My chest heaved violently and a hiccup escaped my lips. Noah, Luke, and Chloe all gave me a startled look. I grinned at them sheepishly, and another violent hiccup shook my body. “Have the hiccups?” Luke asked rhetorically.

            “Unfortunat—hic.” I clapped a hand to my mouth, wincing as another hiccup tore through me.

            Luke smirked. “You know, scaring is the best way to get rid of them.”

            Another hiccup went through me, and I shook my head. “They’ll go away eventually.”

            “Yeah, eventually,” Noah commented with a shrug. “But sometimes they just—

BOO!” he shouted suddenly, throwing his hands at me.

            I gave him a flat look, and another hiccup escaped my mouth. “Nice try.”

            Noah frowned. “I just wanted to help.”

            “Thank you for that,” I responded, grinning at him.

            Luke chuckled to himself, shaking his head at me. Chloe looked like she wasn’t sure whether to be amused or not.

            “BOO!” Noah suddenly cried again.

            “Stop—”

            Noah cut me off. “BOO!”

            “Noah, stop—” I tried again.

            “BOO!”

            I glared at him. “Noah! It’s not going to work!”

            Noah grinned at me sheepishly and shrugged. “It was worth another shot.”

            Luke burst out laughing, slamming his fist down on the table. Noah snickered along with him while I stifled another hiccup. I grounded my teeth in frustration.

            “Boo.”

            A pair of hands landed on my shoulders and I jumped violently, biting my tongue. “Ow!” I cried, slapping a hand to my mouth.

            Rian slumped into the seat next to me, letting his lunch tray clatter onto the table. My mouth filled with a metallic taste as I stuck out my tongue, trying to make the pain go away.

            “You look retarded,” Rian commented, giving me a flat look.

            I immediately closed my mouth. “Don’t say retarded. It’s mean.”

            Rian rolled his eyes. “Please.”

            “What are you even doing here? You haven’t sat with us since last week,” I accused, narrowing my eyes at him.

            Chloe sent me a warning look. I frowned back at her, crossing my arms moodily. Why did I have to be nice to Rian? He was the one who had been completely ignoring me for an entire week. After our little spat in the cafeteria, he basically acted like I didn’t exist. Even in our shared classes.

            “Are you done being a jerk?” Noah asked, leaning toward Rian with a smirk.

            “Are you done pretending to have a girlfriend?”

            Noah leaned back in his seat, putting his hands behind his head. “Not quite.”

            “Come on you two,” Luke muttered, giving both other men an exasperated look. “Rian, take the stick out of your butt, and Noah, get off your high horse.”

            Chloe laughed, but quickly turned it into a cough when Rian glared at her. “I’m getting sick,” she made up, color rising in her cheeks.

            Luke shook his head. “Rian, I don’t know what you’re so jealous about—”

            Rian glared at Luke. “I’m not jealous!”

            “You definitely are,” Noah shot back.

            “I’m not!”

            I pulled my soup closer to my body and took a sip, trying to block out Gold’s bickering. If Rian wasn’t jealous, why was he being such a jerk?

            “You guys are so annoying,” Rian cried, pushing up from the table. “Why am I friends with you again?”

             Noah and Luke looked offended. Immediately Rian dropped his shoulders, looking guilty. He sat back down, heaving a long sigh. “Sorry. I didn’t mean it.”

            “Or did you?” I snapped at him.

            “Iris, we are friends—”

            “Friends don’t act like pricks to each other for a week straight,” Luke pointed out, frowning. “If you’re upset about something, just say it.”

            Rian gave Luke an exasperated look. “I’m not—”

            “Yes you are.”

            Noah rolled his eyes. “Is it seriously about me pretending to date Iris?”

            Rian flushed. “No!”

            “It’s really not a big deal,” I told him, cocking an eyebrow. “It’s not like we’re going out for real. You still have dibs.”

            Rian’s eyes widened. “Really?”

            “Sure,” I responded with a shrug. “But that doesn’t mean I’m ever going to like you.”

            “Which means I can have a shot too,” Noah added with a wink. “You’re not the only famous person around here.”

            Rian gave Noah a hard look. “You’re cheating though. You can’t fake date someone.”

