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Molli ran her hands through her hair as she looked down at her new school schedule. This was her first time attending a new school and she was already beginning to get discouraged. Her first class of the day, Chemistry, was full of awkward stares and banter about where she'd gone to school previously, but she could tell that the other students didn't give a flying flip. She stuffed her schedule back into her pocket and headed for the lunch room, following the numbers on the signs by each room. She adjusted her bag on her shoulder and took a deep breath as she pulled open the cafeteria doors. She went inside and claimed her place in the lunch line, a frown forming on her face when she realized that she had to choose between greasy pizza or cold chicken nuggets. She hadn't packed a lunch, figuring that maybe her new school would have choices that didn't make you want to hurl, but she had officially been proved wrong. She grabbed a tray and paid the lunch lady for her meal and a bottle of water before she turned to look out into the bustling rest of the room. She felt exactly like all of the kids in the movies did on their first day in a foreign environment. She hadn't made any real acquaintances yet, which would have been unusual for her, but considering the accident and all that had happened in the few months, nobody could really blame her. She let out a sad sigh and eyed an empty table in the back of the room. Perfect. She set off for the table but along the way, she locked eyes with a student that looked strangely familiar - it was Trace! Her face went deep red and she tried to race to the empty table, but she was forced to stop when Trace rose from his seat and blocked her path. Oh, no, he was going to talk to her.

 

Seth was at his locker, dropping off his textbook as he prepared to walk to the boys' locker room for gym class with his friends. He turned around and shut his locker, testing the lock to make sure that it was secure before he began to make the journey down the hall. He was talking with one of his buddies about their upcoming lacrosse game when he suddenly bumped into someone in the middle of the hall. At his high school, it was pretty much a social felony if you were caught walking down the wrong side of the hall. Knowing his status as a senior, it was essentially Seth's job to keep the younger students in line - sure, that wasn't written in a handbook anywhere, but he took it upon himself to punish anyone that didn't abide by the rules. When he lost his balance due to the impact, his first reaction was to throw out a punch, but luckily, he was able to stop himself just in time. As he dropped to his knees, he shouted, "Watch where you're going next time!", loud enough to allow others to hear him, but his eyes widened when his gaze noticed the girl that had ran into him. Even as she reached frantically for her papers and pencils that went flying in every direction, even with most of her sleek blonde hair covering her face, he knew it was Claire. His eyes softened as he noticed the panic in her eyes that he had seen so many times before. He noticed his friends that were flanked at his sides stand still in an effort to protect him, but he motioned for them to continue to class without him. Before he got up, her schedule slid under his shoe and he picked it up, noticing that they had gym class together in just a few minutes. "I'm sorry,"   he apologized, trying his best to help her up. "You're heading in the wrong direction, by the way." He refused to bring up that they had met before. Maybe she wouldn't recognize him.

No worries!

---

Seth frowned when she breathed his name. Everything came flooding back, all at once, all of the memories that they had shared together. Sneaking down to the lake and enjoying a midnight swim. The first night that they spent together with each other. He missed it all, sure, but he had always figured that Claire was gone forever. He wasn't prepared to ever run into her again, so seeing her on his school's campus definitely threw him off. He chewed his lip nervously when he heard her accent flare up; yet another reminder of the time that they had spent together. Her whispering sweet nothings in his ear while they were fooling around like, well, a pair of teenagers. "We can't talk about this right now," he said, placing a hand on her shoulder. He was suddenly aware of the other students that walked around them, slowing down as they sneaked a glance at who he was confronting. He took her schedule out and grabbed one of her pencils, scribbling down a room number on the back of the paper. "Meet me here after gym," he told her, shoving the pencil and paper back into her hand. With that, he took off towards the locker room as if nothing had happened. He met up with his friends inside and changed into a muscle tee and a pair of shorts before switching out his shoes for a pair of Nike sneakers. When his friends asked what had taken him so long, he stumbled when he tried to find an excuse. "She tried to tell me off," he lied, "something about how I needed to take my eyes off her chest or I'd get slapped." One of the other guys brought up that she looked like a new student. He shrugged, trying to play it off. He was known for going after all of the new girls, somewhat of a player. This was one girl he knew he would stay away from.

