

### Dedicated to lovers who are missing hearts.

SAVING ROSE

A NOVEL BY LAUREN KUTTERFLY

Published by

Smashwords Publishing

All Rights Reserved.

This novel is a complete work of art. All names and places mentioned are purely a coincidence.

Do not copy, electronically transmit, or hand print a copy of this novel without the consent of the author.

Copyright by Lauren Kutterfly, 2016

Published by Smash words Publishing.

Summary: A girl named Eleanor Fyer jouneys to understand the meaning of love. A boy named Samuel Rose guides her along the way by being her tutor.

CHAPTER 1: With Spring Comes New Trouble

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter. Of all the seasons, today just had to be Spring.

Normal people loved Spring out of all the four seasons. Not too cold and not too hot; just right. But I despised it. Spring marked the beginning of the blooming season. With a huge allergy to nature, I was not a big fan of flowers and trees.

Signing up for Volleyball was a big mistake because I was not much of an athlete. The only reason why I even bothered to do it was because Marisol nagged me none stop to sign up with her. To make matters worse, our coach wanted to nail the fact that winning was the most important thing into our minds, so he pushed and trained us past our limits.

I sneezed as a runner ran past me, huffing and puffing.

The moldy ground, wet from last night's rain shower, squished underneath my foot as I forced myself to walk on, despite how tired I was. I stayed up late last night messaging away on Facebook and now I regretted it.

"Hey Eleanor!" Marisol chirped as she jogged up to me. "Wazzup?"

Marisol had no problem with running. Unlike me, she was born and made into an athlete. Running a few laps around a track was no big deal for her.

"Nothing," I said and continued walking on. Marisol slowed to a walking speed and fell step by step next to me.

"You don't look like nothing happened," Marisol noted as she studied my face. "Don't tell me you were up all night on Facebook."

"I can do whatever I want with my life, thank you very much," I huffed.

Marisol shrugged. "Just helping."

I groaned as my left foot sank a little into a damp area of the ground, ruining my newly brought tennis shoes.

I picked up my feet, examining the brown smudges on the soles of my shoes.

"The game's next week, ya know," Marisol reminded me as she peered over my shoulder to look at my shoes. "Your shoes will get dirtied anyway."

"I know, I know," I said, annoyed and disgusted. "But I don't want to wear ugly shoes to the game."

Marisol shrugged again. "Suit yourself."

Coach Wayne blew the whistle and we all jogged over to him and huddled together.

"Listen up, Pipsqueaks!" he yelled. Coach Wayne screamed all the time in order for all of us to hear. But with only 13 of us, his voice shattered our eardrums.

"You all better win next week or else I'm going to pelt you with volleyballs! You hear?!" he gave us all a glare, daring us to tell him otherwise.

"Yes sir!" we said in unison.

"Don't just 'yes sir' me! Do it!"

"Wow, he's cranky today," I rolled my eyes.

"When isn't he?" Marisol pointed out.

"Am I clear?!" Coach Wayne barked.

"YES SIR!"

"Now get out of my sight! Go home and practice until your little minds shrivel up into nothing! GO!"

The group dispersed and began to grab their items that laid sprawled out on the ground. I picked up my backpack with all of my sport utilities, wiped it on the concrete to wipe away as much mud as possible and followed the group inside.

"Wanna go to Starbucks?" Marisol asked as we headed into the locker room to change.

"Why?" I said and flung open my locker door.

"Oh, y'know. To get pumped up for next week's game!" Marisol answered as she tossed her gym shirt into the locker.

"Isn't it too early for that?"

"Nothing's too early!" Marisol grinned. "Come on, Eleanor. Just hang out with me for once instead of spending your time in front of a mirror each and every day."

I took off my gym shirt and put on my normal shirt.

"Fine, whatever," I mumbled. I pulled out a lipstick from my handbag and slapped a new layer onto my lips. The old layer had faded away during practice.

We slammed our lockers shut and walked out the locker room.

"Did you finish the math homework, yet?" Marisol asked as we got into her red convertible. She started the engine and we drove off to Starbucks.

"Yeah," I lied. In truth, I never even touched any of my homework. They were all sitting in a huge stack at my desk at home. I was going to at least finish the Science homework, but the music blasting from my earphones distracted me and I totally forgot about everything related to 'homework'.

Marisol didn't even bat an eye at my lie. She knew me better than anyone. If I lied about something, she knew the truth behind it. Finishing my homework was a huge lie because I almost never did my homework.

We stopped at a red light. Marisol turned to look at me.

"Eleanor, you need to start studying more," she said seriously. "You're failing all your subjects. If this continues, it'll really affect your future."

I looked out the car window, having heard her say that so many times it was getting annoying.

"Yeah, I know," I said. "I will."

~*~

"Ah! Getting coffee right after practice is always amazing!" Marisol grinned as we pushed open the door to Starbucks and entered.

I didn't answer her as we walked up to the counter where a boy with dark brown hair sat on a stool with a textbook plopped open in his lap. He was writing madly onto a sheet of paper.

"Ahem," I coughed, getting his attention. He paused and looked up, noticing us.

He quickly pushed away his book and stood up, grabbing a notepad to write down our orders.

"How may I help you today?" he asked with a smile.

"One medium coffee and..." I turned to look at Marisol.

"One Large Caramel Frappuccino please," Marisol finished for me.

"Got it," he said and turned around to start fixing our drinks. As he was turning around, the little black badge engraved with white words on his chest flashed and read 'Samuel Rose'.

"Really? A medium sized coffee for Queen Eleanor?" Marisol smirked, breaking me out of my trance. "Never heard of that before."

I gave her a look. "I can get what I want. Since when did I have to start getting fancy stuff?"

Marisol laughed. "Whatever, girl."

The blender whirled in the background as I looked around the little shop. People sat at tables with either their laptops opened and typing or with mountains of books piled high into the air next to them as they tried to do their work. It was pretty silent here except for the blender's noise and occasional whispers here and there.

In no time, our orders were ready. The boy carried them over in both of his hands and handed them one by one to us.

"Here you go," he said. "One Large Caramel Frappuccino-" he handed Marisol hers "-and one Medium Coffee."

But as he was handing me mine, his hand slipped and the coffee tumbled out of his hands, the hot, sizzling liquid pouring out all over me like a waterfall.

I shrieked and stumbled back, the coffee soaking through my shirt and reaching my skin, burning me.

"What in the world?!" I yelled, causing the entire shop to look our way. "What was that for?!"

"Wh-what...? B-But I... This isn't... I can explain..." Samuel stammered, unable to make a complete sentence.

I looked down at my pale pink shirt with white frills and silver buttons going down my chest. It was one of my favorite shirts that I brought this year when my mom took me shopping. Now a gradually growing brown stain of coffee was slowly spreading in the middle.

That was all it took before I broke.

I grabbed Marisol's hand and marched towards the door, completely forgetting about what's left of my coffee.

"Wait! Eleanor!" Marisol cried as she had to jog just to keep up with me. I didn't listen to her and continued walking, anger building up inside of me from embarrassment. No one ever humiliates me. _No one._

Behind me Samuel apologized over and over again, but I wasn't listening to him anymore. I wasn't listening to anyone anymore.

I walked out of the door and never looked back. Not even once.

CHAPTER 2: Recognizing Him for the First Time

"And so, the neutrons and protons circle the nucleus in an atom and blah blah blah...".

I wasn't really listening to Mrs. Jackling, our science teacher, anymore. I had zoned out and focused my eyes on anything but her lesson and blazing outfit that hurt the eye.

"Psst!"

I tilted my head lazily to the right and saw Marisol waving her phone at me and mouthing the words 'Talk to you through texting'.

With nothing better to do, I mouthed back the words 'Got it'.

I dug my hand into my purse and pulled out my iPhone. I kept it under my desk so that Mrs. Jackling couldn't see it and I looked up once in a while so that nothing looked suspicious.

My phone vibrated in my hand and Marisol's message popped up on the front of my screen.

'Hey, whatcha doing?'

'Nothing,' I typed back.

'Aw, that's too bad. You bored?'

'If you mean bored enough to chuck Mrs. Jackling out the window then yeah, I'm.'

'LOL. Don't worry. You aren't alone. I missed half of what she said yesterday by sleeping.'

'I didn't hear anything she said yesterday.'

'Well, that's too bad. She actually said some pretty useful information yesterday for the test tomorrow.'

'What test?'

But before Marisol could reply, Mrs. Jackling's sudden stern voice boomed across the classroom, startling me and causing me to almost drop my phone.

"Ms. Fyer, may I ask what you are doing during my class?" she asked and peered over her glasses at me in that old fashion way. There was a rumor a few months ago about how Mrs. Jackling might have come from the 1900's because everything she did, including her fashion sense, was outdated. For all we knew, she might be a hundred years old.

"Nothing," I replied quickly, stuffing my phone back into my purse. Mrs. Jackling didn't look very convinced.

"Are you sure, Ms. Fyer?" she pressed. "Perhaps my class is too easy for you? Maybe I need to make it more challenging."

I wanted to scream 'No, it's boring and lame! Go back to where you belong! Earth is already full!'. But instead, I shook my head.

"No ma'am. I'm sorry for disturbing the class."

Mrs. Jackling sighed and set down the piece of paper that she was reading from. She strode over to my desk and stopped directly beside me.

"Ms. Fyer," she said in a low and dangerous voice, one she used before she pounced on her victims. "This is not the first time you have rudely disrupted my class."

I didn't look up and kept my gaze glued to the carpet.

"I can't have this happening anymore," she continued. "You are keeping others from getting their knowledge. See me after class."

Speaking the last word, she turned on her heels and walked back to the front of the room. I slouched down in my chair and pouted.

My phone vibrated again in my purse. I turned to look at Marisol and she pointed at my purse while holding a sheet of paper with the words 'Read it' scribbled across it.

I sighed and turned to look at the front of the room. Mrs. Jackling had resumed the lesson on page 137 and continued where she had left off about parts of an atom.

Seeing that the coast was clear, I pulled out my phone and opened it to the message section.

'Jackling's stupid' it said.

'No duh. What does she want from me? I already said sorry.'

'Well, whatever she wants, let's hope that you come out alive.'

'Thanks for being positive.'

'You're welcome.'

I heaved a sigh and closed my phone, tossing it back into my purse. Mrs. Jackling talked away for the rest of class about parts of an atom.

The bell rang and kids immediately got up and rushed out the room with their binders half closed and papers flying out of it.

I hastily packed my backpack and was about to run out the room as well when Mrs. Jackling stopped me.

"Ms. Fyer, I believe I have asked you to stay after class," she said and sat down at her desk. I looked desperately at Marisol for help, but she just shrugged and mouthed the words 'good luck' before walking out along with the crowd. I groaned internally and dragged myself to the front of the room.

The only person left other than me and Jackling was a boy with dark brown hair who sat by the window at the very back of the room. I noticed him once or twice, but never got the chance to ask for his name. Not that I cared what he was called.

He was stuffing papers and pencils into his overflowing backpack, overloaded with textbooks. He zipped close his backpack, heaved it onto his shoulders, and was about to walk out as well when Mrs. Jackling called out to him, "Samuel, can you stay for a moment as well?"

My eyes widened. Samuel? Samuel, as in the Samuel Rose who spilled coffee on me the other day and ruined my outfit?

Samuel stiffened and visibly gulped before muttering a soft 'yes ma'am' and shuffled to stand next to me.

I almost didn't recognize him. When I last saw him, he had a Starbucks cap over his hair, covering it so I couldn't see his hair color. But his eyes stayed the same. That hazel brown never changed.

I scooted a little to the left, staying as far away as possible from him.

"Now," Mrs. Jackling said, propping her elbows onto the desk and setting her chin on her hands. "Let's start shall we?"

Samuel kept his gaze on the floor and shuffled back and forth.

"Um, is there something that you need?" I asked promptly, wanting to get over with this as fast as possible. Staying in one room with Mrs. Jackling for forty-five minutes is already enough, but adding extra time to that number is going to drive me insane.

Mrs. Jackling smiled. Not the normal smile that teachers gave you when you were walking down the hallway in the morning, but one that told you trouble was coming soon.

"Ah, yes," she replied. "Like I told you countless times before, you are failing not only my class but your others. So, I came up with a way to help you with that."

Samuel looked up confused and asked, "But what has all this got to do with me?"

Mrs. Jackling's smile widened, making her look like a raccoon with huge, black eyes.

"That's where I'm getting to, boy," she told him, a bit of sweet venom dripping off her voice.

She turned back to me. "Ms. Fyer, I think that a tutor will help you in this case."

I stared at her. Having a tutor will mean more studying and I hated that. I would rather spend my time choking down a banana milkshake than listen to some random person talk about useless things for an hour.

"B-But..." I stammered.

"Worry not, Ms. Fyer," Mrs. Jackling said. "I already found your tutor."

I wanted to run. Anywhere on this Earth was better than here. I didn't want a tutor. That's end of discussion.

Mrs. Jackling leaned back in her chair and smiled maliciously like a predator about to jump her prey. "Samuel Rose, one of the top five students in Baltimore High, will be your tutor for all of your subjects."

~*~

I slammed my locker shut loudly and stormed down the hallway.

"Wait! Eleanor!" someone called behind me. I didn't need to turn around to know that that voice belonged to Samuel Rose. I ignored him and continued stomping, anger building up in my chest.

I was mad. Mad at Mrs. Jackling. Mad that I had a tutor who just had to be Samuel. Mad at everything.

"Eleanor!" Samuel yelled again, this time his voice nearer to me. His footsteps thumped on the ground as he ran past me and planted himself right in front me, causing me to stop. He bent down, put up a hand, and gasped for breath.

"S-Sorry... About yesterday and... what happened... right then..." He managed to say between staggered breaths.

I crossed my arms and glared at him. "How's saying 'sorry' going to change things? Now I'm stuck with you."

Samuel swallowed and straightened up, but lowered his gaze so that he wasn't staring directly into my eyes.

"I know it's not going to change anything," he said softly. "I just wanted to at least apologize to you."

I sighed and uncrossed my arms.

"Whatever," I huffed and turned to walk away again. Samuel didn't follow me this time. But I didn't care about that. He was the one who first ruined my life. Not me.

CHAPTER 3: My World is Officially Ending

As I got home from school and marched up into my bedroom, I called Marisol and told her about the news.

"Say what?!" she screamed into the phone when she heard what happened. I had to hold the receiver away from my ears. One screaming Coach Wayne was enough. I didn't need two people shattering my eardrums.

"Can you please keep your voice down?" I demanded with a scowl. "My ears are gonna explode!"

"Sorry, sorry," Marisol apologized, but I could imagine her with a smirk at the other end. "But dang! That's news!"

I rolled my eyes and plopped myself down onto my bed.

"What am I going to do now?" I asked, irritated. "I don't want to be stuck with that boy for the rest of my life!"

"I dunno," Marisol said with a shrug in her voice. "Fall in love with him?"

If this conversation was in real life, I would have slapped her arm and glared. But this was over a phone. I would just slap her tomorrow at school.

"Don't be stupid," I scolded her. "I'll love that boy when the world ends."

Marisol giggled, her voice echoing through the receiver. "Oh come on, El. You're the student. He's the tutor. What could go wrong?"

"Everything," I told her. I hated the fact that I would need to be breathing, sharing, and feeling the same air as Samuel Rose. I was better than him. Far better than him. I didn't belong in his category. I was Eleanor Fyer, Queen of Harken High, future heir of the Fyer estate. And Samuel Rose was nothing compared to me. Absolutely nothing.

"Oh come on, El," Marisol said, laughing a little. I knew you can't technically hear it, but I could hear a smile in her words. "The most bizarre things happen sometimes. You might never know."

"I think I know," I told her, a little coldly. "I don't want to have anything to do with that boy. The sooner our tutor session is over, the better I'll feel. I just need to learn what I need to pass math tests. I don't need other things from him."

"Are you sure?" Mariso asked playfully. It was official. As soon as I saw her tomorrow, I would murder her and made sure that her blood stained the walls of our school.

Marisol probably sensed my tension because she laughed and added, "Okay, okay. Just kidding. But you might never know."

I rolled my eyes and attempted to change the subject before it got deeper and more complex than that, "So, anything new?"

"Nah," Marisol answered, complying to my sudden change in topics. "Unless you count Justin screaming in the living room."

"Party at yours?" I asked and smirked a little. Marisol had a 13 year old brother, Justin, who always invited his, and I quoted from Marisol's point of view, 'bratty' friends. Whenever they came over, they would crowd the X-Box or the Wii. Sometimes I couldn't even tell what the game they were playing is about. Most of the time, it was just a bunch of fighting and action that I saw no point in.

Marisol sighed. "Yup. Holden won't stop yelling with Justin."

I chuckled. Whenever Marisol got annoyed by her brother and his 'bratty' friends, it was funny watching her lash out at them.

"Did you yell at them yet?"

"Yeah. It was all sunshine and unicorns."

"That's great, Mar. Do those unicorns have magical and sparkly horns?"

"Eleanor!" Marisol whined. "Stop teasing me!"

"That's why you don't tease me first," I told her with a grin of victory plastered on my face.

Marisol groaned from the other end. "But I was just stating true facts!"

"Which are complete bozos," I finished for her, adding on to her sentence.

"What are bozos?"

"They are-" my voice was cut off when the door burst open and my mom walked in, decked out in her business outfit.

"Hel-lo, Ellie!" she chirped and smiled. Her bright pink shirt and sparkling buttons almost blinded me. Her frizzy hair looked wilder than usual and her black leathery hand bag swished back and forth in a hypnotizing way.

"Bailey's here," I hissed into my phone, while eyeing my mom as she twirled around in my room, looking and poking around in my shelf and closet for 'new and interesting things'. "I'll call you later."

I pressed the 'end' button and quickly stuffed my phone below my pillow.

I turned to my mom and smiled. "Good afternoon, Bailey."

"And good afternoon to you too, Eleanor," Bailey answered back as she continued her mini search.

I rarely called my mom 'mom'. I was used to calling her by her actually name. Partially because she wanted me too. Something about how she thought calling her by her real name made her sound 'younger than she really is'; whatever that meant. No matter how you looked at it, my mom looked the same age each year. She looked way younger than most moms I had encountered. Maybe it was just because she applied way more makeup to her face than I did.

"So, what brings you here, today?" I asked. It was a mother-and-daughter thing that Bailey and I had shared since I could remember. I would ask her 'What's up?' and that started the conversation.

"Oh, nothing much," Bailey answered with a wide smile. She crossed the room and sat down beside me on the edge of the bed. "I just wanted to see my beautiful daughter."

"Anything else?" I asked, praying for her to go away so I could resume my peace and continue talking with Marisol. Apparently, Bailey didn't get the message.

"Oh, yes," she said, as if suddenly remembering something. "Did anything special happen at school today?"

I tilted my head to the side in a questioning way. "What... do you mean by 'special'?" Visions of Samuel flooded my mind. I had to bite my lip and clench my bed sheets tightly just to keep myself from pulling out my hair in frustration at that boy.

Bailey chuckled. "Oh, you know. Maybe boy troubles?"

At the mention of that, my face turned red.

"W-What?!" I stuttered. "Why would you think that?!"

"Well, you are 17 now, right?" Bailey said with a grin. "You're coming of age to find boyfriends. Having boy troubles at this age is very normal."

I stared at her, wondering if she was kidding. Despite her playful, glittering eyes and huge, bright smile, I could tell that she wasn't exactly joking.

I sighed and told her about Mrs. Jackling's bright idea of placing me with Samuel so he could tutor me.

As soon as Bailey heard that I was going to be paired up with a boy soon, she went crazy and wild over the news.

"That's so great!" she squealed and gave me a hug, squeezing the air and life out of me. "You can finally find a boyfriend in your life now! Just like how I found your father!"

Head locked in her grip, I squirmed uselessly, gasping for breath. "Can't... breathe..."

Realizing that I was starting to turn blue and purple, Bailey quickly released me with an apologetic smile. "Oops, sorry. I didn't mean to squeeze you like that. It's just, I was excited. That's all."

I scooted away from her, fearing that she might suddenly hug me again and kill me this time, while smoothing out my shirt of the wrinkles that Bailey made.

"Whatever," I grumbled, my sides still aching from the hug. "Do you need anything else?"

Bailey thought for a moment, one of her fingers tapping her chin thoughtfully. Her red nails, painted to fit her outfit, flashed vividly each time it caught the sun light. I was tempted to look away in order to save my eyes from permanent blindness, but I didn't for some odd reason.

"Hm..." Bailey mumbled to herself. Suddenly she remembered with a little 'Ah-ha!"

"I need to go to one of your father's banquets. You'll be fine staying home alone right?" she asked.

The weird thing was, I called my dad plain 'dad'. Not his real name like Bailey, but just 'dad'.

My dad was a huge business man working as the CEO of Castoway, a drilling company. He was rarely home because he had to attend countless meetings to discuss random issues and got invited to parties and banquets. Bailey always tagged along with him so I was already used to being alone.

I didn't mind, of course. In a teenager's point of view, it was a blessing to be home alone so much. This meant I had the whole house to myself.

"Right," I said. "Banquet. I'll be fine."

Bailey smiled gratefully and stood up, checking her huge golden watch on her waist. Realizing the time, she gasped and began to rush out the room.

"Sorry!" she called over her shoulder. "I gotta go! Your dad's waiting for me!"

Right before she was fully gone from my sight, she paused at the door way and turned back to look at me one last time, a small playful smile tugging on her lips. "And, oh yeah. If you ever do fall for that boy, tell me. I can't wait to get in between you two."

"MOM!"

Bailey chuckled and disappeared from the doorframe with a quick, "Bye sweetie!"

I rolled my eyes and, once I was sure she was out of ear shot, I pulled out my phone from under the pillow. Before I could even dial in Marisol's number, she called, the light green banner flashing on the top of the screen. I picked up.

"What happened?" was the first thing she asked. No 'hello!' or 'how are you doing?'. Just a 'What happened?'.

"How did you know that I was done with the conversation?"

"So, what happened?" Marisol repeated.

"You didn't answer my question. How did you know?"

"I just know," she answered. "Just tell me already. The suspense!"

I rolled my eyes at her exaggeration.

"Nothing much," I told her. "Bailey sided with you on the 'Samuel Rose' discussion."

There was a moment of silence before Marisol broke off into a bunch of squealing and 'Told you so!'.

I sighed irritatingly. "Yeah, yeah," I grumbled. "Fine, you win. But that doesn't mean that I'll love him."

Marisol laughed. "50 bucks."

"Huh?"

"I bet you 50 bucks that you will definitely fall for him."

I sagged a little. Marisol was definitely desperate enough to bet on something that would never happen.

"Fine. 50 bucks it is, then. I bet you 50 that I will never fall for him. Ever," I accepted the challenge.

Marisol's evil laughter resounded through the receiver.

"We'll see about that..." she giggled. "We'll see..."

