JOSEPHINE
"Hey, girl, hey!" my friend Kathrine announces herself as she drops down at our usual lunch spot, a grassy area in the quad.
"You're quite excited to have been given a seven-page essay in English," my best friend Cassie whines, not bothering to open her eyes as she lays there, soaking up the California sun.
"Oh, girl, that's not due for another three weeks." Kathrine snags a bag of chips from the pile of shit in the middle of us.
"Meaning you'll start it in two weeks and three days," our other friend Mandy sasses back, making the four of us laugh.
"Exactly." Kathrine grins. "But no, I'm peppy because I heard from a bird that you, Miss Josephine, were paired with hottie McHot Hero Fiennes Tiffin in chem today."
Cassie's eyes pop open and she sits up. "Um... what?" She gapes. "Why didn't you say anything?"
I ignore her a minute and talk to Kathrine . "Does this bird happen to be a six-foot-something quarterback you like to call daddy when no one is around to hear it?"
Her jaw drops, and she leans over to shove me backward, laughing at the same time. "Yes, bitch, it does, and I told you that in secret!"
"You told us all that." Mandy rolls her eyes.
Kathrine only grins wider. "Yeah, but secret means you don't say it out loud."
I smile and she sticks her tongue out in response.
"K, back on track. Come on, Josephine," Mandy coaxes.
I shrug, tearing the stem off a strawberry and stuffing it in my mouth. "What do you want me to say, I'm annoyed."
"Annoyed?" Mandy purses her lips. "Please, don't lie. Even you can't be immune to the boy and his every single thing."
"Fuck you." I laugh. "What the hell does that mean?"
"It means your vagina must be dead and in need of reviving if not even Hero Fiennes Tiffin gets you going. His fingers alone must be shrimp dick size, and not in a fugly way. If they're that long, imagine the range of the rest of him!"
My jaw drops and then a loud laugh leaves me, earning a satisfied grin from her.
"My vagina is just fine, I assure you, and it has nothing to do with him not being attractive, because duh."
Hero is as perfect as his running game, which is flawless.
He's tall and broad, muscular but not overly so, more full and strong. He has high cheekbones with perfectly thick lips, dark, chocolate color hair with darker, always intense eyes. There's this taunting look forever staring back, one he wants spotted but never allows you to decrypt.
He's far from a typical senior, screams experienced and likely has grown women wondering if he's legal enough or not. I'm sure the tattoo etched into the inner part of his right arm is answer enough for them.
He's ESPN billboard material and he knows it.
"So, you admit you think he's hot." Mandy nods, proud. "What's the problem?"
"I needed a good partner, one I could trust to do what they say they will." I shrug. "Everyone knows Mr. Brady is the toughest teacher here, always unorthodox, and I can't afford to fail. My mom will wring my damn neck if my grades slip and it'll be back to medication keeps you focused before I can even blink."
"Oh please, you're focused on your own. She has to stop putting all of her screw-ups on your shoulders," Kathrine says.
"She already thinks I'm putting too much time into dance, if I fall behind in this class, who knows what she'll pull."
"Fuck your mom." Cassie frowns.
"Someone needs to," Mandy mumbles.
The girls laugh, but my head tugs back in disgust causing them to laugh harder.
"Okay, but back up." Cassie leans forward. "We know you can't fail, and we know you'd never allow yourself to, but how do you know Hero is a bad partner?"
"We've always known him to ditch full days, which means he misses whatever's happening in class, so I have no reason to believe this year will be different, and besides that, have you ever seen him pay attention in a class that isn't PE?" I joke.
"Have you ever had him in a class that wasn't PE?" Cassie calls me out on my judgment. "Have you had him in a class at all since junior high?"
I pause to think, and she raises her brows like an asshole.
"Whatever." I shake my head. "Maybe he's not a crappy student, obviously he's eligible to play football, so he must keep at least a baseline grade point average, but still. If he isn't here every day like I am, I'll have no choice but to carry more of our workload. Not only that, he and I don't talk anymore, and on the rare occasion we're forced to, it's small jibes or he goes straight up mannequin on me."
"Maybe he doesn't know what to say?"
I give her a blank look. "He thinks he's a candy bag and all girls have his kind of sweet tooth, and when you don't, you're as worthy as a wallflower."
"I'd take a piece if offered." Mandy nods, her lips pursed.
I laugh, shaking my head while Kathrine pats her knee patronizingly.
"We know, sweetheart, we know," she teases.
"It's not even about Hero, is it?" Cassie suspects. "You wanted to be Andrew's partner again."
"I've been the last two years, so I kind of expected to be, yeah," I admit. "He wants to be a doctor, like his mom, so I know he's super focused in science where Hero already had his face in his phone all day today. He didn't take a single note while I took three pages. I don't know, I might try talking to the teacher again."
