Austin opened the door to his room and it had a rustic manly cedar smell that was so inviting. He had a really cool metal bed with lockers along the sides like what you would see in a locker room and basketball and football trophies and medals lined up on shelves around the top of the room. On one wall there was a professional black and white photo of him in his football uniform on a field throwing a football.

He had a basketball hoop over his bed and a whole gaming area with 2 computer monitors hooked up to an Xbox One X, a gaming chair, and a headset.

"Welcome to my room" he said proudly. "I set up this gaming station myself but my Mom did the rest. As you can tell she's pretty proud of my sports accomplishments," he laughed. "A little too proud. It's embarrassing."

"No you shouldn't be embarrassed. It's really nice. I love it!" Jolie said before realizing it might have sounded a little over enthusiastic.

He walked over and sat on his bed and Jolie stayed standing awkwardly, not sure what to do. He laughed.

"You can come in and sit. I won't bite," he said, patting the bed next to him.

Her heart fluttered and she felt short of breath, but she did as he said and sat down on his bed next to him, their legs touching slightly for a second, making her blush.

Boys like him didn't normally talk to her. They normally walked right past her like she was invisible. Judging from his room and letter jacket patches he was probably the popular jock and she was the shy, brainy nerd. Then she realized he didn't know that yet about her because they only just met.

She looked over at him and quickly looked away when her face blushed, realizing he was the cutest guy she had ever seen in her life and she was sitting this close to him. Her breath picked up and her heart was racing. She looked back up and noticed he was looking at her and it instantly made her feel self-conscious and she looked away.

"I've never met someone from New York before. What's it like there?" he asked, sounding fascinated.

"Ummm. Well, I think New York is really nice. Some people hate the noise and the traffic and all the people but I didn't mind. We lived in Upstate New York, not in New York City, but we were close enough to drive there when we wanted to go to a Broadway show or see the ball drop at Times Square on New Years. Christmas in New York was always my favorite. My Mom would take us ice skating at Rockefeller Center when they lit up the giant Christmas tree and then we'd go see the Rockette's Christmas show. It was our tradition. New York also has some of the best restaurants in the world too, especially the pizza. Plus there's always something to do . I'm really afraid I'm gonna be bored here."

"Well, you can hang out with me. I'll make sure you don't get bored," he said smiling, making Jolie's face blush again. "Monday at school since you won't know anybody I can show you around and you could sit with me and my friends at lunch if you want."

"You would do that? Really?" she asked in shock. She was really surprised he wanted to be seen hanging out with a nerd like her.

"Yeah really," he laughed that she was so surprised.

Jolie smiled. "Is everyone in Illinois as friendly as you and your Mom or are you guys special?

Austin laughed again. "I don't know. To me this is just normal, not like overly friendly. What are people in New York like?"

"Most of the time people keep to themselves unless they have a reason to talk to you. I've noticed when I came here to visit my grandma before that people here smile and wave as you pass by and everyone says hi to each other and stops to chat. We don't do that," she said laughing. "Everyone's in a hurry to get somewhere, and if you stop to talk to them they get annoyed."

"Really? That kind of sucks actually," Austin said. "So, you wanna watch a movie?"

"Sure. You pick."

"Ok. Let's watch Hoosiers. That's one of my favorites."

"I've never seen it," Jolie said and Austin's mouth dropped.

"Seriously? It's only the greatest basketball movie of all time! You'll love it."

"So you're really into sports huh?" she asked, looking up at all the trophies and medals on his shelves.

"Yeah I do basketball, football, baseball and track. I'm not some dumb jock though. I've got the highest GPA in the senior class."

She was thinking 'That was before I came,' but she didn't say it. "Wow. That's great. You must stay really busy then. You probably don't have too much free time."

"Oh, well the sports are in different seasons so I still have a lot of free time. I have enough time to hang out with my friends and go out on dates."

When he mentioned having time to go out on dates it made Jolie look down and smile awkwardly with embarrassment, her face blushing once again. She wasn't used to talking to boys and she felt like she was pretty terrible at it.

When she had her braces and before she lost 30 pounds this summer from eating healthy and working out, she would've never had the confidence to talk to a cute guy like this. She barely did now.

Austin pulled up 'Hoosiers' on Netflix and scooted back on his bed so he could lean against the wall. He motioned for her to scoot back next to him and so she did, close enough that his arm was against hers.

'I bet he's a player. I bet he does this with all the girls,' she thought. She wasn't complaining though because no boys had ever shown an interest in her before, especially one that looked like him!

Halfway through the movie her Mom and Katherine walked into the bedroom and flipped on the light to tell them dinner was ready. When the Moms saw them sitting so close together they looked at each other and smiled.

"Dinner's ready," Katherine told her son.

"Hey do you know Jolie's never seen Hoosiers before? After dinner do you guys mind if we come back up here and finish watching it?........That is if you want to?" he asked, looking over at Jolie.

"Yeah I'd like to see how it ends," she said. They looked at their Moms for approval now.

Stacy looked at her daughter's face and she was begging her to say yes with her eyes.

"Ok that's fine with me."

"Ok, now that that's settled, let's go eat!" Katherine said and they all walked downstairs. Austin's hand accidentally brushed against Jolie's as he passed her in the hallway and she looked up at him and he was smiling down at her, making her insides flutter.

'Is it really possible that this gorgeous guy actually likes me?' she wondered. It was like she had stepped into an upside down world where everything was backwards. At dinner Austin sat next to her and told her all about the school and how the schedules worked. School had already been in session for 2 weeks so she was coming in late and would have to catch up. He told her about various people to steer clear of too.

"Whatever you do, don't mess around with Blaze McDaniels and his crew. They're bad news. They're always getting in trouble for something. Also try to stay away from Chaz Hernandez. Chaz is the biggest player and brags about sleeping with half of the school."

"What about you Austin? Are you a player?" she whispered so the Moms wouldn't hear.

He looked over at her and studied her face for a moment before whispering, "No I'm not a player Jolie. Are you?"

She couldn't hold it in. She busted out laughing so hard that both Mom's stopped their conversation and looked at their kids.

"Sorry. Austin just said something really funny," she said smiling and taking a bite of the delicious dinner Katherine made. The fact that he thought she even had the option of being a player was hilarious!

She looked over at him and he smiled at her, taking a bite of his food too. When dinner was over she went back up to his room with him to finish the movie. They sat the way that they did before with their arms slightly touching.

They sat watching the movie but Austin was so interested in hearing all about her and New York that they talked a lot more than they watched. Halfway through they had a moment of silence where he ran out of questions, but she looked over and caught Austin looking at her.

He smiled and looked back at the screen. His look gave her goosebumps.

'Why was he looking at me like that?' she thought. 'There's no chance he likes me.'

When the movie was over, she scooted off the bed and stood up saying, "I had a good time tonight. It was really nice to meet you Austin."

"I had a good time too. Here I'll walk you out."

He walked her outside and over to her house in silence and then they stopped in front of her door as he looked down into her eyes. She was struck by how handsome he was and looking at him gave her chills up her arm and made her feel faint and nervous.

He stood really close to her and looked down into her eyes and she swallowed hard. She held her breath and for a second she thought he was going to give her a kiss and her stomach fluttered. She noticed how good his cologne smelled and how blue his eyes really were as she stared back into them intently.

"What kind of a name is Jolie? I've never heard of that before?" he asked, breaking the silence.

"Oh it means pretty one in French."

"Then it's the perfect name for you," he said, smiling down at her before turning around and walking back towards his house. When she got inside and shut the door, she leaned against it for a few minutes trying to catch her breath and figure out what in the world just happened?