We talked away for the rest of the time about random things that teenagers talked about like a recent breakup between the most stuck-up girl and hottest boy. it was a no brainer what happened there.

But Marisol's bet still played back and forth vividly in my mind. Would I, Eleanor Fyer, truly and surely fall for the Nobody Samuel Rose one day?

CHAPTER 4: Crazy Has a Whole New Meaning

I dreaded going to school the next day. That meant I would have to see both Samuel and Mrs. Jackling.

I was definitely scared of seeing Mrs. Jackling. It was not because she looked and sounded scary when she talked, but because she might start my tutoring sessions with Samuel.

I didn't want to start so soon. In fact, I didn't want to start at all.

I groaned and turned onto my stomach in my bed so that my face was buried into my pillow.

Samuel Rose. Of all the people in the world, it just had to be him. I pressed myself more into the pillow, hoping to somehow disappear forever in my bed. Or, at least, until the year passed so I wouldn't have to see Samuel.

But Bailey and Marisol obviously had different ideas.

"Eleanor?" Bailey called while banging repeatedly on my door. "Eleanor! Time for school!"

I groaned and pressed myself deeper into the pillow, trying to drown out her voice.

"Eleanor!"

Without warning, Bailey flung open the door and strode inside. When she saw me laying on the bed like a balloon that lost all its air, she sighed.

"Oh, come on, Ellie," she said. "Don't be like that. What's wrong with school?"

"It's not school," I grumbled. My voice was muffled into my pillow, so it came out like animal sounds. "It's something else."

Somehow understanding me, Bailey crossed the room and sat down beside me.

"Honey," she began, a warning that she was about to jump into one of her long speeches about life that was supposed to be 'essential' for me. "I know that you're upset about something, but you need to get it together and move on, okay?"

"That's easy for you to say," I told her, my face still planted firmly into my pillow. "You have no clue what happened to me."

Bailey heaved another sigh. "Please, Eleanor. You're going to be late for school. Marisol is waiting for you downstairs."

True to her word, Marisol called up the stairs, "El? We're gonna be late! Hurry up!"

I sighed heavily and slowly pushed myself up. Bailey smiled.

"Now, that's my girl!" she chirped and got up. She walked over to my drawer and pulled out a blue skirt and white shirt with frills going down the middle. She handed them to me and walked towards the door.

"Get changed and come downstairs for your breakfast!" she told me before dancing out the door.

I glared at my clothes as if blaming them for being a reason I had to get dressed and go to school.

Which they were.

I pulled off my pajama shirt and slipped on my white frilly shirt. Next, I slipped off my pajama pants and jumped into my blue skirt. I changed slowly to make the time last longer.

I pulled my wavy blonde hair up into a high ponytail and applied on my usual amount of makeup per day.

Putting on last minute accessories, I grabbed my backpack that was sitting in the corner of my room, slumped against the wall, and headed downstairs.

"Here are your pancakes." Bailey handed me a plate stacked with pancakes, topped with maple syrup.

I carried my plate to the kitchen and sat down beside Marisol who was in the middle of munching on a piece of waffle. Ever since we entered High School, all the activities increased, so Marisol and I had been taking turns eating breakfast at each other's to save time.

We quickly wolfed down our food and headed out the house.

"Keep safe!" Bailey called after us like she did every time.

"So, big day today?" Marisol asked as we walked down our neighborhood. We both lived close to Harken High so it was about half a mile walk to get to school.

"What do you mean?"

Marisol rolled her eyes. "Duh, Samuel! What else?"

"I have no clue what you're talking about."

"Oh, come on, El," Marisol grinned. "I still have a bet to win!"

"You mean, a bet I have to win," I corrected her.

Marisol laughed. "Nuh-uh!"

"Yeah-huh!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Yeah-huh!"

"Nuh-uh!"

We bickered playfully the entire way to school about who would win the bet. It was childish, but I knew the real reason why Marisol was doing this. She was trying to cheer me up, but failed. I still felt lousy and moody about going to school.

We were walking up the stairs to Harken High when someone called out to us, making us stop half way up.

I turned around to see Samuel jog up to us, out of breath.

"S-Sorry for... bothering you..." he managed to say. "But... I need to ask you... something..."

Giving him a weird look, I asked in a rude way, "What?"

Samuel took a deep breath before straightening himself up.

"Um, do you want to start tutoring today...?" A light pink dusted his features. Marisol giggled beside me, but stopped when I gave her a look.

"Whatever," I grumbled and was about to turn back to continue walking, when Samuel stopped me again.

"Uh, where do you want to do the tutoring?" he blurted out. I paused, the question surprising me for a second, and thought about it. I wasn't all that excited about going over to his house so I said the only reasonable thing, "At mine."

"Thanks," Samuel breathed and gave me a small smile. I snorted and walked inside the school, Marisol trailing close behind me with an annoying grin on her face.

~*~

"Let us welcome a new student, class!" Ms. Pamelo, the English teacher, announced in first period. "Ms. Grace, would you like to introduce yourself?"

A girl with multi-colored hair, ranging from red to purple, and multiple ear pierces stood next to her. She wore a gray shirt with the words "Bad Girls Don't Die" written in red and ripped navy blue jeans, a little faded at the knees. With a huge smile, she nodded and took a step forward.

"Hello everyone!" she chirped with a heavy accent that I immediately identified as German. "My name is Vaneesa Grace, but you can just call me Chloe."

I tuned her out after that as she began to introduce herself like every newcomer would. I caught words here and there, like how I was right when she said that she was from Germany. I stared out the window for most of it, watching birds flying and the clouds rolling by.

It was when Ms. Pamelo talked again that I came back to my senses. "Thank you so much for sharing about yourself, Vaneesa!" she smiled.

"Chloe," Vaneesa, or Chloe, corrected her.

"Yes, Chloe," Ms. Pamelo said, changing her words. "Well, welcome to Harken High! I hope that you'll like it here."

"I most definitely will!" Chloe said gratefully.

Ms. Pamelo picked up her clipboard and flipped through the pages for attendance. She scribbled something on the last page, probably Chloe's name.

"Where would you like to sit?" she asked Chloe, once she was done writing.

"Oh, I would like to sit there, close to the window," Chloe pointed at the seat to my left.

"What?!" I immediately screeched and shot up from my seat without thinking. "She can't sit here!"

Ms. Pamelo gave me a cold stare. "Ms. Fyer," she said coldly. "That is not how we treat new students. Chloe may sit there if she wants to. Now, sit down."

I groaned and sank back down in my seat as people sent me looks. Marisol was amongst them. None of them said a thing, but I could almost hear their thoughts in my mind. _Oh, look. Eleanor isn't having what she wants today._

This wasn't the first time I had suddenly lashed out during class. Many people who knew me were already used to this.

Ms. Pamelo returned to her fake happy mood and smiled and said kindly to Chloe, "Of course you may have that seat! Why don't you go ahead and make yourself comfortable?"

Chloe seemed as if she didn't even notice my sudden rude manner towards her. She kept her smile as she strolled over to the empty desk next to me.

She dropped her black backpack on the floor beside the desk and slid into the seat. She dug around in her backpack for a moment before pulling out a rainbow colored notebook that matched her hair and a black pencil.

"Take out your Literature Books," Ms. Pamelo instructed, a way she used to start class. Chloe flipped her notebook open to a random page and got ready to take notes.

The person sitting behind her gently tapped her shoulder. Chloe turned around to face the girl, whom I recognized as Alicia Berkley.

"Um, there's this textbook you need to use under your desk," she whispered in a hush, trying not to catch Mrs. Pamelo's attention. Chloe looked confused.

"Where?" she asked. Alicia pointed under her desk.

Chloe seemed to understand because she bent over and saw the textbook.

"Oh, what textbook," she said and pulled the book out from a little basket under the desk. She plopped the textbook down on her desk just as Ms. Pamelo said, "Turn to page 312."

Chloe flipped through the pages until she found the correct one. Satisfied, she pulled her notebook from under the textbook and set it on top of the page next to 312, ready to take any necessary notes.

I sighed exasperatedly and scooted a little to the right, trying to keep as much distance between us.

Ms. Pamelo talked away for the rest of the class about parts of speech and figurative language. I twirled my pencil in the air with a bored expression for most of the time while continuously glancing at the clock at the back of the room, each time hoping that a large chunk of class had passed.

Finally, after what seemed like an infinity, the bell rang, signaling that class was over. Students immediately began to pack up their things, throwing papers and notebooks into their backpacks as fast as possible.

All I had to do was to stuff my pencil in the front pocket of my backpack, slinging it over shoulders, and marching out the room. Marisol had Geometry next while I had Social Studies, so we had to part ways.

I dragged my feet to the Social Studies room. The hallway slowly cleared itself until it was almost bare except for a few running late students speeding down the hall like a bull and one or two teachers who went to get coffee and didn't realize the time.

As I was walking, a voice called out to me, "Wait! Please wait!"

I paused and turned around, an eyebrow raised in suspicion. Chloe jogged up to me, breathless, her multi-colored hair flying around her face like a crazy rainbow.

"A-Are you the student... from Ms. Pamelo's class?" she asked, her face a little red and puffed out from running.

"Yes...?" I answered. Chloe's face brightened.

"Oh, that's good then!" she said happily. "That means you can help me find my next class, right?"

"Your next class?" I repeated her words in confusion. I had acted rudely towards her and yet, here she was, asking me to help her?

"Yes!" Chloe answered. "I have Chemistry with Mrs. Hoggins next. Can you show me where her room is?"

I looked up at the ceiling where a digital clock hang downwards. The time read 8:22. I still had three more minutes before the tardy bell would ring.

I sighed. "Yeah, sure," I grumbled. "Follow me."

"Thank you so much!" Chloe smiled as I began to walk down the hallway again. She followed closely behind.

We turned a few corners and walked down many hallways before reaching Room 2114, Mrs. Hoggins' room.

"This is it," I told her, while glancing up to check the time again. 8:24.

"Thank you!" Chloe said again. I shrugged.

"No prob."

Chloe opened the door to her class and was about to enter when she paused. She lifted her backpack off her shoulders and zipped open her front pocket. She pulled out a folded piece of paper and handed it to me.

"For you," she told me before walking into the classroom and shutting the door behind her.

I stared at the sheet of paper. The bell rang above me and I knew I was late for class, but I unfolded the paper slowly and read the words scribbled on it. I immediately recognized it as one of those fortune cookies' slip of papers. It read:

You need to believe in everything, no matter how crazy they seem.

~*~

"So, she gave you a fortune slip?" Marisol asked as we walked down the hall crowded with a sea of people after school ended. I had told her the story of what happened and she immediately got interested in the topic.

"Yeah," I answered with a roll of my eyes. "But I'm not falling for any of those baloney fortunes. They aren't even real."

Marisol shrugged. "My dad got one before, saying something like 'You have a great accomplishment up ahead!' and it was true. He won the lottery a week later."

"So, you expect me to believe the fortune?"

"That's up to you. I'm just telling you what happened from my experience."

I huffed in annoyance as we walked out the school and down the stairs. I stopped in my tracks when my eyes landed on a certain person.

Samuel seemed to sense me because he suddenly got up from the bench he was sitting at, stuffed the book he was reading into his backpack hastily, and turned around to greet me.

"Oh, uh, hey!" he smiled sheepishly.

I inhaled a sharp breath as Marisol patted my shoulder. "Well, it's as the Hunger Games says," she said. "'May the odds be ever in your favor'."

"Wait-"

But she was already jogging away and waving goodbye with that huge goofy grin she always had, leaving me completely alone with Samuel.

"So, uh... should we go?" Samuel asked awkwardly after a moment of silence. I remained in my position, staring at the spot where Marisol left, dumb struck, but I quickly regained my wits.

"Yeah," I grumbled. "Let's go."

CHAPTER 5: And the Torture Begins

There was a heavy silence between Samuel and me as we walked to my house.

Even left unsaid, I knew that Samuel was just as uneasy about this whole 'tutoring' thing as I was. He kept fidgeting with the straps of his backpack, twisting it back and forth to create small dents in the material.

I made sure that I was at least a good foot away from him. I tried to act cool like nothing was wrong by plugging my earphones into my phone, but I could feel my heart beat rapidly in my chest.

The music blasting from my earphones began to make me feel sick after a while so I ended up putting them away. For the rest of the walk, I didn't do anything else except kept my distance from Samuel as far as possible without walking into the grass and ruining my already-muddy-from-volleyball-practice shoes even more.

At one point, Samuel made an attempt at conversation.

"So, uh, do you have any siblings?" he asked awkwardly.

"No," I answered stiffly. "Why?"

Samuel shook his head. "Oh, it's nothing," he said quickly. "Just... curious."

"Do you?" I asked.

"Huh?"

"Do you have siblings?" I repeated, rephrasing my question.

"Yes," Samuel answered almost immediately. "I have a younger brother and sister. They're twins."

"What're their names?" I asked. Though my voice came out sounding calm and normal, in my mind, I was shocked and surprised. I couldn't believe I was actually having a conversation with the person I least expected to.

"Felix and Susanna," Samuel said with a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "They're only 4 years old."

"Oh."

There wasn't much to say after that so we went back to our silence for the rest of the way. Samuel didn't seem as nervous as before, but continued twisting the straps of his backpack. I did something that I never thought I would: I moved a little closer to Samuel. Not a lot, but just a little. It was basically a tiny shuffle his way.

Still, it was a huge shock to me. What was happening to me? Why was I starting to feel comfortable around this person while a second ago, I couldn't even bare the thought of him?

I pushed those thoughts away when we reached my house.

Like usual, no one was home. My dad had some sort of project he had to do at work and Bailey probably went shopping or something else. This meant I was stuck in the house alone with Samuel for who-knows-how-long.

I took Samuel to the study room that was rarely used by my family and dumped my backpack at the door. I marched up to the window and drew back the curtains so that the sunlight could stream in.

The room was bare, except for an empty bookshelf that stood on the right side of the room against the wall and a square wooden table with two chairs placed on either side of it.

Just because my family rarely used this room didn't mean that we didn't keep it clean. My dad couldn't stand a messy environment so he hired a maid to clean the room up every week.

Sometimes I completely forget that we even had this room in our house.

In fact, the last time I remembered walking into this study room was back when I was in the 6th Grade. Bailey was supposed to drive me to school that day because it was raining and I couldn't risk ruining my pink sweater. But she lost the keys to her car so we turned the house upside down looking for it.

After rampaging through the house for what seemed like forever, I somehow came across the door to the empty study room and thought that the keys might be there. I opened the door and looked inside.

Sure enough, Bailey's keys were lying on the third shelf of the bookshelf. I grabbed them and handed them to her.

Bailey said she remembered that she was upstairs and just so happened to be sorting out her handbag on the shelf and forgot to put the keys back in.

By some miracle, I remembered about this room today and thought that it might work for the tutoring.

Samuel and I sat down across from each other at the wooden table. Surprisingly, the chairs didn't squeak like I thought they would, judging by how little we used them and how old they were. They were here for a long time, all the way back from when I was born.

Samuel pulled out a bunch of binders, pencils, papers, and notebooks from his backpack and plopped all of them down on the table in from of him.

"I talked to Mrs. Jackling today and she told me that I would be tutoring you so that you could succeed in your academics," he said as he began to sort out the pile.

He pushed the stack of textbooks to his left and the notebooks and papers to his right with the pens and pencils placed on top of it.

"I'm not sure how long this tutoring will last, but I'll try to teach you as much as possible about the things that you will need to know," he continued.

He grabbed one of the textbooks and handed it to me. I stared at the title which read 'Geometry I'.

"Mrs. Jackling told me that you needed the most help in Math so I thought that we might as well start here," he explained and handed me a notebook. "According to your Geometry teacher, you're currently learning about the angle degrees, right?"

"Yeah," I answered with a boring tone. I knew the tutoring barely started but I was already bored.

Samuel nodded. "And that's why I'm going to help you understand the angle relationships and degrees of specific angles better today."

While Mrs. Turner, my Geometry teacher, was explaining about the different angles and their degrees today, I was busy checking my Facebook account so I didn't listen to a word she said. Now I wished I had because when Samuel opened the textbook for me to the chapter about angle relationships and degrees and began to explain, I didn't know a single thing he said.

His words sounded like an alien language to me. I tried to understand him, but gave up when he used the words 'Supplementary Angle'.

I followed him the best I could, but what he was saying was coming in through one ear and out the other.

Samuel continued explaining and at one point, he gave me some problems to try and solve. I messed up on the first one, on the first step. Though he didn't laugh, I could tell that Samuel was trying to hold back a smile as he pointed to certain parts of the problem and explained to me step by step on how to do them.

When I didn't exactly understand the first problem, he showed me how to do the second. Slowly, I began to understand what he was saying and what to do.

He let me do the third one by myself. I picked up my pencil and began to write numbers and letters onto my paper. I expected Samuel to jump in suddenly at any moment and tell me that I was doing everything wrong, but he didn't.

When I finished, he smiled and told me, "See? I told you could do it!"

I was surprised.

"I... got it right?" I asked in disbelief. My weakest subject was Math. Actually, I sucked in every class, but Math stumped me in every single grade I had been in, starting in the 4th grade.

Whenever I didn't understand something that a teacher said in Math, I found something around me to entertain myself with and waited for class to end. This explained why I was failing Math the worst out of all my other classes.

"Yup!" Samuel said. "Angle Relationships aren't hard at all. When you understand how to find the degrees of all the angles, it's very easy."

I stared at my paper, still not believing that I was able to do the problem and got it right.

"Let's try the next one," Samuel said and pointed at the fourth problem with a triangle. One of the angle degrees was missing and I had to figure out what it was.

"Uh, right," I quickly shook myself out of my shock and began to solve the problem. My hand moved across the paper as if it had a mind of its own. In no time, I had finished yet another problem.

Thinking that I was starting to have a grasp on the topic at last, I began to solve the other problems. Samuel helped me with some that I was confused on and showed me short-cuts on certain questions.

I felt accomplished when I finished the first page of my homework.

"Good job!" Samuel congratulated me with a smile and clapped his hands.

For some reason, I felt myself flush a little. The red tainting my cheeks didn't feel really hot, but I knew it was there.

"Uh, t-thanks," I stammered. I was dumbstruck. I never stammered on my words before and certainly not in front of a boy whom I hated, so why did I just do that right then?

Samuel smiled. "No problem!"

We moved on to the next topic which was science. As expected, Mrs. Jackling made this part of the tutoring the hardest and most tiring. She had handed Samuel piles and piles of work that he needed to teach me and review over.

As he explained about the Periodic Table, I stared at his hair. For the first time since I had met him, I noticed how beautiful Samuel's brown hair was.

It wasn't the dark type of brown, but the light, chocolate type. Whenever his hair caught the sunlight, it shimmered gold, then silver, then olive.

I watched as he furrowed his eyebrows a little as he read a passage out loud from the textbook. Somehow, I found this cute.

I guessed I was daydreaming too much because Samuel had to wave his hand in front of my face to snap me back to reality.

"Huh? What?" I jolted.

"Oh, I was just saying that today's tutoring session is over," Samuel told me as he began to pack up.

"Wait, but... What about Social Studies and ELA?" I asked frantically. Strangely, somewhere within me, I didn't want this tutoring to end such soon. I wanted it to last longer.

"We'll do those subjects tomorrow," Samuel said and stuffed his pens and pencils into his backpack. "I don't want to stress you out with all that work. For now, Math and Science will be enough for you to worry about."

Samuel stood up from the table and gave me a smile. "Thanks for letting me come over," he said, his eyes shining with gratitude. "I hope that what we did today helped. I'll see you tomorrow."

He turned and was about to leave when I stopped him.

"Wait, can we tutor in my house again tomorrow?" I asked.

"Sure!" Samuel answered. I saw a flash of happiness flicker in his eyes. "That sounds great."

"Okay, bye," I felt my cheeks flush again. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Samuel gave me a little wave before walking out the room. I listened as his footsteps echoed through the house as he went down the stairs. Soon, those footsteps faded away and the door opened and closed.

I stood, planted to my spot on the floor, and stared numbly after Samuel.

My phone rang, making me blink twice and run to retrieve it.

"Hello?" I asked when I picked up.

"How did tutoring go?" Marisol's voice resounded from the other end.

I didn't answer her for a second as I plundered my answer. How did the tutoring go? Good? Bad? A little scary?

"Definitely interesting," I finally decided to say. Marisol laughed.

"So, I'm guessing I'm winning the bet?" Marisol asked playfully.

I rolled my eyes though she couldn't see me. "No way," I told her firmly. "If I say I'm gonna to win, I will. I'm not losing to the bet."

Marisol laughed again. "Yeah, that's what you say. But are you sure?"

I scowled. "Of course I'm sure," I said. "Why would I gain feelings for someone I don't like?"

"Because I can hear a difference in your voice. It's shaking," Marisol told me.

"What do you-"

I stopped talking and noticed what she meant. My voice was slightly quivering and my hand that held the phone shook a little.

I squeezed my fist over my phone and drew in a deep breath and let it out.

"Never mind," I said, more evenly. "Nothing happened though."

"Sure," Marisol said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "I, like, totally believe that."

Through my phone, I heard Marisol's bedroom door suddenly bang open and a second later, Justin's voice said whiningly, "Hey, Mar. Where's the Cheetos?"

Marisol sighed exasperatedly. "Justin, can't you see I'm a bit busy here?" she said, annoyed. "You don't just go barging into people's room."

"Where's the Cheetos?" Justin asked again, completely ignoring Marisol's comment.

"Go away. Leave me alone."

"Cheetos?"

"No."

"But I and the others are hungry."

"I don't care."

"Fine," Justin huffed. "But don't blame me when you find the house rampaged!"

The door slammed shut and Marisol muttered under her breath, "Stupid brat of a brother."

Remembering that I was still on the phone, she asked, "You still have a session tomorrow right?"

"Yeah," I answered grumpily.

"Excited for it?"

I snorted. "Totally. I'm completely pumped up for it."

Except, I was not. At least, I'm didn't think I am.

CHAPTER 6: Out of Sight, Out of Mind

Marisol and I never eat lunch inside the cafeteria. It was way too loud with all the non-stop chattering from the kids. We made do outside at the dark blue tables that they placed beneath a ceiling. It wasn't exactly amazing to be sitting outside where I might get bitten by an ant or something, but it was definitely better than having to scream and yell every time I had to tell Marisol something.

"So, story time," Marisol propped her elbows onto the table and leaned forward a bit with a smirk as she popped a raisin into her mouth.

For unknown reasons, Marisol had loved raisins ever since she was in the 2nd grade. I love donuts in which Marisol would never understand because she considered them, and I quote, 'weirdly shaped'. But then again, I never ceased to understand why she not only loved eating raisins, but also used it to bring away her sorrows and frustrations. I ate nuts whenever I could and that was saying a lot.

"What do you mean?" I asked and sucked some orange juice through my straw. I didn't eat much. Just a veggie sandwich and an orange juice box.

