Chapter 5: Stubborn

"You want to what?" exclaimed Garret incredulously, not to mention quite loudly as well. "Why the hell would you want to do that?"

"I feel as though you are accomplished enough in Pre-Cal without my help," I explained calmly. "So, obviously, tutoring sessions are no longer needed."

Yes, I was carrying out with my plan of annulling the tutoring sessions—my first step in breaking all ties with Garret once and for all. He was beginning to become a fly or other annoying insect, constantly in my way. Well, this time, I wasn't going to get hurt. It was better to be safe than sorry. Who knew what tricks that boy had up his sleeves. He was, though I had to admit it, brilliant, not to mention crafty.

"Damn, you're just doing as a part of your plan, Anna," he snapped, flushing.

What? How did he know about my plan? You see? He was definitely a genius.

"What plan?" I feigned ignorance, so maybe he would let it go.

"You're always building these walls around you, Annie," Garret said in a softer voice. "You shut out everyone, even your closest friends. You think that not taking risks is best. Well, I'm sorry to say this, but life isn't like that. It's about taking risks, taking chances. Because if you miss out on a great opportunity, you'll spend the rest of your life wondering what would have happened if you took that different route."

Who did he think he was, anyway? A psychoanalyst? How would he know what I wanted? How would he know who I really was?

"I haven't the slightest idea of what you're talking about," I replied smoothly. "What does taking risks have anything to do with these tutoring sessions?"

Garret breathed through his nose rather noisily, shaking his head. "God, Anna," he whispered. "You're a smart girl; you can figure out my metaphor."

"I can?"

"Anna, damn you, stop being so difficult! Are you always like this? Jesus Christ, you drive me crazy…in so many different ways." His eyes widened as he spoke the last five words, and clapped a hand over his mouth.

I raised an eyebrow. "In so many different ways? Now, how about elaborating on that, hmm?"

He responded merely by muttering a few curses under his breath, glaring at me all the more. I gave him an innocent look of curiosity. Daringly, I leaned forward slightly, closing the rather large gap between us just a bit.

"I'm sorry," I said, hopefully in my most sincere-yet-insincere tone of voice, "but you have to understand. I mean, obviously you do, since you have a plan of your own that I already know about."

His head shot up at once. "What are you talking about?" His voice quivered.

Aha! So I did find out the correct information. He was doing this as a bet, trying to trick me into being friends with him again, and then breaking my heart—again. Yes, it was so predictable, a She's All That sort of stunt. God, what did he take me for: an idiot? Or, maybe he just thought of me as a naïve schoolgirl. Either way, the point was, it was all a trick, a joke, a scam—whatever you wanted to call it. I would probably be going over the edge a bit if I told him what I really thought, but since the truth was better known sooner than later, I might as well be brave and spill it all out.

"You know you're trying to lure me into a trap, to become friends with you again," I stated firmly. "Then, you'll drop me one day like I'm a piece of scum, and move on with your football and cheerleader friends."

Garret was silent after I finished speaking this. His eyes regarded me steadily, blinking a few times, but still holding the gaze. His mouth opened, but before he could speak, he closed it shut again with a shake of his head.

"Anna, that was low," he said sadly.

I should have felt nothing when he said that, but something in my heart stirred. However, that was only for a few seconds. After that, I had put on an emotionless mask upon my face again, shrugging my shoulders, like nothing he said mattered to me at all—which it certainly didn't.

"Was it really?" I challenged. "Or was it the truth that I finally discovered after all these years? You've been lying to me all these years, ever since you 'saved' me from Jess Tortora!"

He stared at me before a hollow laugh erupted from him. "Are you kidding me? You must be joking, Anna. How the hell would I even be that crafty at age six? What kind of mind do you have?" He was ranting now, unable to stop.

I was rather worried now, coming up with horrible scenarios in which Garret would injure me in some way, since he was certainly capable of doing so. I had learned in my younger days that angering Garret Caulfield was a pretty bad idea, since he did have an infamous temper that sent the bravest of them all running for cover. Well, maybe not that intense, but he did have a fiery personality, which attracted me to him in the first place. Of course, I was a fool then anyway…

"Anna? Anna?"

