Here With You (A Laurel Heights Novel) - By Kate Perry Page 0,21

adds brain power."

"I'll be sure to drink all of it then." Hopefully it also added fortitude, to give her the strength to resist the temptation of having Grif so close.

Chapter Nine

Rachel hated chemistry. It was a lot of letters and numbers jumbled together and none of it made sense.

But lately she had another reason to dread going: Aaron was in her class.

She dragged her feet down the hall, wishing she could skip. But Laurel Heights High was strict about attendance, so she wanted to save getting in trouble for when she really needed to play hooky.

Looking at the ground, she scuffled into class and slinked onto her seat at the back lab table. She hoped no one noticed her.

But her hopes were dashed when Lydia, who sat next to her, looked up from her textbook and said brightly, "Hey Rachel."

Mumbling something in return, she tucked her chin into her chest as she got out a notebook—not the one her mom got her—and worked on the lyrics she wanted to give Griffin Chase when she met him again.

Most people would have gotten the clue. Lydia wasn't most people. "Did you finish the homework for today? If you want to check your answers, I have mine here."

Coming from anyone else, the offer would have been a kiss-up. Lydia, though, was just enthusiastic about science and friendly despite Rachel's lack of interest.

She didn't get it. She'd have thought Lydia was just clueless, but after sitting next to her for weeks, she realized Lydia was just nice. "I'm okay. Thanks," she added as an afterthought.

"No worries!" Lydia flashed her perfect white teeth and then asked the geeky boy who sat across from them about some sort of compound.

Rachel watched him light up with nerdy interest. Shaking her head, she checked out the rest of class as the final bell rang.

Aaron Hawke stared at her from across the room.

She looked away quickly, her heart beating. She let her gaze dart over to him again. His lips were curved in a smile this time, like he knew she had a secret, and he knew what it was.

Blushing, she turned away and caught Madison giving her the evil eye. Confused, Rachel looked away.

Praeger, their chem teacher, clacked a stirrer against a flask. "Settle down, class. Today we're going to delve into the scintillating world of exothermic reactions, so I'll assign your new lab partners and we can get to it, huh?"

Frowning, she turned to Lydia. "New lab partners? I thought we were paired for the rest of the year?"

Looking perplexed, Lydia lifted her hands up. "Apparently not?"

The teacher began reading names in tandem. "Ostrinsky and Parma, James and Brown, Sardoff and White, Rosenbaum and Hawke, Fishman and—"

Hawke? Her gaze jerked up to Aaron's. He just grinned at her.

Lydia leaned over. "You're with Aaron Hawke. You don't know it yet, but you're so lucky. Not only is he cute, but he's the smartest boy in class."

"I'm something," she said, gathering up her books. "I'm just not sure lucky is the right word."

"You're right." Grinning, Lydia handed her her bag. "Especially if Madison retaliates."

"Madison?"

"She's got a wicked crush on him."

Rachel stopped packing her things. "What?"

"I thought you knew." Lydia blinked at her owlishly. "That's the reason Madison and her crony have been giving you such a hard time. Although I don't know why you have to pay for the fact that he likes you."

"He doesn't like me," she said automatically. She glanced at Madison, who had kill written all over her face.

"Uh-huh," Lydia said with a sarcastic roll of her eyes.

She slowly made her way across the room, conscious of Madison's death glare as she dropped the bag and perched on the seat next to Aaron.

"Hey." He nudged her with his elbow. "You could look a little less like you're being led to the gas chamber."

She gave him a baleful look. "I'm in chemistry."

"But look who your lab partner is."

"Feeling modest today?" she mumbled, leaving her notebook closed so he wouldn't see her lyrics.

"I'm but your humble servant." He pushed the assignment pages between them. "Should we start on this?"

Rachel stared at the print outs and felt panic at the thought of completely bombing in front of him.

"Chemistry isn't your subject, is it?" he asked gently as he hooked up the Bunsen burner.

She glanced at him sharply. "Why would you say that?"

"The look of utter terror on your face." He grinned and held out a test tube. "Want to do this?"

"No."

He laughed, his hair flopping back, his dimples cute.