"Okay, class," Mr. Kearns says, finishing his lecture on hybrid anatomy. "You have about fifteen minutes left of class. You can use this time to work on those essays that are due in a week." The class lets out a few mumbled remarks as Mr. Kearns hobbles back to his desk and starts to read a book.

Braeden scoots his desk over to mine. "Have you started on the essay yet?"

"I've outlined it, but I haven't started the actual writing process yet. Have you?" I question, watching as he pulls some papers and a pencil out of his backpack.

"I only have some of the basic stuff done, but I can just finish it at home, seeing as we're going to be out of school in fifteen minutes." I nod my head and look down at my paper, realizing that I will probably get a lot more accomplished at home than I would here. Making sure not to wrinkle the papers, I put them in the back of my bag for later.

Braeden reaches over and slides his hand over mine, his thumb rubbing circles on the back. "So, how do you feel about maybe a date tonight," Braeden says, his blue eyes meeting my green ones. "It's been over a week and a half since our last one, and I thought we should have some time to ourselves."

He did have a point. Ever since moving into our new home and having to live with our friends, we haven't had too much alone time. We are always doing our homework together, watching television, or playing games. Whenever Braeden and I are alone, it's at night time and we are exhausted, usually going to sleep as soon as we climb into bed.

"Sure," I say, smiling while I watch his thumb rub the rhythmic circles on the back of my hand. "It would be nice to have some time away from our housemates." Braeden gives a soft laugh and nods his head.

"Some alone time would definitely be nice," he says. Looking up from our hands, I see the smile on his face and the desire in his eyes.

"Yeah, really nice," I mumble, feeling the heat rise in my face. Glancing up at the clock, I notice that we only have about a minute before the bell rings. I pull my hand out from under Braeden's, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek before pushing his desk back. He raises an eyebrow, almost as if he was impressed that I was able to push him.

"What? I'm not weak, you know," I say, raising a brow of my own. I hear him chuckle, both of us packing up our bags.

"Never said you were, Henley." The bell rings and we both stand up, ready to be out of this place. We walk side by side to our lockers.

"Where were you thinking we should go for our date?" I ask, opening my locker door and glancing at Braeden as I put away the books I don't need and grab the ones I will for later on tonight. Braeden closes his locker and leans up against it, waiting for me.

"I was thinking about going to that little Italian place by our house. Lasagna sounds really good right now," Braeden says. As soon as I close my locker door, he smoothes his hand down my arm, twining his fingers with mine once he reaches my hand.

"Sounds good," I tell him. We pass Sophia on the way out of the school. She seems enthralled with her mate, only throwing Braeden a quick smile and wave when she sees him. "That's nice that you two had an easy breakup."

Braeden glances down at me before pushing open the school doors and leading us towards the parking lot.

"It wasn't even a real relationship. Why wouldn't it have been an easy breakup?" he asks. We reach Braeden's car. Link and Quinn are already there, now we just have to wait for Lottie and Lena.

"Some people tend to get attached," I say, pulling open the passenger door and sliding into the car once Braeden unlocks the door. He walks over to the driver's side and climbs in behind the wheel. Link and Quinn stand outside, engrossed in their own conversation.

"Well, we didn't. We both knew it would have to end some day, seeing as we don't have a choice in who we are mated with." He puts the key into the ignition, turning down the blaring radio.

"Are you upset about who you're mated with?" I ask, quirking an eyebrow.

He thinks for a minute before a smile spreads across his face. Turning to look at me, he says, "No, I'm happy with who I am mated with."

A smile crosses my face as I stare at him. I break his gaze once someone clears their throat behind us. Turning around, I see Quinn and Link watching us. "Are you two done with the sappy lovey-dovey stuff?" he questions. I roll my eyes and nod. "Good, because Lena wanted me to tell you guys that she and Lottie are walking home from school today instead of riding with us."

"What?" I ask, shock ringing through in my voice. "Why?"

Quinn raises a brow at me and starts to do an odd but crude hand gesture. My eyes widen before turning my body so that I am sitting in the seat properly. Every time someone mentions Lena and Lottie's sex life, I mentally cringe. I don't want to think about my friend having sex with her mate. Good for her, but I really do not need that image in my head.