I was startled, and my head whipped toward the direction of the voice. "What?"

"Are you okay?" Garret looked rather concerned, and a glimpse of his old self was there again, but only for a fleeting moment.

"I'm fine." I pushed past him. "If you excuse me, first period starts in two minutes."

"Wait for me." He jogged right next to me. "I'm in your first period class—Chemistry with Mr. Norton."

My schedule clearly sucked this year. I was in every single flipping (I decided to refrain from using the implied word) class with him. Why did he have to be smart, anyway? He could have turned into a clueless jock, but no, his brain didn't disintegrate along with his personality. Sometimes, I thought of that as an unfortunate thing, such as now. And if things couldn't get any worse, the teachers made their seating charts so that I sat next to him, or near him. I knew that the world was against me in some way or another.

We entered the classroom, and I placed my backpack next to my desk, sliding into my chair in the process. Garret happened to sit a few seats to the right of me, so it wasn't too bad. Besides, Reagan and Paca were in the class, too, which made the minutes pass by so much quicker, especially on lab days. I inwardly groaned at the thought. I especially disliked lab days, because I was so bad at the experiments we performed. Mixing chemicals together in an exact manner was not my forte, to say at the least.

"'Morning, Anna!"

A large shaking of my shoulders shook me from my reverie. I looked up to see Reagan bouncing to the seat next to me. She had a cup, one of those cheap ones with cardboard attached at the bottom, in her hands, which clearly told me that she was experiencing a caffeine high at that very moment. She grinned crazily, and took another sip of what I suspected to be coffee, sighing with pleasure afterwards.

"Caffeine, the greatest invention known to mankind," she recited, her eyes glazed over.

"Honestly, you too? Who the hell isn't into this whole 'I heart caffeine' ordeal besides me, anyway?"

"I wasn't, until the brilliant Jane introduced it to me last week. Now I'm addicted! Seriously, though, Anna, you should try this stuff; it's amazing."

"It's not real coffee," I stated plainly, giving her a look. "The stuff they sell at Starbucks is too sweet to be that bitter-tasting liquid that only old people drink nowadays. I'll bet you that you have a vanilla latte or whatever fancy name Starbucks created."

"It's actually a caramel mocha, to be precise," she corrected, looking rather affronted by my attitude. "Want a sip?"

"No, thanks," I said at once. "I don't need to be another victim of the Starbucks fake-coffee craze, thank you very much."

"Now, now, I wouldn't say that," disagreed Garret, walking toward the two of us. "The caramel mocha is very tasty, I must say, Reagan, though my favorite, I believe, is the pumpkin spice latte."

"Mm, that's also another favorite of mine," she approved with an affirmative nod of her head. "Sometimes, though, I just like the plain old Espresso itself. You know, without any of the extra stuff. That's only when I feel as though I've eaten too much of their blueberry muffins."

"Oh, have you tried their new—?"

"Stop," I interrupted loudly. "I can't stand this small talk anymore. God, you two are unbelievable."

"What's up with you today?" asked Reagan with a raised eyebrow. "Gee, you're in a crappy mood. Tell me what's wrong. Oh, wait"—she glanced in Garret's direction—"what'd you do this time, Caulfield?"

"Nothing," he responded with ease. "Ask Ottherson; she'll tell you how she pissed me off."

Reagan let out a small sigh of discontent. "You two just never stop."

"Good morning, class!" exclaimed Mr. Norton in an overly enthusiastic tone. The rest of the class stared at him blankly. "Oh, come on, guys, be excited! It's Chemistry!"

A few of my classmates coughed loudly, not bothering to hide their irritation at his perkiness. Mr. Norton was a fine teacher, but he was always too optimistic. Those kinds of people were needed more in the world, certainly, but they did bother me with their "oh-don't-worry-it-can-always-get-worse-let's-think-every-day-is-a-sunny-day" attitude towards every obstacle life threw at them. In a way, I was jealous of their ability to think the way they do, but I'd never actually admit that. I was a pure pessimist, at least in my opinion. Sometime or another, I would change that, but for now, I wasn't going to do a thing about my negative outlook toward everything.

