I was doodling in my notebook early Monday morning before school started when someone sat in the desk in front of mine and said, "Miss me?"

I looked up to find Logan. He wore a long-sleeved navy-blue shirt and jeans, and I couldn't help but notice how the blue of his shirt really brought out his eyes.

But what was he doing in Honor's English? Mrs. Reynolds was super picky about who they allowed in this class. And Logan was far from the model student.

At least the Logan I knew from before hadn't cared about his grades.

"Are you sure you're in the right class?" I asked him. "You're not just stalking me, right?"

A slow grin spread across his lips. "This is Honor's English, correct?"

I nodded. "Yes."

"Then this is exactly where I'm supposed to be. Are you surprised Mrs. Reynolds let me in?"

"Yes, actually. You're about the last person I expected to see in an honors class."

"I'm not an idiot, you know." His smile faltered momentarily, but he smoothed it back onto his face. "You have to be smart to get into as much trouble as I used to get in."

I laughed. "Used to get in? Meaning, you don't get into trouble anymore?"

He shrugged and put his notebook on his desk. "I'm a work in progress."

I nodded. "That's what I thought."

I pulled out my English binder and the book we were reading as a class, The Crucible, and set them on my desk.

Logan turned to face the front of the class and I watched the back of his head as we waited for the bell to ring. He had a nicely shaped head, and I had stared at one just like it many times over the years.

Would Jace be in any of my classes today?

"Did you happen to tell Jace about our misunderstanding Friday night?" I whispered to Logan.

He turned back to me. "Our misunderstanding? I think you mean your misunderstanding. I knew exactly who I was the whole time."

I rolled my eyes. "Okay, fine. My misunderstanding."

He tapped his pencil against the edge of the desk. "I didn't want to embarrass you with how obsessed you still are with my brother, so I didn't tell him."

"I'm not obsessed with him."

He raised his eyebrow. "Really?"

I shifted uncomfortably in my chair. "No. I was just excited to see him again. Or excited to see who I thought was him."

He leaned closer. "Well, I hope I didn't disappoint you too much."

My face flashed with heat as he just looked at me for a moment. It was like he was trying to figure out how my thoughts about him differed from my thoughts about his brother.

"I wasn't that disappointed," I said after a beat. "Mostly just surprised."

His gaze went down to my lips for a moment. Then he said, "Good."

I was still trying to figure out what he meant by "good" when Emily James walked up to me. "Hey, Raven."

"Hey." Emily was on the cheer squad with me. Her mom was the one in charge of this year's Christmas Ball. And while we were teammates, we weren't exactly best friends.

She ran her hand along the shoulder strap of her backpack. "Were you able to get a date for next Saturday?"

Ugh. Why did she have to come ask me that when Logan was right there?

I gritted my teeth. "I'm still working on it."

She gave me a fake smile. "I thought I heard something like that. I heard Noah turned you down at the game on Friday. So sorry to hear."

Yeah, she sure sounded sorry. But I managed to put as fake of a smile on my face as she had. "I was just asking him to hang out as a friend."

"Well, that's a relief. Since I guess you heard he and Lexi got back together this weekend, anyway."

I furrowed my brow. "They did?"

"Yep." She nodded. "Anyway, my mom is trying to get a count of who’s going to be at the ball with dates, so she knows how much food to order and how many tables to set up. So, just make sure to let us know soon. And as you remember from last year, there's always room at the singles table if you can't get a date." She gave me a condescending pat on the shoulder.

My body tensed with her touch, but I forced myself not to show how much she was getting to me. "Okay, thanks, Emily."

Then thankfully, she continued to her desk at the back of the room.

I turned back to my notebook and started doodling my signature along the lined paper, so I wouldn't have to think about how embarrassing it was that Logan had just overheard that conversation.

But since Logan couldn't just let me be humiliated in peace, he swiveled around in his chair and said, "So, you tried to replace your crush on my brother with Noah Taylor?"

