Chapter 1

Annie flipped through the pages of the book, not really reading anything, but keeping a discrete eye on the boy sitting two tables away from her. He was talking to Joanna, a sexy and beautiful red head who made it no secret that she was chasing after him. She wished that she herself was that bold. Then maybe she could actually get a boyfriend too. She didn't lack any of the figures that Joanna had, only the courage to use it to get what she wanted. If only she dared to talk to him. He'd take notice of her for sure.

"Oh no! He's looking this way!" she thought. She saw him turning in her direction and quickly looked away. Had he caught her staring at him? It was a bad habit of hers, staring and daydreaming at the same time. She couldn't help it though, no matter how much she wanted to be discrete.

She lowered her head immediately, and didn't catch his smile of amusement. He had caught her staring.

Nikolas tuned Joanna out, as he often did in the past few weeks. He didn't have the heart to break it to her that he wasn't interested. He thought she'd figure out soon enough. She hadn't though. She kept the other girls at bay though, so he wasn't complaining. He just tuned her out and stared at Annie Perkins during classes instead. That seemed to have become a big hobby of his.

One of the main reasons he was interested in the quiet, nerdy girl sitting two tables away from him was that most guys weren't interested in her. She certainly didn't have the flair that many other girls possessed. She was pretty though, if one liked the quiet and shy type. Nikolas certainly did.

She always hid her body beneath large t-shirts that were at least twice her size, and pants that were either too long or too fat for her. It put some guys off, but Nikolas liked imagining her naked figure beneath those baggy outfits. He'd even dreamt of peeling those clothes off of her to find satin soft skin beneath a few nights before. Then he'd made slow and sweet love to her until she was screaming his name in ecstasy-

"Nick! Nick! Are you listening to me?" Joanna's annoying voice penetrated his daydream. He hated it when she called him Nick. No one called him that, except his parents and grandparents.

"What is it?"

"Weren't you listening? Mr. Povatar told us to break into groups of three and go back to the lab tables. Come on."

Joanna gestured to one of her friends who was eagerly waiting to be called by her.

Nikolas turned to look at Annie, just out of curiosity. He couldn't contain his smile when he saw her looking like a cornered mouse. No one seemed to want her in their group, except to use her and cheat on the work. Annie knew how to do almost everything. Today nobody went to her, and she was just too shy to go ask anybody if she could join them. Nikolas saw the perfect opportunity then, and walked up to her.

"Hey Annie, want to join our group? We need one more person," Nikolas asked as casually as he could. His smile widened when he saw her surprise and the faint blush upon her freckled cheeks. She looked even more liked a cornered mouse now.

Annie could feel her insides turn to mush just seeing his smile, not to mention that he was actually talking to her. Her mind screamed, "He's talking to me!" He was actually asking her to be in his group. Was she dreaming? It was like her dream come true. Now if only she could find her voice to answer him, everything would be okay. If only he wasn't so handsome, if his eyes weren't so startling blue, maybe she wouldn't have trouble finding words.

"Come on. Everybody's starting already."

Annie felt like fainting when Nikolas took her hand in his and walked over to an empty lab table.

"Uh... we're suppose to have three people in a group." Her voice was so small, he barely heard her. Oh Christ, he couldn't help noticing how pretty she was, sitting next to him with her face completely red. He had a strong urge to pull off the tie in her hair so that it could fall around her face, much like it had been in his dream.

"Don't worry. We'll have three," he answered. Sure enough, Joanna soon came with her friend Lia.

"Hey, you're in my seat," Lia said. Her tone was sharp and condescending. Nikolas felt Annie tense beside him and pulled her down when she made the movement to stand up.

"Sorry, Lia, but you're gonna have to find another group."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Annie cheered in her mind. She couldn't contain her smile of happiness at her newfound hero standing up for her, but it quickly disappeared when Joanna shot her an evil look. Oh no. Her smile collapsed completely when she remembered the treatment she'd gotten the last time one of their group gave her that look. It clearly said, "You'll pay for it later!"

"It's alright. I'll find another group," Annie said.

She leaped up from the chair and saw that there was a group of two in the middle of the room. They were Nikolas' friends, popular types, like him, but even if they teased her, it would still be better than what she would get if she stayed here with Nikolas. Joanna would see to that.

"What are you four doing?" Mr. Povatar demanded from directly behind her. Annie jumped at the sudden boom of his voice. "I thought I specifically said groups of three. Lia, get over there with Mark and Chris." He pointed to where Annie had planned to go.

"But-" Lia began.

"Now!"

Mr. Povatar was usually always a nice person, but his attitude completely changed when someone tried to argue with him. Annie was suddenly glad she was his favorite.

Mr. Povatar was one of the strictest teachers in the school when he set his word down. No one dared argue with him. Annie sat down, fearful of what would happen tomorrow, or even later today, when Joanna got her alone somewhere.

Lia made her way over to Mark and Chris, sulking as she went. Annie didn't know why Lia seemed so pissy about going over there. Chris was her boyfriend after all, unless she was only dating him to get close to Nikolas!