"Now, today we'll be doing a little experiment." Most of the class cheered; I groaned. "Now, don't be too sad, for it has absolutely nothing to do with Chemistry." The class cheered harder, and I perked up slightly at his words. Hmm…a non-Chemistry experiment was always something to look forward to.

"It delves into the workings of the human emotion," he continued, "and why people behave the certain ways they do. Now, it's rather a coincidence that we have two perfect people in our class to demonstrate this. Anna and Garret, please step up to the front."

I froze at once, as everyone else in the room turned to stare at the both of us. I knew it—it was a trick. Everyone seemed to be against me these days, literally. First all my friends tell me that Garret isn't that bad; then my mother tells me that Garret was still virtually the same person he always was; and finally, Garret himself tells me that 1) he didn't want to annul any time spent with me and 2) he claimed that I drove him crazy in "so many different ways", whatever the hell that was supposed to mean. Maybe Lady Luck and I were enemies, which meant that she turned everyone else in opposition to me as well. Yes, it all made sense at that moment.

"Anna, please come up." Mr. Norton interrupted my thoughts with a tinge of impatience in his voice. "I know that you and Garret do not get along well with each other, so I understand your displeasure, but please, it's a part of the experiment."

"Yes, sir," I muttered, walking in front of the room to stand next to Garret.

"Now, Anna, I want you to answer this question that I'm about to ask you very truthfully. All right?"

"Sure." I had a bad feel about all of this.

"Why do you hate Mr. Caulfield here?"

Yup, my day just kept getting brighter and brighter. It was as if large rays of sunshine just came bursting through into my life. Yeah, I wish. I stood there like an idiot, with many pairs of eyes staring at me, waiting for a response. There were titters around the atmosphere, and I felt a bead of sweat trickle down my forehead. Damn. No one knew the real reason behind my hatred for Garret; even I was somewhat hesitant about it at times. Perhaps that was why everyone was watching me eagerly, with curiosity. Even Reagan had a puzzled expression upon her face.

"I—because our personalities clash," I finished rather lamely. Everyone else let out a collective sigh of disappointment, and Mr. Norton looked dubious.

"All right," he said, not bothering to push the matter further. "That will do for now, I suppose, though I was hoping for some elaboration. I have heard from various rumors around the school that you two used to be best friends."

"We were." I didn't deny it. "Then I transferred to a private school, and we grew apart. It isn't really that complicated a matter."

"Mm-hmm." Mr. Norton pondered for a moment, before shaking his head. "Garret, why do you hate Anna?"

He just looked at our teacher for a moment, and then held a steady gaze out the window. "I don't."

The sound of a pen dropping was heard as silence gathered into the classroom. Reagan exchanged glances with Paca, who had come in a little later after class had started, though unnoticed. Mr. Norton raised his eyebrows even higher than before. I, myself, could not seem to remember how to breathe properly.

So Garret didn't hate me. Well, wasn't that a surprise. Actually, to me, it was—a huge one. I had been a complete bitch to him ever since last year, and, okay, he had been a jerk to me as well. However, this year, there was something in him that changed. I didn't know if it was for the better because, frankly, the change scared me. Garret was actually nice to me one day, and it continued on; it was as if he wanted to make amends again, and renew our broken friendship. I thought about that for a minute. I always missed him and his company, no matter how much I kept telling myself that I was better off without him.

Something stirred within me, and my heart hardened. Man, I was getting too soft lately. I was supposed to keep being a bitch to Garret and he was supposed to keep getting on my nerves constantly. That was how I lived my life for the past year, and that was how I wanted it to be. The thought of us being nice to each other was a foreign idea to me. It was just so wrong. No, I would not give in to any of Garret's pleading, no matter how many times he uses the puppy dog eyes trick on me. No way in hell. Things were going to stay the way they were before. It was much simpler that way, to have Garret and I continue to be feuding enemies. I would then be able to concentrate on my own life, and he on his. I would have my family, my friends, and my dreams, working to make goals and provide a better future for myself and possibly even children later on. Garret—he might have fit into my life if he hadn't changed, but he had made his decision, so he had to stick with it, and live out the consequences.