            “Looks like I can, can’t I?”

            “It’s lame.”

            Noah shrugged. “It may be lame, but I like keeping my reputation up. You know what the tabloids would do if something got around in high school.”

            “What would they do?” Chloe spoke up, giving Noah a curious look.

            “Imagine a high school rumor times a million.”

            Chloe looked taken aback. “Wow.”

            Noah nodded. “Exactly. That’s why I have to be careful. And Rian needs to deal with it.”

            Rian scowled. “What do you mean by that?”

            “You need to stop being an ass to me and Iris, that’s what I mean.”

            “I’m not—”

            I cut him off. “Yes you are, Rian!”

            He turned his gaze to me, looking frustrated. “Look, I’m sorry, but it’s so annoying!”

            “How so?” Noah demanded, sounding exasperated. “We’re pretending to date, Rian. Pre-tend-ing.”

            “I know,” Rian snapped. “I just don’t like it!”

            “Well you need to get over it!”

            “I know!”

            Noah opened his mouth to respond, but abruptly shut it. “Wait, what?”

            “You know?” I questioned, raising an eyebrow.

            Rian adverted his gaze, crossing his arms. “I’m sorry I’ve been a dick. I just don’t like it.”

            “That’s called being jealous—”

            “I’m not though!” Rian cried, looking flustered. “Would you guys stop saying that? I apologized, it’s enough, right?”

            Noah pursed his lips. “It’s enough for me, since I’m used to you. But I don’t know about Iris…”

            I held up my hands. “Um, no, it’s okay for me too…” Even if Rian was denying it, I could tell he was jealous. The thought made me a little happy, but I didn’t let myself get too ahead of myself. He was still Rian.

            “I’ll make it up to you,” Rian promised.

            “Maybe if you buy me a pound of chocolate I’ll forgive you,” Noah suggested.

            “Why? So you can get fat?”

            “I won’t get fat, I have a good metabolism.”

            Rian hummed. “Right.”

            “I do!” Noah said defensively.

            “Hey!” I interjected before they could start arguing again. “If you all can get along, and Rian, if you be nice, you can all come to my house this weekend.”           

            Luke gave me a questioning look. “Why?”

            “My brother’s home for the week.”

            Surprise spread across Gold’s faces. Noah’s mouth dropped open while his eyes lit up with excitement. “Brendon?”

            “Seriously?” Luke added.

            I nodded. “Yep. So if you are nice,” I paused to give a meaningful look to Rian, “then you can come down.”

            “Why can’t we go today?” Noah demanded.

            “Well, I live about two hours away from the school.”

            Noah gave me a bewildered expression. “What? Why?”

            “She’s here on scholarship,” Chloe chipped in. “She stays in the dorms, like me. But I’m not on a scholarship.”

            “Why are you on a scholarship even though your brother is Brendon Carter?” Rian asked, his brows furrowing. “Surely he has more than enough money…”

            I squared my shoulders. “I’m not taking money from him.”

            “Why not?”

            “He earned it. And I can earn the privilege of staying at this school by keeping good grades.”

            Rian smirked. “So you’re too proud to use his money?”

            “Is that a problem?” I snapped.

            “No, no,” Rian responded, holding up his hands defensively. “That’s actually really admirable.”

            “How so?”

            “Most people would use having a famous brother to their advantage,” Rian explained. “You know? The whole you-have-money-so-spend-it-on-me thing?”

            “This girl I dated last year was just like that,” Luke added, making a face at the memory. “She made me pay for everything. She literally was a Gold digger.”

            Noah rolled his eyes. “That was punny.”

            I pursed my lips. “We’ll I’m not like that. I don’t need to take my brother’s money.”

            “Hence why it’s admirable,” Rian stated.

            “Or are you just sucking up because you want to meet Brendon?” Chloe said, leaning across the table towards Rian with a smirk. “You go from being an ass to complimenting her?”

            Rian shot a glare at her. “I’m not sucking up.”

            “I think he is,” Noah commented with a grin. “Definitely sucking up.”

