How to Get the Girl

Chapter Two

                    THE SCHOOL bell rang, signaling the start of the day. Students rushed to class, after greeting their friends in the halls. Teachers groaned to themselves for having to come back to another year of dealing with assholes.

Dinah Sinclair sat down at the two person table, beside a girl with orange curls. She sat her backpack on the newly cleaned white floor beside her feet, placing her purse on top of it, after pulling out a blue pen, notebook and planner. She tossed her dark braided hair behind her shoulder, clasping her hands together on top of the desk. It was her senior year, and she couldn't be more nervous, while most of the kids around her were simply excited to finally be getting out of here.

She watched as the teacher, a woman who couldn't be older than forty five, wrote her name across the board – cursive and flowy. Dinah liked it.

"Good morning, everyone," the teacher greeted. "I hope you all had a good summer." Some people murmured, while others cheerfully exclaimed. "Alright, alright. You'll have plenty of time to talk about it, after my class, of course." She glanced around the room, taking a look at each student. Smiling, the teacher stated, "It's good to have you all again. Except for you, Chris. You can go."

A boy wearing a red letterman jacket grinned widely at the woman standing at the front of the room, "Aww, you know you love me."

Dinah chuckled to herself, just as almost everyone else did. "Okay, well, let's get to it then," the teacher picked up a stack of papers on her desk. As she handed the people sitting at the tables in the front row smaller stacks, motioning for them to take one paper and pass the rest to the students behind them, she explained, "This year, we'll be covering more in depth topics, which means you will have to get parental consent."

Some of the jocks booed.

"I know, I know," she quieted them down. "But it's policy." She then pointed at the class syllabus in her own hand, continuing, "At the end of each semester, you will be expected to turn in a report, which will count for half of your final, as well as the end of the semester test."

Dinah raised her hand.

The teacher, however, just nodded her head, answering without hearing the question, "Yes, Ms. Sinclair, if you maintain an A and perfect attendance, you will be exempt from the finals."

Dinah lowered her hand, grinning as she did so.

That's when a big walked into the classroom – the boy with shades of purple, silver and brown in his hair from the party. He stood at the front of the room, peering around to find an empty seat. However, when his piercing blue eyes landed on Dinah, he immediately knew which seat he wanted.

"Late on the first day? Hopefully this will just be a one time thing. Take a seat," the teacher directed.

His ripped dark blue jeans reached his ankles where he had them rolled up to, just above his black Converse. His black leather jacket was unzipped, revealing a punk band t-shirt.

He made his way towards Dinah's table, stopping just in front of the red haired girl. Nodding his head, the girl rolled her eyes before silently getting up and moving to the empty seat in front of Dinah. Sliding into the chair, he slightly leaned towards her, lowly stating, "Hey."

"Hi," Dinah replied.

"Remember me?" She didn't answer. He smirked, "Of course you do."

"Sorry, what was your name again?" Dinah questioned, lowering her perfectly shaped eyebrows.

A grin crossed over his heart shaped lips, "Jace."

"Mr. Reeves, I presume?" the teacher cleared her throat.

Jace nodded his head, pointing, "Mrs. Goodhall, I presume?"

"There was an empty seat, just at the table in front of the one you're at," she pointed out.

He scoffed aloud, "Wow, I didn't realize we still lived in the 17th century where a man and a woman can't sit beside each other without society assuming they're having s****l relations. And to think, we're in health class. All the more reason for us to sit with the opposite sex."

Mrs. Goodhall smiled, her red glossed lips forming a thin line, but remained unamused with his comment, "Nice try, but for the first week, we sit in alphabetical order." She demanded, "Now, move up and give Lacey her seat back." He remained still for a moment. "Or you can go visit the office on your first day. Your choice."

Jace then stood up, allowing Lacey to sit back down, taking the empty chair in front of Dinah. He pulled the chair out all the way, leaning his back on the girl's desk, just waiting for Mrs. Goodhall to stop speaking about what will be taught in the class this year and what will be expected of the students. He didn't care about that stuff. Never has.

Mrs. Goodhall glanced up at the clock on the wall, announcing, "Okay, for the last five minutes, introduce yourselves, talk about what you did over the summer, whatever. I won't make the whole class today boring."

