It started as an annoying buzz, and progressed to a shrill beeping. My alarm. I blindly smacked my hand over the device that was blaring into my ears and disrupting my sleep. It stopped. However that alarm had brought with it my mother.

"Wake up!" I hear my mom demand as she opens my bedroom door.

"Mmmm. Don't want to." I groan turning my head the other way so the sun is no longer in my face.

"Get up! Its Monday. You need to get ready for school."

"Mondays suck..." I groan groggily, not capable of normal human speech quite yet.

At that my mom laughs lightly.

"Well ain't that the truth. But you need to wake up. Come on." She reiterates, giving my arm a little shake for good measure.

"Okay, okay, I'm up, I'm up." I assure her, lifting my head up slightly.

Mom smiles in a satisfied way and turns around. "Good. I'll get your breakfast started." She says as she walks out the door.

I lay there in my bed for a few minutes longer, dreading getting up and out of my beautifully soft comforter and my incredibly comfortable bed.

Gosh I hate Mondays... is all I can think as I stumble into the shower, letting the cold water wake me up, as it grew warm.

After finishing my shower routine, I stay in a few moments longer to ensure my wakefulness, then get out, dry off, and walk over to my dresser.

I open the drawers and begin rifling through, like any other day. Waiting for something to pop.

After going through multiple outfit ideas, I settle on a rich cream colored shark bite lace dress that was knee length. A long maroon sweater to pull over it, and a pair of light brown leather boots. A matching headband to tie the boots in, and then I was good to go.

After that I blow dry my hair and put on some mascara, with a slight touch of eyeliner, I don't do my makeup often, but it just felt right today.

I race down the steps to find my mom setting down a plate of poptarts. Not waffles, but I love Poptarts. Like seriously, its an unnatural love affair. If my name was Bonnie, Poptarts would be my Clyde.

"Ah, You know just what I like! Thanks mom." I exclaim and give her a hug as I rush by to grab the delicacies.

I grab three poptarts and a paper towel and run out the door, already stuffing my face as I drive down the block to my friend's house.

I pull into Abigail's driveway and honk the horn.

After a good five minutes, Abigail walks out with a pair of skinny jeans and a tight pink V-neck sweater.

"You look cute." I compliment as she steps in.

"Tell me something I don't know." she brags jokingly and dramatically flips her blonde hair over her shoulder, making me laugh.

She gives me a once over and says "and you look...quirky" interesting to say the least. It's a good thing she's pretty.

"Wow, thanks!" I joke sarcastically.

I'm not actually hurt. I know that Abigail doesn't understand the way I dress but that's alright. You can't please them all.

"Off we go" I mumble dryly and zoom off towards the school, safely, of course.

When we pull into the school parking lot, I hear the rumble of a motorcycle. Abby and I turn around to see Mr. Blue Eyes pulling into the parking lot on said motorcycle.

Almost everyone is watching him as he pulls his helmet off and shakes out his hair. I almost laugh as I notice just how cliche a move that is. If it were in slow motion I'd be convinced I'm in some corny romance movie with the bad boy and the good girl. Somehow this works though, because every girl here is practically drooling, including Abigail. Of course.

"Who is that delicious man right there?" Abigail asks dreamily, fixing her hair. "Unfortunately, That's my new neighbor, Blue Eyes." I sigh as I cross my arms over my chest.

"That's the guy that lives next door to you? The guy that's 'pretty cute'? Seriously, Beth how can you possibly be mad at that?" Abigail asks, her eyes staring thoughtfully after him.

I roll my eyes, ultimately unimpressed.

"Whatever. He's an ass" I conclude, my mind pretty much made up.

"You are so freaking lucky. Man, you don't even know. I'd give anything to have that delicious piece of man meat as my neighbor." Abigail whines.

"Ugh you can have him." I say with a groan. She looks over at me with a huge grin.

"Hopefully," she hints, making me fake gag, as I roll my eyes.

"Whatever, can we not talk about him?"

I say briskly, if not a little bit snippily.

Just as I'm about to walk into the school, Blue Eyes and my eyes lock. I kind of just stand there staring into his eyes, caught in a trance from their pure and utter beauty, when suddenly he looks away. I clear my throat, praying Abigail didn't just see that and start walking towards the school.

"What was that about?" Abigail asks curiously "thought he was jerk huh? That you hated him?" She teases playfully.

Dang, so she did notice. "Huh? Oh uh nothing." I say, feigning innocence, walking just a little faster "You can't fool me baby girl. I totally saw that little connection you made with hottie on a motorcycle over there." Abigail states matter of factly.

"Hottie on a motorcycle? Really?" I ask with a laugh, trying to distract her.

Abigail just shrugs, but stares at me suspiciously before parting ways and heading to class.