"Duh, girl," Marisol rolled her eyes playfully. "About yesterday."

I sighed and set the juice box down. "I already told you. It wasn't anything special."

Marisol laughed and wiggled her finger in my face. "Ah-ah-ah. Details, girl, details."

I picked up my pizza and took a bite out of it, savoring the amazing taste of tomato sauce, melted cheese, and dough put all together.

I swallowed and said ,"There's nothing to say. It was basically like any regular tutoring in this world."

"What did he teach you?" Marisol asked promptly and tossed another raisin into her mouth.

"Stuff."

"Like...?"

"Things."

"Oh come on," Marisol giggled and gave me a gentle shove. "Just tell me already."

I rolled my eyes and opened my mouth to say something when a voice with a familiar accent interrupted me.

"Can I zit here?"

I looked up and sure enough, it was Chloe with her bright smile. Her ear rings flashed brightly like Bailey's nails, almost blinding me.

I opened my mouth to tell her no when Marisol butted in.

"Sure!" she smiled. I groaned internally as Chloe slipped into the spot next to me and dumped a Kit Kat bar, a Snicker bar, and two packs of Gummy Bears onto the table. All of them were King size.

She pulled her backpack off her shoulders and rummaged around for a while before she did a little 'Ah-ha!' and pulled out a can of Coke and set it next to all her candies.

I scooted a little bit to the left to keep a good distance away from her. If that girl thought that candy and soft drinks could keep you full every day, she must be crazy. Sure, sweets made you hyper and energized, but it took time before you truly felt any change at all and the burst of energy didn't last long. I knew this fact first-handedly because I used to just eat sweets for lunch as well. The result was sleeping in class and getting way too many detentions.

Chloe popped open her can of coke and ripped open a pack of Gummy Bears.

"You guys like eating outside?" Chloe asked as she chewed on one of the bears, a red one.

"Yeah," Marisol answered. "The cafeteria's way too loud."

"It's a good spot," Chloe mused as she looked around. There wasn't much to see unless you counted brick walls and random flowers that grew through cracks in the ground.

"Yup!" Marisol agreed jokingly. "Nature is our BFF."

Chloe swallowed and chewed on another gummy bear.

"So, you're from Germany, right?" Marisol asked as she plucked a raisin from her box and popped it into her mouth.

"Yes," Chloe answered.

"What's it like there?"

Chloe tilted her a bit to the side and chewed thoughtfully as she thought of an answer.

I don't blame her. I hated explaining things. It didn't come with my nature.

"It's like here, in America," Chloe finally said, carefully. "Except, I seem to enjoy America much more."

Marisol smiled. "That's great!" she said enthusiastically. "You seriously need to explore all of America. Start with Texas first. Man, Texas rocks."

To prove her point, she dug around in her purse and pulled out her phone.

"I'm a Texas Longhorn fan," she informed Chloe as she pointed to her phone case that featured an orange silhouette of a Texas Longhorn.

Chloe looked confused.

"What is the 'Texas Longhorn'?"

"It's a football team," I answered for Marisol, surprising myself. "I'm a fan as well."

"Ah," Chloe nodded her head understandingly. "I see. Well, I hope to one day meet them too. Maybe I'll be their fan as well."

Marisol grinned. "There's no way you won't!"

I couldn't help but to smile along. "Yeah, they're like the best football team in all of Texas."

Something was definitely going on with me. I felt like something had changed within me. Maybe sitting next to Chloe, the weird candy girl with crazy hair is starting to affect me.

"You play any sports?" Marisol asked as flipped her hair behind her, stopping me from thinking any further.

"No," Chloe said. She crumpled up the wrapper for the gummy bears and set it beside her. Next, she moved to the Kit Kat bar. She ripped open the pack and began to bite the four bars inside.

"Aw, that's too bad," Marisol said as she rattled her box of raisins and held it up to see if there were anymore. "Eleanor and I play volleyball."

"She forced me to," I added.

"Did not."

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Okay, okay," Marisol laughed and held up her hands in mock defeat. "So maybe I did kinda force you to. But on the bright side, you like volleyball right?"

"Yeah, I'll totally like it if Coach Wayne will stop screaming every five seconds and spitting every time he opens his mouth," I grumbled and rolled my eyes.

"Sounds like an interesting coach," Chloe grinned.

"That's an understatement."

Marisol and Chloe burst out laughing. Though I was not sure why, I smiled a little too. It just felt natural... in a way.

I opened my purse and checked the time on my phone. We had five more minutes before we had to leave for our next classes.

I took out a pack of nuts from my back pack and dumped a handful into my hand. I threw one into my mouth and began to chew.

"Hey, you wanna come to our volleyball game this Saturday?" Marisol asked Chloe.

"Sure!" Chloe smiled. "I'll love to!"

"Awesome! Here," Marisol slid her over a piece of paper. "It contains all the information, including the address."

Chloe picked up the paper and scanned through it once before tucking it away in her backpack.

"I promise to come," she said with a smile. "I will never miss a game of my new friends."

~*~

Marisol and I rushed down the hallway like everyone else. Marisol's Social Studies classroom was right next to my Geometry one so we fast walked in one direction. Chloe went the other way to Band.

I blew my hair out of my face and ran a hand through it. The people swarming around us made me hot and suddenly tired.

"You finished the Geometry homework?" Marisol asked as we turned a corner and began to head down the hall to the Geometry and Social Studies room.

"Yup," I answered. "Samuel helped me yesterday."

"Good, because we have a pop quiz today. I heard from a group of gossiping girls during PE today while we were changing."

"Say what?!" I exclaimed. "That can't be true! I just figured out what's going on in math and now she throws a freaking pop quiz at us? I can't believe she-"

"OMG!"

We froze and turned around to see a girl with bright red hair tied up in a ponytail that kept bouncing up and down jog towards us. She stopped in front of us and, though breathing heavily, she faced Marisol and grinned, revealing a row of braces, and chirped, "Are you Marisol Kennedy?!"

"Uh, yeah?" Marisol drew out slowly, confused. The girl gasped and squealed happily.

"Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!" She literally jumped up and down. "I can't believe it! I'm meeting _the_ Marisol Kennedy, captain of Harken High's Volleyball Team! This is the real deal. They say you are the best!"

Marisol laughed awkwardly. "Uh... thanks I guess?"

The girl squealed again and shook her hands in front of her to show her excitement. I immediately sensed her as a fan. I tugged on Marisol's shirt sleeve and whispered, "Let's go. This girl's crazy."

Maybe the girl had super hearing or something. But whatever it was, she heard me.

Slowly, she turned her attention away from Marisol to stare at me, making me suddenly feel uneasy.

"Are you... Eleanor Fyer...?" she asked in a disbelieving voice. I didn't need to answer, because judging by how I stepped back a little and probably turned pale, she knew.

"OH MY GOODNESS!" the girl almost yelled. "I can't believe I'm meeting not only the captain of the volleyball team, but also the famous Eleanor Fyer today up close! It's like a dream coming true!"

I flinched at her loud voice.

"Can you keep it down?!" I hissed. "You're being too loud. My ears are about to explode!"

The girl giggled, but tuned her volume down a bit.

"This is perfect," she said in a daze. "This is absolutely perfect."

"What is?" Marisol asked, confused. The girl grinned, flashing her crooked row of braces at us.

"Harken High Newspaper of course!" she stated as if it were obvious. "We'll be interviewing you two. This will definitely gain more readers!"

I was taken aback.

"Wait a sec-"

"So, are you two in?" the girl asked in an excited way as she leaned forward for an answer.

"Um..." Marisol began. "We don't know. This is too sudden. We need to-"

"So you're in, right?!" the girl exclaimed and hopped up and down.

"We didn't say tha-"

"Alright!" the girl did a little fist pump in the air. She whipped out a notepad from her bag and scribbled something onto it. She ripped it out and handed it to Marisol.

"Thank you so much!" she smiled and began to jog away. "By the way, I'm Allison Waysley, just in case you need to know and I'm a number one fan of both of you!"

She gave us a wave and rounded a corner and disappeared.

"What... just happened?" Marisol asked as she stared at the piece of paper, dumb folded.

"Dunno," I said and shook my head. "But whatever just happened, it was definitely crazy."

Marisol sighed as she read over the paper. "Well, guess we're stuck in the newspaper club now. We're so lucky."

I rolled my eyes. "You mean you're the one lucky here. I still have tutoring sessions here."

Recovering pretty quickly from that incident, Marisol laughed and gave me a little pat on the shoulder.

"Whatever girl," she grinned. "The Newspaper Club doesn't sound that bad to me."

"Yeah right," I grumbled. "You wished." Marisol shrugged and began to walk again.

"See ya later," she called. As if suddenly remembering something, she paused and turned to face me on last time, smiling mischievously. "Oh! And, don't forget to invite Samuel to the volleyball game this Saturday, too!"

She giggled and ran away before I could say anything.

I groaned and opened the door to my Geometry class right as the bell rang. There was absolutely no way I would invite Samuel. Tutoring was enough. I didn't need to see him everywhere I went.

My backpack felt heavy on my shoulder as I entered and sat down in my usual spot at the back of the classroom.

"Well," I forced myself to say and tucked a loose stand of my hair behind my ear. "Let's hope I did well on my homework and will pass the pop quiz."

CHAPTER 7: Most Likely "No"

"The Boston Tea party, which took place in 1773," Samuel pointed at the paragraph in the textbook, "was when colonists, dressed as Native Americans, boarded three British tea ships and dumped all of the tea, found on the ships, into the sea."

I scribbled notes furiously into my notebook as Samuel talked. I didn't remember when I started to actually take learning seriously and notes became essential in my life, but I couldn't care more or less right now. I wrote away as Samuel began to explain what happened next after the Boston Tea Party.

"To punish the colonists for their act of protest," he continued, "the King imposed an act called the Intolerable Act upon them."

My hand flew across my paper. Never before had I taken my notes so seriously. It was like an invisible change had happened within me.

Maybe it did and I just hadn't fully noticed it yet.

Samuel began to explain about the Intolerable Act. I jotted down notes after notes. Each bullet point had a long explanation. And by long, I meant more than just three lines.

Samuel finished reading the last section of the chapter and paused to give me a few minutes to write down last minute things.

I picked up my highlighter and highlighted important features in my notes and used a red pen to underline things that I still didn't understand and needed to ask Samuel about.

"Can you explain more about the Sugar Act and the Stamp Act?" I asked. The Sugar Act and the Stamp Act were the first ones underlined because I still didn't understand the difference between the two.

"Alright," Samuel said and flipped a few pages back in the textbook to the place where it explained both acts.

"'In 1765, Parliament passed the Stamp Act, the law that required all legal and commercial documents to have an official stamp to prove that tax had been paid'," Samuel read. He paused there to explain the meaning of the sentence. "It basically means that Britain made the colonists carry an official stamp on the documents such as a letter to show that a tax had been paid."

He gave me a moment to write all that down. Beside the underlined words, I wrote 'Official stamp to show tax had been paid'. I looked up as a signal to tell him that he could continue.

"'The Sugar Act is a law passed by British Parliament in 1764 that placed a tax on the following: sugar, molasses, coffee, indigo, and certain kinds of wine. If the British caught smugglers, there will be harsh punishment'," he read. Again, he gave me a second to write down small notes.

I clicked my mechanical pencil to get more lead and scribbled down a few words. I finished and set my pencil and notebook down.

"That'll be all for Social Studies today," Samuel said as he closed the textbook and heaved it into the bag he brought. Because there were so many textbooks, papers, and class work that I had to do in order to succeed, Samuel had to bring a large blue bag that he found in his house. It looked really heavy so it made me wonder how a skinny boy like him could bring such a huge and heavy bag all the way home from school, much less be able to lift it properly.

I pushed back my urges to ask him about it and decided better of it.

"Do we have any quizzes or tests tomorrow?" I asked instead, as Samuel pulled out the Literature textbook.

"One quiz for ELA" Samuel grunted under the weight of the textbook and dropped it onto the table with a dull thud. "According to your teacher, Ms. Pamelo," he finished.

"Oh, that's great," I sighed. "What is it over?"

Samuel picked up a piece of paper with faint lines, where it was once folded, and scanned through it. "It says it'll be over the parts of speech and verb tenses," Samuel announced. "I'll help you study for it."

I didn't know why, but I faintly felt, or maybe it was just my imagination, my heart skipped a tiny beat. It was a millisecond off, but I felt it. I gulped. The way Samuel had said that he would help me study meant that he would stay longer to help me memorize all the parts of speech and verb tenses, two spots in ELA that I had always failed in. I should be mad, but I was not. This was weird. Why wasn't I flipping out right now?

"Here," Samuel said, breaking me out of my thoughts, and slid over a sheet of paper that I recognized as the notes that Ms. Pamelo gave us today on the Smartboard but I never copied down.

"Your teacher said to give them to you," he explained. "Because she knows that you haven't copied down the ones she taught in class."

I picked up the paper and quickly read through it once, just to see what it was about. I almost gave up when I came across the words 'Progressive Pronouns'.

Seeing my frustration in trying to understand, Samuel pulled out a sheet of paper and scribbled something onto it.

"Here," he said and set the notebook face up on the table. "Let's try this sentence."

"'George will be giving his presentation tomorrow'," I read. Samuel nodded.

"Right. The Progressive Pronoun in this sentence will be the phrase 'will be giving' because it shows continuation," he explained. Something clicked in my mind and I instantly understood the meaning.

Samuel gave me more sentences to try and I spot every Progressive Pronoun in the sentences. As we went along, Samuel made the sentences harder by adding more parts of speech such as 'conjunction'. Each time he added one, he would go in depth to explain and then give me a few problems to practice.

Whenever he was explaining, I found myself staring at his hair, just like last time. Today, his hair was a bit messy than usual, but still had that sleekness to it. Each time he moved a little, the sunlight caught the light in his hair and made it look shinier than before.

My hand twitched a little in an urge to run my hands repeatedly through his hair. It looked far too tempting. My hand lifted a bit and-

"And that should be it," Samuel announced as he wrote down one last sentence. "We've covered everything that you need to know for the quiz tomorrow."

I snapped out of my daze and looked down at the paper in front of me, my hand dropping to my side again. Chewing on my bottom lip, I found all the parts of speech and pronouns that were in there and set my pencil down after I finished, satisfied.

Samuel checked over my work and smiled. "Good job!" he said. "You got them all right!"

For a moment, I felt happy and giddy inside that he was praising me. But that moment passed by almost immediately when I remembered that I hated this boy.

"It's nothing," I said and waved my hand exasperatedly.

Samuel simply smiled as he gathered up all his things and stuffed them into his bag. He stood up, slinging his backpack over his shoulder. I stood up too.

"I'll see you tomorrow," he smiled as he walked to the door. He was about to step out the room when I suddenly remembered something.

"Wait!"

Samuel paused and turned to look at me with a confused look.

"Yes?"

I gulped and fought down a cage of butterflies that threatened to suddenly erupt in my stomach.

"Um..." I stuttered and felt my body temperature rise as my face began to turn a light shade of pink. I swallowed hard and said, all at once, "CanyoucometomyvolleyballgamethisSaturday?"

Samuel became more confused.

"Sorry?"

I swallowed again and forced myself to come down and breathed evenly. I drew in a deep breath and tried again to make my words come out more evenly, "Can you come to my volleyball game this Saturday?"

I clenched my fists behind my back because I knew for sure that he was going to decline. He was going to laugh and tell me that I must be out of my mind and walk away. I was wrong.

Samuel's face brightened and he said, happily, "Of course I can!"

I looked at him in surprise.

"You can?" I asked, in a near hopeful way. Samuel nodded.

"Yes, I just need to time and place," he said with a smile. I felt myself freeze all over the place but quickly came back to reality and bent down to pick up my handbag. I dug around until I found the slip of paper and handed it to Samuel.

"Come early to get good seats," I advised. Somewhere within my mind, I knew something was definitely wrong with me. I couldn't believe I had just invited Samuel Rose to the volleyball game this week. I had just done the inevitable.

Samuel nodded. "I'll try."

He tucked the slip carefully into a pocket in his jacket. "Thanks," he said gratefully. I stepped back from him.

"Yeah, no problem," I muttered under my breath. I was not sure whether Samuel heard me or not. But if he did, he didn't show it. He just smiled, gave me a nod, and walked away.

I stood there, transfixed for a long time before shaking my head and mentally scolding myself for standing there like an idiot.

I walked back to the table and began to clear up my work space. The entire time, my heart thumped rapidly in my chest. If I really tried to listen, I could hear every heartbeat my heart made, the sound echoing throughout the room.

~*~

"Did you do it?" Marisol asked first thing in the morning as we were walking to school. I frowned.

"Do what?"

"Did you ask him to come?"

I was confused for a moment before I remembered yesterday's events. I sighed.

"Yeah," I grumbled. "I did."

Marisol squealed. "Oh my god! I can't believe you did!"

I rolled my eyes. "Me neither."

Marisol didn't hear me. "This will be so exciting!"

Marisol happily talked away for the rest of the time until we got to school. She didn't stop chattering away even when we were putting and getting our stuff from our lockers. It was only when someone walked up and chirped "Good morning!" loudly to us when she jumped and spun around, alarmed.

"Wha-"

"Hello, Marisol!" Allison greeted happily with a huge smile. In her arms was a clipboard with a piece of paper clipped to it. A pencil was sitting behind her ear.

"Oh, um, hi," Marisol said awkwardly and gave her a little wave. Her hyper self had disappeared, replaced by awkwardness.

"This is so amazing. I'm seeing Marisol Kennedy and Eleanor Fyer first thing in the morning!" she squealed.

I applied an extra blue layer of eye shadow to my eyelids and shut my locker close.

"What do you want?" I asked, setting a hand on my hip.

"Oh!" Allison slung off her backpack and pulled something out.

"Here," she said and handed Marisol and I a sheet of paper. "We'll be interviewing you two today. You can start preparing for the questions."

She pointed at the paper. I looked down and saw that there were about twenty questions to be answered.

"I don't think I'll have time for this today," I said and handed it back to her. "I still have tutoring and-"

"Oh, it won't be too long," Allison assured me. "We'll be done in a flash. Maybe five minutes."

I wasn't so sure about that. Five minutes didn't sound natural for a newspaper article.

"Are you sure?" Marisol asked. Allison nodded vigorously.

"Yes, I am!" she said. Marisol turned to give me a look. I didn't know what to do. What if the interviewing will take longer than just five minutes? I was going to miss my tutoring with Samuel if that happens. I should be glad, but instead, my stomach churned and my heart clenched a little.

I guessed I took too long to answer, because as I opened my mouth to say I didn't have time, Allison said, "Great! See you after school at 1:40!"

"Wait!"

But she was already waving good bye to us and walking away.

I groaned and ran a hand through my hair. This was so frustrating.

"You think it'll take five minutes?" I asked. I doubted it would.

Marisol shrugged. "Dunno. And I don't want to ever know."

I sighed and slung my backpack over my shoulders.

"Me neither."

CHAPTER 8: Opposites Attract

The moment Marisol and I walked into the newspaper room after school, we both knew immediately that the interview would be way longer than five minutes.

When we entered the room, the first thing I noticed was a huge stack of papers that was placed next to Allison. On top of that, she was holding another stack in her hands.

I should have known. Taking only five minutes to interview didn't sound reasonable to begin with. The problem now was I couldn't back out anymore. Who knew how long it would take? Thirty minutes? An hour?

However long it was, I needed to get over with it soon.

The room was set up with one long table and three chairs; One placed on one side and two on the other. Allison occupied one chair so Marisol and I took the two across from her.

"Hello!" Allison smiled as we sat down. She took the pencil clipped behind her ear and twirled it in her hands. "Ready for the interview?"

"Make it quick," I demanded and crossed my arms. "I have other places to be after this."

"Alright then," she said cheerfully and turned to the stack beside her. She began to sort them out, making them into smaller stacks. She muttered to herself every so often.

"This is for Alicia's interview."

"No, no, no. This shouldn't be here."

"Wait a second. Is that a picture of a dog? What is it doing here?"

I was getting annoyed. This girl called us over here to waste our precious time after school and wasn't even prepared? We had a serious problem.

Finally, Allison set the last paper in place. It only took about two minutes but felt like eternity to me.

"Okay, now we start!" she grinned with a clap of her hands.

"Hurry," I urged her. I didn't know what time it is, but I did know that Samuel was waiting out there for me. I couldn't make him wait any longer. Or maybe he was already gone. I meant, why wouldn't he be? I was taking forever.

Allison picked up the papers in front of her and cleared her throat.

"Alright, question one," she announced formally. "May I have your names?"

I gave her a look. "I thought you already know?"

"Yes, but this is for the interview," she answered in a hushed whisper, almost as if someone else was here to listen to her. Then, in her normal voice again, she repeated, "May I have your names?"

I sighed. "Eleanor Fyer."

"Marisol Kennedy," Marisol answered from beside me. She seemed a little doubtful about this interview as well.

Allison made a check mark next to the question before moving on.

"What are your birthdays?"

I got more confused. "Why do you need to know that?"

"Part of the interview," she answered simply.

"What have our birthdays got to do with any of this?" Marisol asked.

Allison shrugged and gave the same answer, "Part of the interview. So, birthdays please."

I was reluctant to answer because this was starting to get ridiculous, but replied anyway, "March 21st."

Marisol also didn't look like she wanted to answer, but she finally said, "February 13th."

Allison scribbled something beside the second question.

"What are your favorite colors?"

By now, her questions began to make less sense and became more crazy.

"Why do you need to know that?" I asked curiously. Allison held up the papers for me to see.

"It's written on here," she said with a smile. For the first time, I noticed something. The smile Allison had didn't seem bright anymore. It looked... fake.

It finally hit me. Why hadn't I seen this earlier? It was so obvious from the beginning. Allison was doing this all on purpose. She was never our fan. This interview was all just a joke.

I stood up and heaved my backpack onto my shoulders.

"I'm sorry, but this is a waste of time," I told her as I began to walk towards the door. "I need to go. Bye."

"Eleanor!" Marisol got up to. "What are you-"

"Let's go, Marisol," I huffed. "We're just wasting our time."

I half expected that she would argue back and half hoped that she would follow me. Either way, I didn't care. I was mad that Allison did this to us.

Behind me, I heard Marisol's chair clang backward as she stood up, said an apology to Allison, and ran after me.

"What was that all about?" she demanded when she finally caught up with me.

"She lied to us," I spat out. Marisol became confused.

"What do you mean?"

I was fuming too much to answer. Thanks to Allison, I was late for my tutoring. Thanks to her, Samuel might already be gone. It was all because of her.

I was practically jogging down the steps to Harken High. I paused at the bottom and looked around, desperately trying to find Samuel and hoping that he was still here.

There was no one loitering around. Of course, that was normal. All of the kids had probably already gone home and Samuel had left with them. I meant, who would want to stay a minute longer at school?

A feeling of depression, something that I had never felt before, pierced my heart.