"Screw Andrew's pompous ass!" Kathrine blurts. "He might be good looking, but in a Wahlberg brother kind of way, while Hero is more Mark status, Calvin Klein campaign worthy. Way prettier to look at."
I can't help but laugh.
"And he lives right behind you! Think of all the late-night study sessions you could have." Mandy's eyes widen in excitement.
"Yeeees!" Kathrine turns toward her. "She can knock on his door in her tank and tiny sleep shorts, the ones we bought her for her birthday, and be like I lost my homework, help me."
"Help me, I'm poor," they say in unison, laughing.
Cassie and I look to each other, chuckling just the same.
"Come on, Josephine! You have to use this to your advantage," Mandy whines.
"Yeah, take one for the team here," Kathrine adds.
"You have a boyfriend."
"Exactly!" Her eyes widen mockingly. "Did you not catch the take one for the team?"
"Does Felix know you have the hots for his bestie?" Mandy teases her.
Kathrine only flips her off with a grin.
"You guys are crazy, no way. Can you imagine my mom's reaction?" I laugh. "Me and the guy who got kicked out of her precious country club for fucking the owner's daughter in the fountain on the golf course?"
"Don't forget during her daddy's tournament." Mandy laughs loudly.
"And that."
"First of all, screw your mom for being so critical, even though I'm pretty sure she'd take him as a win. He's literally all the things on her Josephine must marry checklist." Kathrine chuckles.
She has a point there.
"And two, Jackie was his girlfriend, so not a big deal other than the whole being caught part, and three, a-holes, don't forget Hero is Felix's best friend, Felix is your friend. You know him, would he really love and support someone like a brother who was a total douchebag?"
"Total?" I tease, and she throws a chip at me. I smile, shrugging. "I'm not saying he's anything other than the wrong chem partner for me. How he is as a human nowadays, I don't know. He avoids being around me, remember?"
"He doesn't avoid you." Kathrine rolls her eyes.
"No," Mandy says sarcastically. "It just so happens since we started high school he has something come up every single time Josephine comes near, or a shit remark when he has no escape."
I lift my hands as if to say exactly. "Literally, today was the most we've talked since eighth grade, and it was maybe five worthless sentences he used to try and get under my skin."
The bell rings in the next second, so we pack up our crap. The girls toss out the garbage while I roll up our blanket and stuff it in the bag.
Ever since freshman year, we've had the same routine for lunch. Whoever is assigned the locker closest to the quad gives theirs up and shares with someone else. We use the other to store snacks and things for lunch as well as the blanket we sit on every day.
It started as a way to have more time since we were spending half our lunch in lines, but we continued because we like having space to quietly talk amongst ourselves. Where we sit is close enough we can call others over if we want but still have our own friend time.
"Meeting at your house at six to swim?"
"Six-fifteen," I tell her. "I have dance today, but I think I forgot my phone at home, so just come over."
"Cool. Later." Mandy and Kathrine walk off while me and Cassie carry everything to the locker to put it away.
"I don't think you should push switching partners," Cassie says as she hangs the snack bag on the little hook, stuffing the unused water bottles into the bottom corner.
"Why not?" I hand her the blanket bag so she can toss it on top.
She shrugs, slams the locker closed and spins the lock. "You said yourself, you've been Andrew's partner the last few years, maybe it's time for a new one."
"But Hero? We're not exactly friends."
"You're not exactly enemies either." She steps backward, winking at me before she disappears.
I lean against the locker a moment, considering her words.
I guess she's right, Hero and I aren't friends, but I can't say we're enemies either. We're simply two people who used to know each other and don't anymore.
Two people that are about to be forced to spend fifty-three minutes a day together for the rest of the year, not counting out of class time we'll likely need.
I'm about to push off the locker when the door at the end of the hall opens, and Hero along with his on-again, off-again girlfriend, Jackie, walk through, arguing. Or she's arguing while he's ignoring, continuing down the hall, but then his eyes lift, officially catching mine fixated on them and he stops in his tracks.
My gaze slides toward Jackie.
She frowns up at him, waving her arms around a moment in an overly dramatic fashion before she realizes he's not paying attention, and her head jolts to where his focus lies.
Solely on me.
An instant and deep scowl takes over, and she flips me off, shoves him lightly - or attempts to, but he doesn't budge - and then storms out the way they came.
The second the door slams with her exit, Hero starts forward again, each step taken seeming smaller and slower than the last.
I stand up straight when only an arm's length of space is left between us, but Hero keeps going, glancing away as he passes without a word, as if he wasn't staring directly at me with each stride taken.
Only when he's out of sight, do I realize I was holding my breath the entire time.
I roll my eyes at myself.
It's about to be a long ass year.