🔹🔹🔹

Class after class goes by, until it's finally time for my favorite!

English!

As I step into the classroom I automatically get a weird feeling at the very bottom of my stomach. My eyes are searching the classroom filled with students for anything that may stand out when they land on Blue Eyes.

Oh great. Just what I needed.

Blue Eyes is going to ruin my favorite class. He was in the very back row to the left so I made my way as far away from him as I could sitting in the seat all the way in the front to the right.

"Alright class, we're going to be doing something a little different today. I'm going to assign each of you a partner, when I give you the name of your partner I want you to get up and take the seat next to the person, you will then talk to him or her and find out as much as you can about each other in the next fifteen minutes. When the fifteen minutes are up you will introduce your partner to the class and then your partner will introduce you. This is to get you comfortable talking in front of the class which will give you better speaking confidence, which will ultimately help you later in life. " Mr Ampler explains.

"Carrie Lannez."

As Mr. Ampler names off the students and one by one they get up and walk to their new partner, I'm not really listening. I'm just silently praying that I get partnered with Maya Wescott, she seems really sweet, plus, I can tell that she's smart, she's always the one that answers all of the question and spurting out "fun facts", (which I secretly love). Or, Cory. He's really cute, plus he seems like he'd be good in English. Or really, pretty much anybody but Blue Eyes.

"Hello. Earth to Bethany!" I hear Mr Ampler call out, making the whole class laugh.

I snap my head up in his direction.

"Sorry. What did you say, sir?" I ask, trying to ignore the few students that are still snickering, when the teacher replies. "I said that your partner will be Jake Lester" I look around the classroom confused "Uh, who?" I ask.

The snickers grow even louder. Mr Ampler crosses his arms, annoyance radiating off of him. "Jake Lester. Back there" he instructs, pointing towards Blue Eyes. So that's what his name was...huh, strange, his name just didn't quite fit him.

No! No no no no no!!

"Oh. Uh, may I please have a different partner?" I ask politely. "No, you may not. I have spent a good deal of time deciding on whom I thought should team up. Now, quit wasting everyones time and go introduce yourself to Mr. Lester." Mr Ampler says sternly.

This kid needs to learn when to respect her elders. Tired of being disrespected by little kids all day! Mr Ampler thinks.

And my ears go slightly red.

Lester the Molester it was.

My cheeks burn even more as I clear my throat and stand up gathering my books and backpack "Yes, sir." I agree quietly, keeping my head down as I walk towards the back of the class and slide into the seat next to Blue eyes-er, I mean Jake. As I sit down, I smell that amazing orange mixed with peppermint smell that seems to follow him around everywhere. After a moment of just sitting there without talking, I glance sideways at Jake to find that he's already staring directly at me making me flinch backwards a little in surprise. Of course that only makes him smirk. I clear my throat and say "So, as you know, my name is Bethany Hibbler and uh, I guess your name is Jake Lester. So tell me about yourself" I say as I pull out my notebook and pencil.

Something besides the fact that he's a huge jerk face.

He doesn't say anything and instead continues to stare at me. I squirm a little in my seat shifting from one leg to the other. "Ahem, are you going to talk, or...?" I ask, trailing off as his eyes lock with mine. Yet again I feel as though I'm in some sort of trance, as I stare back at him. Finally, he breaks the spell by saying,

"I have a better idea. How about you tell me about yourself," and crossing his arms as he leans back in his chair, getting comfortable. "Okay uh, My name is Bethany Hibbler-" I start but he cuts me off rolling his eyes and saying "you've already said that about a million times." Sounding annoyed. Well gah lee, my bad! "Right...okay, well, I'm seventeen, I've lived here all my life, I'm planning on majoring in English when I go to college and becoming an English professor and I-" before I can finish Jake cuts me off.

Again.

"No no no. None of that crap. I mean tell me about the real you" he states matter of factly.

"I just did!" I cry angrily, and much louder than I intended.

What did he want to know, the color of my freaking blankie when I was a baby?

My little outburst makes everyone in the room turn to look at me, which makes my cheeks burn bright red with embarrassment. "Just tell me about yourself" I hiss quietly, beyond annoyed.

At that he shrugs his shoulders "Not much to say." He states, sounding bored.

"Well you have to tell me something, I have to introduce you to the class!" I whisper yell. He shrugs again and says "You'll figure something out." And with that, he lays his head back resting it on the back of his chair and closes his eyes.

What the hell?! Did he seriously just do that? I thought he was obnoxious before! What was I supposed to say now? Before I knew it, fifteen minutes had passed while I silently fumed, and it was time for people to introduce one another. After a few people have spoken, I still haven't quite figured out what to say.

And that's when I hear the last four words that I wanted to hear.

"Bethany, it's your turn,"

Aw, Crap.

➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