Daniel pulled at his shirt collar. It was one week in to the new semester and his clothes were already starting to smother him. Sometimes he wished his mother had sent him to that military school she had threatened with, just so he wouldn't have to wear the preppy uniform with North Lakewood's emblem printed all over the front of his jacket.

    He walked in to the common room, hoping to find Fred there. It was hard to believe that Fred could be even flakier than he used to be, but apparently that new chick O'Leary took all the common sense out of him. Daniel had barely seen him at all over the week. This meant more 'quality time' with Kate, who was if possible bubblier than she was before she left for summer vacation.

    Daniel looked around to find someone to give the honor and privilege to get to talk to him. There were a few girls in there, but none of which he was terribly interested in. One or two glared angrily at him from across the room. Seeing old acquaintances were always fun. Or not.

    Suddenly he spotted a familiar face. Well, familiar enough the he remembered her name and where he knew her from, and that was a lot more than he usually recalled. Fred had been so overjoyed by the fact that he would get to introduce O'Leary to some of his actual friends that Daniel had gotten sick of her and her friends before he'd even met them. So far, he hadn't run in to them again and he had forgotten their names as soon as he'd heard them.

    Daniel went over to the round table in the middle of the room, where the girl that had caught his attention was sitting, apparently working on her homework. He sat down at the table next to hers, quickly analyzing her so he could come up with something to talk to her about. She seemed to be unaware by his presence, because she still hadn't looked up from her books. Daniel figured she was pretending not to see him, because most people could sense when someone was paying attention to them.

    Her name was Anna, that much he knew. She was in a few of his classes, but until now he hadn't cared to look at her twice, as Fred had taken all the fun out of meeting O'Leary's friends. Well, maybe that wasn’t entirely true. Even though he had played it cool and merely nodded at her when they were introduced, he had still been unable to notice that she was very pretty. More so than Fred's new crush and whatever name her blonde friend had; they were nothing special – Anna was special, and Daniel's new mission was to get her in to bed, preferably by the end of the weekend. After all, he didn't have much time if he wanted to get through all the new girls before Halloween.

    He had to be careful, though. Fred would kick his ass if he jeopardized the friendship between O'Leary and him. Daniel didn't know what the big deal was anyway, but as long as Fred was caught up in this new girl, Daniel knew he couldn't play around all too much. Another thing to be careful about was Anna and specifically Anna's eyes. Daniel couldn't remember the last time he had been so mesmerized by someone's eyes – if he wasn't careful, he might get lost in them too much and forget when to put an end to the debacle. He wasn't about to find out if Anna's eyes contained the meaning of life, he just wanted to nail her and be able to say that he had.

    Besides, girls who were as beautiful as Anna were often dumber than some animals. Daniel knew that as soon as she would open her mouth, he would grow tired of her and be glad as soon as he could get rid of her. It was some kind of universal code; there were no smart girls at North Lakewood, only girls that were less pretty. Kate hated when he dragged up this theory.

    Anna was in that band that Fred had been talking about at all times when he wasn't off following O'Leary around. Daniel guessed that Anna was a singer; he hadn't been listening whenever Fred mentioned something about them. Daniel couldn't think of a good opening line using that piece of information, though.

    Finally, he decided to just say something. Why was it taking him so long to prepare a speech when he usually never bothered with one? "Hey, I know you," he said simply, drawing her attention away from the books. She looked surprised that he was talking to her. "You're one of…" Uh-oh. What the hell was that little Irish chick's name again? Fred had said it about a million times. "You're in that band," he settled with, knowing it sounded a lot less smooth than he had wanted it to.

    Anna just nodded and went back to her studies. Daniel was confused. Most girls would have struck up a conversation with him at this point. "So, you're still struggling with the history assignment?" he asked, trying not to sound too smug. "You can have my notes if you want, I finished it already."

    "No thanks," she replied disinterestedly. Daniel was more surprised now. She even seemed irritated about his offer. Most girls would have loved to get their hands on his notes. Didn't she know how smart he was?

    This was an unfamiliar feeling. This girl was blowing him off! Who did she think she was? He changed tactics. "I noticed you're not hanging around with anyone special. Maybe I could take you out this weekend?" It was a lot pushier than he had planned, but he had to show his intentions fast so she wouldn't get the wrong impression. If this didn’t cheer her up, he wasn't sure what would.

    Anna turned her eyes to him, looking him over. Daniel almost felt a bit self-conscious. "You know what? I'm not interested," she said firmly, but with a nice tone. "Do you mind? I'm trying to study."

    He had trouble hiding his shock. What the hell was wrong with this girl? Didn't she know who he was? "Look, I could ask anyone, but I asked you-"

    "But I'm not interested," she clarified slowly, like she was speaking to a child. "So if you can ask just anyone, please ask someone else." She was so polite that Daniel hesitated before telling her off. He wanted to somehow let her know how out of line she was for someone who wasn't playing in the same league as he. Something stopped him from tearing in to her, though. He didn't want to humiliate her in front of all the people in the room – well, he kind of wanted to, but he couldn't.

    He realized that he'd been staring at her for a good minute or two before he shook off her rejection. It disturbed him when he knew that it was too late to act like this didn't bother him. Why had he spent so much time just starting at her in shock? "You don't know what you're missing out on," he shrugged coolly.

    "I'm sure you'll tell me about it, though," she muttered tiredly, closing her notebook and putting it in her bag. Daniel was still staring at her in disbelief. Was she actually running away from him now? He looked around. Maybe someone was playing a trick on him or something? Was Kate standing around the corner, giggling at him?

    He tried another approach this time. Damn, this girl wasn't easy to impress. "Look, you're new here, so I feel obligated to take you out and show you a good time," he explained, flashing her his most charming smile.

    Anna smiled back, but before Daniel could write it off as a success, she said: "This is my second year at this school. And I already told you I'm not interested."

    "What, you're busy or something?" he asked, unable to conceal his annoyance. "Take my number, maybe you're free some time next week?" Why was he so desperate to ask this girl out when she clearly wasn't worth the trouble?

    Anna got up from her chair. "Sorry, I don't have a pen," she said as she threw her pen case into her bag. "Bye."

    Daniel could clearly see a grin on her face as she walked away from him, without as much as looking in his direction. This was the first time a girl had seriously turned him down, and he didn't like the feeling at all. This meant war. An outspoken, dirty war.

    He could forget about her, sure. There were tons of other girls he could ask out. Yeah, who did she think she was, Anna Eukovich? She wasn't too good for him, but she acted like she was the head cheerleader or something. What was up with that?

    Daniel decided to shake it off and just forget entirely that Anna existed in the world. It couldn't be so hard, could it?

    He rested his head against his arm, continuing to wait for Fred to show up. No one around him seemed to have noticed his obvious defeat, and he wasn't about to go around mentioning it to people either. He'd already forgotten most of it, actually. Yeah, he could barely remember Anna's name anymore.

    He moaned silently to himself when he realized that not only did he know her name, but he actually knew her last name, too.

    This was just trouble waiting to happen.