Page 9 (1/2)

Savannah

I shouldn&039;t have worried aboutNot only was he a total sweetie with the bestdoors forwhat movie I wanted to watch and where I wanted to eat afterward-but he didn&039;t even get grabby at the end of the date, and only kissed me on the cheek at the door when he took me hoh I&039;d never realized before how little I laughed

So when he asked if he could see ain, I said yes And this time, I didn&039;t hesitate

And then soet to see my friends much, ith the church and science camps and family vacations that went on all su upat least twice a week In a lot of ways, he was even easier to talk to than they were He had nothing against the Charer for the dance team

A detail I hadn&039;t quite told my friends about yet

I knew eventually I&039;d have to tell the, orso Okay, the truth was I just didn&039;t want to have to deal with their negative reactions about it until I absolutely had to Just because they didn&039;t like the dance team didn&039;t , though They seemed mildly curious about him and wanted to meet him officially when school started back up

By the ti for two and a half months And I still hadn&039;t told theer Which was exactly what I was deep in thought about when I reached our usual table in the cafeteria for lunch only to find Greg already there waiting for me

We hadn&039;t really talked about ould sit where each day, so I was a little surprised and worried as he kissed my cheek None of my friends had ever had a boyfriend sit with us Probably because none of them had ever had a boyfriend, at least that I knew about Would they be okay with Greg joining us today, or should he just say hi then go eat with his own friends?

"Oh, hi, Greg" I held my smile in place even as three pairs of curious eyes stared at us

"Hey" He gave ht" Quickly I introduced everyone, appreciating how he led her hello Carrie gave a cool nod in response Anne just stared at him with one eyebrow raised

"So, listen, do you ladies mind if I sit with y&039;all today?" At their blank looks of shock, he held up both hands as if in surrender and added, "I swear I won&039;t butt in every day of the week Maybe just every other day, if that&039;s all right with you?"

I expected Michelle to answer first She liked everyone but the Brat Twins

Instead, Anne was the one who said, "Sure, pull up a chair I&039;ether Right?"

Carrie laughed in agreement, and half the tension melted from my shoulders

We all dropped our stuff at the table

Then Greg turned to rab so toward the lunch line in silence, feeling as if the whole cafeteria was staring at us the entire way Even as a Charossip

We didn&039;t say anything as aited in line then chose our lunches The great thing about hanging out with Greg was that, not only was he really easy to talk to, but he also didn&039;t mind the occasional silence

As we neared the cashier, he said, "I keep thinking it&039;s because you&039;re nervous around irls, are you?"

My shoulders stiffened,into overdrive "What do younonstop by now"

The air eased out of rand "

"Uh-huh And yet we&039;ve been dating for nearly three months now So what&039;s left to learn about"Does anyone ever fully know anyone else?"

His eyebrows shot up, but he didn&039;t say anything We paid for our lunches Greg went first then waited for me to pay for mine Once I had and we moved a few steps away, he sure out what else you want to know about me, just ask, okay?"

Too bad I couldn&039;t be so open with hirab you a soda?" he offered, jerking his head at the soda ht?"

"Sure Want me to take your lunch for you?"

"Good idea Thanks" He handedin to kiss my cheek in the process My cheeks burned as we headed in opposite directions

"He is cuuute!" Michelle squealed as soon as I reached our table

I had to laugh and nod in agreement as I sank into my seat

"And polite" Carrie sounded surprised

"He&039;s a former Boy Scout," I added, then had to pause Was thatpride I was feeling? Good grief I was turning into a total Neanderthal, thrilled to show off riped about boys and their trophy girlfriends

Shakingin to our lunch It was necessity, not lack of manners With only a twenty-&039;s return before eating

A few ed back to the table with our drinks "Sorry, stopped to tell my friends where I&039;d be today I pro the deal? It felt like it, but then again, Greg was my first boyfriend, and I was completely clueless as to how it all worked

"Urin like an idiot, I focused on popping the tab on ainst the side of the can Oh, crap, lanced toward the noise, did a double take then grabbedyou want to o charm with her other hand like it was dirty underwear

"Uer for the Charmers this year"

The air heated up over our table in a matter of seconds I could practically see it turn red and start to boil, fueled by Anne and Carrie&039;s co sensation of heat flowed overall the e&039;s presence would at least ues until they had a chance to calrats!" Michelle&039;s slanced at Anne then Carrie "Ornot?"

"The Char thought of theer?" Carrie added, her voice even louder Several people at neighboring tables turned to stare in our direction

"Shh, keep your voices down," Ilike I co Present tense," Anne corrected "You&039;ve lost yourto do with that bunch of spoiled brats?"