I pressed my pen harder against my notebook as I finished writing the "S" in my last name. "You know it's not nice to eavesdrop, right?"

"Good thing I wasn't eavesdropping then. Just overhearing."

I sighed. "You caught me. I liked Noah Taylor." But was that really that big of a surprise? Pretty much every girl I knew had a thing for Noah.

"That's surprising."

"Why would that be so surprising?"

He shrugged. "I never expected you to like someone like him."

"And why's that?"

"Probably because you’ve always liked my brother."

"And that means I could only ever like someone like Jace?" I asked.

He shook his head. "No, it's just that Jace is way different. He doesn't have a bad bone in his body."

He was right. Jace was very different from Noah. "Every girl has a soft spot for a brooding bad boy."

He raised his eyebrows. "I don't believe you. You can't tell me that if you were given the choice, you'd choose me over my play-it-safe brother." The intenseness of his stare made my skin prickle with heat.

Did he really think the only reason why I liked Jace more than him was because Jace was the safe choice?

Had he forgotten all the times he'd teased me growing up? Had he forgotten about tricking me on Friday night?

Sure he'd been nice enough on Saturday at the Winter Wonderland thing, but that didn't automatically cancel out everything he'd done in the past.

"My preference for Jace isn't just because he's safe. It's because he's actually nice to girls."

Logan crossed his arms. "I can be nice."

I raised an eyebrow in a challenge. "Yeah, but for how long?"

"As long as I want."

I shook my head and smiled. There was no way Logan could be nice. I knew I wasn't exactly the kindest person all the time, but at least I could pretend when I wanted.

He must have seen my doubts on my face because he said, "I've just never had a reason to want to be nice to you before."

The room started to get noisier as more students walked in. I looked at the clock above the whiteboard. The bell would ring in less than a minute.

"So you're saying that you could be a perfect gentleman to me if you wanted?"

"Yeah, it'd be easy."

"For more than a few hours?"

"Do you really think that badly of me?"

I shrugged. "I'm just skeptical. History has proven otherwise."

"Fine. You need a date for the dance, right?"

"Yeah…" I said the word slowly.

"Let me show you just how nice I can be and let me take you to the Christmas Ball."

He was asking me to the dance?

"Why would I want to go to a dance with you?"

"Because you don't want to give Emily the satisfaction of seeing you sit at the singles table again."

It would be nice to actually show up with a date. And while Logan wasn't Jace, he was just as hot. Even with his bad-boy look.

Plus, there had been quite a few of the girls in the cheer squad posting in our group messages over the weekend about the Carmichael twins being back in town and how they wanted to be the ones to finally tame Logan.

"What's in it for you?" I asked.

"I get to have the satisfaction of proving you wrong," he said.

It wasn't exactly the romantic offer I'd been hoping for. But if it helped me save face, make a bunch of my friends jealous, and teach Logan a lesson at the same time, maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing.

"Okay, fine. I'd love to go to the Christmas Ball with you."

For a second, he looked like he thought I was joking, but when I didn't add a "just kidding" at the end of my sentence, he said, "Then it's a date."

"Really? Just like that?" I asked.

He shrugged. "As long as you promise not to fall in love with me, then let's say I'll pick you up next Saturday at seven, okay?"

I scoffed and crossed my arms. "I don't think there’ll be a problem with any feelings getting involved."

"Good. Because while I know I'm quite the catch, I just got out of something and don't need you trying to find ways to sneak any mistletoe into the dance." He shot me a conceited grin.

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. "I'll make sure to ask Mrs. James to keep the mistletoe locked up."

"Perfect."

The bell rang, and Logan turned around just as Mrs. Reynolds walked to the front of the class. And as she pulled out her copy of The Crucible from the pile on her desk I couldn't help but think that it was such a coincidence in a way. Of course I would end up going to the dance with a guy who just got out of a relationship. That was how it always went.

But thankfully this time, there was no risk of me actually falling for Logan. Of that, at least, I was sure.