I walked into school the next day with a whole lot of confidence. I had made my decision. Laura could try whatever tricks she had up on her sleeve, but I wasn't going to lose Damien to her. I would make sure of it. People turned away from their lockers and the people they were talking to as I walked past. I didn't know what was the attention grabber. Maybe it was the confidence I radiated as I walked which was quite different for me. Or perharps it was the new look. I had slapped on a little make up, worn some tiny earrings and dressed with a little more care.

It felt good to have people look at me, I thought. I saw Laura nearby Damien, who was putting some books in his locker. I walked straight up to him, flung my arms around his neck and kissed him. He looked surprised but he wrapped his arms around me and kissed me back. It felt like we were the only two people in the world. It was sheer bliss.

I pulled away from him and immediately started babbling.

"I'm so sorry for not picking your calls, Damien", I started "I was just so confused and really in a bad mood...."

He pressed a finger against my lips and shushed me. "It's okay, Aimes. What matters is that you're here now".

I nodded and hugged him.

"It'd have really sucked if you made me feel this way about you and then ditched me, Aimes", he whispered into my ears, his warm breath massaging my neck and sending shivers down my spine.

The moment was perfect, that is until I heard the clickety-click of stilettos against the floor. Laura.

I looked away at the same time Damien did.

"Well, look what we have here", she said and placed her hands on her hips. Terri and Amber rushed to flank by her "Damien is this your science project? Or perhaps you've decided to do some charity work". She laughed like it was some great joke and Terri and Amber immediately joined in.

I wouldn't pretend like those comments didn't hurt. They hurt.

'Just shut up, Laura", Damien said "Aimee's my girlfriend. Deal with it"

He tugged on my arm and we walked away.

I looked up at him. "Girlfriend?" I whispered

"Yeah", he gave me a cute lopsided grin "You know that's if you want to be and all... I'm not assuming you want to be... I should totally have asked you.."

It was so cute that he was the one rambling this time. I never thought Damien Stevens could loose his cool, much less over me.

I smiled and leaned up to kiss him."Of course I want to be your girlfirend"

We shared a smile. It was quite an intimate moment. He walked me to class. Clarissa was already in there. She rushed up when she saw me and pausesd when she saw Damien.

"Aimee, are you done with your science homework.... Oh, hey Damien", she gave me a subtle wink

"Hey", Damien told her. He looked at me. "See you later, Aimes". He kissed the top of my head and walked away.

Clarissa could barely contain her squeal of absolute joy. She grabbed my hand and dragged me over to the back of the class room.

"So, what's the dealio?' she asked "Are you guys now officially a thing or what?"

I nodded. "Yes, we are now officially a thing"

We both squealed. It was silly but I couldn't help it, I was so happy. Mrs. Grimes came into class just then and we had to settle down for history class.

The rest of school passed by in a blur. I attended my classes, turned in my homework and hung out with Clarisse. It was lunch time when I saw Damien again. He was sitting at the 'popular' table. I suddenly felt very awkward. I couldn't just go sit with him and calling out to him would just attract the attention of those snobs, which I sure as hell didn't need.

Instead, I walked up to my normal table and sat down. Clarisse was already there and so were my other friends from the newspaper, Emily, Josh, Naomi, Kent and Brady. I guess you could call us the bottom of the food chain at school. But hey, we were right above the nerds.

Clarisse started the discussion at the table.

"So.... Who can notice anything different about Aimee today?" she asked

Naomi pushed up her glasses and looked at me. "Her hair looks good"

Josh didn't look like he cared; he was too engrossed in his double cheese burger to even look up.

Emily and Brady were making goo-goo love eyes at each other. They had been dating for about a year now. You'd think their utmost adoration of each other would fizzle out a little. Not.

Kent pushed around the fries on his plate. "She looks really good", he said suddenly, in a low voice. He looked up at me "I mean, you look really good, Aimes"

I was a bit thrown back. Kent hardly said anything and here he was, giving me a compliment. I gave him an aww, shucks look and gave Clarissa a STOP look.

Clarissa just ignored me, like she always does.

"Well, guess what? Aimee's got a new guy", She said in a sickeningly chirpy tone.

Everyone finally stopped whatever they were doing long enough to stare at me.

