“Poor Piper,” I sympathized, hugging my books to my chest and gave her a sympathetic smile.

When all I got in return was an irritated eye roll, I put my arm around my friend’s shoulders that stood almost exactly the same height as mine. Piper laid her head down on me and stuck out her full bottom lip in a pretend pout. Seth laughed with us; and I could tell by the way he looked back and forth between us that he was glad my friendship circle extended beyond Tristan. Boys.

“Hey,” Tristan joined us, flanked by his closest guy friends and rival athletic studs. I leaped from Piper’s side straight into Tristan’s arms, wrapping my arms tightly around his neck. He hugged me closely to him, whispering in my ear. “Hey, Stel.” His deep voice rumbled against my hot skin and I nuzzled closer, relishing the feel and smell of him.

I waited for three more seconds before stepping back and nodding to Tristan’s male best friends. Together the three boys dominated all sports and carried the most votes in popularity. But Tristan was king jock among them, he walked the halls with a confidence and carelessness that only those truly at ease could carry.

“Well, speak of the devil,” Piper mumbled, punching me in the shoulder and turning back to her locker. “I don’t get greetings like that.” I laughed, knowing she would kill me if I hugged her like that and potentially messed up her hair.

“Seth, this is Rigley Merrit,” I introduced Seth to the boy on Tristan’s right; he had deep, reddish brown hair that curled wildly at an unkempt length. His face was dusted in matching freckles and his boxer’s nose crooked to one side. He was an athlete, like Tristan, with high school boy biceps and a thick neck. But his freckles and pale green eyes kept a boyish look about him that I knew most girls could not say no to. He knew it too. “And this is Lincoln Chase,” I continued, introducing Seth to the other boy who had perfectly clear skin that grew lightly pink with any kind of attention. Lincoln was shorter than Tristan and Rigley by a few inches, but still an obvious athlete. His pale blonde hair was stick straight and hung across his eyes in a way that amplified his shy and reserved look. And as dangerous as Rigley could be, Lincoln was quiet and careful. “Guys, this is Seth, he just moved here,” I finished the introductions and waited for them to all acknowledge each other in turn.

“Are you headed to Government?” Tristan asked when not much had been made out of the consecutive handshakes.

“In a minute, I’m going to help Seth find the office first,” I explained.

“Oh,” Tristan said surprised. He rubbed his hand over his shaved head and looked down the hallway a little lost.

“Save us a seat?” I prompted, knowing I was interrupting our daily routine. Tristan was still adjusting to Seth’s sudden appearance in my life, but I didn’t feel bad about making him walk to class on his own. It was just one class.

“Sure,” Tristan replied, not at all wanting to save us both a seat.

“Tristan and Stella aren’t walking to class together?” Piper turned from her locker, dramatically pretending to be appalled with the situation. “What is happening to the world?” she cried out, holding her Government books up toward the ceiling and shaking them with mock outrage.

“Piper, I missed you over winter break, how was Breckinridge?” Tristan goaded Piper with heavy tones of sarcasm. Deep down they loved each other…. or at least that’s what I promised myself when she turned snarky and he turned pretend polite.

“It made me slow and lazy,” she admitted moodily, thinking about practice a half hour ago and repeating her coaches exact words.

“You’ll catch up,” Tristan promised encouragingly but Piper only rolled her eyes and waved at us before marching off for class. There was nothing she hated more than when Tristan played nice. She refused to like him and preferred him to make it easy for her to hate him.

“See you guys later,” I waved at everyone too, taking an amused Seth by the shirt sleeve and dragging him toward the school office.

“Your best friends hate each other,” Seth commented when we had turned the corner, clearly enjoying the situation.

“They don’t hate each other,” I tried to plead a useless case I had been fighting since grade school. “They just don’t always see eye to eye.”

“It’s just so unexpected,” Seth continued, the shock ringing in his voice. “The way you worship Tristan…. I just thought…. I mean I thought everyone loved him.”

“Everyone does love him!” I quickly defended Tristan. “Except…. Piper….” I admitted, trailing off. “Piper just doesn’t like to like anything that everyone else likes and that includes Tristan….. and I don’t worship him! We’re just…. best friends.”

“So I’ve heard, at least a thousand times since I met you,” Seth answered a little put off. “And I only met you a week ago!”

“Whatever,” I laughed Seth off and opened the glass door to the school office.

Three secretaries sat working busily at retro desks behind a light wood partition with a long gray peeling countertop. The entire office screamed late 70’s, even the secretaries in their polyester skirts and thick, tan nylons. I smiled at the three older ladies who had been working in this same school for as long as anyone could remember.

“Mrs. Sadler, this is Seth Smith, he’s a new student here and needs to check in with you,” I explained sweetly, approaching the long counter with a trailing Seth.

