Biker Class (9 page)

"Are you chickening out, man?" Lawson asked in a
disapproving tone, one that he knew would fire up his biking prodigy. Jake sat
up straighter on his log, eyes fiery.

"No." It was stated as a fact.

"Then don't back down from this," he said immediately,
commandingly, throwing a glass bottle full of beer into an unexpecting Jake's
chest. He caught it roughly, grunting at the impact, rubbing the spot where it
hit only for a moment.
But
only
for a moment.
Lawson locked eyes with the youngest of the group, challengingly. Everything
seemed to go quiet. Even the waves seemed to come to a standstill, afraid of
the man himself. "I want to see this, dude. I want
you
to have your
first real…" he seemed to search for the word "…
frenzy
."

"I–"

"Don't
hesitate
on this, Jake." Lawson said the 'H'
word like it was scum. "Once you get little sweetheart to go at it with
ya, I want to hear about it." His eyes drilled into Jake's with inhuman
force. "I want to
know
you did it. Without doubting you."

Sure, to some this might seem a little extreme, but this was the moment
of truth. Jake was a
Senior
in high school, eighteen
years old, reaching
that
age.
The one where he would
become a permanent member of their little group.
It was where he could
prove himself to all of them, most importantly Lawson. It was almost an initiation.
It's always subconsciously decided what it would be and challenged by the
implied leader of the gang. The food chain came knocking, and Jake was about to
answer that call and try and move up. Lawson had done it, and a year afterwards
so did Rod and Rage. This was Jake's time to shine, and he wasn't backing down.

Without thinking it over, he stood up, not off balance like the rest
of them. He stuck out his hand to a superior-looking Lawson, who looked down on
him without any trace of humor. A malicious, calculating smile spread across
his rugged features. Lawson grabbed Jake's hand with force, shaking it once
firmly.

"We have a deal, Jakey boy."

Melanie put her pencil down, finishing the assignment Mr. Payne had
just given her. She looked up to see all her other classmates socializing with
each other, completely ignoring the one page report they were supposed to be
writing. Melanie looked to them in disappointment. Were all teenagers in
California like this? Do they all think school is a waste of time? Sure, there
were people in Wisconsin like that, Melanie thought.
But this
much?
History was a fascinating subject to Melanie. And Mr. Payne was a
fascinating teacher. Melanie was always deeply interested in his stories of
ancient times, while the other kids all had a glazed look in their eye, or were
sleeping on their desk.

"Class!" Mr. Payne roared. Melanie had noticed that Mr.
Payne did have a tendency to yell a lot, mostly due to his excitement about
history. He was a history fanatic, and was member of the History Channel Club
(even
she
wasn't that dorky, though). Most of Melanie's classmates hated
him, especially because of his yelling. It woke every sleeping student in the
hallway. Now, all the children who were chatting with their friends or napping
on their desk jolted up in surprise. Melanie covered her mouth to keep from
laughing.

"Have
any
of you even
started
my assignment?"
he asked with a frown.

Melanie raised her hand promptly, proud of her competence. About three
other children wobbled their hand up, some that had not heard him and were
simply raising it for no reason, and some who had started a sentence and then
got sidetracked.

Mr. Payne shook his head. "You children should be ashamed of
yourselves. I've given you an
hour,
and no one has finished it?"

"I have, Mr. Payne," Melanie said. All the teenagers turned
to look at her and smirked. Someone even muttered "nerd" and
"teacher's pet". Mr. Payne, however, smiled widely and pointed to
her, proudly.

"See!" he shouted. "Miss Monroe has only been in my
classroom for a few weeks and she has proven to be my best student!" He
grinned at Melanie. "You should all take a page out of her book."

Suddenly, the bell rang. All the children immediately got up and tried
to leave the classroom, but Mr. Payne stopped them.

"Wait!" he yelled. "All of you have homework. Finish my
assignment. Whoever doesn't will have a detention with me
tomorrow.
Melanie," he called to her, smiling. "You have no homework.
A reward for actually doing your work.
Class
dismissed."

Melanie's classmates glared at her in anger. Melanie smiled at them
sheepishly. She couldn't help but be proud of herself, though. She had always
been called and known as a teacher's pet. But that was who she was, and she
loved it. Grabbing her books, she stood up from her desk and walked out of the
room with her classmates.

"Melanie!" Rachel called, noticing her in the hallway. Melanie
smiled and strode over to her friend.