"Well, then," Mr. Norton said, after a while, startling me out of my reverie, "I guess you two aren't exactly the perfect pair I had in mind."

"We may have been a year ago," informed Garret softly, his eyes landing on me. "I guess you were too late, Mr. Norton. I'm sorry for ruining your experiment."

"Me, too," I mumbled, coherent enough so only Mr. Norton could hear.

"That's all right," he reassured cheerfully, "because I didn't want to lag behind in our note-taking, either. Okay, guys, notebooks out! Today we'll be learning something exciting—the periodic table! You'll be able to memorize a lot of it once our month lesson on this is over."

Moans of unhappiness were heard throughout the room, as everyone, pouting, took out their notebooks and pens, sighing. It was going to be a typical day of Chemistry once more.

"Imagine Garret saying to the whole class that he didn't hate you!" Reagan marveled, her eyes glistening. "What a sweetheart."

"What is wrong with you today?" I demanded. "You're being one of those hopeless romantics, like Jane."

"Hey, there is nothing wrong with having a healthy attitude toward love," defended Jane indignantly. "You, however, are a non-believer."

"And darn proud of it, too." I puffed my chest out, though not too much, so that the other males in the room would not start to stare.

"She won't be once we're through with her," contradicted Reagan confidently.

Jane pondered on this for a second, then grinned. "You're right, she won't know what had hit her."

I blinked, trying to process all that had been said between them in my mind. What were those two talking about? I wouldn't know what had hit me…yeah right. Whatever the hell that was supposed to mean. Sometimes my friends baffled me to no end, and today was one of those moments.

"I'm still here, you know," I informed them with as much self-control as possible.

"Exactly," she said, nodding. "You and Garret—that'll make you a believer."

"How?"

Reagan sighed impatiently. "For a genius, you can be so thick at times. Duh, you're going to fall in love with him."

"You're kidding." I couldn't believe what my ears were hearing. This was unbelievable. Me, fall in love with Garret Caulfield? The mere thought compelled me to laugh, but I tried hard to restrain myself, seeing that Reagan and Jane were both serious about that idea. Falling in love was something that did not happen at age fifteen, and I had established that high school relationships never lasted, and you would only find true love once college rolls around. Dating in high school was just for fun, to see what the opposite sex was like, and nothing more. I notified my two friends on this piece of information, and they both looked at each other and then at me with an expression of horror drawn upon their faces.

"Your case is worse than I thought," mumbled Jane, scratching her chin and scrutinizing me critically. "Honestly. Is that what goes on in your overly intelligent mind all the time? That dating is merely for fun, and nothing else? My dear friend, you have it all wrong."

"I do not. People go out because a guy and a girl are attracted to each other—well, unless if they were gay or lesbian, in which case, it would be a guy and a guy or a girl and a girl. They are attracted to each other because of raging hormones that are present especially during your teenage and adolescent years. The end."

"That is very true," announced Paca, taking a seat next to Reagan and opening her, surprisingly, paper bag lunch.

"What, no buying food today?" questioned Jane with a raised eyebrow. "No ice cream, cookies, brownies, or other form of cholesterol-filled, man-made foodstuff?"

Paca snorted. "What is this, Biology class? My mom didn't have any money to give me today; she's flat out of change. So, she told me to pack my own lunch and deal with it. Besides, who said that there was no dessert? Of course there has to be." To prove this, she pulled out a package of a huge chocolate-chip cookie. "Now, how's that for a chunk of bliss?"

Reagan and I looked at each other, anticipating another fight that was about to break out at any second. Instead, to our astonishment, Jane simply shrugged her shoulders elegantly and said in a lofty manner, "Fine. It's your body, not mine."

Paca looked pleased with this answer. "I'm glad we've reached a compromise, Jane. Now, the next step for you to take is to actually live a little and take a bite of this baby." She took the cookie and hovered it near Jane's nose.

"Perhaps I'm not ready to be that bold yet, Paca." She eyed the cookie with fear and distaste. "I'll lose five more pounds, and then I'll think about it."

"Goddammit, how much do you weigh, anyway?" insisted Paca, taking away her dessert at once.

