Lexi

As the bell rang for the end of class, I felt a sharp pain in my ear and immediately turned around to look at Fox.

He seemed completely oblivious sitting at the desk behind me. “What?”

I scrunched my nose at him. "Don't act stupid." A grin spread across his face before he tried to flick the back of my ear again. "Can you please stop yourself from causing me bodily harm?"

He bit the end of his pen before gathering his books and notes. "This from the girl who knocked me to the ground the first time she met me. The same girl who, since then, has been slapping and punching me in the same damn shoulder. The ear flicking is merely the beginning."

I followed his lead by scooping up my own stuff. "So, where are we headed now, my bitter tour guide?"

"Well, princess, we are off to seek nourishment. I am starving."

“Oh, thank goodness. My pencil was seriously starting to look edible.” Probably wouldn't be so hungry if I had gotten a chance to try mom's cake. Oh, mom. I completely forgot about my loss of sanity this morning.

Fox called from the classroom door as I lagged behind, caught up in my thoughts. "Move it, princess. I need to get to the cafeteria before the rest of my teammates, otherwise, all the good meat will be gone."

My stomach matched his tone as it grumbled at the thought of food. "Teammates?" I asked as we sped down the hallway, or rather Fox sped down the hallway while I tried to keep up. "You're not going to tell me you're on the football, or lacrosse team, are you?" Fox was barely listening to me before, without warning, lifting me into his arms and bolting down the hallway as fast as he could. "This is highly, and I mean highly, uncalled for," I yelled freaking out at how close Fox came to knocking people over.

After turning down a huge corridor, Fox finally came to a stop and put me down. “Chill out, princess. We’re already here.”

I punched him in the same shoulder as hard as I could. "Just so we are clear, I do not enjoy being hauled around like a rag doll."

Fox sucked at his teeth as he rubbed the spot I went for. "Damn, chica. Can you aim anywhere else?"

I rolled my eyes before giving him a pat on the back. "Sorry about that big guy. Sometimes I don't know my own strength."

Fox shirked away from my hand and moved toward an opening, leading into the school cafeteria.

Oh, my god. As we entered the lunchroom, I couldn't help, but gawk at the beautiful modern décor and elaborate light fixtures. "If this is where the students eat, I can't imagine what the teacher’s lounge mus-" I stopped talking when I realized Fox was nowhere to be seen. "Really?" I scanned over the room until finding him standing in the lunch line, rocking back and forth on his heels. "Seriously? Nobody is that hungry,” I said joining him in line. “When's the last time you ate?"

Fox kept his eyes on the front of the line as the mass of students slowly made their way through. "Um, I don't remember. Probably this morning." It was like his mind was a million miles away.

My comfort level was starting to dwindle. “Is everything okay, Fox? Cause, no offense, but you are kind of acting like a crazy person, and it’s sort of freaking me out.”

That seemed to get his attention. His eyebrows furrowed and then raised as he looked down at me. “Oh, I’m sorry, princess. I can get one-track-minded sometimes. If you asked my cousins, they would tell you I’m always thinking about the second thing before even finishing the first.”

It was my turn to be confused. “That’s weirdly specific. Why your cousins?”

He was clearly straining to hold on to the conversation from the way his face kept shifting back and forth from the line to me. “Me and my cousins are freakishly close. Like, on a disturbing level. Besides, you already met one. Don’t tell me you’ve already forgotten about the wicked witch of the upper east side.”

The blood in my face drained from the amount of sheer belief. “Sabine is your cousin?! Like you both track from the same gene pool?!”

Fox’s eyes went wide looking around to see if my shouting was attracting any attention. “Jesus, woman. You’re at an eleven and I need you at a two. But yeah. Sabine is one of my cousins. And, oh!” He said looking past me as a tall, olive-toned guy walked towards us. “Here comes my other one.”

The closer the guy got, the more beautiful he became. Whatever was in Fox’s gene pool was really working out for him and his cousins. I was so lost in how crazy gorgeous he was, I didn’t even notice when he was right in front of us. “Hey, Fox,” he said in a deep and entrancing voice. His eyes moved from Fox and settled on me. Eye to eye, it was hard to focus on anything other than his grey irises. It was like he was looking into my soul, but really, he was just staring at my dumbass face gawking at him.

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Fox abruptly cleared his throat. “Yo, princess. If you stare at him any harder, you’re gonna peel the skin off his face.”

I gasped from snapping back to reality. “Oh, my god. I am so sorry. I didn’t mean to stare. You just—I mean—who could blame.”

Fox patted me on the shoulder while breathing out a heavy sigh. “Dorian, please meet my new best friend, Lexi. She basically did the same thing to me when we met earlier. So, she is, clearly, attracted to those of the ethnic persuasion.”

I cocked my head back, baffled by his words. “That was borderline racist. Besides, aren’t you white?”

Dorian’s eyebrows shot up. “Here we go.”

