Let's Play a Game

Let's Play a Game (1)

Before you start thinking that this is another story about how some hot player falls in love with some nerd, let me get something straight. I'm not a nerd, and I'm not a nobody either. I was just a normal girl. I had a lot of friends, but I wouldn't call myself popular. I wasn't athletic, and I was average when it came to academics. I was just a normal girl, and I think that that's what got Zachary Deveraux's attention. I was just like his usual targets.

But I was also different from the rest of them. I wasn't about to say yes.

And everyone knew Zachary Deveraux doesn't take no for an answer.

It all started on my first day at Corvus High School. I was in eleventh grade, and I was nervous, like any other normal teenager should have been whenever they had to start at brand new school in the middle of the school year.

It was the high school that my parents went to, the place where they had first met and fell in love. My mom was hoping that the same thing would have happened to me, but I didn't think that it was very possible.

I made my way through the crowded hallways, no one even paying any attention to me. This was what I wanted though; I didn't want to make any friends until class started.

When I entered the office, I looked around to see where I would have to go. I nodded to myself and started in her direction when I saw the secretary only a few feet away from me.

"Is there something I could help you with?" the secretary asked from behind the desk as she sat in a roller chair. She moved her glasses down her nose and looked at me.

"Um, I'm here to pick up my schedule," I informed the secretary, not knowing if I was supposed to say anything else to her.

"Oh, you must be that new student," the secretary nodded, immediately rolling to her right and flipping through various papers. "Maxine is your name, correct?"

I bit the inside of my lip to stop myself from making a face. "It's Maxynn, actually. It rhymes with Jackson."

"Ah," the secretary nodded just as she pulled out my schedule. "Maxynn Chase. That's a very unusual name. I don't think I've ever heard it before. I like it."

I smiled awkwardly at her, taking my schedule from her hands. "Thank you."

I quickly scampered off then, not wanting to have any kind of awkward conversation with her. It would have just been best to get to class, since I was already late as it was...

I darted off down the hall, looking down at my schedule to see where my classroom was. It couldn't have been that hard to find...

Before I could make it very far down the empty hall, I smacked right into someone. Luckily I didn't fall over, but my schedule quickly fluttered out of my hand and onto the floor.

My hand shot for it, but another hand beat me to it. Our hands brushed, but I felt absolutely nothing as I looked up at the boy who was now holding my schedule.

"Maxynn Chase, huh?" he asked, reading my name off my schedule and pronouncing my name like Maxine. "So you're new around here, I take it. I haven't ever seen you around before."

Was that not absolutely obvious or was this guy just an idiot? If I was walking in the empty hallways, all alone with a schedule in my hand, what would you think?

"Um, my name is actually pronounced like max-in. It rhymes with Jackson," I replied to the boy, plucking my schedule from his grasp and tucking it in my pocket. Saying that my name rhymed with Jackson was something I had to do pretty much every time someone said my name wrong, which was sure a lot.