Don't Give up on Me

My second day at Huntington Beach High had gone much smoother than the first had during the first half of the day. Charlotte and I had gotten assigned a research project in our American History class, and I swore that Brit knew more about our country than our teacher did; she taught me more about the American Revolution (mainly because she knew both sides) in that hour than my teacher could ever dream of in a lifetime. After the lesson was over, she playfully wished me luck in Chemistry.

But, I'd be lying if I said having Chemistry with Violet, Zacky, and their two friends Brian and Jimmy was lame. Jimmy was insane! He had his blonde haired spiked a foot tall and wore the baggiest Dickies shorts I've ever seen. He was so funny, though, and really clever. Brian was considered the pretty boy of the group, and even though he definitely wasn't ugly, his arrogance and cockiness turned me off and away from him. I mean, I already knew he was off-limits because Charlotte liked him, so us hooking up was damn near impossible. But I didn't have to worry about that since he wasn't even all that attractive to me.

"Alright, guys, we're going to do an experiment in the lab today, so pack your things and go to room 237 A," Mr Talley instructs. "Sullivan, Haner, Baker and Phelps, so help me God, if you break something, you'll all get lunch detention. That's a promise."

"Hah, y'all are doomed," I tease. They all laugh.

"Hey y'all, lets skip to the lab," Jimmy says, linking arms with Violet and leading the way out. Brian follow after them. I pout.

"Poor baby," Zacky says, pinching my cheek playfully as we walk towards the staircase.

"I can't even say y'all without being made fun of. This sucks!" I say genuinely. That was really the only thing I liked about being Texan; saying y'all was mandatory in Texas, and it felt weird saying you all instead.

"They're doing it because they like you, I promise," he says then adds,"you're our little Southern Bell."

"What?!" I ask in confusion, feeling the urge to laugh. Did he even know what the meaning of that was?

"You felt bad that I gave you a ride to school, so you offered to buy me breakfast. No one around here does that."

"I was just being nice!"

"Its appreciated, trust me," he grins.

"Ready to experiment with bases, lab partner?" he asks when we reach the large room moments later. "Science related bases, smart one," he adds, referring to the expression on my face.

"Who said I was working with you?" I scoff, crossing my arms.

"Well, who else are you going to work with?" he asks, handing me a pair of safety glasses.

"Where's Violet?" I ask, looking for her long blue hair in the crowd of people.

"Working with Brian and Jimmy. They always work with her and cheat off her," he says with a shrug, though he smirked at my disappointment.

"Lets get this over with. I hate Chemistry, if you didn't know," I sigh. He chuckles and gathers the materials we needed before setting them down in front of us. He picks up the lab sheet and reads over the steps. "20 cc's of Hydrochloric acid, 20 cc's of water, 20 cc's of sodium hydroxide..." he mutters as he reads. I had to admit, it was kind of adorable.

"Okay, so, get that eyedropper and fill this tube up to the top with hydrocholoric acid," he instructs, and I oblige.

"Isn't that stomach acid?" I ask to no one in particular, carefully transferring the weakened acid to the test tube.

"Yep," he replies, filling the other tubes with water and the sodium hydroxide. "Okay now it says here that we need to get the antacid tablets and put them in each one and see what happens.."

We both pick up one and carefully drop them into the tubes, both of them fizzing over and going all over the table in the process. Meanwhile, the one in the water slowly broke down the antacid tablet and hardly fizzed or ran over.

"We're done. I'll clean up. Wasn't too hard was it?" he grins, grabbing paper towels and wiping down the area. Violet, Jimmy, and Brian on the other side of the room were ooohing and ahhhing at their chemical reactions, fascinated at the sight.

"Nope. Just reaaaally boring," I say truthfully.

"Never said it would be fun," he shrugs after clearing everything away.

"Here's the homework. Its due by the end of next class," Mr Talley says, slapping down two thick packets. "And no, you can't cram this all into one class and get it done."

"What the literal fuck... how do I... what?" I say as I flip through the pages, confused beyond anything.

He chuckles. "What's wrong?"

"How do you do ANY of this stuff? Its like a foreign language, all of it!" I exclaim, my eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"You didn't do this at your other school?"

