Who We Are

"People are staring," I muttered as Ronnie lead me through the hallway.

I saw Ronnie roll his eyes as he draped a heavily tattooed arm over my shoulder. "So what," he said with a shrug, "I thought you stopped caring."

"I'm trying." I nodded. "But it's hard."

"Not for me," he replied, grinning down at me as we passed my locker where Emily stood, watching us with wide eyes.

I spared a glance at her but just let Ronnie pull be past her. "Well, what have you really got to lose?" I asked, laughing when he shoved me away from him in faux anger.

"Shut up," he demanded barely fifteen seconds when he was pulling me back to his side.

"I'm sorry," I laughed, "I'm sure you've got a whole reputation to tarnish."

"To what?" Ronnie asked, looking down at me expectantly as he yanked me around a large group of students who were clogging up the hall.

"To ruin," I reworded.

Ronnie grinned and nodded. "I know what 'tarnish' means, you just mumble sometimes."

"I do not," I defended, pulling away from him and marching into first hour.

"Oh, yes you do!" he called after me, following me in just seconds later. "It's like you don't want people to hear you. But you've got a mouth on you. You're loud as hell."

I rolled my eyes. "Am not," I muttered, pulling my notebook out of my bag so that I could get ready to take notes today. Also to distract me from the boy who clambered down into the seat behind me, almost messily.

"What?" Ronnie asked, holding his hand up to his ear and leaning across the desk.

"Oh, screw off, Radke," I demanded, flipping the notebook open to a clean page and writing the date at the top, my scrawl messy with anger.

Ronnie laughed loudly and nodded his head. "Told you, Katerina. I told you. You're a firecracker!" Ronnie leaned back in the chair and pushed his locks out of his face, making his dark eye more noticeable against the pale color of his skin.

"You're so full of it," I replied, a smile playing on the corners of my lips. I looked up as the boy who usually sat next to me came into the room. "Go to your seat," I demanded, nodding towards the back of the room. "You're in his way."

Ronnie glanced up to the waiting boy and shrugged his shoulders at me. He smiled up towards the boy and nodded towards the back. "Mind taking my spot for the day?" he asked, although it wasn't much of a question, seeing as Ronnie turned back to me without even waiting for a reply.

I rolled my eyes and shoved Ronnie's shoulder. "Go to your own seat," I demanded as Vanna and Monica came walking into the room, their eyes growing wider as they noticed Ronnie sitting closer to their assigned seats.

They each took their spots on either side of me and turned around to face Ronnie. Ronnie spared them a single glance each before he rolled his dark eyes and trudged to the back of the room, his feet going up on the top of his desk automatically.

The first thing Mrs. Goodwin did when she came walking out of her office at the ringing of the final bell was to tell "Mr. Radke" to drop his feet to the floor and sit up straight so that "maybe he could pass chemistry and not have to spend more time with her the next year".

Ronnie did what he was told with a roll of his eyes and I frowned as Vanna and Monica giggled to themselves.

"See," Vanna whispered from my side, "He's not any different."

I kept my eyes down as her and Monica conversed in an almost silent way, their whispers purposely floating across me so that I would hear every word.

"Okay, today we're going to be doing a simple lab. Just on paper, so don't get your hopes up. Everybody partner up."

Before I could even glance around the room, Ronnie was calling my name, causing students to look between us in pure shock. Sure, they'd heard the rumors and seen us walking in the hall yesterday. But for us to be so open about the almost-more-than friendship that we'd acquired was surprising, especially in front of Vanna Aaron and co.

I laughed as Ronnie came walking up the aisle between the desks. "I'm not being your partner," I told him with a shake of my head.

He frowned. "Why not?" he questioned, sounding almost offended but not quite.

"Because you're a slacker!" I replied, laughing now as he shook his head dejectedly and crouched down at the corner of my desk, leaning his arms there and his chin on them.

He glanced to Vanna and then back to me, shaking his raven head. "I am not," he replied softly, knowing the the whole class was listening intently. When he saw the disbelieving look on my face he chuckled and nodded. "Okay, so maybe I am. But I'll help you, Kat."

"Why?"

He smile and reached a hand out to touch the ends of my hair. "Because," he replied, "You're smart and I wouldn't want to fuck up your grade or anything."

