That night, the phone conversation between Payton and Alex was much longer than usual.

“Payton, admit it. You want him,” Alex laughed.

“Actually, I really want to keep him as a friend. He’s such a cool guy. I don’t want to ruin anything,” Payton lied. She did want him--and bad.

She thought of him every moment she had spare time. She absently doodled his name all over a sheet of paper during her BCIS class when she was supposed to be working. She had immortalized the scrap of paper that Derek had given her with his phone number on it by framing it in a tiny frame once occupied by a family picture. She had lost all hope of ever getting rid of the crush, but there was a problem that she wasn’t sure how to take care of tactfully.

Knowing that Alex would readily argue with her last comment, she changed the subject. “Anyway, what’s up with you and Josh?”

“Well, he’s really...um...outspoken. He told me that he wants a BJ from Cindy Crawford. I laughed at that! And you know how much I hate Cindy Crawford! I would have usually choked him for mentioning the whore, but I actually laughed. This boy has some control over me...scary.”

“It is....I hope he doesn’t have too much control over you, ‘cause I don’t want you getting into anything that’s not worth getting into,” Payton sighed.

“Payton, you know me. I would never do anything like that. Drugs are never in my future and sex, well, I know I’m not ready right now,” she assured Payton.

“Well, trust me, when you get into the situation, guys can be very convincing. Very convincing. Trust me, Alex. I know.”

“I’ll try my hardest to refuse it. I know what happened to you was a good example of this, but I’ll try not to let that happen. If you can learn from your mistakes, and you’re strong enough to admit them to me, then I can try to learn from them, too,” Alex said quietly. Payton had been pressured into trying drugs once and it wasn’t a pretty sight. She was grounded for two months after she came home high and then after that she was under a very careful watch for the rest of the year. The trust was hard to earn back, and Alex never wanted that to happen to her.

“Thank you,” she paused a moment, trying to come up with something else to steer Alex away from the conversation.

“So, back to Derek-”

“You know what, Alex? I’ve still got homework and I’m kind of tired, too, so I guess I’ll have to talk to you later. Okay?”

“You’re just avoiding the subject,” Alex laughed.

“You bet I am. See ya later,” Payton agreed.

“Love ya, bye.”

“Love ya, too. Bye, Alex.” Payton waited for a dial tone and then hung up the phone. She then picked up the frame with Derek’s number in it. Payton didn’t know much about him yet. He was cute, he was sweet, and he was trustworthy. He was everything Payton wanted in a boyfriend right then, but of course there was one problem.

“I’ve already got a boyfriend.”

“Is Mrs. Spilliards nice?” Derek asked as he and Payton entered their English class.

“Oh yeah. She’s a lot of fun,” Payton nodded.

“Hey Payton!” a tall girl about 5’10” with long, curly mousy brown hair called.

“Hey Whitney! How’s it goin?” Payton approached her and they hugged.

“Other than the fact that Lacey’s still being an asshole, everything’s fine,” Whitney shrugged.

“Still? Well...” Payton shook her head and then looked back up at Derek. “Oh! This is Derek. Derek, meet Whitney; Whitney, meet Derek.”

“Nice to meet you Derek,” Whitney smiled. “I’m a little out of it today, so please don’t think I’m completely psycho all the time. Just a little forewarning there.”

“Nice to meet you too, and thank you for telling me you’re psycho. It will definitely save some time on my part.”

“You’re welcome,” Whitney nodded and then turned her attention towards searching for something in her backpack. In this class, there was a seat diagonal from Payton which Derek readily took. Payton turned to him.

“Think today will be as good as yesterday was?” Payton joked. “Cuz I know you’re just extremely excited about going to school.”

“I don’t know. But I have gym today, so I’ll actually get some action,” he shrugged.

“We’re playing soccer in there right now, so....”

“Really? Is anyone very good?”

“I wouldn’t know. I never play,” Payton shrugged, pulling out her copy of To Kill a Mockingbird.

“Why not?”