"Eleanor?" Marisol asked quietly, gently setting a hand on my arm.

I sighed and shrugged off her hand. "I'm fine. Let's go home."

I gripped the bottom of my backpack straps tightly and was about to start to walk to get home as soon as possible when a voice made me stop, "Eleanor?"

I whipped my head around and saw someone stand up from the benches placed on the side of the stairs. It was someone with familiar floppy brown hair and milky brown eyes, features that were practically burned into my mind.

It was Samuel. My eyes widened and a little part within me almost jumped out of my body at how happy I was to see him.

"What- I thought that you left... what are you doing here at a time like this? School was over a long time ago. It's chilly right now and you didn't bring a jacket," I knew I was rambling a little and not making sense, but I was just glad to see him. Still, I was mystified that he was standing there.

"I was waiting for you," Samuel answered.

I was surprised. _Samuel was waiting for me?_ I didn't know why, but that simple sentence made me feel warm inside. A light blush crept into my cheeks and it wasn't because of the cool Spring air chilling me.

Marisol gave me a little push to bring me back to reality.

"Well, I'll be going now," she said cheerfully, giving me a wink. "See y'all!" She gave us a wave and walked away, leaving us in an awkward silence.

Samuel cleared his throat and asked, "Um, I thought that we could, you know, take a break from tutoring today. Do you want to go to get coffee or something?"

My blush deepened. "Uh, s-sure!" I stuttered. I felt the butterflies in my stomach threatening to break free of their barriers and start fluttering around. I tried to push them down, but failed. In a second, I felt them start to fly around in me.

Samuel smiled and grabbed his backpack and slung it over his shoulders.

"Let's go then!"

I thought my heart skipped a beat again like last time except this time, it felt more natural before, like it was part of me.

The most unbelievable part was that Samuel Rose had waited for me even though he could have gone home. I smiled back.

"Yeah, let's go."

~*~

"I'll take a Double Fudge Frappuccino," I told Samuel.

Because Samuel worked at Starbucks, he decided to take me there for the coffee.

"You got it," he said and immediately got to work. His hands weaved back and forth as he got the ingredients from the shelves and dumped them into the blender. He turn on the machine and I watched as the blender whirled around. There was a _Ding!_ and the Frappuccino was ready.

Samuel poured it into a cup and drizzled hot fudge over it. He squeezed a twirl of whip cream on top, popped on a lid, and handed it to me.

"Thanks," I said, taking it from him. I set my cup down and dug around my purse, trying to find my wallet in the never ending sea of lip gloss and eye shadow, to pay.

"There's no need," Samuel said, shaking his head. "You can just take it."

I frowned at this. "Is your boss okay with this?"

Samuel shrugged. "He doesn't care. This is a really small Starbucks and barely anyone come by so it's alright."

To prove his point, I noticed how silent the shop was. I looked behind me and saw a few people sat at the booths. Two girls sat at the back, near a window, and were talking in hushed whispers. A woman, maybe in her early twenties, sat at a table with papers and a laptop laid out before her. She typed furiously into her laptop and wrote every once in a while onto her paper.

"Oh, okay." I zipped up my handbag again and picked up my Frappuccino. I took a sip and savored the taste of hot fudge mixed with coffee. It tasted unbelievable. Samuel was probably the best Double Fudge Frappuccino maker that I know of.

"Do you like it?" Samuel gestured to the Frappuccino as he sat down on the stool inside the work spot across from me. I nodded.

"It's great," I told him.

Samuel smiled. "I'm glad."

"How long have you been working here?" I asked as I sipped my drink.

"About two years?" Samuel guessed. Two years. I hadn't even started to find my own part time job yet and Samuel had already been working here for two years?

"Do you like it here?" I asked. The little shop wasn't that bad. The quietness was actually quite calming.

"Yes," Samuel answered. "It's close to school and fun to make coffee each day."

"Oh..." It turned quiet after that as I silently gulped down my coffee. When I finished, I set my cup down and cleared my throat.

"Um, thank you for tutoring me," I said, surprising myself. Where did that come from? Something wasn't right here. Why was I thanking this boy for tutoring me?

Samuel nodded and smiled. "Anytime."

Surprising myself even more, I smiled along with him. I noticed something. I was starting to feel comfortable being around Samuel now. It didn't feel like he was a stranger to me anymore.

"Oh yeah," Samuel said, suddenly remembering something. "About the volleyball game tomorrow..."

A sense of fear and dread dropped to the pit of my stomach. I had known it. He was going to say he couldn't go any moment now. I braced myself for his answer, my fists tightening around my cup and my heart beating faster.

"I might come a little late," he finally said and looked down. "My work time doesn't end until four and then I need to go back to take care of my siblings. I'm really sorry, but I promise to show up."

A little ray of hope lifted inside of me.

"You promise?" I asked, hopefully. _Samuel needed to come. He needed to watch me play. He needed to... wait, what was happening to me?_

"Yeah," Samuel nodded. "I promise."

I extended out my hand and held out my pinky to him. "Pinky promise with me," I demanded. "Pinky promise that you'll come no matter what."

Samuel reached out without hesitation and gripped my pinky in his, entwining our fingers to make it look like one. He smiled warmly and agreed, "Pinky promise."

My stomach, once again, filled with fluttering butterflies. Except this time, I welcomed those butterflies.

CHAPTER 9: Better Late Than Never

Marisol came to pick me up the next day to take me to the volleyball game. What she didn't tell me until I got into the car and almost had a heart attack was that Chloe was going to carpool or, and I quoted, 'tag along' with us.

"Hello, Eleanor," Chloe greeted and I jumped. I whipped my head around to look into the back seats and saw her waving and smiling at me.

"Uh..."

"Oh yeah. Chloe coming with us, too," Marisol twirled her key chain in the air before plunging it into the keyhole and starting the engine.

"That's great," I said and turned back around in my seat and slouched down in my seat. "Absolutely fantastic."

I didn't talk again for the rest of the ride. Marisol and Chloe blabbed away about random things like where Chloe got her hair dyed. I wasn't practically interested in changing the color of my hair whereas Marisol had dreamed of having red hair ever since she fell in love with her role model. I stared at the window and made an attempt to entertain myself by watching cars driving past us.

As I watched the cars driving by, I found myself blocking out their voices and it became just me and my thoughts which were fine with me. I needed some time to myself to reflect over my life anyway.

My mind drifted back to reflect over the week. All the way back to when I first met Samuel Rose.

Back then, I had hated his guts. He had spilled coffee on me and ruined my outfit so of course I would be mad at him. Then my world flipped upside down when he became my tutor. And now... What was going on? It felt almost as if it were a second ago that I couldn't even bring myself to stand next to him. How could I be no longer mad at Samuel?

And on top of that, why did I feel uneasy next to him all the time? Not the negative uneasy way but the positive uneasy way. That was worse. The butterflies that suddenly broke out of their cage without warning also frustrated me. Why in the world was I feeling this way?

This was way too confusing. Why couldn't relationships be easier to handle?

My thoughts were interrupted when Marisol gently shook my shoulder and announced, "We're here."

I snapped out of my day dream and got out of the car. The building that the volleyball game was being held at was entirely made out of metal. I almost didn't see the door since it too was carved from a large metal piece. The only thing to add color to the dull gray was the few flower bushes that were planted around the outskirts of the building.

"Wow, it's big," Chloe observed in awe.

She was right. Other than the boring colors, the building itself was huge. The other places we played at before were way smaller. In fact, the gyms were so tiny, we felt packed together. Coach Wayne kept screaming at us to move our feet but if you asked me, just stepping a meter to my left meant knocking down the person standing next to me was unreasonable.

"I really hope the gym is bigger this time," I said wishfully as I grabbed my drawstring bag and my sports bag and began to head inside the building.

"And have a vending machine," Marisol added sourly. "I really hope that they have a vending machine."

Oh yeah. I almost forgot.

Each time we finished a game, Marisol and I made do on a pack of M&Ms and a can of coke until we reached home and pigged out of other junk food to gather our strengths again.

Except, at our last game, the place we played at sucked so much that their girls restroom was out of order. We asked for where the vending machines were located and the person at the front desk answered, "Sorry, but we don't have any of those. Do you want a 100% Grain Bar though?"

We had to hold in our hunger until we passed by the nearest McDonalds and, even though I hated greasy stuff, my stomach deceived me and I forced down a whole meal.

"They better," I grumbled as we walked up to the front office and checked in like we always did. "Because if they don't, I'll flip."

And then to the girl who was on duty, I jutted my hip out, set one of my hands on my hip and cleared my throat, "Ah-hem."

The girl, who was texting on her phone, jumped and looked up in surprise. "Oh, uh, hi! How may I help you?"

"We're players of the volleyball game today," I told her.

"All three of you?" she asked, eyeing Chloe curiously. Marisol and I were already dressed in our uniforms. With the bright orange words that say 'Harken High Volleyball', we were easily identified. As for Chloe, she was wearing black hoodie with ripped jeans. Nothing on her represented Harken High, never mind 'Harken High Volleyball'.

"No, just the two of us," Marisol answered, pointing to me and herself.

"Got it. Names please?" the girl asked.

"Eleanor Fyer."

"Marisol Kennedy."

The girl typed something into her computer and pressed 'Enter'.

"Alright, you guys are checked in," she said and handed a badge with our names to us. "Good luck."

Marisol clipped hers to the side of her bag and I stuffed mine into a side pocket of my sports bag.

"So far so good," Marisol whispered to me and Chloe. "I saw a vending machine standing in the corner in the lobby."

"And let's hope that the restrooms are open," I whispered back.

"Yup, let's hope so."

"You can go ahead and find a seat in the crowd," I told Chloe as we neared the gym. "We'll go to drop off our stuff at the locker room and get ready for the game."

"Alright," Chloe nodded and broke away from us and swung open the door. "Good luck! I'll be cheering you both on!"

The door swung shut behind her and she was gone.

"You're ready for this today?" Marisol asked as she tossed her bag onto one of the benches placed next to the locker room door and placed her backpack next to it.

"I dunno," I admitted. I was actually looking forward to the game today which was something new. Maybe it had something to do with... hoping to see Samuel in the crowd?

"Well, I am as long as Coach doesn't scream all of our eardrums out of our body," Marisol grinned.

I rolled my eyes sarcastically. "I knew it. I should have brought my iPod and earphones with me today."

Marisol laughed and draped an arm around my shoulder just as another girl, one of the other team's members, rushed in, out of breath, still dressed in her normal clothes. She frantically flung her bag onto the ground and threw on her uniform and slipped on her knee pads.

"Come on," Marisol said as she steered us out the locker room and through a door that led to the gym. Our team was already standing at the side of the gym and warming up. Without even straining, I could hear Coach Wayne's voice boom across the gym.

We quickly jogged up and joined the team just as we all got into a push up position.

"Don't you wimps dare lose!" Coach Wayne hollered.

"Yes sir!"

"I can't hear you! 5 more push-ups! Say it louder or else I'll give you way more!"

"YES SIR!"

Our voices chorused together, the sound bouncing off the walls. The people in the bleachers cheered.

I pushed myself up and down, my arms and hands beginning to ache even though I barely started. From beside me, Marisol did her push-ups easily. Like I said before, I was not made for these things and she was.

We all jumped up after finishing our push-ups and waited for our next order. While I dusted off my hands, my eyes scanned the sea of people yelling and screaming from the bleachers. Samuel was nowhere in sight. A little part of me became disappointed, but that feeling didn't last very long when a whistled blew, signaling for us to start the game.

"Go and win, you pipsqueaks!" Coach Wayne yelled as we all hurriedly jogged onto the field and made two lines on one side of the court. The other team did the same.

A woman with a high ponytail walked up to the net and paused.

"We will now do the pledges!" she announced and held up a piece of paper in front of her. "I pledge before God!"

"I pledge before God!" we repeated her words.

"That I will play fairly."

"That I will play fairly."

"And respect the officials."

"And respect the officials."

My eyes darted through the crowd again, but there was still no sign of Samuel.

"I will give it my best and show excellent sportsmanship!"

"I will give it my best and show excellent sportsmanship!"

The woman lowered the paper and announced, "Alright! Let the game begin!"

The crowd roared. Through all the yelling, I held a voice stick out and scream, "Go Eleanor and Marisol!"

Unconsciously, I smiled as I got into my position as a setter. The rests of the team that were not on the court took a seat at the sideline and waited to switch in.

A whistle blew and a ball was tossed to the other team. A girl caught it and passed it to the person who was going to serve it.

I slightly bent my knees and my teammates around me did the same. We kept our eyes on the ball and waited for it to come soaring to our side.

The server on the other side tossed the ball into the air once before swinging her arm forward with as much force as possible and whacked the ball.

"Deep!" was all what I heard before someone behind me went to dive for the ball and managed to hit it into the air on the last second. Others quickly closed in and helped her hit the ball to the other side.

Back and forth this went. Sometimes we scored, and sometimes the other team outthought us and won a point.

We kept playing to the point I almost forgot what point we were on. It wasn't until the whistle blew again and someone spoke through the mikes that I knew how much we had, "The game is now tied 24-24. The team to win the next round will be the winner of the Volleyball Game."

I planted my feet firmly into the ground, drowning out all the background noises and focused exclusively on the server and opponent in front of me. What happened next was all in slow motion.

My eyes followed as the server ached back a bit and threw the ball into the air. On the way down, she flung her arm forward and hit the ball, making it fly while spinning rapidly towards us. In that moment, I knew that it was a short ball, meaning it was up to the front row to hit the ball back.

I watched as the ball drew closer and closer. My mind whirled into action and I knew no one could just hit it back up. It was too low. So, that left me with only one option.

Just as the ball was passing the net, I jumped up into the air and brought my hand down on the ball, making it hurtle towards the ground. The other team didn't even have enough time to react when the ball hit the ground and the whistle blew. I landed back on the ground and time returned to normal speed.

I didn't have time to register what I did when all of my teammates crowded me and before I knew it, everyone was congratulating me. Even Coach Wayne, who knew I wasn't sports material, joined in in the little huddle.

"You were great!" Marisol said with a grin and patted my back.

I smiled back. "Thanks!"

"I guess you did okay, pipsqueak," Coach Wayne muttered, but that was enough to make me on-top-of-the-world-happy.

Chloe ran out from the audience and came to join us.

"You guys were awesome!" she exclaimed.

Everyone gave each other a high five.

"Good job!"

"You too!"

"Nah, you were better."

"Says who? Coach Wayne screamed at me more than you."

"WHAT WAS THAT THAT I JUST HEARD?!"

I smiled to myself as I slowly broke away from the little party, making a lame excuse that I had to 'go use the restroom' though no one heard me. They were all too busy in celebrating.

I didn't really need to go use the restroom. I needed to find someone.

"Excuse me," I said as I pushed my way through the crowd of parents running to find their kids. I looked back and forth, left and right, and up and down, but never spotted a boy with chocolate brown hair and milky brown eyes.

The more I looked, the less encouraged I became. After wondering around for a bit, I began to lose hope. He didn't come. He promised yet he didn't come.

I sighed heavily and turned to head back to the group as they were deciding where to celebrate their win.

As I walked back, a voice called out from the crowd, "Eleanor? Eleanor, wait!"

My heart skipped a beat as I whipped my head around to see a certain brown haired boy to run breathlessly towards me. My heart soared and my mind fell into pieces.

"Samuel?"

Samuel screeched to a stop in front of me. He gasped for breath and had to bend down and put his hands to his knees to catch his breath.

"S-Sorry," he rasped. "I... missed the... game..."

In that moment, I forgot that I was Eleanor Fyer, the most popular girl in Harken High. The thought flew out of my mind. I was far too happy to see Samuel in front of me to care.

"No, I'm just glad you came," I smiled. "Like, really glad."

Samuel inhaled a deep breath and stood up, straightening himself.

"You're not mad?" he asked cautiously. I shook my head.

"Why?"

"Because I understand everything," I said simply. "And I believed that you will come."

I held up my pinky and grinned. "We pinky promised, remember?"

Slowly, a smile crept into Samuel's lips as well. He held up his pinky as well and tangled it with mine. "Yeah, I remembered."

I ignored the tainting red slowly crawling up my cheeks. This moment was far too perfect to be true. Maybe I was just dreaming or hallucinating. But if I were, there would be no way I could feel Samuel's finger so this must be reality.

"Ooh, lovebirds," someone giggled. Samuel and I quickly broke our contact and I turned around to see who it was, my face flushed. Marisol had her hands on her hips, a smug smirk plastered on her face, with Chloe standing next to her, trying to keep a laugh behind her hands. The temperature in my cheeks rose even higher.

"I-It's not what it looks like," I stuttered, trying to defend myself but it was all in vain.

"Yeah, right," Marisol grinned and wiggled one of her fingers. "I can totally smell the love in the air!"

Samuel laughed from beside me. Without realizing it until it was too late and I had already done it, my face turned even brighter.

"Coffee?" Marisol suggested with a flick of her wrist as she hoisted her backpack over her shoulders. I picked up my things and grinned.

"Oh, totally yes."

CHAPTER 10: So Close Yet Nothing

"One Medium Caramel Frappuccino!" Marisol chirped.

"A Chocolate Latte is fine with me," Chloe chimed in.

"Just a normal coffee without anything in it," I finished. Samuel scribbled our others onto his little notepad and ripped off the page.

"Alright," he said as he taped the paper onto the wall next to the machines and pulled out three cups from the cabinet beneath the counter. "It'll be ready in no time."

"Oh, take your time," Marisol told Samuel and smirked. "We'll just sit here and ruin El's life."

"Marisol!" I gave her a sharp look, but she simply laughed. Chloe grinned along with her. Samuel himself smiled too so I guessed it was okay.

As Samuel worked on our orders, Marisol kept bringing back the topic that we had the entire way in the car: How awesome I was and how proud she was of me.

"Oh my gods," Marisol drawled. "I didn't think that you had it in you. But you pulled it off at the last second! It was amazing!"

"Yup," Chloe agreed. "I think everyone was quite surprised."

I waved them off, but something inside of me jumped happily up and down. "Stop making a huge fuss out of it. It wasn't that big of a deal."

"Oh, yes it was," Marisol said and gave me a playful shove. She leaned forward across the counter and called to Samuel, "Don't you agree, Samuel?"

Samuel was putting on the finishing touches on my coffee and handed our drinks to us. Unfortunately for me, he heard every word that Marisol said.

"I didn't see you play, but I know that you were as amazing as your friends described," he smiled warmly. "Because I'm sure you're great at volleyball."

My cheeks grew warm. Dang it, why is this happening to me because of that boy?

Marisol giggled beside me and took a long satisfying slurp of her Caramel Frappuccino. I wanted to bury myself underground, but of course that wasn't exactly a choice.

Marisol held out her hand to Samuel. "It's Marisol Kennedy."

Samuel look confused. "What?"

"We've never met before," Marisol explained and then thought about it. "Well, we saw each other but I never introduced myself to you."

Understanding what she meant, Samuel took her hand and shook it. "Samuel Rose."

"And I'm Vaneesa Grace," Chloe held out her hand too. "But you can just call me Chloe. I'm a new transfer student to Harken High from Germany."

Samuel shook her hand. "Great to meet you and welcome to America."

Chloe smiled. "Thank you!"

As if it was all an act, and maybe it was, Marisol looked over her shoulder and squinted into the distance.

"Is that... a clearance on clothes in Black and White...?" She asked slowly. Chloe and I turned to look as well.

"It looks like it," Chloe agreed. Marisol gasped and squealed in delight. She jumped up from her seat and grabbed Chloe's arm, dragging both of them towards the door.

"See you two!" she called. "We'll be back!"

I realized that she had a smirk on her face the whole time, but it was already too late. Marisol whizzed her and Chloe out the door and was gone, leaving me utterly alone with Samuel. She definitely set this up.

I knew I had been alone with Samuel a lot of times, but today felt somehow different. No butterflies were fluttering around in my stomach yet, but I still felt uneasy as I fidgeted nervously in my seat.

Samuel seemed to be just as uncomfortable as I was, but he was better at hiding it. As I tried to sip my coffee without my hands shaking the cup, he organized the little desserts that they sold. Every now or then, he had to take a deep breath before continuing.

The store was exceptionally empty today. No one was here except for us. This was bad. My hands shook some more and I forced myself to take a huge gulp of coffee, even though it hadn't cooled down yet and burned the roof of my mouth and tongue, and acted like everything was okay.

Samuel placed down the last brownie and stood up, an empty platter in his hands. He opened a cabinet door behind him and placed it inside.

"Why do you have pastries out even though no one's here?" I asked and lazily flicked my wrist to point at the desserts. It was a lame attempt at conversation but it was the best I had. If I hadn't said that, the air would have gotten more awkward.

Thankfully, Samuel didn't seem to see my lameness.

"I'm not sure," he admitted. "Maybe it's for just in case Harry Styles comes in and wants a cupcake."

I snorted. "Yeah right. All Hail Harry Styles. He wants a cupcake."

Samuel laughed, his voice twinkling and clear like when you hit a glass with a spoon. The sound echoed through my ears. A single butterfly escaped its cage within me and began to soar through the air.

Trying to keep myself under control, I forced down a volcano that was about to erupt in me. I shrugged in an attempt to keep cool. "But I guess that could happen."

Samuel smiled and sat down across from me and propped his arms onto the counter. Unbelievably, I didn't flinch or try to move away. I stayed rooted to the spot, unfazed.

"Are you doing better at school?" Samuel asked. That single question almost made the volcano explode. I swallowed again. Hard.

"Y-Yeah," I said, a slight pink tainting my cheeks. What else was I supposed to say? 'Thanks for the tutoring. Now, instead of getting 50's all the time, I'm actually starting to get 90's?

"I'm so glad to hear that!" Samuel said and I could hear true happiness in his voice and that made me happy and giddy. Wait, happy and giddy?

But before I could ponder more about that, a phone went off and the ringtone began to play.

"Huh?" Samuel dug around in his pocket and pulled out one of those old flip phones. He flipped it open and put it to his ear.

"Hello?" he said. He listened as the person at the other end talked. Each moment that passed, his eyebrows furrowed more and more. Something was definitely wrong.

"Okay," he finally said. "I understand. I'll be home as soon as my shift at work is over."

He pressed 'end' and put his phone away.

"What's wrong?" I asked curiously. Samuel shook his head.

"Don't worry. It's nothing," he assured me, but his eyes told me otherwise. They were far away and distant. But I decided not to push him. If he didn't feel comfortable telling me, then he didn't need to. In the future, when I knew that he was ready, I would ask him.

"Oh!" Samuel snapped his fingers as if he had just remembered something and bent down to rummage around in his backpack. He pulled out an origami box and handed it to me.

"Here," he said. "I made it for you."

I took the box from him delicately, afraid that I might accidentally crumple it, and set it down in front of me. I frowned.

"You made me a box?"

Samuel chuckled. "No, no. There's something inside the box. Go ahead and open it."

