Sweetness Ch. 01

Chapter One

She flipped through the pages of the book, not really reading anything, but keeping a discrete eye on the boy sitting two tables away from her, who was talking to Joanna, a sexy and beautiful red head who made it no secret that she was chasing after boy. She hoped that she herself was that bold, then maybe she could actually get a boyfriend. She didn't lack anything that Joanna had in figure, but only the courage to do what she wanted. If only she dared to talk to him, then maybe he'd take notice of her.

Oh no, he's looking this way. She thought when she caught him turning around to her direction. She quickly looked away so that he wouldn't catch her starting at him. It was a bad of hers, staring and daydreaming at the same time, no matter how she wanted to keep these things discrete. However, because she'd lowered her head, she didn't catch his smile of amusement, which clearly showed that he'd caught her staring.

Nikolas tuned out Joanna's voice, which was what he often did in the past few weeks. He didn't have the heart to break it into Joanna that he wasn't interested, thinking that she'd figure out soon enough, which wasn't the case here. However, she kept the other girls at bay, so he wasn't really complaining. Instead, tuning out her voice and staring at Annie Perkins during classes seemed to have become a big hobby of his.

One of the main reasons that he was interested in the quiet, nerdy girl sitting two tables away from him was because most guys weren't interested in her. She certainly didn't have the flair that many other girls possessed. However, she was pretty, if one liked the quiet and shy type. Nikolas found that he certainly did. She always hid her body beneath large t-shirts that were at least twice her size and pants that were either too long or too fat. It puts some of the guys off, but Nikolas liked imagining her body beneath those clothes that were always too large for her. Last night, he had an interesting dream of peeling those clothes off of her to find satin soft skin beneath. He made slow and sweet love to her until she was screaming his name in ecstasy...

"Nick! Nick! Are you listening to me?" Joanna's annoyed voice penetrated his daydream. He hated it when she called him Nick, which no one does except for his parents and grandparents.

"What is it?"

"Weren't you listening? Mr. Povatar just told us to break into groups of three and go back to the lab tables. Come on." Joanna gestured to one of her friends who was almost eagerly waiting to be called by her.

Nikolas turned to look at Annie, just out of curiosity. He couldn't contain his smile when he saw that she looked like a cornered mouse. No one wanted her in their group, unless they wanted to just use her and cheat on the work, since Annie knew how to do almost everything. Today, nobody went to her, and she was just too shy to go ask anybody if she could join. He saw the perfect opportunity then, and walked up to her.

"Hey Annie, want to join our group? We need one more person." Nikolas asked as casually as he could. His smile widened when he saw her surprise and the faint blush upon her freckled cheeks. She looked even more liked a cornered mouse now.

Annie could feel her insides turn to mush just seeing his smile, not to mention that he was actually talking to her. She had a silly urge to scream, "He's talking to me." He was actually asking her to be in his group. It was like her dream come true. Now, if only she could find her voice and answer him, everything would be okay. If only he wasn't so handsome, or if his eyes weren't that startling blue, then maybe she wouldn't have problem finding words.

"Come on. Everybody's starting already." Annie felt like fainting when Nikolas took her hand in his and walked over to an empty lab table.

"Uh...we're suppose to have three people in a group." Her voice was so small, he barely heard her. Oh Christ, he couldn't help noticing how pretty she was, sitting next to him with her face completely red. He had a strong urge to pull off the rubber band in her hair so that it could fall around her face, much like it was in his dream.

"Don't worry. We'll have three," he answered. Sure enough, Joanna soon came with her friend Lia.

"Hey, you're in my seat." Lia said haughtily. Nikolas felt Annie tense beside him and pulled her down when she made the movement to stand up.

"Sorry, Lia, but you're going to find another group."

Thank you, thank you, thank you!! Annie couldn't contain her smile of happiness, but it quickly disappeared when Joanna shot her an evil look. Oh no. Her smile immediately disappeared when she remembered the treatment she got the last time one of their group gave her that look. It clearly said, "You'll pay for it later."

"It's alright. I'll find another group." Annie leaped up from the chair and saw that there was a group of two in the middle of the room. They were both Nikolas' popular friends, but even if they tease her, it'll be better than what she would get if she stayed here with Nikolas and Joanna.

"What are you four doing? I thought I specifically said groups of three. Lia, get over there to Mark and Chris." Mr. Povatar pointed to where Annie had planned to go.

"But—"

"Now!" Mr. Povatar was actually always a nice person, but his attitude completely changes when someone tries to argue with him. Annie was so happy that she was his favorite student.

Since Mr. Povatar, as one of the strictest teacher, had set his word down, no one dared to argue with him. Annie sat down, fearful of what would happen tomorrow, or even later today, even as Lia made her way to Mark and Chris. She didn't know why Lia was so unhappy. After all, Chris is her boyfriend, unless she was only dating him to get close to Nikolas.

Annie worked on the project with Joanna and Nikolas. Nikolas was a lot of help, but Joanna just kept on talking to Lia or to Nikolas without doing anything at all, so in the end, they didn't finish the group work and had to do it tonight for homework.

"Sorry, but I've got important things tonight. Nikolas, are you coming to Chris' party tonight?"

"No. I've got to baby sit tonight."

Joanna looked disappointed, but then she spoke again, "Why don't you just take Jenny to the party?"

Nikolas looked somewhat disgusted. "Jo, Jenny's six. What do you think she'd do at Chris' party."

"Just a thought. Well, I'll see you in US History. Bye!" Joanna gathered her stuff and left.

"So you can't do the work tonight?" Annie asked, somewhat disappointed. She had hoped to ask Nikolas to come to her home and finish the work together.

"Can't you come over? I mean, Jenny wouldn't mind."

"Oh, but I have to baby-sit my brother." Annie so desperately wanted to go. This was such a rare chance for her to be able to talk to Nikolas, and she wanted it to last as long as she could.

"You can bring him over. We'll pick him up after school, and we can all go to my house. I'll take the two of you back after we're done." Nikolas didn't want to let it go so easily. He didn't really mind having her brother over, as long as Annie's there too. He wanted to get to know her, so she wouldn't be so nervous around him all the time, though he really didn't mind the faint blush on her cheeks. It makes her look so adorable.

"Is that really okay?"

"Sure. So I'll meet you at the parking lot after school?"

"Yeah." Annie said dreamily. She couldn't believe it. She was going to Nikolas' home. It didn't matter her brother was going too. She could spend more time with Nikolas!!

Now, if only she could get through the rest of the day in one piece...