PhysEd and I had talked about our relationship and we agreed that it could never work out the way it is with English. My hand-eye coordination was certainly not the best, and anyone standing five feet away from me as I dodged a volleyball could seriously earn a trip to the emergency room.

Staring at myself in the mirror of the girls' locker room, my fingers tried to desperately pull down the hem of the orange gym shorts we were required to wear. It was much too short for my liking, and I wasn't too keen on showing this much skin in school.

"That's really not going to change anything, you know."

I didn't have to look up to know that it was Paula Fernandez who spoke to me. Her voice had a certain soft edge to it, and though it wasn't exactly friendly, the tone of her words sounded conversational and amused.

It wasn't the first time we talked—in fact, she and Theo had dated a while back before she suddenly broke it off due to an unknown reason. She blended easily with the popular crowd in her cheerleader uniform and personality, having the looks of a magazine cover model and the body of an athlete.

"Yeah, um, it's just a little too short," I answered in a timid voice, releasing the cloth and knotting my fingers around my hair into a ponytail.

Paula's lips stretched into a grin as she looked me over from head to toe, caramel complexion glowing under the incandescent lights. "You any good in volleyball?"

I burst out laughing as I shook my head. "Let's just say that I hate it, and it hates me."

"I feel the same way with calculus. Come on, you're on my team. I'll make sure you don't give anyone a concussion."

Her bronze-colored hair swayed from side to side as she left, and I followed after her with confusion etched onto my expression. I was that girl who was always picked last during PhysEd, so Paula saving me from that embarrassment again made me question, "Why?"

She glanced back at me as we entered the gymnasium, volleyballs flying in the air as I tried my best not to be hit by one. "Why, what?"

"Why are you suddenly being nice to me?"

Paula wrapped her fingers around my wrist and pulled me towards the bleachers. "I just want to apologize for the way Nico acted," she explained. "Not that I'm defending him, but he's my friend and I just want to say sorry for his behavior last Monday."

Shaking my head, I said, "Look, Paula. I actually don't care about Nico and what he says. I do whatever I need to do, and you don't have to feel like you have to apologize. It's just the way he is, right?"

"Not exactly, no." She smiled. "How about this instead? I make sure you don't hurt any of our teammates in the court, and you have to tutor me in calculus even just for a day. I heard you're good with numbers."

Knowing I didn't have much of a choice and that this was the best offer I could get from an athlete, I agreed. "Deal."

*

What wasn't part of the deal was that I could be the one to get hurt.

The volleyball game stopped, and everyone rushed over to where I had landed. The pain didn't register for a few seconds, but as it climbed its way from my right ankle up to my leg, it was hard not to cry out in agony.

Paula kneeled over me with her face twisted in worry. "Thea—"

"It doesn't hurt," I wheezed out, breathing heavily.

The cheerleader rolled her eyes, and I suddenly wished Coach Greenberg hadn't left her in charge when he was called by the principal to his office. "I have to take you to the nurse. Move, people! Can't you see she's injured?"

"Help me up."

Paula shook her head as the other students started backing up, giving me air to breathe. "You shouldn't stand, stupid. Obviously, I won't be able to carry you all the way there—and the guys, well, boys, here are all skinny as a stick."

"I'm fine," I insisted, my stubbornness getting the best of me despite the fact that I was already beaten down on the ground with a twisted ankle. "Help me up, Paula."

The cheerleader raised her eyebrows. "Not a chance." She looked around and a grin fell over her lips before she yelled, "Hey, Faust!"

Faust?

"What are you doing?" I hissed, my heartbeat picking up its pace.

She winked, and called out again, "Can you come over here for a sec? Thea's injured and we need someone to take her to the nurse's office."

"Paula, no."

"Shut up."

Faust Carter appeared over the crowd of seniors in a red V-neck and jeans. He bent down with his eyebrows furrowed as he took in the sight in front of him, eyes glancing towards my leg and back up to my face. "What happened?"

"She fell and landed on her ankle—I think it's broken. You have to carry her to the nurse."

"No, no." Forcing a smile, I struggled to sit up and tried to fight back the tears. "I'm fine, that won't be necessary."

"Thea," he said, gently placing a hand on my shoulder, his face wearing an expression of sincerity and worry. "Let me take you."

The tone of his voice and the way he looked at me convinced me to sit motionless on the floor as he hooked his arms underneath my shoulders and knees. As I reminded myself to focus only on the throbbing pain on my ankle and not on the muscles of his arms and the smell of the cologne lingering on his clothes, I placed my hands around his neck as he started to walk away from the gymnasium and towards the school building.

*

"What were you doing there, anyway?"

Faust leaned against the wall of the secluded room in the nurse's office, where I currently sat on the bed with my ankle bandaged and iced as it rested on a soft pillow. The pain had subsided, and though I told him it was okay to leave me here until Theo could get me, he refused to leave.

"I was looking for Coach Greenberg," he answered, a grin forming on his face. "Great timing, huh?"

I smiled back. "You're a regular knight in shining armor."

"I try, especially if my damsel in distress is in gym shorts."

Heat rose up my cheeks as my mouth gaped open, and Faust threw his head back and laughed. "When are you going to stop judging my outfit choices, Carter?"

"When they stop looking so good on you."

Desperate to change the subject and mentally begging my cheeks to stop burning, I said, "Look, about your letterman jacket, I've been meaning to return it, but—"

"Will you go with me on a date?"

The words died in my throat. "What?"

"A date, Thea Simmons," Faust repeated, and my eyes couldn't keep themselves from widening as I processed what he was saying. Fixing me with an intense stare with his blue eyes, his grin never wavered as he continued, "Two people who like each other going out. Doing something fun with romantic possibilities. The first step into a relationship...do I need to go on?"

Amusement laced his tone, but I also heard slight nervousness. I bit my lip, my mind going into haywire with incoherent thoughts as I answered, "My ankle is twisted."

"We can wait until it's completely healed."

"You think I like you?"

"I'm betting on it, yes."

"And...you like me?"

"Have I not made that clear?"

"But—we don't even know each other."

"Which is the whole point of a date. To get to know each other."

"Theo is going to kill me."

"I'm not asking Theo, I'm asking you."

"..."

"Look, it's cool, Thea, you don't have to—"

"Okay."

"Okay...what?"

"Okay, as in, I'll go out with you."