Braeden waits for us to buckle our seat belts before backing out the parking spot and driving out of the school parking lot. It's oddly silent in the car but not uncomfortably so.

"Do you have work today?" Braeden asks, flicking his eyes over to me before returning them to the road.

"Yeah, can you drop me off?" I ask, and Braeden nods his head in confirmation. I look at the clock and see that there is about twenty minutes before I have to be at work. Wow, I may be early for once. Most of the time I make it there with only a minute to spare. Thank goodness Dr. Greene, the health specialist I shadow, doesn't seem to mind. She is the most passive person I have ever met. It's probably due to the fact that she is a Lion hybrid.

"Do you want me to pick you up?" Braeden asks, pulling into the medical clinic's parking lot. I usually drive myself home but seeing as I don't have my car, that would be a problem.

"Yeah, thanks." I smile at him. Leaning over the middle console, I give him a chaste kiss before grabbing my backpack and climbing out of my car.

Hearing the car window being rolled down, I turn back around. "What time?" Braeden says, ducking down so that he can see me.

"Six," I say, giving them one final wave before making my way across the parking lot and into the clinic. Walking into the storage room where we are told to store our stuff, I notice that I am the first one out of the other students to be here. I am actually able to take my time changing into my scrubs before going to find Dr. Greene. Usually, I am scrambling to get dressed, trying not to be late.

"Ah, Henley, you're here early, I see," a voice says from my right once I walk out of the storage room. Turning, I see Dr. Greene standing at the nurse's station, reading over some papers. She glances over at me from time to time, her tail flicking as she reads about the patients in her ward.

"Surprising, I know," I say with a laugh, going to stand beside her. Glancing down at the files, I see something about infected hybrids. Trying to get a closer look, I lean forward, causing Dr. Greene to look over at me while slapping the file closed. On the front of the folder are big red letters stating 'Classified'.

"Let's do our rounds, then you are going to help the nurses with their filing." I nod my head and follow behind Dr. Green as she walks from room to room. She asks all the patients how they are feeling and does a check up before writing all the information down. There is only a total of nine patients in this ward, so it only takes about an hour and a half to finish rounds. I am stuck helping the nurses with the filing as I wait for my shift to come to an end.

At six o'clock, I change back into my regular clothes and walk out to the parking lot. Sitting there waiting for me is Braeden. He smiles when he sees me and gives me a quick kiss when I climb into the car.

"Thanks for picking me up," I say, setting my backpack down and buckling my seatbelt. "But didn't you have work today, too?"

"Yeah, but I got off twenty minutes early. I'll just have to make it up on Monday," Braeden says. "At least we have the weekend to relax. We have two whole days of no work or school."

"We do have school work, though," I say, looking over at him.

"Way to ruin the moment, Henley," Braeden says, a smile stretching across his face.

"I seem to be good at that."

We pull into our driveway and climb out of the car. Opening the front door, I see Lena and Lottie sitting on the couch, cuddling while watching television. I give them a quick wave before following Braeden upstairs to our bedroom.

"I made reservations for seven-thirty," Braeden says, looking over at the clock on his nightstand. "So, we have about an hour to get ready. Let me just grab some clothes, I'll go get ready in Link's room and you can get ready in here."

I nod my head and watch as he grabs his clothes from the closet before walking out of the room. Turning on the shower, I hear a very familiar squeal coming from across the hall. Soon, I hear two people yelling. Curious as to what could be going on, I open the door and start laughing uncontrollably at the sight in front of me.

"My eyes, my eyes are burning," Braeden yells, stumbling around with his hands over his eyes. I can see that he is trying to control his laughter and doing it rather unsuccessfully.

"Haven't you ever heard of knocking, asshole," Link yells back, wearing nothing but a pillow held over his groin. Quinn is standing behind him, body hidden behind that of his mate.

"I can't believe I just saw that," Braeden says, taking his hands off his eyes and watching as Lena and Lottie climb up the stairs. They both have smiles on their faces but break into laughs when they see Link and Quinn standing there.

"You can just use our bathroom, Braeden," Lottie says, opening the door to her bedroom and herding him inside. Link and Quinn look over at me, and I just raise my hands in a placating manner before backing into my room, a mock serious look on my face.

That was a great start to the evening, now just to get ready for this date.