So, maybe I had intended to get to bed early last night. And maybe I had intended to do homework instead of painting until the small hours of the morning. But, as my feet thudded along the pavement and Late, late, late thudded in my head along with them, I decided that I should probably stop lying to myself.

The roads were wet with melted snow. I leaped the snowbanks on either side as I crossed over to the high school, which was tiny despite serving all of the mountain communities in a ten-mile radius. To be fair, our town was the biggest and it still only had a couple thousand people.

I knew I was heading straight into a detention handout. The third late in a week - I was surprised my English teacher let me away with even the first.

The little wooden door stood open and I almost ran straight into someone stepping out of it. He moved to the side faster than I could blink, but still his face was a mask of shock. At the same time, I felt a pull in my chest so strong that it nearly knocked me backwards. My stride faltered. What the hell was that?

I turned to find him staring at me with an expression matching my racing thoughts. We stood in silence for a moment, brains short-circuiting, before I stammered out an apology and took to my heels again. I rounded the next corner so fast, I almost slammed into a row of lockers.

Well, that was officially weird. I filed it under 'things to over-analyse later' before collecting myself and calmly walking into the classroom.

Honestly, I didn't see the big deal about being a few minutes late to class, but unfortunately my teacher did not share that opinion. Her glare could have killed a more bothered student than I, but luckily I couldn't really care less. I took my seat and gave her a sweet smile as I kicked back.

"Miss Stone," she said in a tone dripping with disapproval. "Late again. See me after class, please."

I sighed. "Yes, Ms Lyle." Detention incoming - I had half a mind to run before the class even finished.

Before I could formulate an escape plan, the door swung open and a tall figure stepped inside. He was built like a football player, with cropped brown hair and a nervous expression as he tentatively shut the door. Ms Lyle's signature glare softened at his appearance and she almost cracked a smile. Almost. The day she really did that, the Earth would stop turning.

"Ah, you must be the new student! Ryder Dallas?"

"That's me," he said warmly. His voice was smooth and deep - I could see him charming half the girls by the end of the day. Hell, by lunchtime.

When I looked at his face, though, I found he was staring straight at me.

The tug in my chest made itself known again. I sat stiffly in my seat, feeling fidgety under the weight of his gaze, trying to keep my expression blank.

"Sorry I'm late," he said after a moment and it took me a second to realise he wasn't talking to me. His gaze switched back over to Ms Lyle, but I could have sworn that it took him a bit of effort to do it. "I forgot something from my car and had to run back and get it. I guess I lost my way when I came back..." The way he rubbed his neck bashfully and looked up through long lashes was played to perfection. Ms Lyle practically melted.

"It's perfectly alright," she assured him, her mouth dangerously close to smiling. "Take a seat and I'll begin the class."

Now, there were only two free seats in the class - one in front of me, and one two rows behind. As Ryder's eyes locked onto me again, I had a fairly good idea which one he would choose. My heart sank.

"Hey," he said as he sat down in front of me, twisting in his seat. My eyes flicked briefly to his own, registering their warm honey-brown, before resuming their forward stare. "Hi," I answered with a smile that was barely there. It seemed to throw him off and he turned back towards the front, frowning.

I felt an unexpected twang of guilt at his kicked-puppy expression. Maybe I wasn't as social as I should be. But so what? The guy was unnerving me.

Luckily, he didn't bother me for the rest of the lesson. He did have a lot of catching up to do - arriving two months after the start of the year left him with a whole stack of work. Watching the handouts pile up on his desk, I almost felt sorry for him.

Not sorry enough to stick around, though. As soon as the bell rang I was on my feet and making a beeline for the front of the class before he could try to start a conversation. I tried not to feel bad about it.

Even after the room had emptied out, Ms Lyle still took a few moments before looking up, apparently engrossed in the sentence she was writing. It was something she liked to do, and I let her have the little moment to herself. It couldn't be easy being a teacher - you had to get your fun from somewhere. Even if her way was kind of lame.

"Miss Stone," she said finally. She was the only teacher who insisted upon calling us by our surnames. "Today was your third late this week and you know that isn't acceptable. I'm afraid I'll have to give you detention and hope that you won't be making this a habit."

She must have thought I was going to sink to my knees, begging to be let off, because she seemed surprised when I didn't actually care that much.

"Okay, cool," I said with a shrug.

She raised an eyebrow at my choice of words. "And I'll be overseeing your punishment."

"Alright."

"Well then. In that case, I'll see you at the end of the day."

"See you then!" My words drifted back through the doorway, already being left behind as I high-tailed it out of the room.

***

The rest of the day passed uneventfully. Ryder only seemed to be in my English and chemistry classes, and I did my best to hide away at lunch. But then detention rolled around and, to my utmost surprise, the boy himself walked in.

"We meet again," he said with a grin, sliding into the seat next to me. "What you in for?"

Ah, may as well be civil. "Late. You?"

"History. I asked someone for a pen and got detention for it."

"Yeah, the teacher's pretty rough sometimes," I chuckled. "Everyone thinks he's permanently hungover."

He smiled that heart-melting smile. "I could see it. Poor guy."

Before he could say anything more, the door creaked open and Ms Lyle strode in. Her usual wasp-like expression was the first thing I checked for, of course. Had to make sure she was keeping up tradition and not going soft now that Ryder was here.

She was as pissed as any of us to be here and just told us to do homework for an hour. The other kids in the class whispered and fidgeted, but Ryder and I got on with our work. He had enough to get through, and I just took it as an opportunity to work now and relax later.

About halfway through, Ms Lyle stood up and left, leaving the door ajar. After a moment, Ryder leaned over to me and whispered, "Do you think she practices that expression in the mirror?"

I couldn't help it - I burst out laughing. It was so unexpected and so stupid that I couldn't do anything else, even if it wasn't actually that funny. He leaned back in his chair with a smile.

My laughter was just dying away when the teacher walked back in. "I'm glad that you're taking detention so seriously," she remarked but said nothing more. For some reason, though, her glare didn't look as stony as usual. And I didn't know she was even capable of sarcasm - how strange.

No matter what benevolent transformation she might have been going through, I didn't wait around once the hour was up. Ryder hastened after me, beating the other kids to the door, and I slowed my pace only slightly. His long legs quickly covered the distance between us.

"You off home?" he asked casually and I raised an eyebrow.

"Obviously. Why?"

"I mean, if you want a ride, I... have a car..." He trailed off and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. He really had the adorable look down. It was almost endearing, if I didn't remember how well he had pulled the same move in class earlier.

"I live, like, ten minutes away. I'll walk. Thanks, though." I couldn't help the smile tugging at my lips. He was undeniably attractive, something that made me immediately distrust him, yet his expression was so soft. He was main character material, talking to someone like me - and here he was, actually having the grace to look shy.

"Oh," he said in a small voice. "I'll, uh... I'll see you tomorrow then." He all but sprinted off and I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing.

There was something else, though. As he drove away with a wave, I had to fight the inexplicable urge to take off after him.