 

Molli's heart skipped a beat when Trace called her by her nickname. She figured that he had forgotten, even though it wasn't that far off of her actual name. "Trace?" she questioned, not really believing that it was him, at first. His eyes looked drowsy and she noticed the dark bags underneath them. She examined his face for just a moment more and noticed a bruise on the edge of his jaw that extended toward his ear and a little ways down his neck. She frowned. "Is everything okay?" she asked, taking a step towards him, careful not to spill anything on her tray. Here she was, asking if he was alright when she had plenty of problems on her own that she wasn't willing to share. After spending a few days in the hospital and picking up everything to move to a new school, the last thing that she wanted to discuss was whether or not she was okay. "I missed you, too," she said quietly, her glance shifting to his friends and then back to his eyes. "I would give you a hug but we have an audience and I've got mystery meat," she said with a nervous laugh. She began to recall little memories about how they spent their time together at lacrosse camp. They were on the championship team together and had enjoyed defeating the camp bullies. They pulled pranks on the coaches and had ultimately fallen in love. Even with everything that they had to lose, they were still willing to admit that they had feelings for each other and didn't want to be separated. "Is it alright if I sit with you?" she asked, feeling a bit more confident, "I'd rather sit with someone I know than have to sit in the corner and keep from talking to myself."

Molli grinned. "Awesome, I'm glad to hear that you're doing well, it's so nice to see you again." Seeing Trace was like coming up for a breath of fresh air. She hadn't expected to run into him here, that much was for sure, but she was so grateful that she did. It would be nice to have him back in her life, even though she was still a bit sensitive around guys. It was just too soon after all that had happened. Her face flushed again when he brought up all of her scars. She chose not to answer until they were sitting down at the table and his friends had gone back to eating their lunch. She placed her hand on his thigh and leaned over to whisper in his ear, "I'll fill you in later." She drank a few sips of her bottled water while she tried to come up with a reason for why she had transferred. "I got in a pretty bad car accident a couple months ago and the lawsuit was ugly. I was told that it was in my best interest to move and start fresh, so that's exactly what I did," she told the group, which wasn't really a lie - it just wasn't the whole story. She turned to face Trace and told him, "My parents heard me talking about how you go to school here and they figured it would be nice to go somewhere that I already knew someone. To be honest, I wasn't sure that you would remember me." Suddenly, his friends began asking where they had met and how they knew each other so well, why they hadn't heard about her before. "I'll let you tell that one," she said to Trace as she started to nibble at her chicken nuggets.

 

Seth walked into the gymnasium with his friends and noticed that Claire was immersed in a group of the school's queen bees. Sure, he was somewhat glad that she was trying to mingle and make friends, despite how she was probably feeling, but she really couldn't have been trying to do so with worse people. He noticed how she was the only one not at all interested in how his biceps were displayed or how gorgeous his jawline was. Once he and his friends took a seat on the bleachers, the gym teachers announced that they would be spending the day outside running repeat drills on the track. They all headed outside and it wasn't long before Seth had to yell at his friends. While they were all jogging their warm-up laps, he noticed a few of his buddies trying to sneak their way up to Claire and begin flirting with her. Deciding to knock out two birds with one stone, he came up beside them and shouted, "Guys, paws off. She might slap you if you get too close!" Thankfully, his friends backed off and Claire was able to resume chatting with one of the more popular girls that had constantly tried to get Seth to notice her. The rest of gym class went on fairly well. Seth got to see Claire's competitive side during the track races and he was able to show off for some of the other girls. When class was over and lunch time came around, he decided to avoid his friends and spend his time in the library, reading his English textbook. He hoped that Claire would show up.

