Hello, hello, I am honored that you would feel so obliged as to click on this fic's title link and perhaps desire in reading it. But I must give your forwarning that this is my first original fiction ever...and on top of that, it was begun back when I was in the eighth grade...at this moment, I am in the tenth grade. Therefore, that means the beginning of this might seem weird, I just haven't had a chance to re-do it...ahem anyways, I do hope you enjoy it...

Thank you again!

V.R.H


Twelfth Year

Chapter One

"Ahhh no!!" I yelled pleadingly. I was dressed in my usual and somewhat mediocre uniform, a white oxford shirt complete with navy tie and knee length, pleated skirt. I looked around at the clock in shock, not realizing before hand that I was late. It was 7:24 a.m and that meant that it was thirty minutes from school's starting. It was my first day as a senior in highschool and I was late! I hadn't even eaten yet, and my ride was due to arrive within the next ten minutes. I was frantic as consequences of being late played through my mind. This was supposed to be a stress free and laid back day. I'd already gone through those first day jitters in my freshman year. So this was supposed to be different, considering I'd been in highschool for the last three years. But it wasn't! This had happened every year! No winning for me.

"Larissa! C'mon! You're going to be late! Come down here and eat some breakfast!" Came the bellowing voice of my mother.

Wow, she sounds just as nerve-wrecked as I am.

"O.k Mom, just a minute..." I yelled in reply.

I stared at my face in my bathroom mirror, quickly skimming over my face for make-up mistakes and facial flaws that might have flared up within the last hour I'd been awake. I tried blending the light brown eyeshadow over my eyelids, and carefully combed over my eyelashes with a comb, feeling that the mascara I'd wiped on them was overclumped.
"Larissa!" Called my mother again.

"Alright! Geez!" I yelled exasperately.

Finally, I decided that I was acceptable looking enough. Even though there was little to even bother worrying about. The school I was at imposed strict rules on dress code, and that meant that the only thing I really had control over was the condition of my face, and its outwards appearance. I dashed out of my bathroom into my bedroom, threw the make-up articles over my four-poster bed, grabbed the aged black shoulder bag by my desk, and seemingly flew out of my bedroom and downstairs into the open and bright area, also called my living room.

"Finally, Sleeping Beauty has arisen and looks fully primped and combed." My father said chuckling and glancing at me through the doorway leading into the opposite breakfast room.

I rolled my eyes and quickly walked into the kitchen where he and my mother both sat together, reading and sipping on large mugs of tea.

"Good morning!" My mother said cheerfully, glancing up at me with a smile.

"Yeah..er--morning..." I replied, somewhat still anxious about the little time I had now before leaving.

I looked at my mother and father. They were a little over middle age, but still youthful in their personalities and physical appearance. My mother had long brown hair, and deep brown eyes. My father on the other hand, had reddish brown hair and light brown eyes. So, naturally, one might deduce from this that their only daughter, me, had brown eyes. This was true, as was the fact that I had dark shoulder length, brown hair.

I was about five feet and three inches tall, and had a relatively petite and lean body. I hated this. I had a small chest, a butt so flat I might as well have been paper, and some pretty bony shoulders. Time after time I had withstood complete turmoil within me, constantly asking myself why I was so ugly and unattractive. And that of course means what? That I had a low self esteem and sometimes found myself impulsively comparing myself to those girls who all looked so good and were always the sole attention of boys.

Boys. One word that spawned many different things. I had all but been lucky to be asked out by one. Well, not once since my sophomore year in highschool. Such a true and yet pathetic statement. Oh how I hated my body. If guys were north pole magnets, then I was the other north pole magnet. And you might know that north pole magnets and north pole magnets do not attract at all. But then, there was my good friend, Matthew Jameson. He was like a brother to me. And coming to think of it, he didn't really count as a boy. No, I'm not trying to imply anything absurd here, but I mean that he was so close to me that it was strange to ever look at him as any more than a... non-blood relative. If that makes any sense...

Well, at least I can say something different for my family life. I have two loving and awesome parents. Maria and Jason Raines. Both were hardworking people and extremely supportive. My mother was a college professor at the University of New York and my dad was a Chemist at the New York School of Science. Oh yes, that brings me to my next point, I live in New York... No,unfortunately not in the usually smog ridden, always exciting, people rich city everyone is so familiar with, but Binghampton. I'm serious, there are places called Binghampton where people actually live. Sad, huh?

