Isaac shrugged on his leather jacket and pulled a lighter out of his pocket. “Enjoy your first day as the new girl,” he called over his shoulder, a smoke already pressed between his lips.
My stomach did a flip. His words made me feel even more nervous. I didn’t want to be the new girl—I didn’t know how! I had been attending Hawks since sixth grade, where I’d shared the same dorm room every year with my best friend, Sammy, and hung out with the same group of girls that I’d known since preschool. My eyes welled up as I thought about home.
“You okay?” Nathan asked. He must have noticed the worried look on my face.
“Fine,” I muttered, blinking away the tears.
“You sure?”
“I’m fine, I swear.”
“Okay. Well, how about I show you where the office is?” he asked as he strapped his guitar onto his back.
“You’d do that?” My voice jumped up in hope.
“Sure thing,” he said and smiled. “Can’t have you getting lost on your first day.”
The breath I’d been holding in hissed out through my lips. “I’d really appreciate it, Nathan. Just let me grab my stuff.’’
At the back of the truck, Cole was sitting on the tailgate as if he was waiting for something. “So, New York,” he said and handed me my bag. “Whad’ya think?”
“About your school?” I asked. “It’s, um—big.”
Cole laughed. “You’ve been sheltered in a boarding school since junior high, and all you have to say about your first impression of the real world is that it’s big?”
I hate it, I thought. But that answer wouldn’t do. “It’s very different from my old school,” I said slowly. “For example, I don’t have to wear a uniform.”
“You wore uniforms?”
“Yes,” I replied. “It was a private school, so they were a requirement.” Thinking of my old, lumpy-looking sweater, tie, and matching plaid skirt, I heaved a sigh. Yes, my uniform was ugly, but there was always something comforting about pulling it on in the morning. Today, I’d had no clue what to wear. After Cole made fun of my outfit yesterday, I realized I didn’t know how kids at public schools dressed.
“And you went to an all-girls’ school? Man, that must have been a sight. Schoolgirl outfits are hot.”
“Sorry?”
“You know, like Britney Spears?”
I gave Cole a pointed look. “Our skirts came down to our knees.”
“Shame,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “But, I bet you made it look cute.”
His compliment caught me off guard. “I—um,” I stammered.
“Coley!” someone squealed, saving me from my embarrassment. A small girl with chestnut hair and poison-green eyes flung her arms around Cole’s neck and slammed her lips into his. I looked away when I saw a flicker of tongue.
“Olivia,” Cole said, finally breaking away from their kiss, “what did I tell you about calling me that? It’s not manly.” He peeled Olivia’s arms off his neck, but stood next to her and slung an arm over her shoulder.
“Sorry,” she responded without an ounce of humiliation, “but you know how happy I get when I see you. Sometimes I can’t contain my excitement.”
“Yeah, I know, babe,” he said and guided her toward the front entrance. He was halfway across the parking lot when he swung back around. “Good luck today, New York!” he called.
“Typical Cole,” Nathan said as he shook his head.
“Is she his girlfriend?” I asked as I stared after them, unable to take my eyes off Olivia. It didn’t surprise me that Cole had a girl who looked like a supermodel. Together they were a picture-perfect couple.
Nathan snorted. “She wishes.”
“Huh?”
“Cole doesn’t date,” he explained as we started walking in. “He has lots of girls that he hooks up with, but never anything more.”
“The girls? They’re okay with that?”
“I guess,” Nathan said with a shrug.
I frowned as we climbed the steps to the school. “That’s disgusting.”
“The thing you need to know about Cole,” Nathan said, holding the door open for me when we reached the top, “is that he runs this school. All the girls want him, and all the guys want to be him.”
“But if all the girls want him, why doesn’t he just pick one?”
He shrugged. “Why pick one if he can get away with sampling every flavor?”
“Sampling every flavor?” I gasped. “I can’t believe you just said that!”
“Look, Jackie,” Nathan said, laughing. “I’m not saying I agree with how Cole behaves. I’m just trying to explain the way he thinks.”
We stepped inside, and I realized how very different attending a public school was going to be. Just thinking about it made my head spin. Did guys actually think like that? Maybe Boys 101 hadn’t been as informational as I thought.
“Fine,” I said, shaking my head in disbelief. “But I don’t understand how any girl would be okay with a guy treating her like that.”