Loving You

I was waiting quietly outside my new high school. A cold, hard gust of November's wind struck me in the face, and my cheeks turned crimson. I noticed the students coming in the doorways and talking away. The school was very big. In reality, there was a big underestimate. It's been ginormous.

Before taking a deep breath and stepping in, I paused at the door. I was going to be a new girl, a sad girl. I didn't have any friends since I left them all in New Zealand. I wasn't used to the harsh weather of Alaska. I didn't like it at all. I decided to go back home to my beach house and soak in the salt water with my surfboard floating beside me. I needed the sensation of sand between my toes and the sound of waves smashing against the cliffs.

I decided to go back to my dad in particular.

My parents were divorced right in the middle of the school year. But instead of living in a good, warm country, my mom and I were forced to travel all the way to the other side of the country.

I mean, I loved my mom and all, but she's always been busy working late at night, and she's never been home. It's like living on my own.

"Move, " I was knocked to the left when a kid pushed by me to kindergarten. I was going to punch him, but it wasn't the right idea.

I finally got to school and followed the paper map in my hand to the office. The ceilings were over me, and the kids were crawling up the stairs. I heard the bell toll, and all of a sudden the corridors were empty and dark. I entered the doors of the office.

"Hello?" I replied, as I walked in. The walls were lined with red couches and a lady was seated behind the desk.

"Hi, how may I help you?" she asked.

"Uh, I'm new here. I was just wondering where my classes were..."

She hopped up from behind her desk and smiled a lot. I saw the grey hair popping out of her bun.

"Oh! Here, I'll show you!" I followed the over-excited woman out of the room.

She spoke about the halls and all the teachers and the school activities before we entered the classroom at the end of a long corridor. The plaque outside of the door read 'Mrs. Keller's.

She grinned as she opened the door, and I followed her inside. Immediately, all the students' heads shook at me with interest. I just looked at the teacher, ignoring both of them.

"Attention class, this here is..." she looked at me questioningly.

"Hailey." I responded.

"Ah, yes! This is Hailey! She will be a new student and is joining your class. Please let her feel welcome." Then she smiled, patted my back and left.

I glanced back and at the instructor at last.

They all glared at me until I was seated in my seat. I hated education, I really hated school. I really haven't got the point. I've always missed classes at my old school to do random activities. Oh, there were a lot of arrests, so I didn't notice. If living your life means having to get into trouble, then heck, yeah.

I leaned back, resting my legs on the desk next to me. I was zoned out when the instructor started to talk about some kind of war. It was going to be a busy day.

Suddenly, I was broken out of my head by opening the gates. A kid came in there. Immediately seeing that he was looking pretty fine, I shook my head and sunk back to my seat.

He had dark hair that looked lighter than clouds with tufts caught in a messy yet sexy way. His brown eyes held secrets to them, and when he glanced around the class, they suddenly settled on mine.

"Mr. Frost, why are you late?" asked the coach. His eyes were staring over at her.

"I'm sorry Mary, " he said, calling her in her first name. "I was busy."

"Busy with what I may ask?"

"You're better off not knowing." And then he winked at her. Ok, I rolled my eyes.

"Sit down." she growled, and then returned to her speech about people's dead past.

I stepped out again and started messaging on my phone in my lap.

Derick: I'm missing you, Hailey. :(

Hailey: I miss you, too, G. Maybe you will come and see me this summer!

Derick: I doubt it. My parents are dreaming about a holiday to Europe. You would be able to come with us. Oh, Lol

Hailey: I wish, but remind your parents that I miss them as well. Yeah, Miss you! Xoxo's

Derick: Well, I'm going to babysit the neighbors again. Miss you too:)

I switched my phone off and immediately realized that the boy who was late was staring at me. He took the desk with my legs on it, and he smirked.

"Texting your boyfriend?" he replied.

"Nope. I'm texting your mom."

He lifted his eyebrows, then widened his grin. "You should watch your tongue missy."

"And is that a choice for you to make?" I snapped back.

He smiled and sat back in his chair. "I'm Ethan."

I was looking back at him. "Hailey."

"Hm..." he said to him.

"What does that mean?"

He stared at me. "What does what mean?"

I chuckled gently. "What does 'hm' mean?"

"It just means that there aren't many people I know named Hailey. Actually, there are none."

I switched to face the class front. "There's a first for everything."

He wasn't talking to me for the remainder of the semester, and I wasn't talking to him. I caught him glancing over a couple of times, but I behaved as if I was engrossed in the conversation that Mrs. Keller had with the history book.

It's been a day in a blur. Ethan was with me in two other schools. He was pretty much the only guy I've ever met at this school.

I used to strike back in New Zealand. Like a sort of fight boxing. It was fun, and I certainly got better every day, so I wanted to go to a nearby gym near my house to join me.

