The Bad Boy's Secret

-one-

Marie Avgeropolous: as Macy Stone

-one-

As I stared at the bright blue letters on the white board I felt my stomach tie into a thousand knots. What was Mrs. Walker thinking? 

I glanced over at my best friend, Pepper who had been paired with another outcast. At least her partner, Kale, was more acceptable than mine.

I was afraid to glance towards the back of the classroom where I had seen Gabe sitting before class had started. Of all the things that could go wrong on the first day back to school, why did it have to be this? What had I ever done to Mrs. Walker to make her hate me?

"Alright class, now that you know who you'll be partnered with for the year, I'd like you to change seats and sit next to your partner," Before everyone jumped up she quickly added. "As quietly as possible,"

The sound of chairs scraping against the tile floor and whispers filled the room and I took my opportunity to rush to the front of the room and confront Mrs. Walker. 

"Is there a problem, Macy?" She asked, not looking up from the paper she was staring at. She already knew what the problem was. 

"Yeah, actually. I was just wondering what made you decide on these partners?" Mrs. Walker took a deep breath and her bright eyes finally met with mine. 

"My decision is final Macy, I'm sorry if it's not what you prefer but I paired everyone with who I thought they'd work best with," She explained, setting the paper in her hands down and beginning to turn towards the white board again to erase the names. 

"I've never even talked to him before," I said, louder than I had planned. 

"Well now's the perfect time, please take your seat," Since there was obviously no talking sense into my teacher I turned and realized everyone had already taken their seats and were now staring at me. 

I slowly made my way to the third row where Gabe was sitting, smirking at me. What was he so happy about? I sent him a quick glare before sitting down and sighing loudly. And I thought senior year was going to be a breeze.

"Okay, since it was brought to my attention that many of you may not know each other all that well, why don't you take a few moments to get acquainted. I'll give you two minutes," Mrs. Walker shot me a look before turning back around to finish her erasing. 

My other friend Jasmine had been partnered with Danny, the cutest guy in school and the guy I had the world's biggest crush on. Go figure, Jasmine always gets what she wants. Either way, I was stuck in this situation so I might as well try to make the most of it. I turned towards Gabe and plastered a fake-as-can-be smile on my face. 

"I'm Macy, nice to officially meet you," I held out my hand and Gabe smirked once again, causing my temper to flare slightly. 

"I've been waiting for you to introduce yourself to me since 4th grade, Ms. Stone," He replied, sarcasm dripping from every word that left his mouth. He grabbed my hand, his palm rough, and placed a light kiss on my hand. He flashed a smile up at me and I ripped my hand away. Gross.

"Whatever, it's not my fault you're anti-social," I snapped back, searching through my bag to see if I had hand sanatizer. I didn't.

"And by anti-social you mean not hanging out with people who gossip for a living?" I was beginning to think that smirk was permanently glued to his mouth. 

"I'd rather have the reputation of a gossip Queen than your reputation," I wasn't used to having to speak so meanly to someone before 10 o'clock in the morning, but this boy knew how to push my buttons and this was the first time we had ever spoken! This was so not going to work. 

Gabe threw his head back and laughed out loud, his shaggy brown hair whipping back. His sharp brown gaze settled on mine again and the urge to slap him popped into my head. 

"I never called you a Queen, chica," I continued to glare at Gabe and tried not to let heat rise to my cheeks. "I won't deny my reputation, I think it's quite fitting actually,"

Gabrio Romero was the school's typical bad boy. Known as a womanizer, he was rumored to spend his spare time skipping class, smoking and fighting. Some even believed he sold drugs but I wasn't sure how true that rumor was. All I knew was that Mrs. Walker was absolutely insane for pairing the two of us together, we were nothing alike.

"I'm looking forward to getting to know you better this year though, don't get me wrong," Gabe whispered, leaning a little closer to me. I'll be the first to admit Gabe wasn't bad looking, not in the slightest, but he was cocky and totally not my type to begin with! Even if my friends thought he was hot, I thought he was a disgusting pig. 

"The feeling is so not mutual," I rolled my eyes and turned back to the front of the classroom. I felt Gabe's stare linger for a moment longer before he did the same. 

"I like a feisty girl," He whispered right before Mrs. Walker turned back around to face us instead of the white board. I was thankful she had turned around and began talking, I didn't have a good comeback to Gabe's stupid comment anyway. 

"I'm going to hand out your textbooks now, I want you to write you name-only your name please- and you'll need to bring these every day to class, we'll be using them almost every day this year," Mrs. Walker began calling out names and one by one everyone walked up to grab their books. 

I was already counting down the minutes until class was dismissed.

As soon as the bell rang I grabbed my bag and nearly sprinted out of the room. Pepper and Jasmine were right on my heels. 

"Where's the fire?" Pepper asked, giggling as she caught up to me. Jasmine was right behind her, giggling as well.

"I can't stand that moron!" I finally yelled, not caring about the students looking my way in the hall. 

"Who, Gabe? He doesn't seem that bad," Pepper mentioned.

"That's because you're not his partner. He's so rude and obnoxious," I continued to ramble. 

"Speak of the devil," Jasmine muttered before Gabe and his buddy Kale, Pepper's partner, appeared in front of us. 

"Hey so Macy, I was wondering if you'd want to come over later today? You know, to study," He finished his sentence with a wink my way and I gagged, not hiding my obvious dislike towards him anymore. 

"You disgust me," 

"You wouldn't be the first to change her mind about me," Gabe cooed and I stepped forward to hit him but Pepper grabbed my shoulder, smiling sweetly at Kale. 

"Down girl, no one needs to go to detention on the first day of school," Pepper said, eyeing Gabe carefully before smiling down at me. Thank goodness Pepper was there, she was always reasonable...for the most part. 

"Especially not Ms. President of the student council," Kale chimed in and Jasmine laughed, too loudly since it wasn't even funny. Leave it to Jasmine to turn the attention to her during a conversation. 

I could tell Gabe was about to say something but thankfully the bell chimed in the hall, signaling we had two minutes to make it to our next class. 

"Better get going to second period, I don't want to get in trouble by Ms. President here," Gabe called out as he and Kale walked away laughing. 

"Kale's hot," Jasmine chirped while the three of us headed the other direction. 

"Oh shut up," Both Pepper and I said and the three of us couldn't help but laugh. As long as I had my friends by my side I'm sure I could make this whole arrangement with Gabe work, just as long as he stayed out of my way.