"Rachel!" she greeted. "What's up?"

"Nothing much," Rachel shrugged. "But Jake was being
weird in class today." She closed her locker door with a
clang!

Melanie's heart rate picked up double-time at the mention of his name.
She hated talking or even
thinking
about him, but she couldn't help but
be curious. Rachel knew it was best not to mention him around Melanie, so if
she did it must be somewhat important. "Uh, w-weird how?"

"Like…" Rachel seemed to search for words, watching Melanie
cautiously. "He wasn't being his normal trouble-making, back-talking self.
He was… pretty quiet.
It's like he wasn't even there
,
it was so weird
. The few times I worked up the nerve to
glance over, he was out of it. Thinking or something"

"
Him
?" Melanie questioned. "Psh, p-probably
about girls wearing nothing or close to it." She couldn't help but crinkle
her nose in disgust.

"I know!" Rachel exclaimed, rolling her eyes in repulse as
well. "I was thrown for a loop. But you're probably right. He must have
something
on his mind."

"Maybe… m-maybe it's on which girl to mess around with
today," Melanie suggested, staring at her feet.

Rachel laughed, trying to lighten the mood, and walked with Melanie to
their next class.

***

Jake was stressed.

He hated to admit it– hated to
think
of it, really–
but he couldn't help it. This whole deal with Lawson he had agreed to
was
making him anxious. Stupid pressure.

Why did he agree?

The thought of making his friends proud– this would definitely
make them proud– made him feel full of confidence. When he pictured a
pleased Lawson– and
just
a pleased Lawson– it seemed like a
fairly simple task. Rod and Rage would have no problem with this.
But Melanie?
Really?
Her?

How could he get
her
to do
that
? It was pretty much
unspeakable. Little Miss Hot Sunshine wouldn't even think of doing something
so…
bad
, so undignified. She was probably one of those crazies who
thought abstinence until marriage was the way to go. Which is what would make
his friends even more proud: to get such a goody-goody to do that shows that he
would definitely be good enough to
permanently
become one of them. Even
though he hung out with them and was accepted, he was still only the youngest.
He was eighteen now. He had something to prove. But the things
they've
done...

What has to be done, has to be done
, Jake thought. But
how could he find an answer to all of this madness? There was no way she would
let him do
anything
to her, let alone play around. What was the solution
to all of this? How could he make her crack without using force (which was what
bothered him most about all of this, for some reason)
.

He had to make her trust him first. Make her think that he actually
cared about her, and she would be more willing. But how could he use his charm
without totally giving away what he was trying to do? If he brought out his
seduction side, she would instantly catch on and the game would be over. Done.
And he didn't even want to consider option two, because there
was no
option three. If worse came to worst, he would…

He needed her trust.

Jake wondered. What could he do? Maybe be more chivalrous? 'Chivalry'
was not his thing. That was for guys who were whipped! And if people saw him
being
chivalrous
, his rep would be on the line. And he wouldn't let this
bet run over into his life. Maybe just not pinning her against a wall and
pulling on her skirt could be step one. That's all he was willing to do.

For now, at least.

***

"Hey, Melanie?" Rachel said. "I gotta go now, my mom's
here. Talk to you later, ‘kay?"

They were both outside at the pavilion, waiting with all the other
kids who didn't drive to school today. Besides them were some freshmen and
sophomores. Not many
Seniors
didn't have a car. Talk
about embarrassing.

"Okay!" Melanie smiled. "Bye, Rachel! I'll see you
tomorrow!"

She waved to Rachel who hopped in a white convertible and drove off. Melanie
looked around, realizing she knew no one else. She felt a bit uncomfortable,
twisting her hands in her lap. She felt a buzzing in her pocket, startling her
momentarily, and read the message.

From: Mom

Call back: 555-2919

Melanie! Sorry about this, but I have to make a meeting in five
minutes so I can't pick you up. Get your friend Rachel to, kay? See you soon,
honey. Love you.

Melanie's mouth fell open. Why couldn't she have checked this five
minutes ago, when her friend Rachel left with her mom? She groaned, and slammed
her cell phone to her head in frustration. She quickly pulled it away and
whimpered in pain. Maybe that wasn't the smartest idea. But before she could
call Rachel to plead for her to turn around and get her, she felt a tap on her
shoulder. She whipped around and gasped.