Heh (and I am scoffing) well, my parents obviously don't think so. In fact they seemed and still are quite happy to have chosen such a riveting town to inhabit. And I am defintely being sarcastic when I say riveting.

Binghampton...the name sucks all together. Don't you think? I mean, I am sorry to keep going on about it, considering it was my birthplace, but geez. The entire poplation is at one hundred thousand people. And while I understand that that is not a small amount, in comparison to some other places, needless to say, New York City, it's minute. So, while it seems evident I don't exactly know everyone, I knew for sure that this thriving suburb was no where near as fun as places I have been before.

Atlanta, Georgia...Los Angeles, California...Seattle, Washington...London, England...New York City, New York!

Man, through my teenage years I had traveled during the summer with my parents to some pretty awesome places. And I use awesome to its full context. AWESOME. It was just too bad I had to land back in Binghampton...
O.k, so I'm going to stop downing on my hometown.

Anyways, knowing that I am a senior, you might say that I was around...seventeen? Well, let's see... I was born in nineteen-hundred and eighty five, and with the year being two thousand and two, that would make me seventeen. So there you have it. There's a basic introduction to me and my life...sort of...

"Larissa, your ride's here." My mother said staring at me.

Caught daydreaming, I didn't realize that I hadn't said anything, nor moved from the same place in front of the table. I then heard an urgent 'honk' of a car outside my house.

"R-right...Well, I guess I'll be going. See you tonight." I sputtered, leaning forwards to grab a banana sitting in the fruitbowl before me and before turning to run towards the front door.

I paused only to quickly open it, and, leaden down with my large shoulder bag, rushed out into the cool, fall air, towards the silver mustang parked by my front yard curb.

"Hey Larry! You're looking fine as usual." the young man in the driver's seat hooted sarcastically as I neared his vehicle.

"Ehh shut-up Matt." I snapped.

Matthew's green eyes flashed a glint of light at me as he reached forwards to open the front door. I hurriedly climbed in, tossing my heavy bag onto the backseat. I then quickly shut the door and positioned myself to clasp my seatbelt. Matthew was silent as I did this before he spoke.

"Well, that was all done in what? Two seconds? What are you rushing for?" He asked casually. It was so obvious it wasn't funny. He was actually asking that? I rolled my eyes.

"You seriously can be out of it sometimes." I said chuckling.

"What? It's just the first day back! You already know what will happen, it's not like you're new." He said simply and running a hand through his medium tint, brown hair.

"Yea, yea." I said quickly. "Can we please go?"

"As you wish Larry." He replied snidely and smirking.

And with that, and a crank of the engine, we slowly accelerated away from my house and towards the main highway, leading to my highschool. One thought in my head. Another year, another highschool year, but my last. I wanted it to special. And I smiled to myself, hoping that if I wished hard enough, all would be true: it would be special and might actually get asked out by a guy...even better, Zachary Johnson.

Just who was Zachary Johnson? By far the most attractive, most desired senior, best looking...God, everything that a girl could ever want.

He had short, spiked, brown hair, blue eyes, tanned skin, and was taller than anything. I'd known him since Middle School. He was a good friend of Mattthew's and so, consequentially, I had gotten to know him better with the times I had hung out with Matthew. He was sweet, considerate and so...hot.

Well, that best sums up the reason I'd had an almost obsessive crush on him for the last five years. Another pathetic statement. My life revolved around school, friends, and an always present yearning to be asked out by Zachary. Oh, what times one can go through. I thought to myself as I stared outside of my passenger window as we drove along the highway, not really taking in the passing concrete walls that lined the road. I contemplated how things might go this year...hoping, something might be different.

Battle Ground Academy had such a beautiful campus. It was also 122 years old which made it one of the oldest private schools in Binghampton. I had gone there, as had both my parents, my grandparents, and, if I researched far back enough, I'd probably find my great-grandparents had too.

It was a bright day in October. October was a fall month, and one of my favorite times of the year. I loved it because of the fresh smell of cool, crispy weather. The trees had shed their leaves, leaving vast sheets of different colors covering the once bright green grasses. Lunch had just started that day and I had, upon whim, decided on walking around the school courtyard at the front of the school.