I stared at the box and, sure enough, saw that there was a tiny opening at the edge. I set a finger underneath the flap of the lid and raised it off the box. The thing inside almost made me blink twice.

"Oh my gods," I whispered and gingerly lifted the item placed inside out. It was a form of a snowflake with different twists at different angles and neat folds for each point. It was an origami snowflake. Not those lame ones that people randomly showed you how to make, but one with originality and looked like a lot of time and dedication was put in it.

"Do you like it?" Samuel asked softly, his voice barely audible. I was too shocked by the single beauty of this snowflake to answer so I just nodded vigorously. Samuel beamed.

No words needed to be said. This moment was perfect, like a scene painted with water colors.

And before I knew it, the picture swayed and began to dance. Samuel leaned forward across the counter. My eyes fluttered and surprisingly, the butterflies in my stomach suddenly went absolutely still, as if anticipating this moment with me.

I leaned forward too, almost on instinct. The air around us went absolutely still and the sounds outside faded into the background. It was calm and a single melody played somewhere.

But none of this seemed to faze us as we leaned closer and closer towards each other.

Samuel was so close to me that I could smell his scent. It was honey flavored with dashes of fresh daisy, perhaps one of my favorite aromas.

Samuel's hand slowly crawled forward and ghosted over one of my hands, making sparks fly everywhere. The hand of mine still holding the snowflake almost crushed the paper. I had to keep in a squeal that almost leaked from my mouth.

Samuel came even closer. Our eyes fluttered shut as we inched towards each other. Samuel's forehead touched mine, sending waves of not only shock, but also happiness through my body. Our noses touched, tickling me lightly. My heart beat rapidly in my chest. It was so loud that I was sure Samuel could hear it.

We were breathing in each other's scent when the door suddenly slammed open. Samuel and I jumped apart, my face set aflame. Samuel looked redder than me, almost to the point where he resembled a tomato.

Marisol and Chloe stood at the door way with shocked faces.

"Oops," Marisol giggled as soon as she received. "We came at the wrong time."

"And we thought for sure that they already kissed," Chloe pouted playfully.

"Sorry for bothering y'all," Marisol smirked. "Please continue. Pretend like we aren't here."

My face burned even hotter than flame itself.

"Y-You weren't interrupting anything," I stammered.

Chloe laughed. "Are you sure?"

"S-She's right!" Samuel came to my defense. "We were just, uh..."

"We were just seeing if we could send messages through our brains!" I sprouted out randomly. It was maybe the world's lamest and dumbest excuse, but Marisol got the point I was about to explode in embarrassment.

"Whatever girl," She said and flickered her wrist in the air dramatically. "But I'm guessing I win the bet?"

I attempted the best glare I could muster at her. "Did not."

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

Chloe laughed and Marisol laughed along with her. Slowly, Samuel began to smile along with them.

A corner of my mouth twitched upwards and I also laughed along with them as if we were long lasting friends from long ago.

Who would have thought that we just recently began to finally accept each other?

CHAPTER 11: Call Me Insane But I Don't Care

"Oh my gods! Eleanor, look!"

Marisol slammed a thin stack of papers in front of me which I immediately recognized as the school's newspaper. I sighed and set down my box of orange juice.

"What is it?" I asked irritatingly. "I'm in the middle of lunch here."

Marisol ignored my complaint. "Hurry up and read it," she demanded and shoved the papers toward me. I rolled my eyes as I picked them up and scanned through the headline.

The Truths of Eleanor Fyer and Marisol Kennedy Revealed!

I stopped there as the blood in me froze. I looked up confusingly at Marisol, but she just shook her head and pointed at the papers to tell me to continue reading.

A recent interview was conducted by Allison Waysley on Eleanor Fyer and Marisol Kennedy.

"She tried too," I said dryly.

"Keep going," Marisol instructed and set her hands on her hips.

As a volleyball team captain, Marisol Kennedy has been upholding the name Harken's Volleyball Team and as the school's most respectful leader, Eleanor Fyer has been leading our school to its highest advantages.

So far, I didn't see anything wrong with the paper. What made Marisol, the usually sassy and sarcastic girl, so mad?

But after the interview, the truth behind their leadership is revealed. They are no heroes. In fact, they are the opposite.

I raised an eyebrow.

According to Allison, the two girls are actually just pretenders. Perhaps Marisol Kennedy has led the Harken High Volleyball Team to many state champions, but she failed to clearly indicate her true desire and was to just steal the trophy away.

I frowned at this. "Since when did you say that to her?"

Marisol shook her head. "I have no freaking clue. This is making no sense at all to me. Just read on. Skip to the part that talks about you."

I did as she said and continued reading. I almost flipped the whole table over if it wasn't nailed to the ground.

On the outside, Eleanor Fyer shows true leadership, but if you know her in person, she's quite the opposite. She wishes to be better than anyone else by discriminating them.

I stopped reading there and ripped my eyes away from the article. I didn't need to be Einstein to know what was written next. The only name that broke through my mind was _Samuel_.

"Oh my gods," I whispered, unable to read anymore. "How many people...?"

"The entire school," Marisol told me sadly.

"Does that include-"

"Yeah, it includes him."

My heart almost jumped out of my chest. If 'everyone' included Samuel, that means that he has seen the newspaper as well. And if he has seen it, then...

"Eleanor," Marisol said gently and touched my arm, but I shrugged her off and stood up, gritting my teeth and grabbing my backpack. I took the newspaper as well.

"I gotta go," I said and speeded walked away, leaving Marisol behind with a solemn expression. I didn't want to just leave her there because she was a victim like me, but I needed to find someone. I had to find one specific boy named 'Samuel Rose' immediately.

As I rushed through the hallways, I couldn't help notice that people in every corner whispered and eyed me as I passed. Many of them had the newspaper in their hands and looked as if they were totally engaged in whatever they were reading which rarely happened. The Harken Paper was the most unpopular thing in the entire school. Barely anyone paid attention to it so it was usually left out most of the time.

I could understand why suddenly everyone wanted to read it, but right now, this didn't matter to me. I would make their lives a living hell after I had a little talk with Allison and tracked down Samuel. The only problem with that plan was I didn't know where to find either person. Harken High was a huge school and I barely even knew where the PE room was. I lost count of how many times I had to find Marisol so she and I could go to PE together just because I 'lost my way'.

Thankfully, finding Allison wasn't that hard. In fact, as I was rounding a corner, fuming to myself, I accidentally bumped into her and she went down, papers and pens flying everywhere. I didn't feel even a tiny bit sorry that the girl had landed on her behind because to me, she deserved it.

"Ow..." Allison groaned as she rubbed her back. She looked up and saw me glaring down at her with my arms folded. As soon as she saw me, her face brightened and she grinned.

"Oh, hello Eleanor!" she chirped in that fake voice of hers as she jumped up and dusted off her pants. "How are you today?"

"Shut up," I growled and held the paper to her face. "Care to explain?"

Allison blinked once, twice, and then again. She looked like she didn't believe what she was seeing. Or, at least, she tried to pretend, but failed miserably because I immediately detected her phoniness.

"I-I don't know what that is," she stammered and laughed nervously, pinning a stray piece of hair behind her ear. I narrowed my eyes at her and gave her one of my most famous 'looks'.

"Oh? Then why did it say here that you were the one who wrote it?" I asked and pointed out her name. Allison's face paled for a moment before she regained her confidence and she smirked. That was right. That stupid girl smirked.

"Yeah, I wrote it," she agreed. "You have a problem with that?"

Her usual fake voice was gone, replaced with maliciousness. But that was perfectly fine with me. Now I could battle her in her true self.

"I do," I told her with an even more intense glare. "Why did you write this article?"

Allison shrugged and said casually like everything was perfectly fine,"Cuz it's the truth."

"But you never even interviewed us about that!" I exclaimed.

"Yes I did," Allison shot back.

"You never asked us questions about our personal lives!"

"I asked you in the beginning!"

"Those weren't even real questions!"

"They were legit!"

I couldn't believe this girl was calling 'What is your favorite color?' a real interview question for an 'important' newspaper article.

"Look, I don't care whether your little questions are legit or not, but you need to take the newspaper off the school campus completely right now," I said with a hint of a dangerous tone, but Allison didn't back down. She held her ground and glared right back at me.

"Too bad," she spat, her voice slowly turning into venom. "It's already out there. I can't do anything to stop it."

Her comment made flames erupt within me. Allison Waysley was going too far. If she didn't erase the newspaper this very second, I was prepared to literally strangle her.

"How dare you-"

"Oh yes I dare," Allison cut in and she took a step towards me, her voice and body defiant. For a second, a wave of shock spread through my body. No one had ever defied me before. Marisol was another story.

"The school deserves to know the truth by now," she continued and took yet another step towards me. I took a step back out of sudden fear which wasn't like me at all. Something was churning in my stomach and began to make me feel sick. Since when had I gotten so weak? I wasn't like this before. At least, not until I met Samuel Rose. Speaking of Samuel...

"Um, excuse me, but are you the author of the school's newspaper?" a voice asked from behind Allison, making her jump slightly and whip her head around to find the source of the voice. Believe it or not, it was Samuel standing there, holding a copy of the paper in his hands.

Allison's devil-like face immediately changed to her sweet and perky self.

"Why, yes I am!" she chirped and gave him such a big smile that I wanted to gag. This girl was desperate. "Is there anything that I can help you with today?"

I wanted to reach up and drag her away, but my hands remained at my side. I couldn't do a thing. I had to force myself to sit tight and watch as Allison explained the ugly truth to Samuel. What could I do? I admitted it. I was a jerk. A really big one. One who made Samuel seem lesser than me. The truth was out now. And he knew.

"Yes," Samuel answered and returned her smile. My heart clenched tightly. _God, please no._

He opened the newspaper to the page of the article and asked, "And are you 100% these are true?"

"Of course I am!" Allison faked-exclaimed and batted her eye slashes. "I am always 100% true!"

"Then, may I see the questions and answers made by you that you used to interview Eleanor and Marisol?" Samuel asked politely. My world almost froze. _Wait, what?_ Maybe I had already died from embarrassment and went to Heaven. This was just my imagination.

But amazingly (and thankfully) it wasn't because Allison's face suddenly paled and her cheerful self faded away.

"That's...uh, I... This is..." she stuttered, trying to find a way out of this. I was still in plain shock. Was Samuel, the Samuel Rose, helping me, a helpless idiot?

Allison swallowed and nervously tucked her hair behind her ear. "Uh, I don't have them."

"So you don't have any proof that everything you wrote is true, correct?" Samuel asked calmly. This was a dream then. I was just dreaming. But once again, reality proved me wrong.

Allison's face paled even more. "N-No! You've got it all wrong!" she stammered. "I can explain. This really is the truth!"

"But you have no evidence," Samuel pointed out. "How can we all believe you without evidence?"

I felt like I was watching a play or movie or something like that. This was all too good to be true.

If it was even possible, Allison's paled even more. "T-That's... Why would you care?!"

Samuel simply smiled as if the comment didn't have any effect on him at all.

"Because then you'll just be telling lies."

I guessed that was what made Allison feel completely humiliated. Her pale face went from as white as a blank sheet to as red as a red hot pepper. Without any more words, she pushed past me and hurried away, her face beet red and cursing under her breath.

I watched her go, stunned. It was when Samuel talked that I came back to reality.

"Are you okay?"

I shook myself out of my daze. I couldn't space out right now. Definitely not now of all times.

"Y-Yeah," I said at last, my heart hammering against my chest.

I was curious though. I had yelled at this boy, glared at him, made him feel like a lesser. So why? Why was he being so nice to me?

"Why did you help me?" I blurted out my thoughts and mentally slapped myself for saying it aloud.

"Because you looked like you needed it," Samuel explained, but that still wasn't enough for me.

"But why me?" I pressed. "You read the paper right? So why did you help me even after reading the paper?"

"You already saw for yourself," Samuel gestured to the empty hall in which Allison had fled from. "It's not true."

"What if I tell you it's true?"

"Then I'll believe it. But you haven't told me yet so I refuse to believe anything written on this paper," Samuel said firmly.

I still don't get it. Samuel Rose is standing up for me even though I was a jerk?

"It's true."

The two words escaped my mouth without a thought and echoed through the air. Silence followed afterwards.

_This is the part he turns and walks away_ , I thought bitterly, regretting that I had a big mouth and prepared myself for the worst. _This is the part where he tells me I'm pathetic and leaves._

But Samuel didn't move. Not even one inch.

"Eleanor," Samuel's soft voice broke the silence. "It's not true."

My head snapped up at his words and I asked without thinking, "How do you know? What, are you God or something?"

Taking my insult as a joke, Samuel smiled in amusement. "I'm not God, but I know that nothing on this paper is true. You're not a mean person who looks down upon people. You have a heart. You're human."

And once again, like all the other times, Samuel's words shocked me. He believed that I had a heart. That I was not the jerk I think I am. Am I?

"Y-You think so...?" I asked softly. Samuel nodded.

"Of course!" he beamed and, in a sudden movement, took my hand in his warm ones. Vivid electrical sparks flew off of our hold. My breath hitched in my throat and my mind went haywire.

"If you ever need my help again, just call," he said and let go of my hand. Our moment ended there. He gave me a wave and was gone as quick as he came. It felt like he appeared from thin air and disappeared like a fleeing shadow. It felt like he was watching over me.

I was left standing there, staring dumbly after him. My heart was still pounding in my chest like a drum.

Samuel had held my hand. Sure, it was for just a second, but that second lasted longer in my imagination; it lasted for all eternity.

Samuel's touch still lingered on my skin where it tingled and caused waves of tangled emotions to flood within me. My face was flushed, but what truly bothered me was the unruly beats of my heart. They were too uneven for my liking.

"-ello, Eleanor?" a voice called out to me and a hand appeared in front of my face, waving up and down. I blinked and broke out of my transfixion.

"W-What?" I looked around until my eyes set upon Marisol who was waving in front of my face.

"Good, I thought you were dead," Marisol joked half-heartedly. "Seriously though, girl. You disappear on me for half of lunch and then I find you standing in the middle of the hallway?" She shook her head. "This is a grand story. What were you doing?"

Samuel's smile flashed in my mind. I shook my head to clear my thoughts.

"Nothing," I mumbled as I gathered myself again.

"O... kay," Marisol drawled. "But that doesn't explain your empty stare."

"That's nothing too."

Being the best guesser in the whole planet, Marisol's face brightened when she guessed what truly happened.

"Oh..." she smiled. "Mr. Hotshot moment? This should be Breaking News."

"I think I've had enough with 'news'," I growled. Marisol laughed and she propped an elbow on my shoulder and jutted her hip out.

"Details, El," she grinned. "Details."

I sighed, losing the game again. "Fine," I huffed. "But don't blame me when the story gets long."

Marisol laughed. "Don't worry. I love long stories. Just make sure to include all the dirty details."

I punched her arm, causing her laugh even more.

"Okay, okay, just kidding." She grinned as the bell ring above our heads, warning us that lunch break was almost over. "Story time?"

CHAPTER 12: Life in Color and Stardust

Chloe invited Marisol and I over to her house on Saturday. Marisol immediately agreed, saying, "Oh yes! Of course!" As for me, I was a little hesitant. Even though I agreed in the end, I couldn't help thinking that I had either gone mental and crazy or maybe I had completely lost my mind. Either way, my answer shocked me.

Marisol seemed pretty happy about my decision because she gave me giant hug and a squeal.

But, I didn't just say yes due to my recent outburst of crazy thoughts. I had my own reasons.

Ever since I noticed that I had begun to act weird around Samuel, I had decided to give myself a break and have a day where my mind was clear without a thought about him. Another reason was because I was lacking fresh air. My dad and Bailey were rarely home even on the weekends so that meant I had an entire day to myself.

It wasn't as fun as you thought.

I usually drabbled away my time on Facebook, but after a while, I came to agree with the quote: Facebook- Wasting people's lives since 2004. After I got bored with messaging with my friends, I was left with nothing else to do. I guessed going over to Chloe's at least saved me from boredom. The only thing I needed to watch out now was to not let a particular comment slip.

Ever since my heart started to beat way too quickly when I was near Samuel or maybe it just skipped a beat in all, I had come to a dreadful conclusion. I couldn't even say it out loud in my head. When I thought about it, my head span and I felt like fainting.

The red blush tainted my cheeks every time when his melodic voice rang out. My blood thumped in my veins when he smiled at me. My head throbbed when his fingers ghosted over mine.

The truth was unavoidable. For now, as long as Marisol and Chloe didn't know, it was fine. I was actually starting to hope that Samuel would mess up again like the time he spilled coffee on me so I didn't have to face the ugly truth.

But of course, with the world throwing stones at me, I would never get my wish.

Marisol came to pick me up the moment I finished eating my breakfast and handed my empty plate and glass to our maid who usually came during the day to help clean the house. I explained to her that I was heading over to the house of a friend of mine and she nodded, not really paying attention as she washed the dishes.

I hopped into Marisol's red convertible and we drove off.

"What do you think we're gonna to do today?" Marisol asked as we rushed down the street. Because today was a Saturday, there were barely any cars in sight, allowing us to go twice as fast.

I shrugged.

"Who knows? The girl is crazy so I guess something life-threatening?"

Marisol giggled. "Right." She used her best imitation of Chloe's voice, "Let's make haste and climb the wall!"

I snorted and rolled my eyes, but inside of me, I was happy to see that Marisol had returned to her usual self. When she heard me tell her the story about my little encounter with Allison, she had gotten mad at her for hurting me. She seemed even madder when I told her that Allison had mocked me in front of Samuel.

I didn't try to stop her anger. I was mad myself at Allison for insulting me too and in front of one specific boy. The thought of being taunted just didn't sit right.

Apparently, Chloe had given Marisol a short cut route to her house so we arrived there within ten minutes. It felt like forever for me since I was so deep in thought.

"And Ta-Da!" Marisol sang and made a grand show off of Chloe's house. It turned out that Chloe, having to move to America for such a short time, lived in one of the apartments near our school. It was one of those newly built ones that cost almost as much as a normal house.

"It's so tall," I stated as I glanced up, shading my eyes from the blazing sun.

"Yup," Marisol agreed as we walked in. "Welcome to Sidelane Apartments." She walked up to where the elevators were placed and pressed the elevator button and it lit green. We waited for it to come down as Marisol fumbled around in her purse for a moment before pulling out a sheet of paper. She quickly scanned through it before saying, "Ah-ha! Chloe lives on floor 12. That's like, really close so we won't have to fly up too many floors."

"Good," I mumbled. Like Spring, I wasn't a huge fan on motion going up and down. This pretty much explained why I was close to throwing up each time we went on a roller coaster.

There was a _Ding!_ and the doors in front of us slid open. We stepped inside and Marisol pressed the button labeled '12'. For the entire ride up, I tried not to puke. By the time the doors slid open again to reveal the twelfth floor, I was prepared to sprint to the nearest restroom and make do there.

Marisol walked happily down the hallway and I half dragged myself after her. I was not sure where she got her energy each day because in the mornings, I was basically a dead slug.

We stopped in front of a dark brown door with a gold platter nailed across the top with the numbers '1245' engraved into it. Marisol glanced down once more at her paper before folding it into a small square and stuffing it back into her purse.

"And bam," Marisol announced dramatically. "Here we are."

She took a step forward and knocked twice on the door. I counted three seconds before the door swung open and a girl with even-crazier-than-my-thoughts hair, streaked with light blue and purple on one side, red and yellow on the other, and pink and green for her bangs, appeared at the doorway.

Upon seeing us, Chloe broke off into a huge smile. "Oh! Hello Marisol and Eleanor!" She stepped out of the way for us to come in. "Come in, come in. And welcome to Sidelane!"

We stepped inside and she shut the door behind us.

"You can just put your things over there," Chloe gestured to the coat rack placed beside the door. Marisol shrugged off her pale pink jacket and tossed it onto a hook. I hung my handbag next to hers.

"Sorry, it's a little messy," Chloe apologized as she gave us a little tour around her apartment. "We should get it fixed by next week."

We walked into the kitchen where a lady with hot pink hair stood next to a boiling pot of coffee. When she heard us come in, she turned around and smiled.

"Ah, you must be Chloe's friends," she said with the same heavy accent as Chloe. Without breaking a sweat, I identified her as Chloe's mother.

"This is my mother," Chloe introduced, confirming my thought. "Cassandra Grace."

Cassandra resembled her daughter in many ways. The hair was a dead giveaway. Though Cassandra's hair was dyed in only one color, it was still able to drive a person crazy just looking at it. She too had multiple ear pierces that dotted her earlobes. Even the way she smiled and talked felt like Chloe.

Maybe they were clones.

"Hello girls," Cassandra greeted right when the coffee finished brewing. She took the pot out and asked, "Care for some coffee?"

"Yes please," Chloe answered. "Three cups for me and my friends."

"Alright," Cassandra bent down and pulled out three cups from the cabinet beneath. "You three go ahead and go to Chloe's room. I'll bring the coffee to you once I'm done. Want cookies with it?"

"Yes," Chloe answered again. Cassandra nodded and shooed us away, "Now, go on and do whatever you need to do."

I had thought that Chloe's room be the most craziest bedroom in the world: posters of different bands plastering everywhere on the walls, a dozen rugs of every color spreading out on the ground, a messy desk where once you came across it, you had no idea what you were looking at.

In reality, her room was completely different from my imagination. Instead, all it was was a twin size bed placed to the side of the room, a desk with everything neatly organized on top, and a fluffy pink rug placed by her bed. It looked even neater than my room.

"I'm not done decorating yet," Chloe explained as we entered the room. "The supplies are still being shipped from Germany."

"It's pretty cool so far, though," Marisol complimented as she looked around. "What are we doing today?"

Chloe smiled to herself as she walked over to her dresser. She opened a drawer and pulled out a box. She set it on the dresser and pulled the lid off, revealing a case of neatly laid out nail polisher.

Chloe grinned. "We're painting our nails."

Being weak to those kinds of things, I immediately gave in. I meant, who wouldn't?

"I call blue," I announced as I plucked one of the light blues there. Marisol took a green and Chloe took a purple.

We all settled down on Chloe's rug and unscrewed the cap of the bottles. Cassandra came in and handed us our coffees. We thanked her and she walked out, leaving us alone to drink our coffee and paint our nails.

I took out the little paint brush, already dipped in nail polish, and began to paint my thumb, stroking the brush up and down.

I watched as the blue slowly spread across my nail until it covered the entire surface. I held my hand a little away from myself to examine it. Being a huge freak over these kinds of things, I liked to make my nails look perfect. If there was one little thing off, I fixed it immediately.

Seeing that there was nothing out of place, I went on to my next finger, doing the same thing for that one. I did each and every finger carefully until all of them were painted. I put the brush back inside the bottle and screwed it shut. Marisol and Chloe looked like they were closed to being finished.

"What color should I paint my toes with?" I asked as I stared at my toes and wiggled them, imagining random colors on the nails.