“Well, there’s about a grand total of ten girls in there against thirty-two boys. Getting involved in any contact sport with them causes only a bunch of problems. The guys blame the girls for everything that goes wrong in the game.”

“That sucks, but I know what you mean. At my old school, whenever girls messed up the guys would be like, ‘It’s all your fault! You can’t play! Go play some girlie sport or something.’ and when a guy messed up it was like, ‘Aw, man. Good try.’”

“That’s what we get for being born girls, I guess.”

“Okay. Today we begin a new book! I’m sure you are all just as excited as I am...or not. But either way, we still have to read it. If we didn’t then we would be outside roaming free among the wildflowers and I would be sleeping,” Mrs. Spillyards joked. She was never very serious in class. “Oh! New student! New student! Hey, man, introduce yourself.”

Payton watched as Derek stood up and looked around at the other ten people in the room. “I’m Derek. I’m new.”

“That’s all? Well, that was easy. Anyone have any questions for him?” No one moved. “Okay, I guess that means we can jump right into the book...” immediately, ten hands raised. “...that’s what I thought. Danny?”

“Um, where are you from, if anywhere?”

Derek frowned at Danny’s last comment, but shrugged it off, “Washington state.”

“What part?” Kendra questioned.

“Seattle.”

“Oh really? Then it must be a pretty big change to move all the way down here,” Mrs. Spilliards interjected.

“Yeah. It’s a lot hotter, but the people down here seem nicer in a way,” Derek shrugged.

“Any more questions?” Mrs. Spilliards picked up her copy of the dreadful book.

“Um! Do you....have a girlfriend?” one of the panicky freshmen called out.

Derek kind of blushed and smiled, “Nope, not yet.”

“Do you like anyone?”

“Okay, Brooke, these questions are to learn about him generally, not every aspect of his love life, sweetheart,” Mrs. Spillyards patted her hand, calming her questions down. “I think that’s enough bombardment of the new student. Everyone pull out their books and lets get started. To Kill a Mockingbird is actually a very good book if you give it time. The setting is a town that is....”

Payton waited at her door for Matt--her boyfriend. They had not seen each other for a week because Matt had been really sick. Payton was glad to see him.

“HI MATT!” she ran up and hugged him. “I missed you so much!” Payton said as she realized that she didn’t think of him much since Derek moved in.

“Hey babe.” he moved in to kiss her, but she pulled away. “What? I’m not contagious anymore.” He gave her a sad puppy face.

“Matt, I don’t wanna be sick. Just incase.” She smiled. From around the corner, Derek saw this and was now a little upset. The girl he liked, one of the few girls he actually knew, had a boyfriend. Hopefully he would meet some nice girl soon. He watched as the boy cooed at Payton and she just stood there looking around and smiling. He walked off toward where the stairs were, trying to find his next class.

“Hi Josh!” Alex grabbed his backpack from behind. “Wha?” Josh spun around in circles trying to see Alex, who he knew it was.

“I’m right,” she jumped in front of him and stopped him, “here.” She smiled widely and kissed him on the lips.

“What was that for?” he asked. He liked her style, outgoing and makes the first move.

“I’ve never done that before, I guess I was followin my hormones.” She giggled.

“Well, we could introduce our hormones sometime, I know you wanna get with me.” Josh laughed.

“Oh yes,” Alex talked in a sexy voice, “I always waste things I can never get back!” They both laughed for a minute, but then Alex looked into Josh’s glass blue eyes. It became awkward to stare at them, so she looked down and tucked her hair behind her ear. He put his finger under her chin and lifted her eyes to his.

“Kiss me..........you know you want to.” Josh smiled. Alex brought her face to his and they stood there for a moment kissing. It seemed like forever to Alex, but it had only been a few seconds. “You know what?”

“What?” Alex asked, a little dazed from getting her first REAL kiss. “I think I like you.” Josh said.

“Well, I think the feeling is mutual.” After that, Alex walked Josh to class.

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