Luke is determined to breeze through his senior year and onto mega stardom (which means avoiding school, and Principal Lessa, as much as possible). That is until he's forced to work side-by-side with quiet good-girl, Julie Molina, on the big end-of...
"Mr. Patterson, how nice of you to join us." Ms. Harrison, the music teacher, mused dryly as Luke stumbled hurriedly onto the charter bus.
Julie did her best to duck her head out of sight behind the seat in front of her while she gathered her thoughts. She couldn't for the life of her figure out why Luke was getting on their now departing bus. The junior and senior students in the music program were on their way to watch the Playtone Symphony perform their annual spring concert that Friday evening after school. Seeing as Luke wasn't in the music program, Julie couldn't understand why he was now making his way down the aisle toward her, eyeing the empty seat on her left. She was also struggling to figure out why the sight of him in a dress shirt and dress pants made her stomach do a somersault.
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"Is this seat taken?" Luke asked giving Julie a smile as he stood by in the aisle-way.
"Sure." She said grabbing her things off the space beside her to make room.
The crisp fabric of Luke's shirt sleeve brushed against Julie's arm as he settled in next to her. She fiddled with the screen of her phone trying to find some music to listen to for their long bus ride. Plus it was a way to ignore her new companion's close proximity and the feelings it sent buzzing through her.
"Whatchya listening to?" Luke asked as he leaned over to eye her screen.
Julie pulled the phone back defensively, "Nothing." She replied shortly. "Why are you even here?"
She cringed internally hearing her words come out a little stronger than she intended.
"Nice to see you too." Luke replied sarcastically, giving her a quick sidelong glance. "Principal Lessa found out about the prank Reggie and Alex pulled the other day and blamed me for it." He explained with a roll of his eyes. "She called this field trip a character building experience ." He mocked her words begrudgingly.
"Like you didn't see that coming, huh?" Julie said fighting to hide her smile. "Sounds like she's dead set on torturing you for the rest of your senior year."
"Oh, and that's funny?" Luke replied fighting to hide his own smirk.
"I think you've made Principal Lessa's life pretty miserable these last four years. I'm sure she's enjoying the payback just a little bit." She said holding up her thumb and forefinger with a humorously wide gap between them.
Luke quirked his brow.
"Plus, you always seem to like being the center of attention anyway. Honestly, it's not surprising you constantly get caught or blamed for stuff." Julie added thoughtfully.
"Ok, Doctor Molina, you seem so sure you have me figured out. What's my deal?" Luke asked folding his arms over his chest.
"I mean, I think for whatever reason you only want people to see you a certain way." She began, while her mind pieced together the few parts of the Luke puzzle she had.