"No! It was only the third week, we've just past learning each others' names and doing lab safety shit..."

He chuckles again. "I could come over and help you after school, if you want. This is actually pretty easy."

My heart jumps at the thought of him and I alone. It sounded so appealing. How could I say no? "That'd be great, actually."

The bell sounds over us. "What's your next class, Ginger?"

Not offended in the slightest, I reply with Spanish II.

"Me too," he smirks down at me. "And Jimmy and Matt too. Lets go."

He leads the way down the hallway and makes a left, stopping outside a tiny classroom with the Mexican flag painted on the door. "That's so cheesy," I roll my eyes as we walk in. He only laughs.

Not much later, Jimmy sits beside me, the same babyfaced guy from yesterday not too far behind. That must be Matt, I think to myself. I could definitely see why Violet crushed on him. He had really cute dimples with a nice smile too. I didn't expect his voice to be so deep, though.

"Settling in well, Andi?" Matt asks, sitting in front of Jimmy. I nod.

"Of course she is! She's got her new best friend Jimmy to help her," Jimmy says, slinging an arm around me. "How good are you in Spanish?"

"I'm fluent," I reply, their jaws dropping. "My mother is Hispanic; she's from South Texas. If I didn't learn Spanish I wouldn't be able to communicate with about 75 per cent of my family."

"Where do you get the ginger from?" Matt asks.

"My Irish father.." I reply. Zacky smirks over at me before the class starts. I only roll my eyes. The work we did was really simple, reviews of what Spanish I was to teach the year before. I was fluent speaking Spanish, but was still in the class because I didn't have the first clue on how to write properly in the language. So I was stuck in the class until I could.

"What the fuck is 'la cama'?" Matt asks, his eyebrows furrowed.

"The bed..." I say slowly.

"What about la sopa?" Zacky asks.

"That's soup. My God, this is the easiest shit in the language, a six year old can do it," I say in annoyance. Instead of getting offended like I thought they would, they just laugh.

"Sassy little thing. No wonder Green gave you detention," Matt laughs.

"Your opinion on the matter is irrelevant," I mutter. Zacky laughs harder. I raise an eyebrow.

"You said that all country and then 'irrelevant' was really serious," he explains, still laughing.

"Are you done? Are you pleased with yourself yet?" I ask, far beyond annoyed.

"Don't piss her off dude, she'll steal your soul," Jimmy says with a cautious laugh. I turn in my seat, put my earbuds in, and crank up the band that was currently playing, Of Mice and Men. Someone yanks on my left one. I glare at the culprit and put it back in, only for it to happen again.

"Are you trying to piss me off today, Baker?" I ask when Matt and Jimmy go to turn their papers in.

"Yes, because you don't look half bad when you're pissed," he replies.

"Flattery isn't gonna make me hate you less right now."

"You don't hate me. That's impossible," he argues.

"No, she hates you," Jimmy says as the bell rings again.

We stop by Salazar's room and all grab food, Zacky still attempting to get me to talk to him, to no avail; I was a stubborn girl right now.

"Annnnndddiiiiii," he whines, poking my sides and making me jump. "I'm soooorrrryyyyyy."

"Jimmy, can you hand me that hot sauce?" I ask him politely, ignoring Zacky. He tosses the bottle to me and I put a large spoonful into my beef flavored Ramen, savoring the spicy taste.

"C'mon, don't be a bitch, I know you hear me!" Zacky says as we walk towards the quad.

"Andiiiiiiiiiiii," he whines again. I finally laugh and give in.

"Fine! Say sorry!" I say as we sit down at a table outside.

"I'm sorry for pissing you off," he mumbles, looking at his bag of chips and soda while he does so. I giggle; it was actually pretty cute.

"Its okay, Zacky," I smile, sipping my water.

"There you guys are, Jesus," Charlotte and Violet say together, sitting on both sides of us.

The rest of lunch goes by quickly, and before I know it, I was pulling sweatpants over my spandex again and getting ready to meet Zacky in the parking lot.

I was praying like hell that nothing too bad would happen when we were alone.