He was always my knight in shining armor…

It was weird being a new student in an annoyingly small school where everyone knows each other so well. I pretended I didn't care that they had spent their lives together. I acted like it didn't matter that I didn't quite belong. There was no way I was going to show any weakness.

In reality, I hated that I was stuck here all alone. Moving from one school to another was not fun by any means. I missed my old school and my old friends. Why wasn't life ever fair? Why weren't my parents ever fair?

Standing out in the rain, wondering if anyone even remembered to pick me up today, I just felt like an idiot. They always did this to me. It was always such a horrible inconvenience to remember a simple thing, like their only daughter. I officially hated college for taking away my older brother, even if he was the favorite in the family.

I felt the sudden urge to text him, but my phone battery was dead. It was just my luck, really. Then again, at least it, along with my backpack and school things, were jammed in my locker, dry and safe from major water damage.

If anyone in the entire world loved me in the slightest, then maybe the rain would stop at this very moment. I bitterly fingered my wet hair and scoffed. Yeah right, I couldn't help but think. I made a mental note to remember an umbrella for tomorrow.

Usually, I love the rain, but I was just too miserable to enjoy anything. I decided the school should just flood and drown me along with everything else in the pitiful excuse for a campus. Yeah, I was a bit melodramatic and I was a bit against any school with a student population of less than a thousand students. Call me crazy, but I know what I like, and it wasn't this school.

Anyways, imagine my unpleasant surprise when a silver Lexus suddenly pulled up in front of my dripping wet figure and stopped. Two guys jumped out of the passenger side of the car and disappeared towards the gym in a blur. I waited for the car to disappear, but it didn't; it just sat there in a creepy sort of way.

Shivering slightly, I gave the car a nervous look, when the window slowly rolled down just enough to reveal a vaguely familiar student behind the wheel. If I remembered correctly, this guy was a junior who shared a class with me, though I could not recall his name for the life of me. He was hardly intimidating so all thoughts of running in the opposite direction escaped me.

"Aren't you the disgustingly smart new sophomore in math with me?" he called out.

I was struck dumb; I swear my brown eyes were glazing over. This guy was undeniably good looking. I kind of liked his grayish blue eyes; they reminded me of murky water, but in a good way, I guess.

Then it hit me: he had stopped his car on a cold wet day to ask me if I was disgustingly smart. What was wrong with him? I wasn't sure I wanted to be fraternizing with crazy people, and this boy most certainly fit that description.

"Did you not realize that it's pouring out there?" he asked, looking rather amused in an annoying sort of way.

That was enough to make me decide to hate him, "Oh really? And here I thought that the school's sprinklers were just on. Thanks for the weather report, Bill."

"Bill?" he repeated, sounding quite puzzled, yet still annoyingly amused.

I was so glad that one of us was enjoying ourselves. Seriously, I'm wet and cold while he's dry and warm, and he has the nerve to be amused by me. What happened to chivalry?

"The weatherman," I replied, rolling my eyes, "Duh."

My sarcasm apparently surprised him; at least, that's what the look on his face told me. Everything about him, the way he dressed, talked and smiled, to the very car he drove, told me that he was considered a big shot, in his mind at least. In my mind, he was anything but.

"Then why are you standing out here?" he asked, recovering rather smoothly from my snapping reply.

"I'm waiting for someone to pick me up," I sighed, feeling like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"That's why we have the cafeteria for you to wait in," he replied, in a tone that said, 'I thought you were supposed to be disgustingly smart.'

I shot him a dirty look, suddenly despising him with a passion, and hoped that the interior of his car was getting wet and destroyed, "It's really crowded in there. There are about five clubs crammed in there and I heard the gym is even worse. Not really any room for little old me."

The guy actually had the nerve to look at me with his hazel eyes like I was crazy. Yeah right, because I'm the crazy one, right? Who was the one talking to a girl he didn't know while ruining the inside of his car?

"What do you want?" I asked, getting tired of his 'company'.

