“So, want to come back to my place to ... work on my human biology homework?” JJ Brockwell waggled his eyebrows at his girlfriend, Maggie Jones, as they walked the hallways of Empire Preparatory after their final class of the day.

“Is that all you think about?” she replied.

“No, sometimes I think about chemistry. The chemistry between you and me.” He leaned in and kissed her cheek. “You smell nice. New perfume?”

She batted him away. “You bought it for me last year. I’ve worn it lots of times.”

JJ nodded to a couple of fellow baseball players as he passed them. Turning back to Maggie, he asked, “So, my biology homework?”

Maggie rolled her eyes. “You get all A’s in biology.”

“I want to keep my grade up.” He smirked.

Maggie shook her head, her auburn waves catching the overhead lights. “Horndog.”

“It’s your fault.”

“Huh?”

JJ lifted Maggie’s hand and kissed it. “If you weren’t so beautiful, I wouldn’t get this fired up.”

A shrill call of, “Give it back!” plus accompanying laughter caught JJ’s attention as he and Maggie rounded the corner outside the boys’ gym.

A group of seniors on the basketball team was playing Keep Away with a magazine. A shorter boy kept jumping up to try and catch it, but failed each time.

“Milton!” Maggie yelled.

“Who?” JJ asked.

“Milton Katz. He’s in my art class. Everybody’s always picking on him.” She let go of JJ’s hand and stepped forward.

“Maggie, no.” JJ took her arm to stop her. To the crowd he yelled, “Hey!”

Two of the basketball players looked over at the advancing JJ.

“Give it back!” JJ said.

“This ain’t anything to do with you, Brockwell.” Jerome Prince glared at JJ.

“I’m making it something to do with me.”

Even though he was a grade below the point guard, the two were about the same height, although JJ had a few pounds on the basketball player. JJ had learned early on to stand his ground and stare down his opponents. Either things would escalate into a fight, or sense would prevail. With four against one, the odds weren’t exactly in JJ’s favor, if this did turn into something.

“Didn’t know you were friends with this dweeb,” one of the players said, poking Milton in the arm.

“He’s a friend of Maggie’s, so that makes him a friend of mine.” JJ knew this was a bit of a stretch -- he didn’t know the guy, but hoped it would get him in good with Maggie. Besides, JJ was always a sucker for protecting the underdog -- and from the looks of Milton, he was a walking definition of underdogginess.