I thought I was going to jog because it was just a mile and a half away. The landscape was pretty, I suppose, but in the evening I really skipped my normal run along the sand. I didn't have a way to go in the morning. If you had to wake me up by 9:00 a.m., there will be hell to pay.

I eventually got to the old warehouse. The walls were foggy, and the bricks were dark brown-red. I stepped out of the steel doors and looked about.

All I could see was the guys. They're all different shapes. Big, short, stocky, slim, imposing, weak. As I walked past them to the back of the warehouse, both of them turned their heads and stopped what they were doing.

Silently, I put my head down and walked by them, praying that neither of them would speak to me. Unfortunately, one of them came up and barred my way.

"What're you doing here?" he asked. His tall frame made me look up in his dark gray eyes. He wasn't ugly, but he wasn't hot either. The muscles that appeared to be the mountains bulged out of his arms.

"Training" I said in a 'duh' accent, trying to side with him, but he just barred my path again.

"Girls aren't allowed, " he looked at me head to toe shamelessly, "especially weak ones."

That was it, man. I smoked with rage, and with all my might, I punched his jaw. His head shot back sharply and blood ran out of his lip. I kneeled him in the groin, and he collapsed to the floor, gasping and covering himself in agony.

"Don't call me weak you fucking moron." Then I walked by him to the empty punching bag in the back corner.

Nobody dared to speak to me about it.

-The POV of Ethan-

After the last hour of training, I climbed onto my bike and zoomed in to the combat warehouse. This is where I was able to clear my head.

It was a busy day with girls endlessly tossing themselves at me and kissing my butt. I was so used to the fact that I was literally unstoppable.

My hands were painful to punch and let out all my tension.

I stepped in to rest when the sight I saw made me pause.

Hailey struck Kennedy right in the jaw, then in the groin. I winced and looked at each other in wonder and frustration.

Will she fight?

I didn't know what to do of it. I realized that she was a bit different from everyone else. She had that dark, bad vibe coming out of her.

I was so impressed by it.

She stabbed to the back of the gym, and I saw all the guys looking at her. They were terrified of her, and I was, frankly, too. But just a little bit.

I made sure she wasn't going to see me, and then I went over to get a drink of water. She stripped off her sweater with just a sports bra beneath. I couldn't help looking down at her toned figure.

What the fuck?

I shook my head and dismissed my feelings.

-The POV of Hailey-

I stripped off my jacket and pulled up my dark hair on my ponytail. The band turned for the second time, but then abruptly snapped. I was groaning in pain.

Curse my scary heavy fur.

I switched to my bag to get another hair band, but then jumped slightly to see Ethan leaning against the wall.

"Are you stalking me?" I asked.

He smiled and moved his weight on his other knee. "Whatever floats your boat, babe." Did he just name me 'babe?' That son of a bitch.

"Then what are you doing here?"

He stood up straight and walked over to the bench where I stood. "I could ask the same for you."

"I asked first."

"Fine, " he said with a sigh, "I practice here.

I lifted my eyebrows and crossed my arms over my shoulders, suddenly conscious that I was wearing only a sports bra and shorts.

"Why are you here?" he asked.

"I just started training here." I responded.

He stared at me, then he grinned. "Need some help training?"

I scoffed and turned around, tying my hair with my new hair band. "No thanks. I'm done taking orders from amateurs."

Before leaning back against the wall, he frowned at me. I looked at him, and he waved his hand. "Go on."

I rolled my eyes and turned back to my punching bag. Taking my stance, I got ready to start swinging hits when I was distracted by an irritating voice.

To be precise, his irritating voice.

"You need to have more weight on your back leg." he said. I turned around and smiled at him. He had the nerve to wink at him.

"Excuse me?" I said.

"Your weight, " he said, "it needs to be more on your back leg. You're depending too much on your front foot."

He took the same approach that I was in. "See? If you stand like you are now, you'll topple over. Lean back the weight..."

"Thanks, but I don't need a coach." I said. But even though I was trying to sound irritated, I realized he was right. He smiled at me with a grin, and I rolled my eyes inwardly. I felt a little foolish to let him stand there and watch me as I slammed my fists in the bag.

I had the face of Ethan appear on the bag in front of me visually, and I punched it with all my strength.

That dumb little boy... (punching)

Who the heck does he think he is? (punching)

Asking me what to do with this... (punching)

"Whoa, don't go breaking your knuckles and the bag sweetheart, " his voice disrupted my thoughts.

I stopped, and I stared at him. "Could you possibly not be here and not criticize me?" I asked.

"What would be the fun in that cutie?"

Did he just name me that?

