Between two kops

Chapter three

Steven

My lip was throbbing to the rhythm of the rage that guy Nick, or whatever this moron's name was, tried to provoke in me. Daddy's little boy really thought he could boss me around and humiliate me in front of the whole class. I just got here, and I'm already disgusted by this school and everything in it.

I looked down at my knuckles. They were red, the skin tight and burning. I pushed him harder than I planned to, I'll admit. But the guy was asking for trouble, and I'd been ready to show my teeth since this morning. If you don't show them right away, it'll be too late later. Golden rule of the street. Make them fear you, or else you're just another punching bag.

Nick got up off the floor, dusting off those ridiculously expensive jeans of his. The look he gave me was a promise I'd heard at least a thousand times before him: "You're dead."

And then I felt her.

The girl next to me, Christina, had returned to her seat. She was sitting so close I could catch that sweet scent of her perfume trying to mask the smell of mold coming from the school walls.

She opened her textbook and found the lesson the teacher had mentioned. I didn't even have to look at her to know she was scanning me. I felt her warm gaze on my profile, curious, yet somehow different from the rest.

I couldn't help myself. I turned my head just enough to catch her eye. Her eyes were big, light brown, and in that moment, completely fixed on me. There was no fear, at least not the usual kind. It was more of an inquiring look, like she was trying to see what was hiding behind this split lip and pissed off attitude of mine.

It lasted only a second, but that second felt longer than the entire morning. I felt this weird heaviness in my stomach, not the kind brought on by a punch, but something else I couldn't quite define. She snapped her eyes back down to her textbook, but I saw her fingers tremble slightly on the edge of the desk. Her brown hair spilled over her shoulders as she leaned over her notebook, hiding her face.

"You could introduce yourself to us, young man," the teacher's voice broke that strange quiet between us. I looked up. She was aiming right at me. Wonderful, man...

"If I really have to," I threw back. Naturally, she didn't care for my cocky tone.

"I see, are you some arrogant child? I've read your school file."

Of course she did. I had no doubt about that. Taking confident steps on those feminine legs of hers, she walked up to my desk. In her hand, she held a wooden ruler almost like a cane. I offered a faint smirk. What's she gonna do, hit my palms? Those methods of theirs stopped working a long time ago. They can't hit half as hard as the body can get used to the pain.

Hits only hurt while they're new. After a while, they just become routine, like morning coffee.

"Well?" The teacher wasn't backing down. She stood rooted to the spot, waiting for my next move.

She was looking at me sharply, like she was trying to read me. As if it wasn't enough that she'd already dug through my file. Now she wanted to see how fast I'd snap under pressure.

What if I just give in? Introduce myself and be done with this agony? It's day one, and I'm already an eyesore to everyone.

I nodded and stood up from my chair without saying a word. I looked around. Everyone was already staring at me and the teacher standing in front of our desk in the back row.

"I'm Steven Stajić," I said briefly, not wanting to make a big deal out of the moment. I looked straight ahead, avoiding any eye contact with those faces measuring and sizing me up.

I had no intention of giving them anything more than that.

"There now, see? That wasn't so bad. Where are you coming to us from, Steven?" That question was bound to follow. I knew she wouldn't stop there.

"Around here, Nova Misa," I answered and sat back down in my chair without her permission. On purpose. I didn't plan on answering another thing.

She didn't seem keen on picking another fight. She just turned her back on me and headed back to the board. Smart move, teach...

For the rest of the period, they were working on some exercises I didn't even bother following. Honestly, I couldn't care less about it, and I didn't even have that textbook of theirs anyway. Everyone else was writing down and doing whatever they were told. Real little nerds, man. Nothing worse than that.

Minutes dragged on like hours. The teacher was explaining something, writing on the board, then explaining again... and I could barely catch my breath in that boring, stuffy classroom full of snobs.

The bell finally cut through the boredom, and the whole classroom shook to life. Desks started moving, chairs scraped, everyone suddenly had something important to say.

And those two morons I got into it with before class immediately turned toward the girl next to me. Listening to them blabbering, I quickly figured out who was who. Nick, the guy I spilled across the floor was actually her boyfriend. Only then did it make complete sense why he was ready to brawl over a seat in the back row. The other guy was Michael, his loyal dog, I'm guessing.

"Christina, you're gonna crush it in math. Trust me, babe," Nick encouraged the gorgeous girl next to me. Looks like the girl has a serious issue with math.

"I hope so, babe..." she muttered, visibly unsure of herself.

I could already picture the whole story. If she gets anything less than an A, it'll be beneath her, a total tragedy. I knew her type by heart. The smell of overly expensive perfume, a bag worth more than my phone, and that look that's never had to beg for anything in its life.

I had no choice but to watch them giggle and replay their stupid little inside jokes. They weren't funny, not in the slightest, at least if you ask me. Right at that moment, I felt my phone vibrate in my jeans pocket.

It was Dean Stošić, my best friend. We grew up together in the neighborhood, house next to house, which is probably why we stayed inseparable through all the s**t. I unlocked my old, shattered phone and opened the text.