Marisol gave one last stroke to her pinky and held her hand away to examine her work. Like me, she liked keeping everything neat and organized. Satisfied, she popped the brush back into her bottle and screwed it shut. Giving it a little shake, she set it down beside her.

"I dunno... maybe white?" she shrugged. I shook my head.

"Red?"

"It clashes with blue."

"Yellow?"

"Who puts yellow with blue?"

"Green?"

"Marisol, that's far from close-to-blue."

Upon hearing our conversation, Chloe stopped mid-way in painting her nails to look up and pondered my question.

"Hm, how about a Moody Nail Polish?" she suggested. I gave her a confused look.

"What's that?" I asked because I had honestly never heard of that brand before.

"It's a nail polish that changes color according to your mood," Chloe explained as she dropped her brush into her bottle and stood up. "I'll go to get it for you."

"Wait-" I started because I wasn't sure I wanted a nail polish that changed according to my mood, but Chloe was already skipping back to the box and rummaged around. She came back a moment later with a little bottle of white nail polish in her hands.

I frowned. "It changes white according to how happy and sad I am?"

Chloe laughed and shook her head.

"No, no, you must first color your nails with it," she explained and handed the bottle to me. Marisol scooted in closer to me and stared at the bottle in wonder and curiosity.

I took it from her cautiously and stared at the contents inside. The white liquid sloshed back and forth, creating miniature waves.

"And I have a paper here that tells you what each color stands for," Chloe pulled out a piece of paper and unfolded it.

"Hurry and try it out," Marisol urged from beside me. I unscrewed the cap and slowly pulled out the brush that was already dipped in white. I extended out one of my toes and made a single white stroke across the nail.

There was silence as we all stared at my nail, anticipating something to happen. I counted ten Mississippi's in my head, but nothing happened. The white stayed as a thick white line across my nail.

Marisol sat back and groaned. "Dang it. I thought it'll change colors or something."

I looked away as well and began to screw on the cap again. Chloe didn't take her eyes away from my toe though.

"Wait," she said, her eyes boring into my toe. "I think I see pink."

I paused in mid-screw. "What?"

I looked down as Marisol scooted towards me again. The three of us stared at my toe.

"Oh my gods," Marisol whispered. "You're right. I think I see... pink? Red?"

"It got to be red," Chloe declared. "There's only red on my paper, not pink."

As if to prove her correct, the pale white slowly began to fade away as a crimson color took over like a wildfire spreading. It was pale pink at first, but slowly got darker and darker. The white disappeared, replaced by none other than red.

Chloe swallowed and glanced down at her paper nervously.

"Um, you won't be happy if I tell you what red stands for," she said.

"What is it?" I asked, slightly annoyed. The red on my nail was starting to piss me off for some reason. I felt like I should know what this color stood for.

"It means that you're in love."

CHAPTER 13: Definitely Not Romeo And Juliet

"Say what?"

They knew now. All I could do was to keep denying, but how long could I keep this act up? Apparently, not very long.

"So who is it?" Marisol asked promptly, ignoring my comment. I winced and tried to come up with a better cover up than 'Say what?'.

"Uh, I don't have a lover," I said lamely. Marisol stared at my head and I could feel her see right through my lie and into the truth.

Nothing needed to be said. Marisol knew. My guilt was clearly written all over my face. I swallowed when Chloe said, "Yes you do. Who is he?"

The question wasn't directed at me because she knew I wouldn't answer anyway so it was directed at Marisol instead.

Marisol grinned and leaned forward to whisper the answer into Chloe's ear. Chloe's eyes widened and she giggled. I felt my face light up in flames and became as red as my toe nail.

"Come on, guys," I grumbled and stuffed the dripping brush back into the bottle. "I'm done with this. What now?"

Marisol pulled back to drape an arm over my shoulder.

"Aw, come on, El," she drawled. "Don't be shy. It's so cute to see you blush! And for him!"

I was not sure if it was even possible, but my face heated up even more.

"S-Shut up," I scolded, but my voice didn't come out as commanding as it should. It sounded an octave higher than usual. "What now? What are we going to do?"

Marisol still seemed be interested in the topic, but she didn't push it anymore after I shot her a look that clearly said 'No'.

"The mall?" Chloe suggested as she put the box of nail polish up. "There's one close to here."

Marisol tossed her hair back, her newly painted hot pink nails flashing. She stood up and smoothed out her mini skirt.

"Well, what you guys waiting for?" she asked with that grin of hers that I had grown to see and feel comfortable around.

"It's shoppin' time!"

~*~

It was not that I hated shopping. In fact, it was one my favorite hobbies. The problem that I thought needed to be fixed immediately was how loud the mall was.

I had to literally yell just to be able to talk to Marisol and Chloe who were walking either side next to me, "Where to first?"

Marisol said something, but all I could make out was '... Republic' over all the noises in the background.

Knowing Marisol for nearly all my life, I basically knew everything about her. Her favorite store and brand was 'Banana Republic' so it was pretty easy to guess that she wanted to head to 'Banana Republic' first.

I had never been to this mall before, so I turned to Chloe and asked, "You know where Banana Republic is?"

Chloe heard me and nodded, mouthing the words "Follow me" back.

We weaved through the crowd and many times I thought I had accidentally stepped on someone's foot. We came upon the store and went inside.

This Banana Republic mall was different from the other ones that Marisol dragged me into.

For one, it was dark inside with a gloomy feeling to it.

For another, it was calm and quiet inside which I couldn't understand how they could manage to keep it that way, considering outside was like a hurricane attacked. Usually Banana Republic was packed with people and quite loud.

"Wow, it's quiet," I stated the obvious, my voice echoing through the room.

"And dark," Marisol added as she attached herself immediately to a rack. "Help me find cute clothes."

I rolled my eyes. "Girl, you need more pants, not more shirts. You, like, wear skirts every day. Wear pants for once."

Marisol smirked. "Says the girl who has more pants than shirts."

I rolled my eyes and stood next to her, looking through the clothes with her. Chloe excused herself to take a look at the jewelry.

This store proved to be different from the others. The clothes looked better and more towards my style.

Marisol was a Banana Republic type girl while I was more of a 'Black And White' type. There was a huge difference between the two stores.

"Hey, this one looks cute," Marisol pulled out a light yellow sleeveless shirt with a huge ribbon tied at the waist. She held it up to herself. "Whatcha think?"

I leaned back to get a better look. Marisol looked really good in it. The yellow was the same color as the first streak of sunlight in the horizon, bring out her big hazel eyes.

"It looks great," I told her truthfully. "Dang, they actually have decent clothes now."

Marisol grinned and peeled it off of herself and draped it over her arm.

"You found anything yet?" she asked as I continued looking through the clothes.

"Nah, not yet," I said and moved on to the next rack. Marisol shrugged.

"What about that black jacket?" she pointed to the rack behind her. I looked in her direction and had to squint through the darkness to make out the silhouette of the jacket.

I walked up to it and took it off of its hanger. I held it in front of me and examined it.

It wasn't that bad of a design. Ruffled fur surrounded the rim of the hood. A golden zipper adorned the middle of the jacket. It actually looked okay.

"It's not bad," I decided and draped it over my arm. "I'll think about it."

Marisol grinned and pointed at the shelves where the pants were placed. "What about jeans?"

I snorted. "I think you're the one who needs them more."

Marisol laughed and gave me a little wave. "See ya. I'll go check out the jeans while you find some clothes. Meet you at the cashier."

She turned and walked to the shelves. I returned to flip through the clothes placed on the racks.

I didn't find much after that. All of the clothes looked identical to each other so that pretty much took out most of the clothes. I found a dark blue shirt with the bottom cut into strips and a red shirt with black poka-dots in the front and complete black on the back.

My mind wasn't with my heart today. I absently-mindly went through the clothes and didn't feel the small tug on my jeans until I felt the tug again.

I jolted and thought that my leg was in danger when a voice that sounded like a child asked, "Are you the princess that was kidnapped by the evil dragon?"

I looked down and saw a boy no older than 4 tugging at the helm of my pants. He looked up at me with big, brown determined eyes. His hair was coal black and in his hand he carried a small foam sword. Something about this boy looked familiar. But what was it?

"So, are you?" the boy asked again and gave my pants another tug.

Not exactly sure what to do, I bent down until I came to eye level with the boy.

"What's your name?"

It was a lame and dumb question to ask a stranger who was obviously younger than you, but he seemed lost and I decided to help him.

"I am Knight Felix!" the boy announced. "If you are the kidnapped princess, I shall save you!"

He swung his little sword around for good measure, yelling, "Die dragon!" and I had to lean back just to keep my nose from being cut off.

"Woah there," I said and patted his head. His hair felt smooth like silk underneath my palm.

"Did I save you from the evil dragon?" the boy grinned and stopped swinging.

"Uh, sure," I told him. This was getting really awkward. I needed to help this kid find his parents as soon as possible.

"Listen," I said. "Who are your parents? Shouldn't we go back to the castle?"

The boy seemed to see my logic and held his sword into the air, his other hand on his waist.

"To the castle we go!" he announced and ran off, his little legs sprinting through all the racks. "Come on!" he beckoned. "Let's go!"

"Wait!" I rushed after him. A couple of times, while we were turning corners, I almost lost his little figure darting in and out from underneath the racks.

I was almost out of breath before he came to an abrupt stop and looked left and right. I caught up to him and bent my knees, setting my hands on my knees and tried to catch my breath.

"W-Where's your mom?" I managed to say. I was in no shape to run again. I should have listened to Marisol and worked out more. My tight jeans were another obstacle.

The boy didn't answer me and his shoulders sagged a bit.

"Hey, you okay?" I asked, now a little worried. He was happy and full of energy just a moment ago.

"Hey," I said again, gentler and softer. "Where's your mom? Don't be sad; we'll find her."

I heard the boy sniff and I got more worried.

"I-I just remembered," he sobbed a little. "Mommy isn't here..."

I frowned and reached out to drape an arm over his thin shoulders.

"What do you mean?" I asked. Then it hit me. Maybe his Dad took him here.

"Where's your Daddy, then?" I asked suggestively. This only seemed to make the boy sadder.

"I... I don't h-have... a Daddy..." he sobbed again. I could see that tears threatened to spill, but he kept his confident face. He sniffed and wiped his nose with the sleeve of his shirt.

I was about to ask where his dad was when a voice that made my heart did multiple back flips, called, "Felix? Where are you?!"

The boy perked up and ferociously wiped at the invisible tears that never fell from his eyes.

"B-Big brother...?" he called back.

"Felix!" the familiar voice got closer.

"I'm here, Big brother!" Felix said, stronger.

"Felix?" a person appeared with a brown hair girl in his arms. He was out of breath and looked like he was searching for a very long time, judging by his heavy breathing and messy hair.

As soon as Felix's eyes landed on the person who was supposedly his brother, his eyes widened and he immediately latched himself onto his brother's leg.

"Oh my gods Felix," the boy exclaimed, setting down the girl gently to the floor and picked up Felix, whose tears have begun to flow.

He stood back up, the girl clinging to his side.

I stood up slowly, my eyes widening each second as I stared at the boy.

It couldn't be. He couldn't be standing in front of me.

"I'm so sorry for the trouble," Samuel began apologizing as Felix sniffed silently in his arms, holding his sword tightly in his hand. "Thanks so much for watching after my little brother. I really can't than-"

He stopped mid-sentence when his eyes landed on mine and I was staring back into those brown orbs.

We stared at each other. _Felix... Of course! Why didn't I see it?_ I thought. _Samuel had told me before that he had a twin sibling called Felix!_

Felix finished wiping his nose and eyes and his defiant and confident face returned.

"I saved the princess!" he announced as if he completely forgot that he was crying just a second ago.

Samuel jolted out of his trance and looked at his brother with confusion. "Huh?"

"The princess," Felix repeated and grinned. "I killed the evil dragon. We're going back to the castle!"

I snapped out of my stare as well.

"Um... hi, Samuel," I said and mentally slapped myself. Way to go, Eleanor, I thought bitterly. Great opening.

"Uh, hi," Samuel greeted back, but it was just as awkward. We lapsed into total silence again.

"Do you know the princess?" Felix asked, breaking the silence once again. Samuel blinked.

"Oh, uh, yeah," he said. His eyes looked like they didn't quite believe what they were seeing.

"Who is she?" Felix asked promptly.

"Um, she's... a friend of mine," Samuel said and gave me a nervous look as if asking me if this was okay. I nodded. "Felix, meet Eleanor."

Felix turned to face me with a huge smile. "Then, I shall call you Princess Eleanor! I'm your knight from now on!"

A slight blush appeared on my cheeks. "T-Thanks," I stammered. "Yeah, you can be my knight."

"Eleanor, uh, meet my siblings," Samuel said and gestured to the brown hair girl who was silently staring at me the entire time. "This is Susanna and you already met Felix. They're twins."

I gave Felix and Susanna a smile. "It's great to meet you guys. Um..." I squinted at the twins. "They're... 4?"

Samuel nodded. "Susanna is older."

"I'm stronger though!" Felix butted in and thrust out his sword, almost causing Samuel to topple over. "I'm a knight!"

"But you're an idiot," Susanna muttered in soft voice that made people strain to hear her, but Felix heard her. He gave her a glare.

"Shut up," he pouted and crossed his arms across his small chest.

Samuel sighed and gave me an apologetic look.

"Sorry, they argue a lot," Samuel told me. I suppressed a giggled. The Rose family is definitely interesting.

"Nah, it's fine," I said and flicked my wrist. "What are you doing here anyway?"

"Oh, uh, we're buying some clothes for our mom," Samuel slightly blushed. "It's going to be her birthday soon."

This caught my attention and before I could stop myself, I blurted out, "When?"

"Tomorrow," Samuel told me. "We're buying her a new dress because she loves Banana Republic's dresses."

I smiled. "You know, Marisol is also a huge fan of their dresses. You should ask her for advice."

Samuel smiled back. "Yeah, we might need advice. We suck at fashion!"

I laughed and Samuel's smile brightened. I felt really happy inside. Samuel's smile was making me feel like Heaven struck the Earth.

Felix pulled at Samuel's collar impatiently. "Hurry, Big brother!" he urged. "I wanna go home!"

Samuel adjusted his hold on Felix and gave me one last smile. "Well, I need to go now. Guess I'll see you at school then."

"Yeah," I said, a tiny bit of disappointment laced in my voice. "See you, too."

Samuel turned to go when he suddenly remembered something. He turned around, a red blush tainting his cheeks, and asked, "C-Can you come tomorrow?"

I got confused. "Come where?"

Samuel's blush deepened as he clarified, "I thought that we could use Sunday as a tutorial day. You never came to my house before, right? You can come over tomorrow."

"But isn't tomorrow your mom's birthday?"

"Don't worry. She won't mind. It'll be quick, I promise," he assured me. I wasn't sure what to make of this.

Just a week ago, I couldn't bring to think of Samuel. And now, he was inviting me over. What was I supposed to do and say? I went with the answer that was by instinct.

"Sure," I said and nodded. A huge wave of relief passed over Samuel and his smile returned.

"Great, then tomorrow at 10 in the morning?"

I smiled. "Why not?"

Samuel gave me one final smile and a wave before Felix tugged at his collar again and Susana pulled on his pants leg.

"See you tomorrow, Eleanor," Samuel said and turned and walked around. I watched the little Rose family walking away, my heart thumping way too loud in my chest.

My smile didn't disappear from my face. In fact, I was beaming the entire way back to Marisol and Chloe who were waiting for me at the cashier.

Yeah, I was definitely going nuts.

CHAPTER 14: Let The Rain Fall

I held up two shirts: a light pink long sleeve with a huge, dark red bow on the middle and a white sweater with a hood.

"Which one?" I asked Marisol who sat cross legged on the edge of my bed.

Marisol smirked.

"Trying to impress your lover?"

I consciously felt my cheeks heat up and I glared at her even though I couldn't stop my heart from fluttering at the word 'lover'.

"Hell no."

Marisol laughed. "Definitely the white hoodie with a yellow tin-top underneath."

I put back the light pink shirt and pulled out a yellow tin-top.

"You sure?" I asked and held up the outfit up to myself to see for myself. Marisol nodded.

"It's totally Samuel's style."

I glared at her again, causing her to laugh again.

"Just kidding." She grinned. "You're ready for your lessons?"

I slipped on the clothes and pulled my hair up into a loose ponytail.

Blowing a stray hair out of my eyes and putting my hand on my hip, I said, "Never more."

~*~

I was literally mind blown when we pulled into Samuel's neighborhood; not the bad mind blown, but the good mind blown.

Samuel lived behind the school in a small village where either few people lived or was filled with seniors. Or at least, that was the story told to me by others. I never expected to come into a neighborhood where everything almost seemed like my own except with more one-story houses and more people roaming on the streets.

Marisol whistled. "Pretty cool if you ask me."

I snorted and pretended to not care. "What's so cool about this place? It's too shabby." Why am I still holding on? Why am I still denying. Why, oh why, am I lying to myself?

Marisol rolled her eyes as we turned a corner and came upon a street where the houses seemed smaller. "You never think anything is cool."

I propped my elbow onto the car door and looked outside instead of answering her. We drove pass a few kids playing basketball on the sidewall with a small basketball made out of cloth. The kids didn't look older than 9, but you could never be sure. Once I had thought that a boy was 16, my age, but he turned out to be 21. And even worse, he was our substitute for the day in place of Mrs. Jackling (Which I was very thankful for. At least he didn't yell at us every few seconds.).

Marisol parked in front of a red brick house.

"Ta-Da," she said as she looked at the sheet of paper in her hands. Samuel had called me the night before to tell me where his house was, though I had no clue where and how he got my number. I searched up the address on Google Maps and printed out the map and gave it to Marisol.

"Welcome to the Rose Estate," he joked as we climbed out of her car.

I wasn't so sure about the whole 'estate' part. Sure, Samuel's house wasn't as shabby as I had thought it would be, but it wasn't near as fancy as mine.

The Rose's house was small and simple. The front consisted of a white wooden porch that I noticed was very old, considering that some areas were worn down to yellow. On either side of the side was a window with yellow flower curtains drawn down. There wasn't even a garage, much less a car. The closest thing to a transportation device was a bike as worn out as the house.

We walked up the steps to the door, the wood creaking beneath our feet. Marisol knocked twice because there wasn't a doorbell.

From inside, I could hear multiple feet running to the door. There was a click and the door swung open. I was greeted with a mop of brown hair and a huge smile.

"Princess Eleanor has arrived!" Felix exclaimed gleefully and flung himself onto my leg. Marisol giggled beside me.

"Felix, manners," Susanna, who was right behind her twin brother, scolded. Felix pulled back enough to glare at her.

"I can do what I want," he huffed and puffed out his cheeks. Susanna gave him a cool stare.

"That's why you're so stupid," she muttered under her breath. Felix got red and opened his mouth to say a retort when a voice that made my heart squeeze called, "Felix, Susanna? Has she come?"

Samuel opened at the bottom of the stairs out of breath. A towel draped over his shoulders even though he was fully dressed and his hair was wet. I could only guess he just took a shower.

When he saw me, he smiled.

"Hi Eleanor!" he greeted and walked forward to stand beside his siblings. The scent of the shampoo he used flowed into my nose and I almost squealed. Samuel's shampoo smelled of a mixture between morning roses and honey on a farm. It made my heart flutter against my chest.

"Princess Eleanor is here!" Felix announced to Samuel. Samuel smiled and leaned down to pry his brother off of me, but Felix didn't want to budge.

"Uh..." Samuel tried to pull Felix's fingers from my pants leg, but Felix just clung onto me harder.

"Let's go eat ice cream," Susanna suggested to her brother when she saw that a little help was needed. At the mention of ice cream, Felix's ears perked up and he let go of me.

"Yay! Ice cream!" he yelled and immediately let me go. He turned and dashed away, aiming directly for the kitchen. Susanna followed after him.

"Sorry," Samuel apologized and ran a hand through his hair. It was either my imagination or it really happened but I saw Samuel's muscles flex under his clothes. I swallowed a loud and obnoxious squeal.

Marisol clapped me on the shoulder, startling me.

"Well, you two have fun," she chirped happily and gave us a wink. I felt myself heat up.

"Later!" she smirked and walked back to her car. Before slipping in, she gave me a wave and drove away.

"So, uh, should we start?" I asked and adjusted my bag that I brought on my shoulders nervously. Samuel blinked.

"Huh?"

"The tutoring," I reminded him. "That's what we're doing right?"

"Oh, right," Samuel agreed as if he was still in a dream and didn't quite comprehend reality. "Tutoring. Wait here."

I gave him a questioning look as he rushed upstairs. There were some bangs and creaks and a second later, Samuel was rushing back down with a cap covering his damp hair and a bag slung over his shoulders.

"Come on," he said. "We're going somewhere special for today's tutoring."

~*~

I didn't believe it. Samuel Rose took me to the lake to tutor me.

But I wasn't one to complain. The lake he took me to was not only near his house, but was also calm and quiet. The water glistened and the grass beneath me felt soft. The sun gleamed across the lake, making the water look almost like the colors of the sunset.

It was so beautiful that for a second I thought I was looking at a painting.

"This is my favorite place to study," Samuel explained as we pulled out the materials and laid them onto the floor in a huge messy pile.

"Let's start with Reading and Language Arts today," Samuel announced as he handed me a book titled _'Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief'_.

"I'm sure that you have already watched the movie, but the book has some differences that make it even more interesting," Samuel told me.

I remembered the time Marisol dragged me out to rent a movie at Redbox. We couldn't decide on anything and ended up choosing 'Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief'. Thinking that it was boring, I spaced out for most of the movie so I wasn't exactly 100% sure what happened.

I was pretty sure Percy Jackson was the son of Zues. Right?

The cover of the book looked even more boring than the movie. I wasn't sure I would enjoy reading it. Heck, I rarely read _any_ books!

I opened the book to the first chapter and began to read.

It wasn't as bad as I thought. I fact, for the first time since a long time, I found reading enjoyable.

Samuel helped guide me along with unfamiliar vocabulary or paragraphs that I didn't understand. I got so much into the book that I didn't notice the clear blue sky slowly starting to turn gray.

It was only when the first raindrop plopped onto my cheek that the realization hit me. It was raining.

"Oh my god!" Samuel and I hastily packed, but we weren't quick enough. It began to pour down quicker and soon we were sitting in the middle of a rain shower.

"We need to get to a dry place!" Samuel yelled over the splashing sounds of rain.

"What about the stuff?" I yelled back.

"Leave them here! Let's go!"

Samuel grabbed my hand and pulled me up. The book tumbled from my hands as we raced through the rain towards a huge oak tree.

"We'll just take shelter here until the rain stops," Samuel breathed. His hair dripped with water, making it glisten like the lake. I swallowed my heart that almost escaped through my throat.

Despite the canopy of leaves above us, water seeped through and continued and dripped down upon us. I shivered a bit when a soft wind blew through my clothes, making my wet shirt chill my bones.