"You moved into the house down the street from me, didn't you?" he countered, without answering my question. I hate it when people do that. It's so very rude. I suddenly wanted to rip out every strand of his dry, dark, and curly hair, or even worse, try to run a brush through it.

"Because I always give the location of my house to random strangers who pull up in front of me," I snorted, giving him another dose of my sarcasm, "I don't even know where you live, so I don't know how you expect me to answer that."

"Collins Street, right?" he asked, sounding a little tired of me, "Do you want a ride, or not?"

The fact that he was actually offering me a ride completely floored me, more so than the fact that Collins Street actually was the location of my new house. Then again, it only reassured me of the fact that he was deeply disturbed and insane.

"No thanks. I usually don't get into the car with random strangers who pull up in front of me, either," I replied, looking at him like he was crazy, "Big surprise, I know. I'm shocked by it too."

He rolled his eyes at me, which didn't make me all that much happier, "But I'm not exactly a random stranger. We go to school together and have class together, and you live close by me so that makes us neighbors, right?"

"I don't even know your name," I scoffed. And to be honest, I really didn't even want to know it, but I didn't tell him that because that would just be rude.

The look on his face was a cross of surprise and amusement, "Haven't you been in school for over a week now?"

"Yeah and what of it?" I snapped, itching to slap that look off his face.

"Nothing," he answered, shrugging nonchalantly, and successfully irritating me even more.

"You know, you aren't a very convincing person," I groaned, hoping that one of my parents would remember my existence long enough to come get me. Not that it really mattered anymore, I guess. I was already drenched and miserable and currently being pestered by a crazy freak in a nice car.

"I'm Ethan Pierce," he replied, ignoring the strange look I was giving him, "And you're Madison, right?"

Wrong, I thought to myself, not that I really cared, "Why do I care?"

To say he looked irked would be an understatement, and yet, for some odd reason, he continued to persist. "Listen, my car is getting really wet," he sighed, "Do you want the ride or not?"

I looked at darkened sky pouring buckets of water onto me. I swear it was raining harder now than it was when Ethan first pulled up. Glancing at the school driveway which showed no sign of my parents, I gave a reluctant nod, "Fine."

Scowling, I reached for the door while he grinned like a triumphant idiot. I don't know why he seemed so proud of himself.

"For the record, I still don't like you in the slightest," I muttered darkly.

"Right, Madison," he nodded, failing at hiding his grin, "The rain is just getting to your head. I completely understand."

I narrowed my eyes at him and told myself to refrain from hitting the guy who would soon hold my life in his hands, "The name is Madeline, not Madison. Do you think you're pitiful excuse for a brain can register that?"

"Pitiful excuse for a brain?" he repeated, raising an eyebrow.

I glared daggers at him. The stupid idiot really needed to stop patronizing me before I hit him with all my might. I think he could sense as much because he looked a little uncertain now.

"Madeline, right, I'll try to remember that," he muttered to himself, as I grudgingly shut the door of the car.

I relished the fact that I was soaking the remaining dry sections of his passenger seat. Just to spite him a bit more, I wrung out my long black hair and watched as it splattered a little onto his dashboard.

"You should be nice to me," he muttered, shooting me a dirty look as he began to drive, "After all, I am your knight in shining armor."

"More like my idiot in a shiny car," I scoffed under my breath, rolling my eyes at his stupidity.

He acted like he didn't hear me, but I know he did.

I hate it when people do that.

I also hate how safe of a driver Mr. Ethan Pierce is, unlike the majority of the population our age.

The only thing I hate more right now is the fact that this brainless fool is really my neighbor, and currently my ride home.


Author's note: Hello. This is something new that I just had to get out. (I hardly even spent much time editing it). This is actually based off an actual relationship I had, and that friend is my inspiration for Ethan, but the story is still completely fictional. It's pretty much a short story: 6 or 7 short chapters; but that might change later on. I'm not sure yet.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy it! The next chapter should be up relatively soon.