 

Molli took a sip of her bottle and sat it back down on her tray. Her small smile grew into a grin when he asked if she'd suffered any permanent damage. "Nope!" she proclaimed thankfully, "the car suffered most of the damage. I was driving, there wasn't anyone else in the car, so when the guy ran a red light and crashed into the rear passenger's side, I didn't really get any of the blunt force on my side." Her heart leaped into her throat at his sudden contact with her leg. It was like old times again, him doing everything to get her attention and her acting like a tease, eventually giving in and finding his actions that much hotter. His friends seemed open to the idea of the two of them getting together, especially after he mentioned that he had fallen for her. She was also glad that Trace was happy to hear about how her parents were impressed with him. When they had all met each other when it was time to pick the kids up from camp, she remembered vividly that her mother was so supportive of what their relationship had been. Little did she know, at the time, about what was going on with Molli's boyfriend back home, Garrett, and how Molli would probably never be in contact with Trace again. "Speaking of which, how is the lacrosse team here?" she asked the group, "you never really told me about it." Considering most of the time that they were together, they weren't even talking - yup, that definitely had more than one meaning. She reached down with her hand and took his in hers, hoping to keep him from startling her any more. 

 

Seth breathed a sigh of relief when Claire took a seat beside him. He was beyond glad that she decided to take his advice and meet up with him. His eyes locked with hers and he could have sworn that time stopped for a while. He had missed looking into her deep jade eyes every morning. While she sat down, he took a moment to gather his thoughts. He had been trying to prepare all morning for what he was going to say to her but he had come up with nothing. He didn't want his message to come across the wrong way; he wanted to demonstrate that he was still interested in her, but he had to tell her why he was so reluctant to even talk to her, let alone be in a relationship with her. He cleared his throat before he began, taking her hands into his before looking around to ensure that they were completely alone. "I need to talk to you about where we stand," he started, searching her eyes in hopes of finding some sort of common ground. "You know as much as I do how much I loved spending time together with you this summer. I have feelings for you, Claire, some of the deepest I've ever felt. It's just that... there's too much at stake now. I'm relying on an academic scholarship to get me into college. If word gets out that I'm seeing you, chaos is bound to erupt. I can't sleep now, considering I'm thinking about you all the time, and if I throw into the mix everything else that I've got to lose, I don't know if I'll be the same person anymore. I don't want you to have to break up with me because I'm not the person you thought I was. I don't want you to go through that just because you never got to experience this side of me."

Molli pulled her schedule out of her pocket and began to read off what classes she had. "Well, I'm leaving lunch and going to art class, and then I have drama and photography. The front office gave me a ton of artsy classes, which I'm not sure why, considering I already have all of my arts credits from my other school." She shrugged her shoulders and squeezed Trace's hand. "By the way," she said, glancing over at him, "can you give me a ride home today? They're working on finding out what bus I'm supposed to ride and my car isn't out of the shop yet because of the whole court battle over bills and such." She smiled sweetly, hoping he would agree. "Plus, I want to ride in this Camaro of yours that you always talked about." She looked around and saw that his friends were wide-eyed. One of them leaned over to her and said, "Girl, I haven't even gotten to ride in the Cam yet and I've known him since kindergarten. If he lets you, you better roll around in those seats and have a good time. Enjoy it before he revokes your privileges! And don't spill anything on the dashboard like my buddy over here did!" She let out a laugh. "I really like your friends," she said to Trace. 

 

Seth was surprised at how Claire seemed to play off what he had said. He listened to her speak and couldn't help but notice how her voice cracked. He acted like he didn't notice, not wanting to embarrass her, and he felt as if he disagreed with her. He wanted a relationship but couldn't; she didn't want a relationship at all. He was open about his views on them getting together; she tried her best not to seem too upset. When she turned back around to tell him that there were no hard feelings, his heart ached. He knew that she wasn't being completely honest. As she walked away, he shot up from his seat quickly and went to call after her but decided against it. He didn't want to seem desperate, and he knew that no matter what he said she would still go on thinking that he didn't want any part of her. He had to take some time and be strategic about it all, about how he was going to work her back into his life. She was so close now, and it wasn't until then that he realized he couldn't go without her any longer. He sat back down and slammed his fist down on his book, thoroughly frustrated. He hated seeing her so hurt by what he had to say.

