Her face grows red and she balls her hands into fists. I prepare myself for her to attack, fully expecting her to land at least one punch before I can make it to the door.
Normally, I’m not one to condone running away from shitty situations, but this girl looks ready to kick my ass, so I’m cool with making an exception this one time.
A soft bell chimes and Alice’s eyes unfocus from me. She looks up at the speaker on the wall and exhales. I watch, amazed, as she slowly relaxes her fists and then looks back at me.
“You know that this isn’t over, right?” The implication that she’s still planning on kicking my ass is there, and I nod. “Good.” She turns away, back to the door. I don’t know what class she has right now, but whatever it is, she’s obviously afraid of missing it.
“Alice?” I’m sure that me calling her name surprises her as much as it does me, but when she turns to look at me, she still looks cool and collected. “The next time that you want to fight, let’s do it outside somewhere so everyone can see me kick your ass, okay?”
“Right. I’ll remember that the next time I see you snuggling up to my boyfriend, you whore.”
She slams the door behind her and I immediately exhale, bending over to grab my thighs. I’m shaking. There’s no way that I actually want to fight her, but I had to make her think that I was at least a little scary. I don’t know if it worked or if it would come back to bite me in the ass, but right now I don’t have time to worry about that.
I have to get to my next class.
With Quinn, apparently.
I also need to keep my hands off of him. That shouldn’t be too hard, since he’s a bit of a cocky jerk, but that doesn’t mean that a girl can’t look, right?
Chapter Four
“You’re late.” Quinn grins at me from the chair next to the only open seat in the class. Rolling my eyes, I slip into it, making sure to lean away from him so that it doesn’t look like I want to sit next to him. Even though he’s hot, his attitude and his ex are great deterrents for wanting to get close to him.
Keeping my eyes locked on the front of the room, I whisper out of the corner of my mouth. “I had a run-in with your ex. She’s super pleasant. I can see why you two would work so well together.”
He laughs, a loud sound that makes everyone in the room turn to look at us, but he doesn’t seem embarrassed by the attention. “Alice is passionate, that’s for sure. Did she not like you cuddling up to me in the cafeteria?”
My face burns and I feel my heart start to race. This is exactly what happened whenever I knew that I was in the right but someone was acting like I was the person who messed up. “I wasn’t snuggling up to you. It was the opposite, but yeah, she was pretty pissed.”
He leans back in his chair and looks at me. “Damn, Abigail. Something happen to your face in the bathroom?”
I don’t know how he just noticed since I’m already starting to bruise, but I just roll my eyes. There’s not any way that I was going to let him know just how badly it really hurt. “Call it a welcome gift from Alice.”
He lets out a low whistle, but before he can say anything else, the teacher walks in. This is what I was excited about, and I sat up straighter in my chair. Mr. Stanfield is the very reason that I want to be at Trinity Prep. Everyone else could go to hell, as far as I’m concerned, as long as I get to learn from him.
Not only is he brilliant and a world-renowned painter, but he’d accomplished everything before he even turned 50. He is intelligent, driven, powerful, and not bad to look at. When he turns around to greet us, I feel my stomach flip.
I’ve made it. I’ve really made it, and being in a class taught by him is the proof.
There is one internship that I want, and I’m going to do anything that I have to in order to get it.
“Good afternoon, artists. You all look well fed and rested and ready to make some art.” He claps his hands together and rubs them for a moment before continuing. “Now, if I read my email correctly, we have a new student, right? Abigail?”
My hand shoots up. “It’s Abby, sir. Hello. And thanks for running this class.” Normally I’d be embarrassed by how stupid I sounded, but right now, I don’t care. I’m just too happy to be here to give a shit what everyone else thought about me.
Mr. Stanfield nods at me. “Welcome, Abby. We’re glad to have you here. I’m assuming that you know about the internship that students can try to win from this class, right?” When I nodded, he continued, turning his attention to the rest of the class. “One student from this room will have the opportunity to intern with me. I get to handpick who I want. The rest of you can scrounge for other internships or go on for higher education, but believe me, if you want to be anybody, you want to work with me.”
I want to be someone. My smile was is big that I can practically feel my face cracking.
“Don’t get too excited, Abigail. There’s no way that you’re winning that internship.” Quinn’s voice is quiet, but was speaking loud enough that I could easily hear him.
I turn to look at him so quickly that I get a little dizzy. “What did you just say?” I hiss back. Mr. Stanfield is still talking, but Quinn and I need