"One twenty. Tell me that that doesn't make me a bloated pig. Just tell me. Of course it does! That's why one fifteen does the trick."

"I weigh that much, too, and I don't give a shit about it. I eat healthy enough; why not allow myself to indulge once in a while? God, you're so uptight about food, Jane."

"Well, you're athletic, so most of that weight is muscle," she reasoned with a resolute air of determination.

"Five pounds makes no fucking difference. Think about those women who are so overweight that they have to lose sixty pounds to stay at the healthy range! You're already more than healthy, Jane."

"Goodness, such language," reprimanded Jane with an air of distaste. "Honestly, Paca, swearing does not solve anything. Do your parents not teach you a thing?"

"My parents teach me plenty, thank you very much. My parents don't care how much I swear. And, oh, next time I'll remember not to be a potty mouth in front of you, Miss Virgin Ears."

Jane scoffed. "So original."

"I'm glad you think so."

"If you two are done now," I began loudly, with a hint of exasperation in my tone, "then we can change the topic. What were we talking about before again?"

Uh-oh. Big mistake. Reagan had a sharp memory, and, unfortunately, mine disintegrated slightly so that I had no idea we were talking about me falling in love with Garret. What sucked even more was that I remembered just when I asked them about it. Oh, darn. I refrained from using a cruder word.

"That's an excellent idea, Anna," the evil woman herself piped up cheerfully.

"Um…you know what? I just remembered something. I have to go finish a paper that's due the next period in the library. See you guys later!"

Taking the last of my turkey sandwich and shoving it into my mouth, draining it down with a large gulp of water in the process, I threw out my paper bag lunch and proceeded to the library, with no other option, before any of them could say another word. Well, it hadn't been the smoothest escape, but it was better than enduring another twenty minutes of teasing and taunts. Just when I turned a corner, though, I ran smack-dab into something; or, rather, someone.

"I'm so sorry," I apologized profusely, straightening myself up with as much dignity as I could muster. "Oh, hi, Garret."

Indeed, thanks to my immense luck, Garret Caulfield was looking right back at me. Unfortunately. I blushed, and was about to sprint down to the end of the hallway, where my haven—a.k.a. the library—was located. Thanks to his immense strength, however, that was not going to happen.

"Anna…" He looked into my eyes. "You're avoiding me."

"Don't I always?" I know: it was a totally lame comeback. What can I say; some people just don't have the wit or talent.

He sighed noisily. "Anna, sometimes I think you're the most stubborn girl on earth."

Well. That was nice of him to say so. I always felt I was agreeable enough. I mean, I didn't do the whole "at your service" thing, with the bowing down and all, but I was okay for the most part. You know, not submissive but not too headstrong or inflexible, either.

Then something happened that neither of us was prepared for. Our faces were inching closer to each other until they must've been only a few inches apart. I had seen enough chick flicks and cheesy romance films to know what that meant. However, I found myself lost in Garret's dreamy eyes—and yes, damn it, they were as gorgeous as the descriptions of Jess and company. Before I could become a victim of his seducing wiles, I snapped out of it, and did the first thing that came to my mind. Ah, yes, spontaneity did lead to trouble. In my case, it started all the trouble.

I kissed him.

Oh, no, I wasn't going to have him kiss me. That would give him the advantage. Yes, contrary to some beliefs, I hadn't pushed him away and ran for my dear life. I should've done that though, now thinking back to it. Anyway, I had literally grabbed a hold of us neck and pressed my lips against his—but only for a few seconds. Then I ran as if my life depended on it.

When I reached the library, panting, I had realized what I had done.

Oh, s—shooting butterfingers.

Author's Note: I know I'm a slow updater, but…it's up! Finally. Anyway, I've decided to continue the story—I've grown rather attached to it, especially to all the characters. Expect the next update to be in June, and I'm not exaggerating. Finals are coming up soon (well, not really, they're actually at the end of May to the beginning of June), but they cover the year's worth of information, so I have to start studying now (yes, I am a perfectionist, in case you're wondering).

Thanks to all my reviewers! You guys mean a lot to me :)