Samuel gave me a worried look. "Are you okay?"

I nodded. "I-I'm fine."

But Samuel didn't believe me.

"No, you're not," he declared. Before I could protest, he pulled me toward him and wrapped his arms around me. Warmth immediately came back to me and I wasn't as cold as before.

"W-Wha...? H-Hey, what are you-"

"Sorry," Samuel apologized, his voice ringing in my ears. My eyes widened and I gulped. My face was as red as a tomato and my head felt light like a feather.

"We shouldn't have come outside..." he muttered. "I should have checked the weather forecast first. It's my fault."

I swallowed again and for the first time, I noticed that my hands were clutching the front of Samuel's shirt tightly.

"You're getting wet," I told him, desperate to change the subject.

"No, I'm fine," he said and for a second, I could hear a small thump of a heart beat race in his chest. My own chest tightened.

"No you're not," I insisted and tried to pull back. "You're getting wet and it's the middle of Spring and you're probably cold since you're only wearing a shirt and a thin jacket and-"

I was rambling since I had no clue what to say. That thump of a heart beat made my heart beat a beat faster.

"Don't worry about me," Samuel said and hugged me tighter. "I'll be fine."

We stayed like that as the rain continued showering down, but all of the sounds sounded distant, like they weren't really there.

Everything turned silent slowly until all I could hear were the rhythmic beats of the boy in front of me. I looked up and milky brown eyes met with my blue ones.

That was it. That was all it took before I pulled Samuel down and pressed my lips onto his. I could feel his shock pass through his body and I began to mentally scold myself, but for now, I didn't care. All that mattered was the beating rain and Samuel's lips on mine.

The world could have exploded for all I cared. I didn't dare pull away even when the rain finally stopped and the sun reappeared from behind the misty clouds to caste a warm shimmering glow upon the earth.

The sun warmed and dried my skin, my wet clothes, and my hair. But the thing that made me the warmest was the sensation when Samuel kissed me back.

I took a small step back and slipped on the slippery ground. I went down with a yelp, dragging Samuel down with me. We fell onto the wet ground laughing, our hands never letting go of each other's.

This moment was perfect. And I wanted it to last for all eternity; Samuel's laugh, his smile, and his heart.

CHAPTER 15: Telling Sacred Tales

"Here, you can wear my hoodie for now," Samuel said and tossed me a faded blue hoodie. It wasn't exactly the world's prettiest hoodie, but right now I didn't care.

"Thanks," I said and slipped into the bathroom to change.

My clothes were soaked to the core and stuck like leeches to my skin as we were walking back to Samuel's house. But I didn't feel cold at all. Instead, I felt fluffy and warm inside, like a kindled fire erupted within my chest. It was a nice feeling and I knew it was Samuel who started the warmness.

I took off my wet clothes and dropped them around my feet in a messy bundle of white, yellow, and blue. I picked up Samuel's hoodie and held it to my nose. I took a huge sniff of his scent and sighed. It smelled just like him. It made me smile as I slipped into the hoodie and pulled on a new pair of jeans.

"You look good," Samuel praised when I stepped out of the bathroom. I blushed.

"T-Thanks." It was a lame answer, but nevertheless, Samuel's smile brightened.

"Are you hungry?" he asked. As if to answer his question, my stomach growled softly. That made me blush harder and I thought for sure that Samuel would just laugh at me, but instead, he surprised me (like he always does).

Smiling, he said, "Come on. Let's go down stairs. I think we still have some cookies."

I wanted to object and told him not to 'trouble himself', but Samuel was already pulling me down the stairs and into the kitchen where Susanna and Felix sat at the dinner table with papers and crayons spread out.

When we walked in, Felix's head perked up and he grinned when he saw me.

"Princess Eleanor!" He squealed happily and hopped off his seat to rush and hug my legs. Susanna set down her crayon and followed her brother. Felix pulled back and held his drawing up to show me.

"Look!" he said proudly. "I drew me saving you from the evil dragon!"

The picture was of a girl with wavy blonde hair in a pink dress stuck in a high tower. A boy dressed in full armor was trying to get her down, but a huge red dragon blocked his way. I smiled as memories of my past self drawing similar pictures flooded my mind.

"It looks amazing," I told him and squatted down to ruffle his hair.

Felix giggled and for a second, his voice almost sounded like Samuel's.

"Big brother," Susanna said and held out her arms for a hug. Samuel bent down and picked her off of the ground. Susanna was holding her art tightly in her hands. Samuel noticed it and asked, "What did you draw, Susanna? Can you show it to us?"

Susanna shook her head. "No," she said firmly.

"Why not?" Samuel asked and feigned hurt. Susanna shook her head again and explained, "I didn't finish it yet."

Samuel smiled and set her back down gently.

"Well, why don't you go ahead and finish drawing?" he suggested. Susanna nodded stiffly and turned to go back to the table just as my stomach growled again. I blushed and tried to make an excuse, "Uh, t-that was, uh, um, I mean..."

Samuel laughed and stood back up. "Sorry, sorry. I almost forgot. Let's go get you cookies, okay?"

Felix clapped his hands eagerly. "Cookies! I want cookies too!"

"Do you want some too, Susanna?" Samuel asked the little girl who was busying herself with crayons and markers. Susanna nodded, but didn't say anything.

"Alright, I'll go get some cookies. For now, do you mind watching over them, Eleanor?" Samuel asked me and for the first time, the way he said my name didn't sound nervous at all. I nodded.

"Y-Yeah, no problem. I'll watch over them," I told him and shooed him away.

"Are you big brother's girlfriend?" Felix asked suddenly as soon as Samuel was out of earshot. At the word 'girlfriend', my face reddened even more.

"W-Wha...? Uh, w-we're... I-I don't know..." I stammered. Felix stared up at me, waiting expectantly for an answer. I swallowed and tried again.

"I don't know," I told him truthfully. I didn't bother lying.

What was I anyway? Definitely a random girl who failed all of her classes and came running to him for help.

"I'm back!" Samuel handed Felix a plate of Oreos and Susanna a plate of chocolate chip cookies. He gave me a plate of red velvet cookies.

I picked one up and bit into it. The dough was still warm and melted in my mouth. It tasted better than any other red velvet I had before.

"Homemade?" I guessed and ate another one. Samuel nodded.

"My mom loves to make them and I usually help around," he said with a light pink tinting his cheeks.

"I want some too!" Felix demanded. "I want some of Mommy's cookies too!"

"Eh? But you already ate some Oreos..." Samuel said.

"Don't worry. I'll make more so take as much as you want," a voice I had never heard before in my life rang through the air, but it had the same sparkling sound as Samuel's voice. I looked up and saw a woman with dark brown hair and amber eyes that resembled Samuel's eyes and hair. Felix grinned and ran towards her. She smiled and picked him up from the ground.

Samuel froze beside me. "M-Mother... What are you... doing out... here?"

"I came to see if any of you were hungry, of course," she said. Her eyes fell onto mine and she gave me a warm smile.

"Hello, and who might you be?" she asked.

"Oh, uh... I'm Eleanor Fyer, ma'am," I introduced. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Rose."

Mrs. Rose chuckled. "You needn't call me 'Mrs. Rose'. Stacey will do fine."

"Mother... it's dangerous," Samuel said worriedly. "You should go back to bed..."

Stacey waved it off. "No need. I feel incredibly strong right now. I'll go to make you children some cookies."

"But Mother-" Samuel tried again, but Stacey put a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm fine, Samuel," she told him softly. "You go ahead and entertain your guest. It's been forever since you last had friends over."

Samuel didn't look so sure, but Stacey clapped his shoulder, gave him a wink, and walked away to the pantry.

"I'm going to help Mommy!" Felix announced and bounded after Stacey.

"Is something wrong with your mom?" I asked and realized that I sounded rude. "I-I mean, is she okay?"

Samuel blinked. "What? Oh, yeah, she's fine."

But his eyes and voice said otherwise.

"No she isn't," I said firmly. "What's wrong with her?"

Samuel swallowed. "I think... I have a lot to explain."

~*~

There was another side to Samuel that I had never known before. Another side that had been buried deep below and never dug up before. And today, that other side had broken the surface and showed its true self.

Samuel took me back to his room and we sat on his bed. I sat with my legs crossed and Samuel sat at the edge in a nervous way as if he might need to make a run for it at one point.

"So... explain," I said.

Samuel was silent for a moment. I could see the gears in his head working as he tried to come up with a good explanation.

At last, he said, "My mom has the cancer 'tumor'."

It was as if the air suddenly turned rigid.

"Cancer?" I echoed. "What do you mean?"

Samuel sighed and shifted around. He looked down into his lap and said, "My mom fell sick with cancer four years ago, shortly after Felix and Susanna were born. We couldn't bring her to a hospital so she had to hold it out for four years total. Her health wavers weaker and weaker each year."

"Where's your dad?" I asked. "Shouldn't he be helping?"

"That's the problem," Samuel said softly. "My dad disappeared five years ago, two weeks after Mom got pregnant."

My mind whirled back to that day when I helped Felix find Samuel and Susanna. He had said the said thing: _I don't have a Daddy_.

"I never met him before, too," Samuel continued.

"Meet who?"

"My dad," Samuel let out a long, drawn out breath. "When he was still here, he went to work early and worked late into the night, up to midnight sometimes. I used to go to bed at right so I rarely see him. Only Mom stayed up that late to give him his dinner and accompanied him while he ate. When Mom got pregnant, she got really happy. But my dad never got the chance to see the birth of his other two kids."

"What happened to him?" I asked. Samuel shrugged.

"Who knows?" he said and raised his head to look at me in the eyes. "But whatever happened, we never heard from him again. He just disappeared one day and never returned."

"At first, we thought that he got lost, but after Felix and Susanna were born and he still didn't return, Mom filed out a Missing Person document. Even after that, we never found him."

Samuel smiled sadly. "But it would be nice if I got to meet him properly once in my life."

Silence lapsed into the room. I needed a joke or a random comment. Fast.

"Maybe he got lost in the Bermuda Triangle?" I suggested jokingly, but I could tell that it hit something within Samuel's heart. Despite that, he gave me a small smile.

"Yeah, maybe he did," he muttered. I frowned.

"What do you mean?"

"The last time we heard from him was when he went on a business trip overseas and was supposed to return two weeks before Felix and Susanna were born. Problem is, he never did. That's all the clues we have."

"He went on a business trip overseas?" I repeated. "What's his job?"

"Our family used to own this electronic company called the Rose Corporation. It was created in California, where I used to live. But after my dad disappeared, we had to move here."

California, where Samuel used to live?

Samuel's entire life sounded like a broken puzzle. Some pieces were chipped and others were missing the picture on it.

"Oh..." I didn't know what else to say. I didn't want to say 'I'm sorry' because those two words wouldn't mean a thing. I wanted to help him, not giving him even more pain and pity.

"But it's not like my dad's disappearance is the end of the world," Samuel stated and scooted up on the bed until our thighs lightly brushed against each other, sending an electrical shock through my body. "I found out that my dad was French, making me a half-half."

"What, half-half like Percy Jackson?" I joked, trying to lighten the mood. Samuel laughed.

"Yeah, something like that."

Samuel's hand crawled on top of mine and I barely noticed how well over hands were together, like they were carved to fit into each other.

We didn't talk much after that. Samuel pulled me close and we just stayed like that for what seemed like forever.

I didn't even notice the sun slowly setting down across the horizon and the stars and moon coming out. But for now, I just wanted to live the moment for as long as I could.

~*~

It was dark by the time I called Bailey to pick me up to take me home. Samuel had lent me his jacket since the winds at night were chilly and pulled me into one last hug. I tried to make time pass slowly as I savored the warmth and protectiveness of Samuel's arms.

"See you tomorrow," Samuel said, his voice muffled into my hair, slightly tickling the top of my head.

"Yeah, you too."

We pulled back just as Bailey's car pulled up. She rolled down the windows and gave me a wave.

"I gotta go," I said and jogged to Bailey's awaiting car.

"Bye Eleanor!"

I smiled and waved back before getting into the car and we drove away.

~*~

Bailey made me a plate of spaghetti when I got home. I ate and went upstairs to my bedroom.

I laid down on my bed and reencountered the events that happened today. I smiled as the taste of Samuel's lips lingered on mine.

I still couldn't believe it myself. I loved Samuel Rose. It was confirmed. Something changed within me or else I wouldn't be feeling these emotions churning inside of me.

I sat up in my bed and drew back the curtains covering my window. I watched as the stars twinkled and the moon shimmered in the night sky.

My door opened and Bailey strode inside.

"Hey, El. Do you-" she stopped mid-sentence when she caught me looking out the window. Without saying a word, she silently crossed the room to sit on the bed with me. I didn't notice her until I felt a shift in the mattress.

I turned around to see Bailey smiling at me.

"How many stars do you think are there in the sky?" she asked, catching me off guard. I shrugged.

"Dunno," I said. "What do you think?"

"I don't know, too," Bailey admitted. "There's too many to count. The universe expands forever."

We stayed silent as we watched the moon moving across the sky for a moment.

"That boy I saw today, is he your friend?" Bailey suddenly asked, breaking the silence. I was caught off guard.

"Yeah," I answered. "Something like that." It was only half of the truth. Samuel meant much more to me than just a 'friend'.

"He looks nice," Bailey continued. "Is he the tutor that you told me about?"

I nodded.

"Are you two getting along well?" Bailey asked. I nodded again.

Bailey smiled. "Are you in love with him?"

It took me a moment to answer her question. Thoughts pierced my mind. _I loved Samuel Rose._

"Yeah," I said. "I do."

Bailey giggled and pulled me into a hug. For the first time, her hug didn't feel like it was crushing my bones.

"Oh, I'm so happy right now!" Bailey squealed. "My daughter has finally found her love."

I groaned as her arms tightened. I spoke too soon. "Bailey, you're crushing me."

"Oh, oops. Sorry about that," she said sheepishly and gave me a wide grin.

I smoothed out my shirt. "It's okay."

"You have my full support," Bailey told me and ruffled my hair. She got up and walked over to the door. She opened the door and right before she walked out, she turned to give me one last smile and reminded me, "Remember, I'm your mom. I'll be there cheering for you from the sides."

My bedroom door shut and Bailey was gone.

Her words replayed in my mind and I smiled to myself. I was the most grateful girl in the entire world to have loving parents, supporting friends, and an amazing tutor.

The thought of Samuel made my smile wider. I looked out the window again. The stars seemed to twinkle even brighter than before. Somewhere within my heart, I knew that the stars would forever be shining brightly in the sky.

Forever and ever. That was my favorite way to end a bed time story back when I was younger.

"And they lived happily ever after."

CHAPTER 16: The Road To Home

"Fine, you win," I grumbled to Marisol as I sipped my juice box. We were waiting for Chloe to join us for lunch, but I couldn't wait any longer and began to eat first. Marisol tilted her head slightly to the side in confusion.

"I won what?"

"The bet."

"What bet?"

I let out an exasperated sigh. "The bet that we made about whether or not I'll fall in love."

It took Marisol a blink of an eye to figure out what I meant. When she did, she squealed.

"Oh my gods!" she exclaimed and gave me a bear hug, causing me to almost spill my drink. "My baby grew up!"

I gave her an as menacing of a glare as I could manage. "Don't you dare tell anyone," I warned.

"What about Chloe?"

"No way, nu-uh, na-da, no-"

"Tell me what?" Chloe's voice asked from behind me, causing me to jump in my seat. Chloe slipped into the seat beside me. I shot Marisol another glare before clearing my throat and made up a lame excuse, "Oh, uh, nothing much. Just the normal talks."

"Are you sure?" Chloe raised an eyebrow and gave me a crooked grin. Before I could answer, Marisol butted in and announced proudly, "Guess what? It finally happened! El and Samuel are finally together!"

Chloe's face lit up and she beamed.

"That's amazing!" she clapped her hands. "Now, advance Romeo and Juliet!"

I punched her arm lightly.

"Shut up, you two," I grumbled, but my words weren't out of hate. I felt happy inside and for the first time in my entire life, I felt complete.

With a smile, I dug into my purse and whipped out a wad of dollar bills.

"Here you go," I said cheerfully and handed Marisol the money, but she didn't take it. Instead, she laughed and pushed the money back to me.

"I was just kidding, ya know," she grinned and gave me a thumbs-up. "The important part is that you're with him. That's all that counts."

"She's right," Chloe agreed. "We're really glad that things worked out between you two."

Why hadn't I noticed it before? Why was I so blind? Invisible tears clouded my eyes and I smiled without making it look fake or restrained.

I never noticed before but Marisol and Chloe were the two best friends I could ask for.

I smiled too.

"Yeah," I laughed. "Betting is for newbs."

~*~

Life would have been much easier if there was no such thing as 'bad guys'. But then again, dreams like that would never happen.

I was in too good of a mood to deal with Allison. But I bumped into her as I was walking down the hallway to my locker. She had her clipboard clutched tightly to her chest and was walking straight forward without even looking up to acknowledge that I was walking towards her.

If I hadn't moved out of the way on the last second, we would have encountered the same situation as last time.

"Hey!" I called after her, annoyed that she didn't stop to say sorry for almost running into someone. Allison's shoulders went rigid and she turned to face me so quickly that it looked like she was being chased by a ghost.

When she saw that it was just me, her trademark smirk appeared on her face.

"Oh, why hello Milady," she said sarcastically, emphasizing the word 'Milady'. "I didn't see you there."

I snorted. "Right. Watch where you're going next time, Lady of the Newspaper."

At the mention on 'newspaper', Allison's face paled and she looked scared for a moment, but she quickly recovered and replaced her shock with a witty retort, "Well, at least the truth is out."

"You mean, the theoretical truth," I corrected her. Allison gave me a glare and I glared back. We stood there in the hallway staring each other down.

I wasn't about to back down. My life was finally going somewhere. No way was she going to take that away.

Silence drifted between us. None of us said a word. I could see that Allison was straining really hard to not say a snappy comment. If I wasn't straining as well, I would have snorted and laughed.

"Fine! I give up!" Allison suddenly broke off the concentration and flung her arms up. "You win. Just stop making my life miserable."

"Well, excuse me, but you were the one making my life horrible," I snapped back, but somewhere within me, a huge burden was lifted from winning.

Giving me one last glare, Allison made a huge show of turning on her heel and sashayed away.

"Oh, and by the way," I called after her. "It's not 'Milady', it's 'Queen Eleanor of Harken High'."

I watched Allison screeched to a stop and her whole body stiffened. I could tell that she debated about whether turning around to engage in another battle with me or just moving on. She chose to clear her throat and walked away as fast as possible.

I grinned. Now that was one less pest to worry about.

~*~

"Hey, did you call Samuel yet?" Marisol inquired as the last bell rang to signal that school was finally over.

"For what?" I asked quizzingly. I had horrible memory so I had no idea what she was talking about.

"To invite him to our next volleyball game, of course," Marisol stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Not yet," I answered.

"Are you going to?"

"No duh, genius."

We walked out the doors to Harken High and for the first time, I appreciated the fact that I was even in this school. It was the only reason why I met Samuel. If it weren't for this school, who knew what would have happened in my future.

Samuel was waiting for me at the base of the stairs like always. Marisol gave me a hug and a wink to Samuel before jogging away.

"It's getting a tad bit warmer these days," Samuel observed as we walked to my house.

"Yup," I agreed. "It seemed like Christmas just yesterday."

Samuel laughed. "I never get bored of your jokes."

I smiled. "And I bet you never will."

It didn't even feel like such a long time had passed since I first met Samuel. It felt like as if I could turn around right now and see the past behind me.

"Your neighborhood is so quiet," Samuel said, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"That's because people rarely come out from their house," I told him. I was actually glad that my neighborhood was calm. It felt better that way. If it were loud, I thought I might go crazy due to all the sounds.

I opened the door to my house and we stepped in.

"Welcome home, honey!" Bailey called from somewhere in the kitchen. _Bailey was home for once?_ That was a surprise.

I led Samuel into the kitchen where we saw Bailey taking the newly baked cookies out from the oven.

She turned around and set the platter down on the counter.

"Oh, hey there Eleanor," Bailey smiled and slipped off her oven gloves. She saw Samuel and her face brightened.

"And hello to you too, sweetie!" she chirped and gave him a big smile. "What's your name? I never got it caught it before."

"Samuel Rose, ma'am," Samuel answered and returned the smile. "It's pleasure to meet you."

"Oh, don't be so formal with me," Bailey joked and came around the counter to stand in front of us.

"I believe you haven't introduced us yet?" Bailey raised an eyebrow at me.

"This is Samuel, my tutor-" I pointed at Samuel "and this is Bailey, my mom-" I pointed at Bailey.

"I'm so glad that you have a tutor these days," Bailey blew a piece of her hair out of her face. "Now you can actually do work instead of shutting yourself in your room all day and play on your phone."

"I'm just going on Facebook!" I defended myself.

"Which you do even though nothing new happened," Bailey pointed out. I pouted.

Smiling in victory over our little mother-to-daughter argument, Bailey asked, "Are you two hungry? You can have some of the cookies fresh out of the oven."

"Don't eat them," I warned Samuel. "Bailey's cookies are poisonous."

"But that was last time! It was my first time baking cookies!" Bailey whined.

"Yeah, but who mistakes baking soda with baby powder?"

"Don't worry," Bailey reassured Samuel as she handed him a plate. "I didn't put even a speck of baby powder in the mix this time."

We carried our plates upstairs after thanking Bailey for the cookies.

"Sorry about my mom," I apologized with a sly smile. "She seems weird but is a good person."

"Nah, she seems cool," Samuel said.

"Let's go into my room this time," I suggested as we stopped at the end of the hallway where my room was located. I opened the door and we stepped inside.

Now that I thought about it, Samuel had shown me his room, but I had never shown him mine. I thought that his was pretty cool with all the faded posters on the wall and a twin sized bed pulled to the very edge of the room, right underneath the window, but I was not sure how he would think of mine.

Would he like it or think that I was too much of a snob?

As soon as Samuel entered, his mouth fell open.

"W-Wow," he stuttered. "I knew that your room would look cool but this is beyond my wildest imagination."

So that meant he liked it so far, right?

"Thanks," I said and pointed to my desk that I had just cleared the other night. "You can set the plates there and your backpack next to my bed."

Samuel placed down his plate and shrugged off his backpack. I let him wander around as I walked over to the window and drew back the curtains to let a stream of light shine in.

"This place is amazing," Samuel said in awe. "Truly amazing."

"You think?" I asked as I plopped down on the bed.

"Yup," Samuel nodded seriously. "It's been forever since I last been in a normal house..."

I didn't venture further into the topic. I knew what he meant and didn't want to broaden the fact any greater than it already was.

"Let's start then, shall we?" I asked, trying to lighten the sudden dark mood. Samuel's smile returned and he nodded.

"Yeah," he agreed. "We have a lot to do today."

