Fire And Ash by Nia Davenport Page B

themselves, asking him his name, and offering to show him around and help him find his classes.
    Cassie and I look at each other and roll our eyes.
    “Excuse me,” she says none too politely to one of them. “But you’re standing in front of my locker.”
    The girl’s name is Camille and she’s a senior. She’s blonde and petite like Cassie but short and not nearly as pretty. The girl looks put off for a second but then Derek says something to Samantha, a junior in our class, and Camille’s attention turns to them. She inserts herself back into the conversation so she isn’t forgotten about.  
    My locker is enough spaces down that it is thankfully clear of Derek’s quickly forming fan club.  
    “Hey Derek.” Miranda walks up to him like she’s known him for forever. She only does it for the benefit of everybody who is watching.  
    She reaches out and runs her hand down his arm like she has every right to touch him. “I had fun over the summer. We should definitely do it again.”  
    Some mouths around her gape open in shock and others gape in envy. Everyone picks up on what she insinuated.  
    “She is pathetic,” Cassie says coming to stand beside me. “And you used to be friends with her? I don’t see how you two ever got alone. You’re like night and day.”
    “She used to be a much better person,” I tell her.  
    In that respect Becca was right. Miranda didn’t dump us but once we let our friendship drift apart and she got in with the in crowd she turned into a total bitch. That wonderful change in her personality was no fault of ours. It was a choice she made all on her own.
    “ Ashley,”   Miranda says passing me with her two main minions, Stacey and Krystal, in tow.  
    “Agnes,” I call after her because something has made me feel particularly snarly where she is concerned.  
    Miranda goes chalk white at the sound of her first name. She hates it. It is what everybody in her family calls her and what she has worked years to get everybody at school to forget.  
    ******
    My first period is A.P. Literature. English is my favorite subject and Mrs. Peters who teaches the class is my favorite teacher. I am thinking how nice it will be to start off my school days with a class and a teacher I actually like when Derek walks into the room and Mrs. Peters directs him to sit in the seat beside me. Why oh why does she have to sit us in alphabetical order?  
    “Nice outfit,” he leans over and whispers to me.
    I look at him like he’s the bad kind of special. I literally have on ripped jeans and a graphic tee with boxing gloves decorating the front. The words “I Hit Like a Girl,” are printed beneath them.
    “But your legs look better in the boy shorts than the jeans.”
    I sharply turn my attention to the front of the room where Mrs. Peters is going over our syllabus for the year. My cheeks flush like they do every time he mentions seeing me in my underwear.  
    “I hate you,” I mutter under my breath.  
    I see his mouth curve into a half smile out of the corner of my eye.
    To my chagrin Derek is in my second period physics class too. And of course Mr. Dotson pairs us up into lab partners by our last name.
    Gah! Why me? By the end of it I swear the universe is playing a particularly nasty trick on me.  
    Third period is blessedly free of Derek and for that very reason I don’t mind sitting through forty five minutes of Hamilton as much as I have in the past.
    “You were right. He is a hardass,” Cassie says to me as we leave class and walk towards the cafeteria for lunch. She walked into the room literally a second after the bell rang because she got lost trying to find her way to his class. He gave her his famous first impressions are the only impressions line , and told her he would see her in detention after school if she showed up late again.  
    Derek falls into step with us a few feet away from the cafeteria’s entrance. “How’s your day going?” He asks Cass.
    “Good,”