"And as a irl,&039;" Carrie said

I sighed This was exactly why I&039;d held off telling them about it all summer "It&039;s not like that And they&039;re not like that, either Even you guys have to admit you never found out for sure who started that rumor last year"

The JV and varsity JHS Maidens volleyball teams were convinced the Charmers had spread a rumor last year that all the volleyball players were lesbians

"Oh, please" Anne dropped e "Who else would have started it?" She flopped back in her chair hard enough to make her ponytail bounce "I can&039;t believe ned on to be a fetcher for the pah already "That&039;s not fair, Anne The Charmers actually work really hard You should have seen the this summer And did you know they&039;re about to start twice-a-day practices, both at six-thirty in theand every afternoon after school? Even varsity volleyball doesn&039;t practice thatoff since it was the first day of school But to forward to having to be here at six-fifteen every weekday Making it here by eight last year had been tough enough At least I wouldn&039;t be expected to run and dance and leap around at that hour of the

"Varsity soccer doesn&039;t practice thatsaid in between bites of pizza

"Maybe the Char suckshied it off

Rolling my eyes, I flopped back in ue anymore about this They didn&039;t have to like it, but they would have to get over it I did not live my life to please my friends, much as I cared about and appreciated the over backward for my family and the vampire council

"I&039;m done See you later," Carrie announced a few s and left

"Don&039;t worry, she&039;ll calrabbed her things "Nice to finally ave a hasty smile and wave before she took off after Carrie

"Carrie will get over it," Anne said on a sigh "But I hing, she picked up her books and tray "See you later, Stanwick" He raised his cola in reply, his lare "See you toirl"

"Bye," I o after her and apologize? For what, though? For not checking withan extracurricular activity? Give h it would have been nice to have it

Aard silence filled the table for several minutes as atched my friends leave the cafeteria Hopefully they would chill out by to up here alone today?" Greg broke the silence first as the chaos of the lunchtiuess I should have told them before now" I prayed the blush would fade from my cheeks soon Preferably immediately

He leaned over and bumped shoulders with hed "Blunt etic smile "I&039; lately"

Shaking hed "They&039;ll get over it Eventually"

"Why don&039;t they like the Charmers?"

I explained the rumor to him "But no one ever found out for sure who started it Now they just hate all the Char&039;s confused look and laughed "Ridiculous, I know I think it&039;s really just a teairls&039; volleyball teah to cross the lines and have friends on the other teams, but ood teairls who cross the line, huh?"

Holding back a laugh, I shookway"

It took hiet it When he did, his cheeks turned ruddy and a cute, erabbed my lunch tray "Yeah, I knohat you meant But you should knowthey&039;re not usually like this When the Clann kids decided to start ganging up on h, Anne and Carrie and Michelle nearly got into a fistfight with them"

His eyebrows shot up

"They&039;d just really rather I kept playing volleyball with the"

"You used to play volleyball? Why&039;d you quit?"

I stood up, grateful the bell was about to ring "That&039;s kind of a long story" One involving a series of events where I , bloody Carrie&039;s nose and get tangled in the netall at the same tournament "I&039;ll tell you about itlater" As in never No way did I want hi

We headed for the trash cans While I duirls like you? Is that so, too?"

"Uh, no, that&039;s a Clann thing," I

"Hey, where&039;s your next class? Maybe I can ith you there"

I checked my class schedule "History with Mr Ss on the east side My next one&039;s over in the co on the north side Guess I&039;ll have to settle for walking you to the catwalk"

I had to ad held my hand and led me out the doors and up the steps to the catwalk No actual tingles from his touch, but the contact was still nice So was his smile as he said "See you tomorrow" before he kissed my cheek then walked away

Okay, the boy was yuh-worthy And allll h slipped out of me as I turned and headed the other direction toward history class

And then I felt itprickles racing down the back of my neck and over my arms Ouch That was all I needed to knoas behindTristan Coleman for two-and-a-half months, and no new vampire/witchy developments, I&039;d hoped one away But if anything, I could swear it had increased ten tiut and chest whenever he ithin twenty yards of me This time, it felt more like the back of my neck and ar back through all the veins I had to fight against the urge to rub ain, someone just had to remind me that I wasn&039;t quite normal

Oh, boy, this better wear off soon Maybe he was headed for a different class and the feeling would go away

But when I heard his heavy footsteps follow me down the sidewalk then up the short cement steps and into history class, I kneas doomed And then I looked around at the other students in the class and realized just how doo this class with the prince of Jacksonville, but I&039;d also be in here every A day with the Brat Twins and Dylan Willia, "Okay, kiddies, let&039;s get you all alphabetically seated, shall we?"

I couldn&039;t decide whether to laugh or cry as I took ned seat of torture on the front row beside Tristan, the Brat Twins seated directly behind hi year

Tristan

Talk about a crappy start to the year

Obviously ainst Stanwick had worn off Why couldn&039;t the guy just forget about Savannah already? I saw her out of the corner of my eye for the thousandth time in an hour and ed bear trying to break free On second thought, I knew exactly why Stanwick couldn&039;t forget about her

My knees bounced harder under my desk as I considered my options The solution should be simple I&039;d just have to make another protection spell for her Maybe a couple of the the spells so I wouldn&039;t fall asleep this tiy from nature to use instead of my own, I doubted that would be a problerounded at lunch when Emily asked me to after I&039;d seen the soccer jerk ith Savannah to the lunch line But then they had exited with their food, and Stanwick had kissed her cheek And I&039;d lost all ability to think ashad only grown stronger as the two of theether at Savannah&039;s table with her friends

How long had they been seeing each other?

I knew then that I should leave, go outside and ground as y as I could But I couldn&039;t tear ether, talking with her friends, the casual way the soccer jerk touched her hand or shoulder or put his arm around her And she let him

She liked him Maybe even loved-