Time flew by way too quick. Before I knew it, it was dark and our tutoring session was over.

As Samuel was packing, I worked up the nerve to ask him the question, "Can you come to my volleyball game again? It's this Saturday."

Samuel put the last book in his bag and he stood up.

"Of course I can!" he said. "And this time, I promise to come on time."

I smiled and stood up as well.

"Pinky promise?" I asked and held out my finger. Samuel grinned and hooked our pinkies together.

"I pinky promise to come."

CHAPTER 17: Across a Million Galaxies

Sometimes, things happen and there was no way we can stop it from happening. Promises were meant to be made and broken, but even though I understood that, I still couldn't help feeling depressed like a sack of potatoes was weighting down upon my shoulders.

Moments where you felt alive and almost as if you were in Heaven didn't last long. Tragedy passed slowly in reality, but moved quickly for me.

In fact, it moved so quick, I only half believed my ears.

It was finally Saturday, the day I had been waiting forever to come. The week dragged by slowly as if taunting me. When it was finally the day of the volleyball game, my heart skipped a beat.

I was in the middle of pulling my hair into a high ponytail. Marisol had called me just a while ago to tell me that she would be coming to pick Chloe and me up.

I was so excited to see Samuel in the crowd, cheering and screaming that I got lost in my imagination and didn't hear my phone ring multiple times. It wasn't until it stopped and rang again that I finally noticed someone was calling me.

Thinking that it was Marisol calling me to tell me that she was stuck in traffic, I picked up without bothering to check the dialer ID and said, "Hello?"

There was silence on the other end for a moment.

"Hello? Anyone there?" I asked again.

"Um... Hi, Eleanor," a deep voice rang out. My breath hitched in my throat. This voice was committed to my memory. It was Samuel.

For a split second, I was literally jumping up and down from happiness that Samuel called me. But then reality hit me and I began to wonder why he was calling me.

He couldn't be quitting on me and said that he couldn't come to the game, right?

"Oh, hey Samuel," I greeted back as casually as I could. _Please don't say it_. "What's up?"

"Oh, nothing much," he replied, but I caught a hint of nervousness in his voice. "Um, I was calling to tell you..."

"Tell me what?"

Samuel drew in a sharp breath.

"I... I might not be able to make it to the game today."

For a second, I thought I heard wrong. Or maybe this was all just a bad dream and I just had to wake up. When I did, the sun would be shining like it always was and the rainbow outside my window would glisten brightly. Then Samuel would call to confirm that he would be coming to my game.

"Sorry?" I was sure I didn't hear that right.

"I can't come today," Samuel repeated, his voice slightly cracking at the end.

"Why?"

I was not sure why I was still remaining strong instead of breaking a puddle of tears by now. The past me would have had a tantrum, but the new me seemed to stay calm.

"It's a long story," Samuel whispered softly and I almost didn't hear him.

"What happened?" I asked and started to get worried. "Is your mom okay?"

"Yeah," Samuel answered, but he sounded tired.

"The twins?"

"They're all fine. It's just... something else happened."

What else could happen?

"What then?" I asked and even before Samuel answered, the answer echoed throughout my mind. He didn't have to say it. I knew, I understood.

"They found my dad."

A heavy silence draped over us as we let the sentence sink in. I could tell that Samuel didn't believe what he just said as much as I did. Samuel's breaths came out raged as if he was on the verge to either scream out in rage or just shatter and cry.

"What do you mean?"

It took me a moment to realize that I was the one who broke the silence. My voice came out so even and calm that I almost didn't recognize it as mine.

Samuel sighed on the other side. "I'm not clear on the whole story, but... all I know for sure is that my dad is standing downstairs, right in the living room."

My world seemed to turn upside down. This was happening too quickly for my mind to catch up.

"Where did they find him?" I asked.

It took a moment for Samuel to answer. "France."

Sometimes, I really didn't understand life. Or maybe today was meant to be a horrible day and I didn't realize that in the morning until now.

"I'm sorry, Eleanor," Samuel said softly. "I just... I think I might need some time to think and get used to the fact that my dad is finally back."

I swallowed. Hard.

"Wait, where are you-"

"I'll talk to you later then," Samuel said. "It's almost time for your game. Good luck and remember to win."

"Wait, Samuel-!"

There was a click and the line went dead. A moment later, static replaced Samuel's voice. I lowered my phone and stared at it.

I was still in a daze and couldn't wrap my head around the news yet.

I held up my hand and stared hard at my pinky.

But you promised...

~*~

I didn't even think as I marched out the door and jumped into my car. It had been forever since I last drove because I always carpooled with Marisol, but that wasn't the problem right now.

I started the engine and pulled out the driveway right as Marisol pulled up.

I rolled down my window and called to her, "Emergency! Go without me!"

"What happened?!" she asked, sounding a little alarmed because I only drove when something really bad happened.

"Samuel!" was all I needed to say and Marisol immediately got the point.

"You go on!" she yelled to me over the roar of our engines. "I'll explain to Coach Wayne!"

"Thanks!" I yelled back as I drove away. I tried my best not to go over the speed limit but it proved to be some difficult as my worry for Samuel grew by the second.

He was going through the return of his long lost dad alone. He felt confused and angry at the same time. He needed a shoulder to lean on. I needed to be there for him. I needed to be his shoulder.

I pulled into Samuel's neighborhood, but I drove past his house. I already knew he wouldn't be inside. He was somewhere else. Somewhere that was quiet where he would be alone to sort out his thoughts.

The lake that Samuel took me to, the one where we shared our first kiss, came into view. I turned off my car and practically flew out of it.

I jogged the entire way and kept an eye out for something with a mop of brown hair. Soon, I found a brown spot among the green.

I raced down the little hill leading to the lake to Samuel's small form, curled up on the ground. When I reached him, I noticed that he was staring out into space, his eyes far away and unmoving.

"Samuel?" I said cautiously. Samuel jerked and turned around to face me with alarm in his eyes. When he saw it was just me, his face became solemn again and he looked away.

"Hey," I pouted. "A 'hello' would be nice."

"Why are you here?" Samuel asked, ignoring my weak attempt at a greeting joke. "You're going to be late for your game."

I shrugged and sat down beside him and curled up my legs and hugged them to my chest.

"Because you didn't seem okay and needed some friendship," I replied simply and looked out at the water with him.

For a moment, silence overcame us. From the corner of my eyes, I could see the sadness in Samuel's eyes and the lingering tiredness on his face. His cheeks were hollow and his brown hair seemed wilder than usual.

"You know, I still haven't seen him yet," Samuel said suddenly.

"What?"

"My dad," Samuel explained. "After it was announced that he was found again, I ran up into my room instead of meeting him. My mom tried to get me out, but I ended up running here."

Samuel plucked a piece of grass from the ground and slowly shredded it. The tiny specks of green floated to the ground and disappeared among the sea of green.

"Are you going to?" I asked.

"I don't know," Samuel said and tore another piece of grass and shredded it. "It's so sudden. One day he disappeared and the other he reappears. It's like magic."

Though I wasn't in Samuel's shoes, I could understand his feelings.

"Hey, it's going to be alright," I told him softly. "At least you got your dad back, right?"

Samuel smiled softly, but it wasn't filled with joy. Instead, it was filled with years of worry and sadness. "Yeah, you're right."

He leaned back, propping his hands on the ground behind him, and tilted up his head and look at the sky.

"But my mom and siblings seem really happy," Samuel said. "So, I guess, I'll go meet him soon."

I didn't know why, but a tiny part of me felt disappointed. Maybe it was because I really wanted him to come to watch my game.

"You should," I told him firmly though I didn't want him to. Samuel looked back down at me and gave me a small smile.

"Thanks, but..." he held up his wrist and checked the time on a faded watch strapped on his wrist. "Isn't it almost time for your game?"

I shook my head. "It's okay. I'll just show up late."

"Eleanor." Samuel touched my hand gently and butterflies fluttered in my stomach. "Go. Don't worry about me. I don't want to keep you from doing what you want."

"But-"

"Eleanor." When he said my name, I immediately shut my mouth. Samuel put his forehead against mine and said softly, "Please. Go. Do it for me."

I swallowed. "O-Okay. I will."

Samuel smiled. "And don't forget to win."

"I won't."

~*~

The changing room was silent. Everyone had already changed and was on the court warming up. I was the only one who was still lingering behind.

I didn't mind the silence in the room. I was actually thankful that I had the entire room to myself. I didn't think I could take loud noises right now.

I knew Coach Wayne would scream at me for, and I quoted, a 'lazy pig that won't get a move on'.

But I didn't care. If I stepped out of this room and onto the court where all of the people who came to watch were cheering up in the bleachers, I thought I would have a mental break down.

Marisol and Chloe promised to come to get me when the game was about to start. But I didn't want the game to start. Ever. At least, not until _he_ came.

I knew I was being very selfish, but my heart was hammering hard and loud in my chest and tears were threatening to spill. I breathed in and out slowly, trying to contain in all of my emotions and feelings.

But you promised...

My phone rang, but I didn't bother to pick it up. I put my head in my hands and kept it in my lap. My head was swarming with thoughts and pounding as hard as my heart.

My phone stopped for a moment and rang again. The ringtone played for a while and then went silent. Before long, it rang again.

Who was calling me at a time like this? Whoever it was, they didn't seem to be giving up.

After the third time my phone rang, it went dead silent. Somewhere within my heart, something shattered. I wished the person would keep calling me, even though it might be the wrong number. The ringtone was the only sound that filled up the silence and emptiness of the room.

The doorknob to the changing room rattled and suddenly opened. _Must be a late player,_ I thought bitterly.

I didn't bother to look up. I waited for them to pass so that I could go back to feel sorry for myself.

"Eleanor?"

My head jerked up immediately at the voice.

It couldn't be.

I turned to see who it was. My eyes widened as I recognized the brown, floppy hair, milky brown eyes, and tinted red cheeks.

I slowly stood up, still not believing my eyes.

"Samuel?" The name left my mouth unbelievingly.

"Oh my gods, Eleanor," Samuel whispered and rushed to pull me into a hug. "Oh my gods. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry."

The tears spilled then. I couldn't keep them in any longer.

I cried and cried into Samuel's chest. It had been forever since I last cried. To be honest, I couldn't even remember the last time I cried.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Samuel repeated over and over again as he rocked me back and forth. I forced myself to catch my breath and get a grip.

I sniffled and wiped away my tears.

Samuel pulled back and helped me wipe away the rest of the tears.

I had mixed emotions storming inside of me and I wasn't sure what to feel. Happy that Samuel was here or angry?

"Why are you here?" was all that I managed to say. _How are you here?_

"I didn't want to meet my dad in the end," Samuel said and gave me an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry. I know, I broke all of our promises. I said that I would meet him, but I didn't. I'm so sorry."

I took a gulp of air to calm myself. Everything rushed back into me and I felt like myself again. Samuel was here, standing right beside me. There was no reason for me to feel sadness anymore.

"Why didn't you come sooner?" I said in my best scolding voice, ignoring what he had said, and pulled him into another hug. I just really needed hugs right now.

Samuel laughed softly and hugged me back, wrapping his arms securely around me.

"Sorry," he whispered into my hair. "I'll try to next time."

"You better."

Samuel laughed again, his voice vibrating on top of my head. I smiled to myself as I pulled back just as the whistle blew in the gym, signaling the game was about to start.

The door leading to the gym burst open and Marisol and Chloe tumbled in. When they saw us, they squealed and snickered. I shot both of them a glare.

"Come on, love birds," Marisol chirped happily, pretending not to see my glowering stare. "Time for the game to start! Coach Wayne will be mad if we're late."

As if to prove her point, Coach Wayne's voice screamed across the court, "Get you butt here, Fyer! And you too, Kennedy! Hustle, girlies!"

I rolled my eyes as Marisol yelled back, "We're coming, Coach! But next time use your microphone. I could barely hear you over the roar of the crowd."

"Don't give him any ideas," I warned. Marisol laughed and gave me a wink.

"Well? Hurry up! We have a game to win!"

She and Chloe laughed and ran out again. I was about to follow them when a sudden thought stopped me. I turned on my heel to face Samuel.

"Wait, since you're here, you're going to watch the game, right?"

Samuel nodded. "Of course. From beginning to end."

"How will I know which one is you in the crowd?"

Samuel smiled. It was almost as if he had prepared his next sentence since the beginning of time.

"You'll know because I'll be the one cheering the loudest for you."

EPILOGUE: A New Life, A New Beginning

"And that concludes our lesson today," Mr. Clarkson announced and everyone started to pack their things the moment the last word left his mouth.

I stuffed my pencil bag into my overflowing backpack filled with books. I smiled at the sight. Each time I put things into my backpack, it brought back memories of when Samuel and I were in High School. Back to the days when he was my tutor and I was his student.

Two years had passed since the day I met Samuel. The memory of our first encounter was still fresh in my mind. Now, I was finally in college. And better yet, Samuel, Marisol, and Chloe were in the same university as me.

I ran out the room along with everyone else and jogged down the steps to the Geo-science center.

I didn't know why, but I seemed to really enjoy studying the Earth. I thought that it was lame and was going to change the area that I majored in, but Samuel found out and forced me to 'follow your dreams'.

I was glad that he said that because I had fun during class, something that never happened in the past.

I adjusted my bag in my hands, the books inside thudding against each other as I walked a block to next door where Samuel's class was just about to finish.

Samuel had told me that he wanted to become an astronomy scientist. But due to the instability of his family, his parents disagreed at first. They wanted him to become a lawyer, something Samuel wasn't fond of. The main problem was the financial problem. In the end, my family helped support the Rose family and things worked out between us.

I reached the building with the big golden words "Astronomy" engraved over the arch of the door just as all of the students poured out. I moved out of their way to avoid getting squashed and waited for Samuel to come out.

Samuel didn't always come out immediately. Being the top student, even in college, he needed to stay behind for a few extra minutes to talk to the teacher. Sometimes, he even taught when the teacher was absent, making him quite admirable.

This time though, Samuel trotted down the step as the last of the wave of people subsided. This marked the earliest he had come out before.

I pulled my scarf a little tighter around my neck to block out the slicing cold air of December and waved to Samuel. Samuel saw me and waved back. He jogged down the last few steps and gave me a hug.

When he pulled back, he smiled apologetically and asked, "Sorry, did you wait long? It's cold out here."

I shook my head and linked my arm in his.

"Nah, you were quicker today than usual," I assured him as we began to walk to our apartment.

Samuel slightly shivered in the cold as he thrust his hands deeper into his pockets. Upon seeing this, I dug around in my bag for a moment and pulled out a pair of mittens.

"Here," I said and handed them to him. Samuel accepted them with a small mumble of thanks and he quickly slipped them on.

"Better?" I asked.

"Never more," Samuel answered as he rubbed his gloved hands together and smiled.

As we entered the apartment building, the first flakes of snow began to fall. I watched as the little specks of white danced in the sky in a tumbling motion until it touched the ground and melted into a glittering spot of white.

"Oh my gods!" someone yelled, breaking my concentration. "It's snowing!"

Marisol laughed as she caught some snow in her hands.

"And they're so beautiful this year, too!" another voice with an unforgettable accent that I had come to love chimed in.

"Oh, come on guys," I huffed and set my hands on my hips in a playful way. "You act like little kids that have never seen snow before. Earth to Marisol and Chloe! We're college students by now!"

Samuel laughed beside me. "Your friends seem really happy!"

"We are!" Marisol confirmed in a serious way. "This is our first time annoying Eleanor with snow."

"If you weren't way over there I would have punched you," I told her. She just laughed.

"Aside from that, today's the end of the school semester!" Chloe announced happily. "Christmas break, everyone!"

She and Marisol cheered. I rolled my eyes as Samuel cheered along with them.

"Well?" Marisol said promptly. "Let's get packing, people! Time to go back home!"

We laughed and raced each other up the stairs to our apartment rooms. I shared one with Samuel and Marisol shared one with Chloe. We lived next to each other so it was easy to go back and forth whenever we needed something from each other.

I pushed open the apartment door and Samuel and I rushed inside. We pulled out our suitcases and began to pack all of our stuff that we would need to go back to Texas to spend Christmas.

I grabbed the presents that we brought for Felix and Susanna and stuffed them in along with everything else. By the time we were done packing, the bags were overflowing.

"Time to go home?" Samuel asked and came to stand by my side. He put an arm around my waist and I felt like I was 16 and a lovesick puppy all over again.

I grinned. "Yeah, finally."

~*~

"Samuel! Eleanor!"

Those were the first things we heard as soon as we stepped off the plane. It had already been half a year since I last heard those voices so I almost didn't recognize them. The last time Samuel and I called our parents was close to two months ago. I had been too wrapped up in my work that I didn't have time to do other stuff. Stanford, the college that I was accepted into, had high expectation for its students so I had to work the requirements.

Someone tackled me, almost knocking me off of my feet. I instantly remembered those slim arms and chirpy voice. Smiling, I patted Felix's head with my free hand.

"Hey there, big boy," I grinned cheekily. "In the first grade by now?"

Felix pulled back and nodded proudly. "And I'm the knight of my class!"

Samuel laughed and ruffled his brother's hair. "You sound like you're all grown up!"

Susanna walked up from behind Felix to give me a hug. I bent down and wrapped my arms around her.

"Hello, Susanna," I said and pulled back. "You're in the first grade, too?"

Susanna nodded.

"We're in the same class," Felix offered. I smiled and dug out a little black box from my coat pocket.

"Here," I said and handed her the box. Susanna took it from me cautiously and slowly lifted up the lid to reveal a glass pedant rose. Susanna's eyes widened.

"T-Thank you," she stammered out, her cheeks flushing red. I smiled and stood up.

Pouting, Felix asked, "Where's my present?"

"Oh, Felix," Stacey scolded. "Don't be so selfish. Welcome your brother and Eleanor back from college first."

"But it's not fair," Felix huffed. "I want one, too."

Samuel smiled and pulled something out of his suitcase and handed it to his brother.

"Here you go," he said and Felix literally snatched the box from his hands in delight. Tearing open the wrapper, he found a knight costume. Felix squealed and hugged his present to his chest.

Stacey shook her head in amusement. "Well, he'll always be the knight in shining armor anyway."

Stacey seemed stronger, now that her husband was finally back and her family was united again. Ever since Benjamin, Samuel's father, reappeared, Stacey had spent every moment of her life with him. According to Samuel, the two were trying to make up for the time lost when Benjamin disappeared.

Actually, Benjamin didn't exactly disappear. The cruise that he went on suddenly lost signal when a storm crashed into it and got lost at sea. With a wrecked ship and missing supplies, the captain and crew of the ship managed to somehow steer everyone to a nearby island.

Once they crash landed, they wandered around the island, lost and confused. For a whole month, the ship members just wandered from place to place, depending on what was left of the supplies in the ship. After all the food and water ran out, a few of the people, including Benjamin, finally realized exactly how severe the situation they were in.

In order to survive, the survivors began to collect food and water from the island. Because they were the only people to inhibit the land, it was easy to build a temporary establishment and create a plan to survive.

This was how the survivors managed to survive for three years until a French helicopter came by and rescued them and brought them to France. It was actually a coincidence that the helicopter flew by. According to Benjamin, the island that he and the others were stranded on was covered entirely in trees, causing the sky to be blocked out when you were wondering in the woods. Not many planes or ships passed by because the island was so small, no one found any interest to visit it.

As soon as Benjamin reached France, he began to work in order to obtain the money he lost in order to get back to America. When he finally did, he called Stacey to tell her that everything was fine and he was coming back. The problem was, no one answered the phone. Stacey and the kids had already moved from California to Texas upon hearing Benjamin's sudden disappearance.

Since then, Benjamin had been searching all of America for his wife and child. He never even knew that Felix and Susanna were already born. As he traveled, he gained more riches and he slowly went back to his old self. But, he felt horrible inside. He had lost his beloved family.

Without giving up, Benjamin ventured on within America. He was close to giving up when he went to the last place, the only place he hadn't searched yet. Houston, Texas. And that was where he found his family.

Felix and Susanna, being little, didn't understand what was happening at first. When they finally understood that their father had returned, they were beyond happy (though Susanna had some trouble showing that).

As for Samuel, he just seemed glad that his mom was cured and was walking strongly on two feet again. I was happy too. As long as Samuel was smiling, so would I.

"Eleanor!" someone called. I squinted and saw that it was Bailey and my dad. I waved to them as they rushed up to us.

"Sorry we're late," Bailey breathed as she pulled me into a tight hug. She pulled back and studied me.

"Just look at you," she gushed. "My daughter, all grown up. This is a parent's dream coming true!"

"I agree," my dad's low voice cut through the air. He smiled and patted my head.

"Welcome home, daughter."

"Thank you, Father."

My dad turned to face the Rose family.

"Ah, and you must be Mr. Rose," my dad extended out his hand to Benjamin. Benjamin took it and they shook hands.

"Yes and you must be Mr. Fyer," Benjamin greeted back. "Pleasure to meet you."

"Pleasure is all mine," my dad said. The two men stared at each other intensely for a second and suddenly burst out laughing.

"Merry Christmas," my dad grinned.

"Yes, yes, Merry Christmas indeed!" Benjamin agreed.

"Daddy, I'm hungry," Felix whined and pulled on his father's pants. Benjamin bent down and picked up his son.

"Come, the Fyer family," Benjamin announced. "Let us go eat together as a family. Our oldest son and daughter have bonded together. We ought to give them a toast."

"Dad!" Samuel complained, but Benjamin just laughed and wrapped his arm around him.

"You want to go?" Bailey asked me. I nodded.

"No, duh."

Hand in hand, the Fyer and Rose family walked out of the airport. Texas was one of those countries where it didn't snow and had strong winds instead, but I didn't mind the chilly winds. I felt right at home.

I could tell that Samuel was really happy to be home at last as well. He smiled and held out his hand. I saw that he was still wearing the mittens that I gave him. I smiled and grasped his hands in mine.

It definitely wasn't a coincidence that we met. Perhaps our first encounter hadn't gone as smooth as I wanted it to, but that was the past and this was the present.

Our parents were walking together in front of us like a cluster of long lost friends. I smiled. It definitely felt like Christmas. Susanna clutched her box tightly in her hands and Felix waved his costume around happily, giving me two more reasons to smile.

"Merry Christmas," Samuel whispered in my ear. I evidently blushed and my smile became brighter.

"Merry Christmas," I told him. Samuel linked our hands together, his warmed ones in mine.

Our love wouldn't be a legend. It would be a legacy.

### ~*~

### ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lauren Kutterfly, a 14-year-old girl, has a great passion and love for writing. Ever since she first picked up a pencil when she was in her first grade, she discovered her special talent in writing and began her first story at age 9. "Once your pen stops clicking and once your pencil stops scratching across paper, it means you have given up. Pick up that pen and pencil again and write. Let your imagination run. I dare you." she once said. A quote that Lauren always says is, "I refuse to leave behind a legend. I'm leaving behind a legacy."