"Hey," said the smiling face of Jake Dylan Cooper.
Correction: the
smirking
face of Jake Dylan Cooper.

He seemed even taller and even scarier today, clad in black and
looking smugly down at her, no humor in his eyes. She frowned; no, scowled.
Those blue eyes weren't dark, but she could say just one thing, make one move,
and they would swell with darkness. She took a deep breath, the past echoing in
her mind.

"You heard about Bad Jake, did you? Well, you can't believe
everything you hear. Not all of it's true." Jake seemed to reconsider,
shrugging to himself as if it was no big deal. "Well, most of it is."

"I– I… um…" Melanie couldn't speak, her knees shaking
(which were covered in skinny jeans today, thank goodness. Now he would have no
skirt to pull her by like in her nightmares). "I need to get to
c-class…"

"Oh, please, one little class?" he questioned, rolling his
eyes and stepping closer to her, making her step a step backwards.
"Nothing to worry about. You need to get out more. Have fun." Melanie's
eyes widened as his proximity dwindled to about 2 inches, causing her to back
against the lockers in an attempt to get away. "
We
could
have some fun…"

He came closer, placing a hand on the lockers by each side of her
head, trapping her. His eyes showed dark hunger; her eyes showed nothing but
intense fear.

Speechless from fear for what seemed like the billionth time, her
mouth opened and closed in unintelligible words. He smirked, but then, out of
the blue, his face was wiped completely blank of any smirk, smug look, or curl
of the lips. He grimaced. But with further inspection, Melanie realized that it
was supposed to be a smile. Like, a
real
smile. He was trying to look
genuine. She was instantly suspicious on top of being afraid. Not a good
combination.

"So, uh, Mun–
Melanie
, do you… um… do you need a
ride?" he raised his eyebrows as his grimace
slightly
began to look
a bit less forced.
But by no means convincing.

"Uh… no, no," she shook her head vigorously, managing to
stutter out her reply. Melanie used all of her willpower not to run back into
the safety of the school or sink to the ground, begging for mercy.
Pffft, that
would be overreacting.

Which she was seriously considering resulting
to.

"You're friend just drove off and your message said you needed to
hitch a ride," he said persuasively, grimacing a larger 'smile'.

"No… no, I'm– I'm fine," Melanie shook her head again,
becoming afraid that she might actually
have
to accept. It was either go
with him or stay at the school almost half of the night until her mother's
meeting was over, and no telling what… or
who
would come along then. She
was stuck between a rock and a hard place here! "Whoa, how– how–
were you
reading
my message?"

He scoffed. "I'm not a stalker! You're just that obvious."
After a moment of spontaneous thought, he tried to smile charmingly again,
adding, "
Melanie
."

She bit her lip, not knowing what to say.

"What are your other options?" he demanded of her, sticking
his hands in his dirty jean pockets and raising his eyebrows.

"I could just– I'll j-just call Rachel," Melanie said
more to herself than to Jake, looking down at her iPhone and unlocking the
screen, about to dial a number.
Her cell phone's screen was
suddenly covered by a hand, making her heart stop as her head snapped up to
stare at him with question
.

"You really want to bother her?" he breathed in a quiet
voice, silky, making her nervous. "She's halfway home by now."

"She– she wouldn't mind," Melanie convinced herself,
yanking the phone away from his covering hand and about to dial again. He
pushed her cell dismissively down, to her dismay.

"How close do you live, babe– Melanie?" he asked,
strained.

"About… about twenty minutes," she replied hesitantly,
biting her lip once more. Avoidance plan: NOT WORKING!

"It won't take long," he tried to persuade her, lightly
touching her elbow. Fright surged through her. It must have shown on Melanie's
face, because after a smirk that lasted for a fraction of a second, his hand
snapped to his side and he exhaled sharply. "I'm not going to
try
anything, if that's what you're thinking."

What shocked her is that that particular sentence did not looked
forced like his 'smile'. It didn't sound restrained like his 'persuading'. It
came across as stating a fact. It was hard to doubt his tone. And unless he
suddenly became an exquisite actor, it seemed like he was
telling the truth
.
And Jake trying something was the whole reason why every fabric of her being
screamed 'no'.

When she didn't answer, he repeated it. "Melanie, I am
not
going to try anything. Swear." She looked up at him, searched his eyes
with no fear when she saw that they were not dark, and finally uttered the word
that sealed her life-influencing fate.