Jace instantly spun around in his chair, sitting with his legs on either side and his elbows perched on the back of it. Dinah reached down to place her belongings back into her bag.

"So," he began, "when you gonna let me take you out?"

"Excuse me?" Dinah raised her eyebrows. "I have a boyfriend. Remember? The guy who was gonna beat your ass?"

"Oh, that little b***h?" Jace softly laughed at himself. "He's really your boyfriend?"

"Yes."

He scoffed, shaking his head. Licking his lips, he then asked, "So what do I gotta do to change that?" Dinah just glared at the boy, but despite her stare telling him to shut up, her smile said otherwise. "That's a nice sweater. It looks good on you."

"Are you seriously hitting on me right now?" she rolled her eyes.

He shook his head, declaring, "Not this time. I just like your shirt. It matches your lipstick. Looks nice."

A small smile twisted on to her matte light pink lips, "Thanks."

"Do you always look so good?" His eyes glistened underneath his long eyelashes. She tried to hide the smile slowly appearing on her face by masking it with a scold. Jace pointed out, cockily, "That was me hitting on you." She let out a short chuckle under her breath before covering her mouth. "So tell me, what do I need to do to get you to go on one date with me?"

"Are you ever gonna stop?"

"Not until I take you out." He titled his head to the side, questioning, "So what do I gotta do?"

She glanced up at the clock, sighing. Dinah reached down, grabbing her backpack and purse, tossing both of them on before standing up. As she pushed her chair in and strode past Jace, she replied, a sheepish grin on her pure face, "I'm sure you'll think of something." With that, the bell rang, and he watched her over his shoulder as she made her way out of the classroom.

Oh, he would definitely think of something. She could count on that.

Jace jumped up from his seat, pushing the chair in, as well. Combing his fingers through his hair, that stood a few inches tall and fell to the left side, he walked down the hallway, searching for one person and one person only.

Approaching a group of boys in red letterman jackets, his eyes met with a pair of chocolate colored irises. They both kept their eyes locked on one another's, until Jace had walked by, now pushing the door to the restroom open. He leaned against the wall, just waiting.

The door swing open, and a boy just a few inches shorter than him entered. His hair was as black as the midnight sky with a few tousled curls hanging down toward his forehead. His cheekbones were high and sculpted marvelously to frame his face. A few dark freckles scattered around his thick lips, almost hidden in certain lights against his olive skin tone.

He leaned on the wall beside Jace, watching as the skinnier boy pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket. As Jace placed one between his lips, he offered one to the dark featured boy, but he declined. He shrugged his shoulders, replacing the pack and lighting the stick.

"Nice tattoos," the guy commented, pointing at the ink on Jace's hand.

As he exhaled, Jace replied, sarcastically, "Nice matching jackets."

The guy scoffed, nodding his head in agreement. He then smirked, glancing up at Jace, "I knew you'd look for me today."

Jace took a hit and as he responded, more smoke filled the bathroom, "You said you know how to get Dinah to go out with me."

"Say it," the boy cockily grinned. "You need my help."

Jace took a long drag off of his cigarette. He raised an eyebrow, questioning, "You get off on people telling you that, don't you?"

The jock crossed his arms over his chest before nodding, chuckling, "Yeah, I do actually."

"So what you got?"

"First thing, you gotta stop smoking these things," he pinched the cigarette out of Jace's fingers. Jace's jaw slightly dropped open as the boy snapped the stick in half before tossing it into one of the bathroom sinks. Jace took a step toward the guy, clenching his jaw, his jawline sharper than usual. The jock nodded, "Yeah, I know, but this is only the first step. Trust me, she doesn't like that."

Jace silently sighed to himself.

"I'm Shane, by the way," the jock introduced.

"Jace."

"Well, Jace," Shane stated, "I'll meet you after school with the rest of the list."

"List?" Jace lowered his brows.

Shane simply grinned to himself before he turned around and walked out of the restroom.

Jace shook his head, pulling another cigarette from his pocket. If he had to give these up for a girl, he would smoke as much as he could right here and right now.