The three secretaries paused their work, fingers hovering over computer keyboards to gawk at the new student as blatantly as my classmates had. Mrs. Sadler, a woman in her late sixties recovered first, adjusting her thick framed cat-eyed glasses and pressing a hand to her graying French twist carefully. She stood quickly and walked to the counter with an unsure smile plastered to her overly made-up face.

“Seth Smith?” she questioned shyly.

“Mmm-hmmm,” I answered in awe that this secretary was as unnerved as everyone else seemed to be by Seth. Mrs. Sadler was notorious for her quick temper and lack of patience, especially when it came to the student body. I had worked very hard to stay under her radar, but I was positive Seth wouldn’t have to try nearly as hard as I did to get away with late arrivals and absences.

“Pleasure to meet you, Seth Smith,” Mrs. Sadler practically giggled.

“Thank you, you too,” Seth replied, giving her that big smile that seemed to work on every single female so far.

“Let me just see if I can’t find you your class schedule, alright?” Mrs. Sadler continued to coo and then walked back to her computer.

I turned my back on the voyeuring secretaries and leaned against the tall counter. “Most of your classes will be with me; this is a really small school. There are only thirty-two of us in the whole class.”

Seth nodded, his amber eyes piercing mine with gratitude. I wondered if he was anxious to get out of the awkwardness of the office and onto class, or if this whole experience was an unwanted nightmare. School was never something he had to think about before. Jupiter always tutored him, and with only a year and a half left before he could focus completely on Warrior-training, he probably hadn’t thought he would ever need to worry about it. But with the change of circumstances and his unwillingness to leave me by myself, high school and him would soon become old friends.

Mrs. Sadler stumbled through finding Seth’s papers and then walked him in circles explaining them to him so many times. By the time she finally released us for class she had to write us a pass because the bell rang several minutes ago.

“So this is high school?” Seth asked on our walk to Government. I had been right, we had most of our classes together, except during the period where I went to choir, Seth opted for weight lifting.

“This is it,” I agreed. “Super exciting, right?”

“So far,” Seth laughed.

“Actually, I really like it here,” I admitted, dropping my voice lest the rest of the student body hear my confession and believe I was delusional. “Everyone’s really nice and we all seem to get along. The community is really small, but we’ve all known each other since forever so we didn’t really have any other choice but to like each other.”

“Well, that’s a relief,” Seth laughed again. I didn’t know what his preconceived notions of high school were, but a small farming town was nothing like what they aired on TV and I thought he would feel better knowing that.

I showed Seth to Government and introduced him to our middle-aged, frazzled teacher, Mrs. Trinker. Her short hair stuck up frizzy and unruly, and at least one side of her blouse was always untucked from her too-tight pencil skirt. Mrs. Trinker acknowledged the both of us kindly before letting us find our seats by Tristan and Piper, who despite not getting along always sat next to each other in an effort to share me. I ignored the hateful glances between them; just thankful Mrs. Trinker at least seemed immune to Seth’s charm.

The rest of the morning followed in the same pattern. I helped Seth move from class to class, introducing him to the monotonous tones of scheduled high school. Seth seemed to actually enjoy school, he really liked learning from different teachers and everyone was really nice to him, especially the girls.

That was a shocker….

By lunch, I decided Seth was adjusting well to school and the other students seemed to be adjusting to the phenomenon of having a new student grace the halls and the blinding attractiveness that wasn’t found in the average male. Or at least I hoped so. The sooner the student body moved on from ogling Seth, the sooner I could feel better about unleashing him on the human population.

“Does everyone at this school play basketball?” Seth asked, sitting down across from me with a heavy, full tray of food. Even in the dim lighting of the cramped cafeteria, I could see I failed Seth in explaining the do’s and don’ts of school lunch. I liked to eat too, but I could not understand three helpings of mystery loaf and instant mashed potatoes from the cafeteria buffet line.

Maybe I should have warned Seth about the menu.

“Pretty much,” Piper answered. “Everyone at this school plays every sport. There’s nothing else to do in this one-horse town.”

“You don’t even know what that phrase means,” I laughed tossing a French fry at Piper’s face. She swatted it away and then picked it up and reached across me to dip it in her ketchup/mayo mixture and pop it in her mouth.

“So I’m going to be the only one in the stands for your basketball game tomorrow night?” Seth asked, scooping up a bite of meatloaf with a healthy topping of mealy mashed potatoes and neon gravy.

“No, there’s some art geeks and band nerds that will be there too just because there’s nothing else to do,” Piper offered sarcastically.

Seth didn’t know any better so he relaxed while shoveling his fork in his mouth.

“Piper, if you weren’t so afraid of disappointing your parents you would be one of those art geeks!” I defended Piper’s social status insinuation.