Annie worked on the project with Joanna and Nikolas. Nikolas was a lot of help, but Joanna just kept on running over to talk to Lia. The rest of the time she jabbered away to Nikolas. She didn't end up doing anything at all. In the end, they didn't finish the group work and had to take it home that night for homework.

"Sorry, but I've got important things to do tonight," Joanna said, rolling her eyes. "Nikolas, are you coming to Chris' party tonight?"

"No. I've got to baby-sit tonight."

Joanna looked disappointed, but then she spoke again, "Why don't you just take Jenny to the party?"

Nikolas looked somewhat disgusted. "Jo, Jenny's six. What do you think she'd do at Chris' party?"

"Just a thought. Well, I'll see you in History class. Bye!" Joanna gathered her stuff and left.

"So you can't do the work tonight?" Annie asked, somewhat disappointed. She'd hoped to ask Nikolas to come to her home and finish the work together.

"Can you come over to my place, Annie? Jenny wouldn't mind."

"I have to baby-sit my brother."

Annie so desperately wanted to go. She scrambled to figure out how to make it work somehow, but she was overwhelmed being so close to Nikolas at the same time. It was so rare that she got a chance to talk to him alone; she wanted it to last as long as possible.

Nikolas didn't want to let it go so easily either. He didn't really mind having her brother over, as long as Annie's there too. He wanted to get to know her, so she wouldn't be so nervous around him all the time, though he really didn't mind the faint blush on her cheeks. It made her look absolutely adorable.

"You can bring him over," Nikolas said. "We'll pick him up after school, and we can all go to my house. I'll take the two of you home after we're done."

"Is that really okay?"

"Sure. So I'll meet you at the parking lot after school?"

"Yeah." Annie said dreamily.

She couldn't believe it! She was going to Nikolas' home. It didn't matter her brother was going too. She would actually be spending more time with Nikolas!

Annie remembered her first meeting with Nikolas. It was on her first day of school three years ago, when she had just moved to Monterey with her family. She was already being bullied on that first day because she was wearing a shirt that was twice her size and pants that were way too long for her. The girls, Joanna, Lia, and their friend Georgia, along with some upperclassmen that had already graduated, had cornered her after school near the gym. They teased and humiliated her. Annie only showed indifference to their words, but it only made them worse to the point that they'd actually hurt her physically.

Then Nikolas had passed by. Even as a sophomore, he already had the super model look and amazing charms that could cause any woman breathless with one look. The older girls were already flocking around him like flies, so it was no wonder all sorts of excuses were made by those girls when he saw them. Annie was accused of harassing, stealing, or even prostituting on campus. While the girls were so occupied with Nikolas, who didn't believe them one bit, Annie ran and hid behind the trashcans when the girls gave chase and didn't get out until she was safe.

"Hey, watch where you're going!" Annie was jolted out of her thoughts when she bumped into someone in the hallway.

"Sorry," she mumbled out of habit.

"Freak!" The girl barely glanced at her and soon disappeared in the throngs of people.

Annie had been called that enough times in her life that she didn't even take notice. Instead, she headed to her next class while her insides burned with excitement at the prospect of spending more time with Nikolas, if she could get through the rest of the day in one piece...

Annie searched the parking lot, but couldn't see Nikolas anywhere. Instead, she saw Joanna and her bunch of friends heading her way. She'd managed to avoid Joanna for the rest of the day after her Physics AP class, and she didn't want to confront them now. She wanted to run, but the school bus had already left. She had nowhere to go, unless she hiked the few miles from school to her home.

"Hey, sorry. Have you been waiting for long?" Nikolas tapped her from behind. He'd been observing her for the past few minutes and finally came out when he saw that she was about to leave. He saw the way Annie was looking at Joanna with apprehension and understood what was going on. He knew the rumors about Joanna and her group pretty well, and he wasn't happy that Annie was one of the victims.

Annie was relieved to see him. At least now, they wouldn't to do anything to her. She was prepared to talk to him and wasn't taken by surprise when he talked to her.

"No. I just got out of here too. Are you ready to go?"

"Yeah." He didn't bother pointing out her lie. He was ready to get away too before Joanna reached them, so he walked toward his car.

Annie stopped dead in her tracks when she realized that Nikolas owned the Lamborghini parked at the end of the lot. It must be new because she hasn't seen him driving it before. She'd heard about it today during school and envied whoever owned the car, but she didn't know that it was his. She didn't know he was rich. Oh, of course she knew he wasn't poor, but a Lamborghini? She couldn't even dream of owning one, but now, Nikolas was already opening the door.

Annie thought about the excuse of a house her family lived in and suddenly didn't want Nikolas to see where she lived. She knew that he would never talk to her again if he saw. She felt ashamed for thinking this, but knew it was true, for most people at least. Maybe Nikolas wasn't like most people.

"Annie, what's wrong?" Nikolas walked back to her, for she'd stopped moving when she saw the car. She was staring at the Lamborghini as if she'd never seen a car before. He knew he shouldn't have driven it to school, but he couldn't resist the temptation of driving it, and showing it to all his friends. After all, he'd been trying to get his hands on it for a pretty long time.