Laurel Heights Equestrian Academy~ The A Team *NEW*

Chapter 12

I hurried into Biology, my last class before lunch period. Rummaging in my bag, I found my 1" black binder (decorated with a paper that read BIOLOGY in hot pink) and my homework folder(completely covered in photos of Ed Sheeran). I pulled out my homework, set it out on my desk, and savored the I'm so Organized and All My Homework is Done feeling that lasted only about a week into the school year.

Suddenly someone slammed their backpack onto the ground beside me and yanked out the chair, collapsing into it. "Britney?"

I glanced across. Oh my god, Hayden. I had half a second to blush and grin, looking stupid and wondering how I hadn't noticed him yesterday, before he spoke. "Hey, I need your help."

He yanked out a crumpled sheet of paper-last night's bio worksheet. Only the top two questions had been filled in. "I'm having a lot of trouble with this. Can I copy off yours?"

His voice had already deepened, so it was low and- stop, Britney. He looked up at me and I had to resist the laserbeam intensity of his eyes. I hesitated. I couldn't say, "You should've done your homework," without sounding like his mom or something, but should I really be helping him cheat on the second day of school? Probably not. I decided that I didn't care.

"Fine," I gave in, handing over my meticulous homework. He dug in his backpack, pulling out a mechanical pencil and giving me a relieved smile. I tried not to melt into a puddle. He was competition, right? I needed to snap out of it.

I shoved my textbook and binder back into my bookbag and pulled out my earbuds, turning on The Love Club and humming along as I walked out of the Science wing. I turned the white walled corner and almost slammed into someone. "Ohmigod, I'm sorry!"

The guy smiled. "It's all good." I looked a little closer at his face. His hair was sandy blond, and he had pretty vivid green eyes, but I swear his face looked similar to Hayden's. It was almost weird, how alike their features were.

"I'm Britney," I introduced myself.

"Chris," he said. "You're the new girl, right?" I nodded. Somehow his referencing me as new girl didn't bother me like Lauren had. " I heard you're a rider. That's Ha- um, that's not my thing, I do track, but see you around, okay?"

I nodded again. "Yeah. See you."

Lunch. I contemplated sitting in the bathroom like a freak just to avoid the awkward social scene, but dicided that it wasn't worth it. As soon as I walked into the caf, I saw Bri waving me over. Lauren sat beside her, looking pissed. Hayden was on her left, and with a jolt of surprise, I recognized Chris beside him.

"Hey, guys," I greeted them, slipping into the seat beside Devony and across from Hayden.

"So!" Bri gave me a perky smile. Way too perky. "How are you doing so far?"

"Pretty great," I replied. "I mean, it's the first week, so I haven't reached that point where I'm just sick of everything to do with school. Yet."

"I know what you mean," Claire agreed, nodding. "You get back and it's just, like, amazing to be back on campus and see everybody and everything, and then the schoolwork starts piling up and it gets ridiculous fast."

"Inspiring as usual," Devony teased her,  biting off half a french fry. Claire grinned.

"Well, we've both got Mr. Hubner for bio, which sucks. I swear he hates me already," Hayden grumbled. I looked across at him. Sadly, he was not exaggerating.

"Well, you weren't exactly..." I shrugged. "The most...compliant...student?"

"And you were so much better."

"I always get picked out as the troublemaker. Why me? What did I do?"

"Act like a troublemaker."

"But I didn't. I just...don't respect the manner by which he asserts his authority," I argued. Hayden rolled his eyes.

"Yup, you're the one every teacher hates."

Despite my brain  screaming in protest, my mouth suddenly exhaled a breathy laugh. Oh God, what was that?

"Okay, and you're like a, you're just a typical bad boy." I gestured with my french fry in vague circles. "A walking cliche."

"You say that like its a bad thing."

I raised one eyebrow. "Seriously?"

Hayden burst out laughing. "Okay, maybe that was a stupid line."

"Maybe? Definitely."

"Definitely."

Lauren cleared her throat in an overly obvious we're-still-here way.

For a moment there was an awkward silence. Then Chris spoke up. "So, uh..." More silence.

"First day for sports," said Lauren. "Britney, I heard you'll be joining the...Intermediate team." She smiled snidely at me. Like Intermediate equals the trash.

"Yeah, I will be," I said, meeting her gaze but willing myself not to glare or act catty. "I'm going to be riding Pippin. I'm really excited."

"Pippin?!" Lauren stared at me until Bri elbowed her hard in  the side. Lauren looked across at her, mouth open. "We will discuss this later," I heard her hiss, before Lauren coughed and turned back to me.

"That's fantastic. I guess we'll see you at the stable?"

"Yeah! I'll look for you this afternoon," Bri put in.

Claire turned to smile at me. "Meet me before our lesson to tack up?" she asked. I smiled back. "Of course."

I glanced over the table at Chris, who'd been weirdly silent through lunch. "What about you? What's up with track?"

He looked up like I'd slapped him and shoved hair out of his eyes. The motin reminded me of Hayden, strangely...they did like the EXACT same motion. "Um, well I've been conditioning all summer to do cross country, so I'm not too nervous. We have a whole three weeks before our first meet, so.." he shrugged.

"Cool," I said.

"Well, I should go." He stood abruptly and Hayden copied  him. "See you girls this afternoon." They walked away together. "Bye!" Bri smiled after them. Hayden turned back around to give her a crooked smile Augustus Waters style, but Chris just kept walking.

"Britney." Bri drew my attention back to her and Lauren sighed, looking resigned. "I was thinking it would be cool if you came over to our place tonight. We could just chill and watch a movie or something. It would be fun. You too, Claire."

Whoa, so she'd just shunned Devony in a really obvious way, but I really wanted to go. Beside me Claire was squirming.

"Sure," I said suddenly. I gave Devony a can-we-talk-about-this-later look. "We'll be there. What time?"

"Great. Is, like, six good? Curfew isn't till ten thirty."

"Yeah. See you then."