The sheer amount of offense on Fox’s face cut through the air as he looked at me. “Excuse me, princess, but for your information, I am three-fourths Native American.”

My face twisted as I contemplated what he had just said. “How can you be three--.”

Dorian started shaking his head. “His dad is Native American. I am half Caribbean. And, Fox,” he said turning to him, “I can’t listen to your heritage rantings, again. Have you seen Sabine? Her mom keeps blowing up my phone looking for her.”

There was the slightest look of hurt on Fox’s face as he reached into his pocket. “What? I didn’t get a--,” his face clearly expressed the light bulb that had gone off in his head. “Oh, right. I left it in my locker, cause I had the craziest sensation that someone was going to knock me to the ground and make me crack my screen.” He finished by settling his gaze on me.

I immediately put a finger up at him. “Really? I’m like five-four and you weigh, what? Over two hundred pounds?”

Dorian put his arm out between me and Fox. “This seems like a really interesting debate that absolutely no one cares about. Sabine?”

Fox didn’t take his eyes off of me. “She’ll be in the music room in about fifteen minutes.”

The grimace that spread across my face couldn’t be helped. “Yikes. You weren’t kidding when you said you were freakishly close to your cousins.”

***

Once done with lunch, Fox and I dumped our trays before heading back into the halls. He was also back to speed walking again. “Hoof it, princess.”

My aggravation was steadily beginning to build. “What is with your obsession with rushing everywhere?”

Fox shrugged his shoulders without slowing down. “I am as god made me.”

I rolled my eyes as I looked over my schedule to see what I had in store next. “Oh, okay. I have a free period next hour.”

We made our way through the halls before finally going through some double doors that led into a large gymnasium. It was completely empty except for a man wearing athletic shorts, a t-shirt, and a baseball cap standing by a bin of varying sports balls.

Fox put his hand on my shoulder to keep me from going any further. “Hold on,” he quickly whispered to me. “So, you may see me acting strange in a few minutes. Just go with it and help me out when you see the opportunity.”

I looked at him like he was losing his mind. “What does that even mean? What is about to happen?”

His face was flushed, and to my disbelief, he looked riddled with anxiety. “That guy over there is the new Assistant Baseball Coach, Mr. James. He’s in his second year at NYU for Athletic Training, and he is possibly the hottest guy I’ve ever seen in this life.” Fox finished by pushing me forward as we moved closer to Mr. James.

I quickly swatted his hands away as my patience was getting thin. “What? Are you jealous, or something, because he’s so han—oh!”

Wow. I have terrible gay-dar, I thought as we walked.

Fox was barely paying attention to me once we were just a few feet away from the coach. “Hey, James.”

The coach looked up from the clipboard in his hands and smiled as soon as he looked up at Fox.

Damn. I don’t blame him. That is one gorgeous man. Mr. James looked a little like Prince Eric from The Little Mermaid, with jet-black hair, big blue eyes complete with a very toned and athletic-looking body.

Mr. James threw the clipboard into the bin of balls before walking up to us. “Well, if it isn’t our star pitcher,” he said before turning to me. “Now, I know I’m new to the school, but I’m really good with faces and I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen you before.”

I paused for a second as I had gotten accustomed to Fox introducing me to everyone, but he was staring like a stalker at the coach. “Uh, I’m Alexia Drake, and yeah, it’s my first day.”

Mr. James gave me a big smile before reaching his hand out to shake mine. “It’s lovely to meet you, Miss Drake. Your judge of character is impeccable because Fox here is as great of a guy as he is at playing baseball. This kid really knows how to throw some curveballs.”

We both turned to Fox, who still did nothing, but stare. Dear, god. And I thought I was a lost cause. I playfully bumped my shoulder against his torso to knock him out of whatever catatonic state he was stuck in. “Yep. He sure is. In fact, I never even would have found the main office if it wasn’t for him. Isn’t that right, Fox?”

Luckily, that did the trick. “Uh, yeah. Well, we happened to bump into each other in the halls, and I knew she was my kind of friend the second she started making fun of me.”

Mr. James smiled from ear to ear as he and Fox exchanged heavy eye contact. The tension could’ve been cut with a butter knife, but instead was interrupted by the sound of students in P.E. clothes entering the gymnasium.

The coach looked over Fox’s shoulder as the moment between them passed. “Alright, go ahead and get changed, Fox. Then you can help me pick teams for today’s class.”

It’s possible I was the only one who noticed, but there was the smallest hint of disappointment on Fox as he nodded before turning to me. “You gonna be alright?”

I showed some sympathy and gratitude with my eyes. “Yes. You’ve been so great to show me around. I think I’ll spend my free period roaming around and getting the lay of the land.”

Fox’s smile didn’t reach his eyes before he turned towards the locker rooms.

Mr. James grabbed his clipboard out of the bin as more students passed us heading towards the locker rooms. “It was really nice meeting you, Miss Drake. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask.”

It was hard to give a genuine smile as I watched Fox slowly walk away.