I staggered over to him, shoved my fist against his strong chest. "Listen up, punk. I don't care how you spend your time. Whether it's banging up a few girls or partying all night, I don't care, but I will not, I repeat, will not let you smirk around and act all smug and cocky towards me. Your first impression for me wasn't good, and frankly, first impressions are extremely important. So great job. I now think of you as a pathetic son of a bitch."

His face was pale and emotionless. His mouth was partially open and he was as stiff as a pin. I changed my heel, took my purse, and stormed out of the gym. I should have sworn that the steam was blowing out of my face.

Guess I'm never going to train here again.

Yesterday, when I got home from the gym, I took a relaxing long bath and relaxed. It hurt my brain to disagree with Ethan, because I was sick of his attitude. He was so arrogant and narcissistic that I was just wanting to hit him in the chest. I'm definitely going to have another day...

After shifting, I sighed and lay down on my bunk. Unfortunately, I had to admit that he was sexy. Scratch, he wasn't attractive, he was really attractive. Those brown eyes and soft hair could attract a girl from miles away, but not me.

I actually fell asleep, the last thought of Ryder's dumb face...

"Sorry!"

A girl ran into me and jammed my finger into the door of the locker. Ouch, guy.

Before I could turn around and say it was all right, she interrupted me.

"Pl-please don't hurt me, " she pled over her face with her fingertips.

I lifted my eyebrow. "Why would I hurt you?"

She looked out from under her arms and looked at me with cautious eyes. "Well, because th-what that's you do. Fight people."

How the heck did she know I was fighting?

But I was telling her. "What do you mean?"

"The video, about you, it's all over YouTube."

I sighed, and I glanced around. A lot of people began to form a circle around me and the child. What kind of video? I stared at some of the people videotaping, and they immediately put their phones back in their pockets.

"Look, I don't know what you're talking about, but I don't beat people up."

"Are you sure?"

I was scoffing. "Yeah, never been surer. Why?"

"Well, the video is of you beating up a big guy at a gym. And another of you yelling at... Ethan"

Last night, I actually recalled the little inconvenient point. There was a gasp from the audience as they hurriedly clicked their phones to watch the footage.

"Here it is!" shouted one man, and a sort of people circled around his phone.

I advanced past a couple of them and stood next to the man. There was a blurry video played on his computer. And what I saw made me cry.

It was me, man.

Beating the man in the gym.

And then it was switched...

To me, to fight with Ethan.

The POV of Ethan

I can't believe she had the nerve to talk to me like that. What the heck does she think she is? Shoving me in the chest and asking me what to do with it.

Today, I wanted to ditch school and go to work instead. The gym was where I could do something, and I feel like I could do something about it.

But for Hailey. My mind said that.

I dismissed my thoughts and pressed towards the entrance. I turned around right away to make sure that Hailey wasn't here. Am I afraid of her? No, no. Not me, man.

Since yesterday, I was curious about what she said. Yeah, I'm a cocky man, but that's who I am. But the fact that she called me a pitiful one...

I haven't been able to let her get away with this one.

No one, and I mean no one, is talking to me like that. If you do, you're calling for a wish to die.

But, uh, Hailey...

I don't know what happened to me. It may have been her closeness, or maybe it was her intimidation. I don't know why. But all I can know is that it will never happen again.

I pushed past the door and made my way to the back of the gym. Yesterday, she used my hitting back. Mine, guy. There was certainly a hell to pay for.

I took my top off as Feliciano Bozzili's voice came up next to me.

"Hey bro, haven't seen you in a while, " he said.

I hit his back and dragged him in for an embrace. "Hey Feliciano! Where've you been?"

"Back in Italy, fighting off the burglars, you know?"

"That's great man, how's Giana?"

Suddenly, he grew depressed and shrugged. "I don't know, man. I proposed to her, but I guess she freaked and ran off."

I patted the back of him. "It's okay bro, she doesn't deserve a man like you."

We laughed for a bit before Feliciano took his phone out. "I didn't know you had a girl of your own, Ethan."

I sighed and stared at what he was doing. "What do you mean?"

He pointed to a video that was playing on his phone. "This one."

I saw the video playing with horrifying humiliation. Hailey pulled me back, pointed her fist in my face, and now she was debating with me. I could hear every word of it.

"What the hell?" I turned back to my punching bag and smashed my fist against it. "Who posted that?"

He shrugged, guy. "I dunno man, but she seems scary. But she's hot. Nice job, bro."

No, no, no, it was certainly not a fun work. I bet they all saw that at school. Now they know there's someone out there who can relate to me like that. Fuck, man.

I took my things, didn't bother to train today, and walked back to the gate.

"Sorry Felix, I'll see you later!" I shouted back to him.

"Where you going?"

I pulled the door open with a bang.

"I'm going to find Hailey."