Dangerous Boy

Chapter One

"I do not understand any of this" my fingers grip each side of the stale textbook as I stare down at it. "My books published in a different language, it doesn't make any sense."

"That's the beautiful language of algebra" Arnica's almost finished the chapter we're on, she snickers at me and leans back in her seat. "You would probably understand it better if you didn't spend the whole time reading novels during class."

"Finding X isn't going to help me with my life" I argue. "Reading, however, will."

She rolls her eyes and I expect that since for some reason unknown to me, math, science, and accounting are all her favorite subjects.

"Mason, have you done this question?" I don't bother asking Arnica; her answer will be too scientific for me to understand. I look across the table at him, but his attention focuses on the cheerleader standing by one of the bookshelves, returning his flirty smile. I try to ignore how short her skirt is and the way her breasts almost fall out of her tight shirt. Do boys honestly find that attractive?

I raise an eyebrow, waiting for Mason to notice me staring impatiently at him. "Sorry, what?" He finally turns to look back at our table, two dimples evident on each of his cheeks as he smiles.

"Have you done this?" I repeat more slowly, gesturing to the book between my fingers. He squints at the page of math I show him, taking his time to scan each question.

"I don't know what any of that means. Is this math's or physics, or Japanese?"

I don't know why I even decided to ask the shrugging giant before me a question about math. Mason has an amazing ability to get through all of high school by simply being good at sport. Name any, football, lacrosse, swimming, basketball, running, baseball, hockey, ice hockey. He's on every team, and he's amazing. Academically, he doesn't seem to try as hard. I'm fairly sure he just goes to the classes with 'hot' girls in them. Still, his work ethic hasn't stopped him from getting scholarships from nearly every college in the country.

"Great" I mumble under my breath, staring at the still blank page of math. I'm going to fail this test; there's no way I can ever pass something that makes no sense to my poor brain. "How do you find Y if the bracket-" I glance upwards, but Arnica isn't watching me. She's instead starring the entrance of the library like Harry Styles just walked through the doors. "Arnica?"

I follow her gaze as two boys, or men I should say, walk through the entrance doors of the library.

"Yum" She whispers lowly, and I resist the urge to snicker at her seductive stare. "They are gorgeous."

My eyes fall on the tallest boy of the two, walking through the place as though he owns it. The all black clothing he wears adds an even more dangerous demeanor to him, if that's possible. The button up shirt glues tightly to his muscled torso reveals the dark tattoos along both of his arms. His sharp jawline clenches tightly shut like he's infuriated by something. He looks so out of place in a high school library, and his angry gaze looks straight through all of the students in here.

My shoulders drop unintentionally and I find myself hunching lower in my seat, wishing it would swallow me completely as an uneasiness sweeps through the room with their presence.

"Eh," Mason grips half of a textbook, the first one I've seen him pick up in a while. "They're a decent six if you minus the fact that they look like they just got out of jail for eating children."

"You're a solid three and a half compared to them." Mason glares at Arnica's blunt reply. "They look like they need to be on vogue magazine - shirtless."

"Can you believe her Grace?" Mason shakes his head, pretending to be interested in the paper in front of him. I know he can't speak any French so I'm sure he doesn't understand a word of Arnicas' fluent book he's pretending to read with intense interest.

I don't comment and instead stare back down at the math that's slowly beginning to give me a headache. Whoever these boys are, they don't belong here, and they don't give me good vibes at all. The sooner they leave, the better. I think the 80-year-old librarian is even beginning to drool.

Charming.

"Jacobs" I leap forward in my seat, the sound of Mr. Skeltons' voice startling me. "The field!" my eyes widen in realisation, whoops.

I completely forgot about track practice thanks to this stupid math test. "Coming!" I throw my books in my bag, sending an apologetic look to both Mason and Arnica as I run towards my unimpressed coach.

His all red jumpsuit that he wears every day does no favors for his beetroot complexion, aged by a fair amount of drinking and stress.

As I move, my gaze falls to the male again before I can stop myself. He's talking to principle Kendrick, who almost never leaves his fancy office. Why are they talking to each other?

I should look away, I'm making myself as bad as all the other girls in here. However, just as I do, he looks across the room in my direction.

His dark eyes look empty of any emotion as they roam across my face and pause when they meet my unsure stare. Under his judgmental inspection, I feel like a small child, and I have no idea why I still haven't looked away from his towering figure. Principle Kendrick seems oblivious to our strange stare down because he hasn't stopped talking, although even he seems a little cautious around the foreign man when he folds his strong arms across his chest.

Perhaps he's some kind of athlete or trainer for one of the sports teams in school? He looks more athletic than half of the senior football team, but he doesn't really look like a team player with that intimidating scowl etched deeply in his lips.

"Jacobs!" I jump, Mr. Skelton looks anything but impressed as I smile innocently at him and swallow, praying he didn't catch me staring at the strange unknown boy.

"Sorry Coach."

"The field, now!"

"Yes, Mr. Skelton" I follow him obediently and don't look back.

*

"No" I shake my head, eyeing the dress Arnica decided to pick for me to wear that night. "I don't want to go to a party, bad things happen at parties, and I always want to come home again."

"Grace" she sighs dramatically. "You're 18, you need to let loose and have fun some fun. Please." She pouts. "They'll be plenty of hot guys there."

"There are hot guys in the books I read, and they're actually nice. Plus, they don't try to get in my pants like the rest of the boys at our school who will be there."

"Grace" She grumbles, "it will be fun, I promise. Mason wants you to come too. You can't live your life in books forever, you need to live and experience these things at some point."

"You just want me to sober drive."

"And I want to party with my best friend on a Friday night, what's so wrong with that? Besides, what are you going to do otherwise? Sit here all by yourself?"

She has a point; my parents are away on yet another business trip and I've already finished most of the homework that's due in my classes.

"Fine" I give up, and she grins. "But I want to wear something that actually covers my body, what is that?" I pull at the dress she's chosen. "I have underwear longer than that."

"That's because you wear granny panties from the 60's like my Grandma does."

"I do not" I glare as I decide on another dress, pulling it over my head.

"Do too" she chimes innocently from in front of my mirror, twirling the straightener between her long strands of blonde hair.

"Is this okay?" I ask quietly, pulling the lace down to mid-thigh, she smiles approvingly at my choice.

"Perfect, now let me do your makeup."

"Yay," my sarcasm is evident as she pulls me towards her, forcing me down on the bed with a knowing grin on her annoying lips.