He wasn't going to let just one, little, insignificant girl who wasn't even apart of the B-list table make him look like a fool. And he was sure as hell not going to mention this little encounter to anyone he ate lunch with. He only hoped that Scarlett wouldn't mention this to anyone. But then he laughed at himself again. Even if she tried to tell people that Tristan talked to her after school, nobody would listen to her, and if they did, he could just tell them that she was making it up to get attention. But Scarlett wasn't that kind of girl, and he knew it. Unlike him, she didn't need attention to survive this high school world.
During the entire trip to his house, all Tristan could think about was Scarlett and how she had acted towards him. She was just so different, and he couldn't get over it. Even while Tristan was kicking his brother's ass at Halo 3 on his Xbox 360, all he thought about was Scarlett's secret that she was hiding from him.
How had he never noticed her before? Probably, because she sat at the 'loser's' table, but seriously he must have realized they were in the same Lab class together. Why had he never really gotten to know her? The answer came quickly: because they were both apart of two different cliques. But another question popped in his head before he could really let their different social statuses set in: What was she hiding from him?
He knew that she probably didn't trust him because he must have subconsciously treated her like garbage. But she seemed to be hiding
something important
from him.
"
No, sorry, I have to go…somewhere this weekend," she had said.
"
Where?" he had asked.
"
Somewhere. Now, I have to go..."
Scarlett, frustrated beyond belief about the tiny, humiliating events that had just happened, almost forgot where she was going. She was so used to just turning left and heading home to work on her schoolwork, like she did every day of every week of every month of every year. Even during the summer, she was reading books that would help broaden her vocabulary, so she would have a better chance at getting accepted into a good college because her essay's terminology would have a diversity of words.
But, just in time, she turned the wheel of the car right instead of left, which was the direction that home—and that nice, yummy Sundae—was. Instead of heading home to her much needed dessert, she began heading toward the less metropolitan area of the state. She didn't like this part of town that much, but this was where her brother was. And she always visited her brother every week. And this week was no exception. Even though she knew she was going to spend some good family time with her younger brother, she was still thinking about that delicious ice cream that was in her freezer in her kitchen.
Chapter Two
Scarlett pulled into
a deserted parking lot way east of town. This part of town was a more rural area. There weren't many street lamps nor were there tall, city buildings this far out. Scarlett hopped out of her car, but not before grabbing a brown paper bag from the trunk of her bug. Scarlett walked up to the glass doors and saw that Francis was on duty tonight.
"Hey, Francis," she said as she walked in.
"Hey, Scar, you can go on in. Not many visitors today. Be careful, though. If anything...you know, happens, just press—"
"Press the buzzer. I know, I know; I got it. How long have I been coming here?"
"Four years."
"Exactly," Scarlett said, proving her point as she always did in any argument.
"Nice look," Francis commented as she started her way across the lobby of the building.