Molli rose from her seat when the bell rang, signaling the end of the lunch period. "That sounds great, actually," she said happily, letting go of his hand as he stood up. She couldn't deny the feeling that part of her wanted to reach back over and grab his hand again, but she knew it wasn't appropriate for their situation. She listened to him talk as they made their way down the hall together. "Do you want to talk about it?" she asked, in reference to his home situation. When he shook his head, she pursed her lips, realizing that he wasn't ready yet. Eventually he would be ready, and hopefully he knew that she was always there to listen. "Let's go to my place," she finally said, "I think my parents will be really interested in seeing you again, and we need another set of strong hands to help lift some of the heavy boxes around." She smiled and playfully gave him a pat on the arm. A few minutes later, they arrived at her next class. She stood outside the door with him, squishing between other students entering the classroom and kids trying to cram their books into their lockers. "I'll see you in a little while," she said, letting out a content sigh. They stood still for just a second before she went with her gut, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him into an embrace. She had missed this so, so much.

 

Seth eventually gave up on trying to think about what he was going to say to Claire. He left the library a few minutes before lunch was over and arrived at his next class, chemistry, a few minutes early. He sat in the back row of the room and pulled out his textbook when he saw Claire walk into the room. He let out a sigh, having never considered the idea that he would see her again. He looked at her schedule, for crying out loud, he should have realized this. He sat in silence for a few minutes as he watched her stir in her seat, clearly feeling uncomfortable because of her surroundings. The queen bees, again. He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and decided to take a risk and send her a text message, knowing full well that the teacher had strictly forbidden the devices. He sent her a message, 'I'm sorry, I'm an idiot. Talk after school?' and all but crossed his fingers as he sat in his seat, praying that she still had the same cell phone number. When her ringtone went off a few seconds later and everyone jumped, he felt slightly guilty. She checked the name on the screen and shot a glare back at him. Now he was experiencing the wrath of the ice queen.

 

Molli let out a giggle as Trace picked her up and off of the ground. When he put her back down she said, "You smell like..." She buried her nose in his shoulder for a second before pulling back and pursing her lips. Her eyebrows narrowed as she pinpointed her answer. "A mixture of cedar wood and peppermint. Surprisingly refreshing," she said, looking up into his eyes and letting out another laugh. "Bye, Trace," she added before turning and heading into her classroom. She didn't make it more than a few steps in before the bell rang and the teacher asked her to say a few things about herself. "Hi, I'm Molli," she began, giving her classmates a small wave and a sheepish smile, "I play lacrosse and I transferred here from Nevada. I'm happy to report that the surroundings here are much more comforting - I wasn't a fan of the desert." Thankfully, she elicited a short laugh from the class, which made her feel more at ease. She picked the only empty seat that remained, right in front of the teacher's desk at one of the drawing tables. It wasn't long until the class got to work on their projects. A girl came over and instructed her on the requirements for their latest work, a ceramics piece. She had never worked with pottery before, so this was going to be fun.

 

Seth checked his phone when it vibrated and read Claire's reply. He bit his lip, a bit upset that she was so insistent about not even giving him a chance to explain himself further. Perhaps she was playing hard to get? He wasn't too sure; she was never like this over the summer. He felt terrible when the other girls were making comments after she introduced herself. The teacher started to give a lecture but he wasn't too happy with the behavior of the other students. Minutes passed and he could hear nearly every word out of the girls' mouths from the front of the room. He was truly surprised that the teacher hadn't intervened yet. "Would you just cut her some slack?" he said finally, causing a number of heads to whip in his direction. "I bet she's been through enough already today, considering the stunts most of you pulled in gym class. Let her alone." He shifted his gaze to the textbook on the desk, trying to ignore the flush that invaded his cheek when the room went silent. The teacher put down the chalk that he had been using on the blackboard and asked Seth to stick around after class was over. This definitely wasn't his day.