            “I’m not—”

            The bell rang signaling the end of lunch and cutting Rian off. Noah laughed as Rian huffed angrily. I stood up and went to the trashcan, throwing my soup away. Rian followed me, looking moody, Noah dogging him. Luke and Chloe had disappeared, probably heading up to the science wing.

            “Ready for Chemistry?” Noah asked, reaching his hand out for mine. “Come on.”

            I frowned, placing my hand into his. “Do we have to hold hands?”

            “We’re a couple.”

            “That doesn’t mean we have to.”

            Noah shrugged. “It’s more believable. Now let’s go.”

            With our hands entwined, we set off towards the science wing, Rian trailing us. He had an annoyed expression on his face again, and kept giving Noah dirty looks. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at him. A few students stared as Noah and I passed, but everyone knew that we were dating by now. Actually, everyone had known since last Monday. News about Gold traveled fast.

            “You guys have been dating for a week and half, isn’t that long enough?” Rian demanded, frowning at a group of girls who had burst out giggling when we passed.

            Noah shook his head. “Nah dude, definitely not long enough.”

            “How long then?”

            “Why so curious?”

            “Because it’s annoying.”

            Noah glanced over his shoulder at Rian, cocking an eyebrow. “You sure you’re not jealous—”

            “I’m not jealous!”

            Noah smirked. “Let me finish. You sure you’re not jealous because you don’t have a girlfriend yet?”

            Rian scoffed. “No. I don’t know anyone well enough to like anyone.”

            “I barely know Iris and I like her.”

            Rian stared at Noah in surprise. “What?”

            I lightly smacked the back of Noah’s head. “Cut it out, Noah.”

            “What?” Noah complained, rubbing his head. “It’s true! I like—” He was abruptly cut off when someone turning the corner slammed into him. He let go of my hand and stumbled backward, bringing a hand up to his mouth. “Ow! I bit my tongue!”

            “I’m so sorry!”

            I turned to see a very pretty blonde girl looking at Noah with wide eyes. She glanced at me, looking terrified. Noah made a face, sticking his tongue out. The blonde girl returned her gaze to Noah, her face reddening significantly. “I’m sorry,” she apologized again, bowing her head.

            Noah raised an eyebrow, sending me an amused look. “It’s fine. That was my fault.”

            “No! It was mine. I wasn’t watching where I was going.”

            “Actually, I wasn’t—”

            “I wasn’t either!”

            “Okay, how about it was both your faults?” I interjected, sending them both an impatient look. “If you two both want to keep trying to take the blame, we’ll all be late for our next class.”

            The girl flushed, dropping her gaze. “Right. Sorry again.”

            “Don’t worry about it,” Rian responded, grinning at her. “See you around.”

            “Bye Noah, Iris, Rian,” she responded, ducking her head, and hurrying away.

            Rian, Noah, and I all exchanged surprised looks. I didn’t know why they were surprised she knew their names, but it was still a shock to me when people I didn’t know knew my name. The only time it had happened before was when people figured out I was Brendon’s sister.

            “Who was that?” Noah asked as we continued on our way to the science lab.

            “No idea,” I responded, shaking my head. “She’s an underclassmen though.”

            “An underclassmen, huh,” Noah muttered with a frown.

            I smirked. “Fall in love at first sight?”

            Noah flushed. “No! I just like to know the names of my fans.”

            “Please,” Rian interjected, brushing by Noah. “You couldn’t even name a quarter of the people in our grade.”

            Noah puffed out his chest. “Eventually I will.”

            I rolled my eyes, pushing Noah’s shoulder. “Come on.”

            When we walked into Chemistry, The Leprechaun was wheeling out a cart with a bunch of chemicals on it. On the board were the words “lab day” written in large, black letters. Immediately I felt excited. Until I remembered whom my lab partner was. Rian glowered at me as he took his seat behind me.

            “Okay,” Mr. Broaddus started when the bell rang. “Today we’ll be doing a dissolving lab.” He started passing out the lab papers to every row, frowning at a pair of girls who were talking. “You have both periods to do this. Grab a pair of goggles from the back and get started.”

            The classroom was suddenly filled with the scraping sounds of everyone getting up from their desk. I grabbed two pairs of goggles, tossing one to Rian as I passed by him. He smiled smugly as he followed me to our lab table. I grabbed my lab paper and read the first set of instructions. “Rian, get four test tubes.”

