Great. Fucking great. Just when I thought things were going really well, this had to happen. Fucking detention. I was gonna meet Darren after school today, and he was gonna think I stood him up. Fantastic.

It wasn't my fault, really. I didn't mean to do it - but some small part of me that's still ten years old had control of my brain for a few minutes, and the rat's intestines somehow found their way out of the biology lab and into Lila's makeup case. It was a stupid thing to do, but I couldn't help it. It was the perfect way to get her back for embarrassing Daz at the party. I guess it was just my bad luck that Mr Leichardt came on the scene just as Lila was shrieking like a banshee and caught me laughing so hard I couldn't stand up.

So here I was, stuck in detention for the second time in a week, trying not to think about what Darren must be thinking. I mean, I wasn't really all that worried, but it'd sure piss me off if it was me who was left waiting. I wasn't panicked about not seeing him. I knew I'd catch up to him eventually. I just hate being late for something when I've said I'll be there.

Or so I told myself. Deep inside I knew that was a crock, but it wasn't not exactly cool to admit that I was about to freak out because I was gonna miss seeing him today. Especially when I still wasn't used to the fact that I had the hots for another guy.

I was doodling mindlessly on a sheet of notepaper, avoiding the essay I was supposed to be writing, and wishing I could sneak out past the beady-eyed gaze of Mr Leichardt when we both heard a shuffling noise in the corridor outside. He threw a narrow glance at me as if whatever the disturbance was had to be my fault, and opened the door to investigate. I leaned over so I could see around his stocky form, and my heart sped up a little as I recognised a certain slender figure flash past the doorway in a dead run, blue eyes twinkling as he waved into the room. Darren. I stifled a laugh as I recognised the tune he was yodelling at the top of his lungs. 'Hopelessly Devoted To You.'

"Come back here!" Leichardt yelled. He gave me a look that clearly said, 'Stay put or else!' and headed off down the hall.

I stretched out in the hard student chair, perfectly happy to remain where I was. A broad smile spread over my face. Darren must've heard that I'd been caught this arvo, coz he obviously wasn't waiting for me on the playing field.

I'd only been waiting about five minutes for Daniel when I saw Lila stalking past me on her way home. The look on her face was murderous; clearly she was not happy.

"Hey, Lila. What's up?" I offered. She shot me a filthy look.

"Don't talk to me," she spat. "Your damned boyfriend pissed me off today. The next time I see him I'm gonna scratch his eyes out."

I hid a smile, trying to ignore the warm feeling I got at hearing her refer to Dan as my boyfriend. "What'd he do?" I asked casually, inspecting my fingernails. Daniel, you've ruffled the Demoness's feathers. Very cool.

She huffed. "It doesn't matter what he did. But he is so dead." A sly smile crept over her face as she considered my presence here. "I hope you're not waiting for him. He might be awhile."

I raised my eyebrows. She was trying to make me suspicious, I was sure. "Might he now?"

"Mm-hm," she sang. "He looked kind of - involved - last time I saw him." I rolled my eyes. Could she be more obvious?

"Right. So he's in detention, then," I guessed. She looked disappointed, and I grinned openly. "You really need to work on that insinuating tone, Lila. You're still a little transparent."

She snarled at me and left in a flurry of exasperation. I chuckled as she left, my mind turning instantly back to the important part of what she'd said. Daniel was in detention. So that was why he hadn't turned up yet. I shook my head. What on earth did he do?

Curiosity got the better of me. I decided to go and see where he was, figuring I might as well. I didn't want to have to wait till tomorrow to see him, or to find out how he'd managed to completely spoil Lila's composure.

It didn't take long to track him down. Mr Leichardt held him prisoner in one of the history rooms. I sneaked a quick glance through the window, then skirted around inside the corridor and ducked down to plan. Leichardt was a stickler for 'proper' behaviour on school grounds, no matter what time or day it was. So he probably wouldn't react well to someone running through the halls or something like that. My grin widened. In fact, he'd probably grab anyone who did such a thing and stick them immediately in detention. And wouldn't that be a shame? I thought.

Standing up, I moved back a few metres, scuffing my feet loudly on the floor. The noise echoed off the walls of the hall. Leichardt would definitely hear that. He'd have to investigate.

Two seconds later the door to the classroom clicked open. I took a deep breath, I'm coming, Dan! and dashed down the hall, flashing a grin and a wave at Leichardt as I flew past, singing at the top of my lungs. I caught a glimpse of Daniel's surprised face, then I was skidding around a corner with Leichardt's annoyed voice behind me, yelling at me to stop.

I couldn't believe he actually did it. He came into the room a few minutes later, looking appropriately contrite, Leichardt following behind with a triumphant grin on his pasty face. Daz slid into a seat not far away from me and sent me a quick grin. Hey there, it said. I grinned stupidly back at him.