"What?" Emily asked

"Really?" Naomi gushed

"Err", Josh grunted and went back to his double cheese burger

"Cool", Brady said

"Wow, Aimes... Congrats", Kent said. There was something weird in his eyes.

It was that moment I began to feel extremely uncomfortable.

"Look, there's really nothing to it guys, nothing special or anything. I'm just seeing someone new", I supplied quickly. I didn't want them to get all worked up.

"Well, then, tell us who it is", Emily prodded

"No need, here he comes", Clarissa all but squealed

I whipped up my head and sure enough, Damien was strutting towards us in all his handsome glory.

"Hey guys", he acknowledged everyone as he reached the table. He got a few grunts and stares in reply.

"Aimee, do you wanna have lunch together?" He asked sweetly

"Yeah.. uhm.. sure", I blushed. I picked up my tray expecting him to lead off to another table but he just pulled up the chair next to me and sat down.

"So..." he grabbed a french fry from my plate and chewed on it slowly, looking around "This is how the other side of the cafeteria hangs out"

ALL the girls, including Emily couldn't help but drool a little. It was weird but I felt great that they were drooling over MY man.

The guys however couldn't care less. Kent on the other hand was making a totally disgusted face.

"If you mean this is how the 'nerds' hang out... Then you're totally right. Just cuz you're dating Aimes doesn't mean you have to hang with us. Your jock friends are probably wondering why you're here with us losers ", Kent said in a breath

My head whipped around to him so hard I almost got whiplash. I think this was the first time Kent had spoken so much to someone he hardly knew. The others at the table had the same expression on their faces but none of them was as furious as I was. I was about to tear into him when Damien said coolly:

"Dude, I don't wanna get into it with you... If you want to label yourself a stereotype, fine but do it to me and it doesn't fly, okay?"

The hatred in Kent's eyes was unmistakable. "Whatever, man", he slouched in his chair and resumed poking at his mashed potatoes.

My mouth opened to instantly offer an apology for Kent's behaviour but the bell took that opportune moment to ring, signalling the end of lunch.

Everyone filed out quickly, Kent being the first. Clarissa still hung around though and I gave her a look that said she should scram. She gave me a not so subtle wink and begrudgingly left. Damien gathered the lunch tray containing his uneaten lunch and stood up.

"Damien wait", I stood up quickly, mortified and embarrassed "I'm so sorry about Kent... He's not usually like that"

"Aimes, it's alright", he gave me a sweet little smile and used his thumb to remove what looked like cream cheese from my lower lip. My cheeks reddened some more "it's not your fault that your friends are douches"

I was so in bliss from the tingling sensation his thumb on my lip generated, I almost missed that. My brow furrowed in a frown.

"My friends are not douches... I really don't appreciate you saying that when your rich and popular friends are the total poster kids for douche bags", I started off in a temper

Damien's smiley face turned upside down and tension crackled in the atmosphere. "I was just about to apologise for saying that but I can see you're on that dude's side, Aimes... Well, if you think me and my friends are so terrible, I don't even see why we're doing this"

My heart stopped beating for a minute. What was happening? We hadn't even dated for three days and we were already arguing.

"What are you saying Damien?" my voice was barely above a whisper

Damien hesitated for a moment then opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by the most annoying evil bitch in school.

Laura.

She sidled up to his side and gave me a mocking look as she reached up to tug on his letterman's jacket.

"Trouble in paradise already, lovebirds?" her voice irritated me to no end and I struggled to keep from grinding my teeth together. I had been so engrossed I hadn't noticed the evil bitch lingering around, waiting for her moment to pounce.

"Shut up Laura, we're talking", I said in a voice I hardly recognized as mine

Her perfectly groomed brow rose up in surprise. "Well, look whose testicles have dropped. Better watch yourself little girl or you're going to end up really badly" she gave me a menacing glare and then turned to face Damien "Damien all the home coming nominees are needed in the auditorium right now". She stalked away as smoothly as she had come in.

Damien gave me a look I couldn't read. "I need to go, Aimee"

A heart wrenching feeling overcame me.

"Damien?" Laura muttered impatiently, she had stopped for him to catch up.

Damien gave me one last unreadable expression and began to walk towards Laura. I watched them walk away like it was in slow motion. And when Laura turned back to give a victorious smirk, it was all I could from crumbling to a heap on the cafeteria floor. Why was it all falling to pieces? Or could I just not win against Laura?