            “Which one is a test tube?” Rian asked, holding up a beaker and a test tube, frowning at them.

            “The one in your left hand,” I told him, trying to bite back a smile. “How could you not know that?”

            He turned away from me. “I did know. I was just making sure you did.”

            I rolled my eyes. “Okay, fill one up with water, one with vegetable oil, one with glycerol, and one with ethanol.”

            “I’m not your slave.”

            “You’re my lab partner.”

            “Which means you have to do some work too,” he pointed out, frowning at me.

            I sighed. “I will. But in order for me to do so, you need to fill up the test tubes.”

            After a short staring match, Rian sighed and marched to the front of the room to fill the test tubes. I returned my attention to the directions, reading the next part. We needed four grams of NaCl.

            Ten minutes later, Rian and I had finished the first part of the lab. Much to my surprise, Rian wasn’t a difficult partner to work with. On the contrary, he really took it seriously. It was relieving to know I wouldn’t have to worry about him accidentally blowing us up.

            “Okay, so now we need to answer the questions,” I told him, pulling our lab closer to me. “Do you have a pencil I could use?”

            “Yep,” Rian responded, pushing his pencil over. “Here.”

            “Goggles, Ms. Carter,” Mr. Broaddus ordered as he walked by. “You don’t want to burn out your eyes.”

            Sighing, I pulled my goggles over my eyes. When The Leprechaun was far enough away I pulled them up again. Rian smirked at me, his goggles around his neck.

            “Put your goggles on,” he ordered jokingly.

            “We’re answering questions. The only danger is if someone the pencil led breaks and some how gets in my eye.”

            Rian tapped on his goggles. “These would protect them. It might be a good idea to put them on just in case.”

            “Why?”

            “Because it’d be a waste for your eyes to be injured. They’re really pretty.”

            My heart skipped a beat at his sudden compliment. “I’m sure I’ll be okay… Do you happen to know why a molecule can have polar bonds but not be a polar molecule?”

            Rian cocked an eyebrow. “You’re asking me?”

            “That was a question.”

            “I’m flattered you think I’m smart enough to answer that,” he responded with a grin. “But I hate to admit that I don’t know the answer.”

            I laughed. “I actually wasn’t expecting you to know.”

            Rian fake glowered at me. “Hey.”

            “I’ll explain,” I told him, gesturing for him to come closer to me. “Knowing The Leprechaun we’ll have a quiz on it.”

            During the second part of the lab period, we moved onto the second part of the lab— more questions to answer. Or rather, more questions for me to answer. While Rian was helpful during the lab itself, he was no help during the write-ups. I could feel him staring at me as I scribbled down answers on the paper. Feeling self-conscious, I kept my head down, focusing on my handwriting. Eventually though it got the best of me and I snapped my head up to frown at him. “Stop staring at me.”

            “I’m not staring,” he lied.

            “Yes you are.”

            He smirked. “Am I?”

            I gave him an impatient look. “Yes you are. Why don’t you make yourself useful and help Noah clean his test tubes?” I pointed to Noah, who was standing by the sink, trying to figure out how to put the test tube cleaner in the tube.

            Rian shook his head. “He doesn’t need my help. He’s got it.”

            “Then find something else to do other than staring at me,” I responded, returning my attention back to my paper. “It’s creepy.”

            “I’ve been thinking…”

            “Thinking about what?”

            “Well, you know how you said that Gold doesn’t know anyone enough at this school to really like anyone?”

            I paused, furrowing my eyebrows. “Yeah…”

            “Well, what about being interested in someone?”

            I looked back up at Rian now, giving him a confused look. “What do you mean?”

            He shrugged, playing with the gas knob on the Bunsen burner. “Do you think we’ve known people here enough to at least have an interest in them?”

            “Um, sure, I guess… Noah says you can, at least.”

            Rian pursed his lips at the name of Noah, but nodded nonetheless. “That’s good.”

            “Why?”

            “I may be interested in someone.”

            For some reason, what he said made me frown. Who could Rian be interested in? “Who?”

            “You don’t know her,” he told me in an off-hand