Leichardt eyed us both. "I have to go and telephone your parents," he told Darren. "I'll be gone exactly five minutes. If I hear any noise while I'm down the hall, you'll both find yourselves in detention for a very long time. Am I clear?"

Sounds all right to me, I thought irreverently. "Yes, sir," was what I said. Darren assumed an expression of sincerity and nodded. The look disappeared as soon as Leichardt stepped out of the room, leaving the door pointedly open behind him.

I almost leaped out of my seat. "What the hell are you doing?" I hissed at him, trying to ignore how fucking pretty he looked. "Are you crazy? Your parents are going to flip!"

Darren grinned, also getting to his feet. "Nah, they'll just think I'm being a normal teenage guy," he replied. "I'll tell them it was a dare or something."

We stared at each other for a moment, neither of us sure what to do next. After our little episode in the paddock a few days back, we were sorta cautious about being alone together. Things tended to get out of hand when that happened.

Finally I allowed my smile to show. "Um, thanks," I said awkwardly. "For coming to the rescue, I mean."

He stepped in closer, brushing against me slightly. "No problem. Anytime." His eyes dropped to my lips for a moment, and I licked them involuntarily in response. Hesitation showed in his eyes as he waited for me to call a halt to the moment.

I held out my hand instead. "Come here." I was still nervous around him, but I wanted to kiss him too much to worry about it now. He was motionless for another split second; then he moved so quickly I nearly fell over, and he was in my arms and kissing me, his lips warm and soft and searching, and I forgot everything else around me.

It was stupid, but I was still unsure about whether or not to touch him. I mean, I knew he liked me as much as I liked him - the incident in the paddock on Monday afternoon had proved that - but he wasn't the type of guy who shouted it to the world. So I was still kinda iffy about approaching him. I was dying to get my hands on him again, though. When he held out his hand, I nearly leaped on him in a mixture of relief and desire.

It felt good to be kissing him again. So good it made me dizzy. I couldn't believe this was really happening. But Daniel's arms were holding me close, one hand sifting through my hair as our tongues played lazily together, and it hit home soon enough. Finally we drew apart, gasping for breath, resting against each other. Daniel's eyes were slightly unfocused with that look of lust that I was quickly coming to love. I ran a hand through his golden hair and smiled at him.

"So what did you do to get stuck in here?" I asked curiously, leaning back against a desk. He grinned in a kinda embarrassed way.

"I sorta … upset Lila," he admitted. "Leichardt caught me in the act."

"I saw her not long ago," I revealed. "She's in a snit - whatever it was you did, it managed to piss her off big time." I nudged him with my foot, tilting my head to one side. "So come on, give us the details. What'd you do?"

Daniel shrugged. "Nothing particularly wild. I just - well … Okay. We dissected a rat in Biology today."

"And?" I prodded.

"And … my rat's intestines sorta found their way into Lila's makeup case," he replied sheepishly. "She found them while they were still warm."

I exploded with laughter at the image. Daniel clapped a hand over my mouth to stifle my giggles. "Shh," he chided. "We're supposed to be quiet, remember? Leichardt will be back any second."

I nodded, flicking my tongue lightly against his palm to taste the saltiness of his skin. He started, pulling his hand back, then shot me a wicked grin. "Stop that. You know I'm ticklish."

I shrugged. "So am I." My mind flashed back again to Monday afternoon in the paddock, and his hands on my chest, and I began to feel a little overheated. Daniel's face told me he was thinking the same thing. Pity we couldn't do anything about it now. I promised myself we'd take it up later, though.

"Okay," I said. "So you scared Lila and got caught. I get that. But why did you do it?"

He flushed a little. "I dunno. It was stupid and immature, but I'm like that sometimes. I wanted to get her back for embarrassing you at the party, and the opportunity was there, so …" He let the words trail off with a small shrug. I stared at him in surprise.

"You did it for me?"

"Well … yeah." His embarrassment was clear on his face. "I mean … I guess so."

I felt a completely sappy smile cover my face. "Thanks." My voice was a little husky. "You didn't have to do that."

He ducked his head. "I know." Green eyes met mine. "But - I wanted to." A shy smile curved his lips.

I melted. I was leaning in to kiss him again when we heard footsteps in the corridor. Daniel rolled his eyes in frustration and squeezed my fingers as we scrambled back into our seats.

Leichardt scowled at both of us when he came back in, but we said nothing. We just sat there in silence for the next hour, each of us sneaking glances at the other when we could. The look on Darren's face had me itching with impatience to get outta there so we could pick up where we'd left off. He could easily become addictive, I realised, but I didn't want to stop. I didn't even know if I could stop.

We were vibrating with energy by the time Leichardt finally let us go, complete with lectures about respecting other people and behaving properly on school grounds. Darren sauntered off in one direction and I headed in the other. As soon as I was out of Leichardt's sight, though, I headed back around to the PA Block.

