I was rudely awakened at six-thirty in the morning by my blaring alarm and with much reluctance and hesitation, I dragged my sore and tired body out of my bed and into a hot shower. Logan had worked us hard yesterday in preparation for tonight's game because we had a short practice today after school and she didn't want to push us on game day. I massaged my muscles under the hot water while I washed with my tropical scented soap and as soon as I hopped out, I wrapped myself in a white fluffy towel and headed to my bedroom to get ready.

I couldn't help but let my mind wander to the party happening tonight as I got dressed and ready for school. Without much deliberation, I settled on a black Snoop Dogg t-shirt, jeans and my black and white checkered slip-on vans with small gold hoops and a gold chain. I grabbed my bag and headed downstairs as I tied my hair in a bun, walking into the kitchen before finding the box of cereal, a bowl, and some oat milk. I sat at the table as I ate, thinking about the school day that lay ahead and I couldn't help but notice that the one part I looked forward to wasn't the football game or seeing my friends but it was getting to spend time with Haydn- even though we were going to be working on biology.

"I wonder who's got you smiling like that." My mom teased as she walked into the kitchen, and I blushed a little as I shook my head.

"No one." I sighed before I finished off my breakfast with minimal small talk and some orange juice.

I say goodbye to my mom and made my way to school, in the car I made sure my mind didn't start thinking about a certain crush of mine and our tutoring session that afternoon. Thankfully the drive was fairly short, and I reached the school's grounds a few minutes before the bell was supposed to ring and as I walked up the stairs, I had to force myself not to look at Haydn who might've been looking at me but I was pretty sure I just imagined it.

There was not much time for me to go socialize with my friends before class, so we all agreed to meet up at lunch to discuss the party happening later that night. Logan and I quickly hurried to English as soon as we heard the bell ring and I thought it was my favorite class until I walked in and saw none other than Haydn sitting on a desk talking to Emma Tate, a blue-eyed, blonde hair Barbie Doll who was drop-dead gorgeous. I stood in the doorway a little shocked and contemplated walking out of class entirely until Miss Walker came in.

"Miss Vasiliev, if you would be so kind as to stop dawdling and take your seat." She said with a no-nonsense tone and with everyone's eyes on me I took my seat next to Logan, our class looking much fuller than the day before. "I'm sure some of you are wondering why this class is more populated than yesterday, well we've actually had to combine this class with another as Mrs. Holiday has had to take emergency medical leave and will not be returning to school for the rest of the school year." She explained before starting us right on track with our lesson plan today- leaving very little room for conversation or questions.

The lesson was a little more boring than most so Logan and I passed the time with a few games of naughts and crosses and the occasional note. We wrote down the topic for the essay she wanted next week, and she let us leave a little earlier than other teachers would, but I was grateful because while everyone else rushed away I took my time packing up, trying to avoid seeing Haydn.

But luck didn't seem to be on my side because as I turned around, she was there, waiting against the doorway as she nervously bit her thumb. I took a deep breath and greeted her before I walked past, unsurprised when she walked after me.

"Hey, Cristina?" She asked and I slowed my stride before turning to face her.

"Hey, Haydn, what's up?" I smiled and she smiled nervously.

"Um, I was hoping we'd be able to push our tutoring session back by half an hour?" She asked quickly and I nodded my head.

"Of course, are you okay?" I asked, slowing to a stop outside my history class.

"Yeah, I'm fine, I've just got to pick up my father's kid from school, I'm doing his mom a favor." She explained and I nodded with a smile.

"Don't worry about it, I'll see you after school," I reassured her and when I saw her smile in relief and agreement, I ducked into class and made my way to my seat, ignoring Wesley and his meat-head friends' stares.

The class was boring, but I got through them fairly quickly and before I knew it, it was already lunch and as I walked to the cafeteria to see my girls, I could hear the excitement for the game and the party- it was all anyone was talking about, including my friends.

"I think we should definitely go to the mall," Logan said before biting into a carrot stick and Roxanne sighed.

