Shampoo Romance: A Novel

Chapter One

It was a bright, hopeful morning and Pan was running late, as always, toast in her mouth and hair flying about her as she clumsily tripped down the street. She looked at her dainty wristwatch. Two minutes left, she thought to herself.

Suddenly, she collided into a tall figure, flailing her arms in a futile attempt to stop herself from falling. Pan closed her eyes, expecting to fall onto the solid ground, but instead, when she opened her eyes, she saw that instead she'd fallen face-first onto the solid chest of the school's bad boy, Tres Emmé.

Pan wasn't like other girls, though, she wasn't to fall for someone like him. Not now, not ever again. But as she stared into his black orbs staring back into her pale blues, she felt her cheeks burning, flushing bright red.

He shook his head, averting his gaze from hers. "Get up," he said coldly.

That was when it all changed.

Why didn't he apologise? He was the one who tripped her up! She felt a seething spark burn inside of her as she made her way through the gates just in time.

She breathed a sigh of relief and tried to shake off her annoyance. It was the first day of the new school year, so she had to get over it.

As she went into the class though, her brows furrowed again, unable to contain her flash of anger. There he was, sitting right in her seat.

She stormed over, fists clenched at her sides. "You're sitting in my seat!", she exclaimed. That was it; he was already her worst enemy. She couldn't stand the way he looked at her, a vague smirk sitting on his face.

"Ok, and..." he said, arrogance written all over his tone. He chuckled, looking over to his two friends he'd been talking to before she'd arrived. She rolled her eyes.

She was better than this, she wasn't about to put up a fight on the first day back, especially not with some wannabe f*ckboy. Here he was again. Wow, she thought. What a nice guy! What a great start!

She went to take a seat elsewhere when she noticed that the only empty seat was right next to him. Double great!, she exclaimed in her head.

The teacher walked into class and everyone finally hushed down. Pan found it hard to focus though, when all of the other girls were either giving her the evils or ogling over Tres. What do they see in that douche anyway?

It was the end of the day now, and Pan walked over to the baking club. Sometimes she felt the only connections she had was with her oven-mitts and Gar, her only friend.

Her and Gar had been friends since..well, she didn't know when exactly, but they were friends nonetheless. They always hung out together and talked about the newest album by The Shampions, a rock band that was so underground Pan was pretty sure that Gar was her soulmate and the only person in the entire school to know about them. No matter what anyone said about the two though, Pan could never picture her and Gar together; it was strictly platonic.

This week, they were making apple pie at the baking club, working in pairs to make the pastry and cut the apples.

Pan was on cutting duty, using an extra sharp knife to make intricate shapes and details on the apples.

She hadn't looked up in a while, busy off in her own world, when she had a brief vision. It felt so familiar: someone pushing her. She saw herself go down, down, down the stairs, while the figure remained standing at the top, cloaked in a black hoodie so his face was almost covered.

She winced suddenly as her head began to throb, flinching and causing her to cut her finger on accident.

She stood there momentarily, trembling at the sight of her blood pooling onto the cutting mat before she passed out, landing in strong, safe, familiar arms.

When she awoke, she realised that she had been taken to the school infirmary. "Are you alright?", asked a distant voice. Her brain, foggy from passing out, failed to recognise straight away that the voice wasn't Gar's but...

She bolted up straight, peering at the pale face of none other than, "Tres!!"

He sat there, blinking at her as if she were dumb. Baffled and embarrassed, she turned her head quickly away to hide her burning face.

"You passed out so I took you here. You weigh quite a lot you know." he chuckled, but Pan didn't see the joke, turning to him again and asking, with a violent tone, "Where's Gar?"

He looked at her incredulously. Why does he keep looking at me like that?

"You should be careful who you're friends with, Pan." Who is he to talk? He probably just walks around all day acting like he's above everyone else, with a bunch of other idiots!

Just after he'd said that, Gar walked in, glaring at Tres with a look that Pan had never seen on his face before. Gar passed her a soda he'd gone to get from the vending machine. See, she wanted to say, This is a good friend; someone who takes care of you.

Tres got up, glaring back at Gar as he exited the room.