Darren was waiting for me. He dragged me into an empty drama room. I'd barely gotten inside when his lips were on mine again, and he was kissing me like there was no tomorrow. I got into it very quickly, leaning into him, pulling him close and feeling the incredible heat from his body. We kissed forever, slowly thrusting against each other as we got hard. I knew we were quickly heading into dangerous territory doing this sort of thing, but I couldn't bring myself to care. Darren obviously didn't give a damn either; his fingers were busy unbuttoning my school shirt so he could kiss his way across my chest. I followed his motions, baring his chest and flicking my fingertips over his nipples the way he liked it. He threw back his head and hissed in delight, then kissed me deeply, his hands clutching me close at head and arse.

I almost lost it right there. I had no idea what I was doing, I was just a bunch of raging hormones and Darren was the only thing keeping me on the planet. I needed to have him in the worst way or I'd go insane.

I have no idea how it got out of control so quickly. We were just so horny we lost all sense of reality, our world contracting to contain just the two of us. It wasn't until my hands were pulling his shorts down and he was pushing my shirt off my shoulders that we came back to earth.

"Wait," I gasped, falling away from him. "This is too fast." I pushed shaky hands through my hair and tried to slow my racing heart. I was wavering between need and fear; I'd never come across this sort of feeling before. It scared the hell outta me.

Daniel leaned against the wall of the room, his eyes closed. His chest heaved as he drew deep breaths. I gazed at his handsome face and despite myself, I wanted to kiss him again.

He opened dazed green eyes a second later. "Holy fuck," he muttered. "What are we doing?"

My heart sank. Please God, don't let him freak out. I didn't want to lose him, now that I knew what it was like to hold this golden babe.

"I'm sorry," I offered hoarsely. My voice sounded rusty. I prayed he wouldn't notice the quaver of nerves in it. Please don't take off.

He looked at me in surprise. "What for?"

I gestured helplessly. "Well … this is sorta my fault, and you look kinda upset about all - this." I tried to smile. "I figured you have a right to be pissed at me."

He shook his head, pushing away from the wall. A wry smile curved his mouth. "It's not your fault I've got no self-control," he pointed out. "But it is your fault that you're so fucking gorgeous I can't keep my hands off you."

My mouth opened and closed several times. I never would have expected to hear him say something like that. "Me?" I squeaked. "Gorgeous?"

Daniel nodded. "Yep. Too damn pretty for your own good," he told me. He touched my face, burning my skin. "Makes it too damn hard to concentrate on anything 'cept how much I want to kiss you."

I was speechless. I was dumbfounded. I was also very turned on. He thinks I'm gorgeous.

"Are you outta your mind?" I asked at last. "I'm not gorgeous. Hell, I'm nowhere near as good looking as you are."

He shook his head. "Not to me." His fingers roved lightly over my face, his gaze intent. "I like the way you look. A lot."

I shivered under his touch. This is insane. His deep voice flowed over me like silk, and I was coming very close to being drawn back into the mindless need we'd been lost in a few minutes ago. I backed away from him before it could happen again.

"What?" Daniel asked, his face puzzled.

I shook my head. "You're fucking dangerous," I told him. "Do you have any idea what it does to me when you say things like that?"

His glance flicked down my body. "I've got a fair idea," he said with a grin. I closed my eyes and stifled a groan. He's gonna kill me. I'm dying here.

"You're evil. Come on - let's get outta here before you get us in more trouble. It's getting late."

He followed me outside. We headed towards his house by unspoken agreement. My folks were probably wondering where I was, but I'd call them and tell them I was staying at Dan's place for dinner. His parents were both out of action, his father at work and his mother asleep, so we almost had the place to ourselves in the afternoons, but there was no danger of things getting too out of hand with his mum there.

His words chased each other around in my head as we walked. I like the way you look. Nobody had ever told me that before. I held the feeling of warmth close to me as we walked side by side down the street to his house.

I couldn't believe I'd been so open with him. I'm not a guy who talks a lot about my feelings. In fact, I don't talk a lot, period. But something about Darren wouldn't let me be the cool silent type that I pretended to be, and made it almost impossible for me to keep any distance between us.

I guess I didn't mind too much, but it kinda ruined whatever mystique I'd been creating as 'the new kid' at Mabel Park. Darren simply sidestepped all of that with a single look from those pretty eyes of his, and I was a goner. The thing was, I couldn't bring myself to care. He was turning out to be one of the best things about changing schools. Maybe one of the best things about my life ever.

I figured I'd probably end up telling him that too. But somehow the thought didn't bother me as much as it probably should have. I let that idea knock around in my head for a bit as we walked back to my place, Darren close beside me. A smile curved my mouth as I stole a glance at him. Yeah, I guessed it wasn't too awful.

After all, things could be worse. I could have the hots for Lila.