"But we went to the mall two weeks ago." She groaned and Blanca rolled her eyes.

"Come on girl, think of all the new clothes that just came in." She pleaded with puppy dog eyes and Logan joined in, begging us to go to the mall before the party- Roxanne giving in almost instantly.

"Fine, I'll go to the stupid mall." She agreed and they quickly set their sights on me.

"Please come with us, Cris," Logan bedded and I laughed as I shook my head.

"Sorry guys, that's not gonna work on me," I said before chewing on another apple slice.

"But whyyy?" Blanca whined cutely and I shrugged.

"I've got something else planned." I shrugged and Roxanne's jaw dropped.

"Bitch if you made a dick appointment and are not telling us you would be such a terrible friend." She shot at me.

"No, I don't have a dick appointment," I said rolling my eyes. "I've just got a tutoring session after school in the library." I laughed and they echoed in understanding, they all knew how it felt to be doing badly in a subject. "But I promise we can get ready at my house." I negotiated and suddenly the thought of me not going with them to the stupid mall wasn't so bad anymore as we all agreed to meet after the game.

The day continued to go by a little quicker than I would've liked as classes continued to blur together while students told me they were excited to see us later. It didn't take long for the time of our tutoring session to roll around and when I walked to the library, I was surprised to see Haydn already waiting there for me, with two iced coffees in her hands and I smiled.

"I hope you like your ice coffee with almond milk." She said with a small blush while I smiled as she handed me one.

"Thanks, I wasn't expecting this," I said before I took a sip before she led us to the discussion room of the library.

One of the most relieving things about Haydn and I was that our conversations never felt boring or forced and we spent 20 minutes talking before we actually started on biology. It wasn't supposed to happen, but she saw my wallpaper of Alexa Demie in Euphoria and we talked about how good the show was and the brilliance that was the soundtrack and once we started talking about music we could barely stop. At least now I knew we both shared a love of ABRA, FKA Twigs and old Kanye West.

Apart from her excellent taste in music another pretty cool trait to Haydn was that she was incredibly smart, it was like her brain could just process things faster than most. She also had this talent of explaining concepts in a way that was easy for me to grasp and within an hour I understood the parts of the surprise quiz I failed and that it was time for me to get ready for the game. However, just as we were packing up and playfully arguing about who was the funniest character on The Office, a girl from junior year approached us- well she approached Haydn, cutting our conversation short.

"Hey, Haydn." She smiled as she batted her eyelashes, completely ignoring me as her eyes lit up and I watched a hard, unreadable expression cross Haydn's face.

"Oh hey, Monica." She said unenthusiastically with a small nod, a very different attitude than what I was used to.

"I just wanted to know if I was going to see you at Aaron's party tonight." She asked as she leaned forward slightly, obviously flirting, and I tried to conceal my shock when Haydn leaned back. I wasn't an idiot and word spread, I wasn't blind to Haydn's reputation, especially amongst the girls in school but it was so hard to remember when I never actually experienced that side of her.

I kept forgetting that Haydn Moreno was a little bit of a player, never having been in a solid relationship since she got here.

"I actually haven't decided yet." She said with a small shrug while her tone let Monica know not to question her anymore. Monica tried and failed, to conceal her disappointment before she gave a nod and left, purposely swaying her ass in her checkered skirt and as soon as she disappeared, Haydn sighed.

"You, okay?" I asked and she laughed awkwardly.

"Yeah, I'm okay- that was just a friend." She shrugged nonchalantly and I nodded slowly, I wasn't convinced but I knew it was none of my business, so I didn't push any further.

"So, are you coming? To the party?" I asked, trying to be as casual as possible but I couldn't help myself.

"Probably not." She smirked. "I have better things to do on a Friday night than go to some football players party." She said and I couldn't help it, but my stomach dropped in disappointment, so I took a breath as I grabbed my bag, gathering the courage to speak.

"That's a bummer." I smiled sadly. "I was kinda hoping to see you there," I said before I walked off, and luckily, I did because Logan sent me a message saying to meet her in the girl's locker room ASAP.