Lima Loser.

The bell rang. I left the music room after waving to everyone and headed to my locker to grab my English books.

I didn’t know Puck was standing at my locker door until I slammed it, and his face like, popped at me.

“Hey,” he greeted me.

“Give me a fucking heart attack,” I rolled my eyes.

“Sorry,” he chuckled. “Listen, I just wanted to say that you’re pretty much my hero for standing up to Sue like that.”

“Yeah, well, it’s not a big deal,” I shrugged it off, and began to walk to English.

“Oh, yes it is,” he stopped me. “I’m a jock, and known as the most buff guy on the football team, and I can’t even face her. She creeps me out.”

“Me too, but I’m not going to back down because of it,” I told him.

“See? This is why I like you,” Puck smiled. “Let’s walk?”

“Sure,” I agreed. “I have English.”

“Me too,” he seemed content with this fact.

“We have a lot of classes together, don’t we?” I found that awfully suspicious.

“Yeah. I’m not complaining, though,” he said, sweetly. I was starting to like this guy. Bad thing or not.

“I am,” I said, seriously. He looked at me. “Just kidding. I’m getting used to you now, and to be honest, you’re not as bad as I thought.”

“I know I’ve given off the ‘jerk’ vibe ever since I drenched you in purple slushie, which I’m still really sorry for, but I’m willing to prove that I’m not that type of guy.”

“You’re doing a good job so far,” I admitted.

“You know I haven’t thrown a slushie at anyone since? Not even Kurt. I haven’t touched the gay kid, or anyone else for that matter, since I’ve realized what I’ve done to you,” Puck informed me.

“Wow, you’re really taking this seriously, aren’t you?” My eyes widened.

“Yeah, actually. And I know that it’s progress, because I throw Kurt in the garbage box every day, and I throw slushies in people’s faces between every class. And I haven’t done it in what feels like forever.”

“Wow, Puck. That’s great,” I hugged him.

“I’m really sorry…” he apologized, and the look on his face revealed a whole lot of truth. “Hey, wait…that’s the first time you called me Puck without changing the letters around.”

I let go. “Wow,” I thought about it, and he was right. “I guess it’s worn off, like your dickhead phase has worn off.”

“It’s a win-win,” he grinned.

We were finally at English class. The teacher was Miss Monty, and I’d only met her once, but she seemed nice.

“Sit by me?” Puck gave me one of those Bambi-eyed looks.

“Sure,” I smiled, and we grabbed two seats near the back, like we did in every class.

“I can’t believe you’re actually talking to me…” he looked like he was in awe.

“Well, hey. I can only be a total bitch for so long, and you may have pissed me off at first, but I like you, Puck. You’re pretty rad,” I told him.

“Wow,” he was amazed. “And what kind of pills are you on?”

“Okay, enough fun-making. I’m PMSing, okay?” I laughed.

“Fuck, I forget what that stands for,” he went into deep-thinking mode.

“PMS stands for pre-menstrual syndrome, also known as psycho mood swings,” I explained, Courtney-style. “Which basically means that I could hate you one minute, love you the next minute, and want to have sex with you the next.”

“Let’s go with the third one,” he winked, and then, noticing the expression on my face, stopped. “Sorry. It’s taking me a little longer to give up being a pervert.”

“Oh, I don’t think that’ll go away anytime soon,” I said, honestly.

“I don’t think so, either,” Puck laughed.

Miss Monty began her class. She wrote a few notes on the board, and I copied them down, while nobody else did. It made me feel nerdy, but hey. I enjoyed English, a lot.

“So,” the teacher began. “I’ve got some good and bad news.”

The class immediately began whispering and shrugging, and Miss Monty shushed them. “Kay, guys, this isn’t gossip central.”

Kurt, who was on the other side of the room, snorted. I understood what it meant, because well, I’d only knew Kurt for about a day and a half, but I’d already accomplished that he was the queen of gossip.

“The bad news is that I’m about to give you an assignment worth 10% of the year. It’s basically huge, and it’ll be due in two weeks,” Miss Monty explained. I winced. Ten percent of the year is a lot.

“Yeah, so that’s the shitty news,” some fat black guy from the football team blurted. “What’s the good news?”

“You’ll get to work on it with a partner,” she added.

“G-g-good enough,” Tina glanced at Artie, who nodded with a huge grin on his face. “W-w-wait, what’s the as-s-signment?”

“Well, since we just finished reading To Kill A Mockingbird, and the book is partially about racism, your project will be based on that topic. When you get with your partner, each pair will be required to produce a video, informing others of what racism is. The video has to be at least five minutes long.”

Mercedes stood up and pumped her fist into the air. “BLACK POWER!”

Miss Monty gave her a “look”, and continued. “You can get with your partners now, and if you have any questions, my desk is up here.”

I looked around, trying to see where Rachel was, but then I realized that she wasn’t in my English class. Who else could be--?

“Wanna be my partner?” Puck turned around.

“Depends on what your definition of ‘partner’ is,” I chuckled.

“Anything you want it to be, baby,” he waggled his eyebrows.

“Oh. Well, in that case… come over to my house on Friday, and…bring a video camera,” I told him, letting him know what my definition of partner was.

“Sounds kinky,” he smirked. “So, we’re making one of those Paris Hilton sex tapes?”

I rolled my eyes to the maximum. “Just be there.”

“I didn’t read the book, by the way,” he stated.

“I’ll have to fill you in, then,” and I began doing just that. It took me forever to get the plot through Puck’s puny brain. He just didn’t seem to understand.

“So, wait…” he stopped me. “Why are the kids trying to communicate with the creepy Radley dude? They’re asking to get raped.”

I gave him a blank look. “Okay, listen, Puck. You don’t need to know the plot of the story to do this assignment, so…just come over on Friday, and bring a video camera.”

The bell then rang.

“Alright, it’s a date,” he grinned.

I picked up my books, and was about to walk out of the classroom, when I looked back at him. “No, no, it’s not,” I smiled.