"Bro, we hanging out at Victor's home tonight?"

"For sure, man. As soon as I'm done with this boring school crap, I'll hit you up," I typed back and killed the screen.

The bell echoed through the hallway once again, but this time it marked the start of absolute hell. Math by far the worst subject. I never liked numbers or those trick problems of theirs.

The teacher walked into the classroom with a mountain of paper under her arm. Oh boy... a pop quiz. That's why Christina was so nervous. I was expecting her to be scared of getting called up to the board, but this was clearly way worse.

I stretched, reaching my arms up just enough to loosen up before the dullness began. With that move, I accidentally bumped elbows with Christina. She looked at me like I had hit her upside the head with a sledgehammer.

She measured me up angrily with those light brown eyes, grabbed a pencil from her case, and drew a thick line right down the middle of the desk.

"Stay on your side of the desk, Steven."

I laughed at that desperate move of hers. She's acting like an elementary school kid, not some refined, mature girl. I didn't plan on getting to know her, let alone touching her. This whole thing was pure coincidence.

Too bad. She really is a stunning piece. Probably the prettiest brunette I've ever seen. Pure fire. To be honest, I've always had a thing for brunettes shorter than me. But it's all useless when she's just a spoiled rich kid. One little thing and the whole picture falls apart, man.

Sometimes I wonder... does their brain really only run on money and brand name stuff? Or somewhere deep down, under all that makeup, do they have at least a shred of humanity left? I just don't get where she gets that much confidence to think she can boss me around.

"I don't get it. What's so funny to you?" she asked in that feisty, fiery voice of hers.

I didn't give her a single shred of satisfaction to let her think I cared about what she thought.

"You. You're funny."

"I'm serious, Steven. Don't cross that line," she waved that manicured index finger of hers right in front of my face.

"Bro, you drew a border like you're defending Kosovo," I threw back, deadpan cold.

"Don't overdo it," she said, without taking her eyes off me. God, she's just breathtakingly beautiful, even when she's trying to act tough.

"What? Do I need a passport when I cross over to your side?" I kept messing with her. She was actually pretty entertaining when she got so worked up over nothing.

"You're out of your mind, you i***t," she muttered through clenched teeth. I completely threw her off her game. I could see it in her eyes.

"And you're way too normal, that's the problem," I answered, not even knowing where this sudden urge to bicker with her came from. Until a moment ago, I didn't even want to look at her, let alone talk...

"Meaning what?" she acted offended. Maybe she actually was.

"Meaning... everything with you is clean, everything is perfect, everything by the book."

"And?" she asked, clearly not getting the point of what I was trying to say.

"And you're boring," I told her, smirking on purpose just to push her buttons.

"And you are, like, interesting?" she asked me sarcastically.

"Well, I don't know... you've been staring at me for a while now."

She went quiet for the first time since we started bickering. She didn't have a comeback ready. She just looked at me defeated with those stunning, light eyes.

"Looks like we ran out of arguments?" I threw in, a little louder than I should have.

Of course, her shift lawyer Nick turned around right away, along with his lapdog, Michael.

"Is there a problem?" he asked Christina, sizing me up as if calculating how long it'd take him to lay me out on the floor. Does he really think I'm scared of guys like him? Man, these snobs are so full of themselves, it's unreal...

"No..." Christina started to answer him, but I cut her off right from the start.

"Don't turn around, slicked back," I said it just loud enough for the teacher to hear me too.

"Hey, hey! Calm down, you two in the back! I'll take your pop quizzes early!" Her harsh voice sliced through the classroom's silence.

We were so caught up in our bickering that we didn't even notice when the teacher handed out the quizzes. And Christina, instead of starting her work and chasing that A of hers, was still turned toward me.

She looked at me with pure disgust. It was literally written across every inch of those light eyes, but it didn't bother me in the slightest. On the contrary, it just fired me up even more. I turned toward her and gave her a wink, provocatively, just to hit her button for absolute madness.

She gave up on the bickering and dropped her eyes down to the quiz in front of her. I could tell by her expression she didn't have a clue about most of the problems. Neither would I, to be fair, but I was lucky enough to be the new guy, so the teacher spared me this time.

I followed her every move. She'd start calculating something, erase it furiously, then start over. Her paper was already all scrawled on and worn thin from the eraser. She was struggling, and I was enjoying the view.

"Maybe you can bribe the teach to give you an A and turn a blind eye," I threw at her real quiet, and she blew her stack that very second.

"f**k you, Steven," she muttered sharply, without taking her eyes off the paper, her cheeks burning up.

I leaned back in my chair and locked my hands behind my neck. That "f**k you" of hers sounded sweeter to me than any "thank you." I knew her focus was gone now, shot beyond repair. While she was fruitlessly trying to solve those irrelevant equations, I was solving her. And I was doing pretty damn well.

There isn't a girl alive who's ever managed to beat me in a verbal match. That first move of hers, that line she drew to partition me off, was just her first jump into a bottomless pit.