The teacher didn't hear his language, or if she had, she hadn't said anything about it. So I just sighed and rolled my pale eyes. Ronnie grinned in triumph and pulled a chair closer as the lab packets were passed back to us.

"What are you doing?" Vanna asked halfway through class, looking at Ronnie with squinted eyes.

"What do you want, Vanna?" Ronnie replied, not looking at her at all.

Vanna met my gaze and smirked when I looked away. "Are you using her to get your grades up or something? Because," she paused and motioned to me, "That is definitely not worth sleeping with."

I bit my lip and continued to fill in the answer as Ronnie snapped to look at her and glared. "Why don't you just shut the hell up, Vanna," he demanded, "Just because I'm done with you doesn't mean you have to go and act like a bitch to Kat."

"So, she's 'Kat' now?" Monica chimed in from next to Vanna, "You have nicknames now?"

Ronnie rolled his eyes. "It's her fucking name, Moron."

Vanna scoffed and set her pen down on the edge of the desk. She waited until she caught Ronnie's gaze, then she spoke slowly, each word making me feel worse than the last. "When you're done with her and realize that she's just one huge mistake, I'll take you back. But I'll give you time to get this out of your system. When you realize that she's pathetic, just come on over and I'll show you what a woman is supposed to help a man with."

Ronnie stared at her and for a moment, I thought that maybe he'd taken her words to heart. Then, before I could become too upset, Ronnie leaned across the desk and pressed his mouth to mine.

I didn't respond until Ronnie reached up and cupped my rounded jaw line with a tattooed hand. After a moment I hadn't forgotten that Vanna and Monica were sitting there, but I started to care less and less as my lips parted and Ronnie attempted to deepen the kiss.

"Ronnie! Katerina! Stop it!"

I pulled away slowly and looked up to my teacher with nervous eyes. Ronnie looked up to her, too, although grinning as he pulled his fingers away from me.

"The school has a zero-tolerance policy for public displays of affection, Mr. Radke, I'm sure you know that by now," Mrs. Goodwin said firmly, unable to knock the smile from Ronnie's lips. "But you, Ms. Silverstein, I'm giving you a warning. If this happens once more I'm going to have to call your parents. Both of you."

Ronnie laughed as she walked away. "And I'm sure he'd love to hear from you, Mrs. Goodwin."

I reached over and punched Ronnie's arm roughly. I was probably the only one in the class who knew about his home life. Who knew what would happen to him if his father was disrupted with a call from the school.

"Ow," Ronnie whined, rubbing the spot on his shoulder where I'd hit him, "What was that for? I didn't tell her to call your dad."

"I don't care," I hissed, "She's going to call both of our dads and then we'll be in big trouble!"

"Why?" Vanna asked suddenly, leaning forward in her chair just a fraction of an inch.

Ronnie turned to look at her and rolled his eyes again. "None of your fucking business, okay? Maybe we're not allowed to get in trouble at school?"

Vanna, seemingly discouraged, turned back to the packet on her desk grabbed her pen, the end of it going between her teeth as she tried to focus the best she could.

Ronnie scoffed and turned back to me. "Sorry," he said quietly, "I didn't mean to get you in trouble."

"Then what were you trying to do?" I questioned, taping my pencil on the graffitied desk.

Ronnie grinned and shrugged his shoulders. "Nothing, really," he said simply, "Just felt like getting a couple of annoying chicks off our backs."

I licked my lips. "And you really think that was the right way to go about it?"

Ronnie shrugged and leaned closer to me. The teacher's words ringing in my head, I covered my lips with my hands. Ronnie chuckled and settled for kissing my cheek quickly, his eyes glancing back to the teacher.

I dropped my hands to the desk and groaned when Ronnie kissed my lips quickly before Mrs. Goodwin even looked in our direction.

"Jerk," I growled, shoving him away from me.

Ronnie laughed and shook his head. "Do your homework," he commanded playfully, "Don't want to be a slacker."

This time it was me who rolled my eyes. I turned my gaze down to the large packet in front of us, but I couldn't delete the small smile from my lips as Ronnie kicked my tennis shoe covered foot with his own.