Walks were calming for me and I felt carefree and happy. I smiled several times as I observed the pretty dogwoods that surrounded the pathways. There was a large clearing that surrounded the outer circle of the school, right inside of the iron fence. I looked closer at it, and saw that someone was lying in the grass.

"Matt?! What are you doing?" I said walking closer to him.

I walked towards him until I was standing right over him. I stared down at his face, the image of his fairly tanned skin, and short brown hair facing up at me. His eyes were closed, and there was a partial smile across his reddened, and well shaped lips.

"Matt?" I said again.

Matthew remained quiet and motionless, his hands behind his head as his tall and rather lanky body lounged out over the grass. I placed the large shoulder bag I'd been carrying, down on the ground next to me and kneeled down towards him. I carefully put my ear to his mouth and listened. There was still a deep breath coming from his mouth. I grinned to myself. What a dork. He's sleeping?

I sat up straight again and sat next to him and pulled my shoulder bag closer to me, pulling the flap open to take a book out. Matthew remained still and as I glanced at him I saw he was still smiling. I turned back to my book, opened it, and began to read the first page. It was a Science Fiction book, probably the only type of book I ever enjoyed reading. It was called The Glass Pendelum. As I turned the page to read the second page a minute or so later, I heard faint murmuring coming from Matthew's mouth.

"Matthew?" I said again turning my head to him.

A chilly breeze causing the hairs on the back of my neck to prickle. I tried to listen to what he was saying.

"...white shirt...beautiful skin...vanilla..." his resonate, and deep voice whispered.

His eyes remained closed. I frowned at his face and then rolled my eyes. Pervert. I reached my hand out and firmly smacked him on the forehead causing his bright green eyes to fly open as he suddenly sat up.

"Wh-what?!" He yelled loudly, looking around anxiously.

I folded my arms and gave him a disapproving expression.

"What?!" he repeated. "Don't stare at me like an idiot. What's wrong with you?" I reached forwards again and smacked him on the side of his head ("Ow!" he exclaimed.), and continued to glare at him.

"Who were you fantasizing about now?" I asked staring at his face. He looked back at me, his eyes widening.

"No one. What made you think that?" He asked surprised.

"White shirt...beautiful skin...vanilla..." I said immitating the dreamy voice he'd had when I heard him.

Matthew suddenly began to laugh, and he laid back on his hands in the grass, staring up at the blue sky. I watched his face as he was quiet still.

"Well?" I asked proddingly. Matthew's green eyes averted from the sky as he looked back at me.

"I was thinking of you Larissa." he said sarcastically.

"You are such a guy!" I yelled throwing my hands up at his statement. "I will take that as a very considerate compliment. Thank you, Larry."

"Don't call me Larry." I said.

"Thank you for the warning Larry." He said smiling.

I rolled my eyes and shrugged. Larry was my nickname, and no matter how many times I'd asked him to not address me in that name he never heeded it. It was hopeless. I placed my book down and laid down where I'd been sitting. I stared up at the deep sky too. We were both quiet as we watched the cirrus and cumulous clouds float aimlessly in the vast opening above us.

"I made an 80 percent on my Calculous test." Matthew said after a while.

"That's awesome! I'm proud of you." I said sincerely.

I knew he had smiled and then I heard his sigh of satisfaction. He was my best friend in the whole world. His full name was Matthew Benjamin Jameson but his guy friends at school all called him M.J, due to his name initial which was the same as those of the phenomonal basketball star, Michael Jordan. Ironically, Matt hated basketball and didn't understand why people insisted on calling him that. I just called him Matt as it he preferred it over someone referring to him as Matthew, or Matthias as his grandmother had once addressed him. Truth be told, he was not an honor student. Not that that really matter; he was a well liked and popular guy but was never was the studious type like I was. This was something that teachers at BGA frowned upon, making him not the most popular of students...academically.

They all had since the 6th grade, labeled him as "Trouble maker" or "Slacker" and disregarded him on a whole academically. However, his parents of course did not, and sought outside tutoring when his grades had fallen at the beginning of Matthew and my sophomore year. But even still, Matthew never paid attention in those extra tutoring classes, and had as a result started to seek my help during the study hall and sometimes lunch hours. I helped of course, knowing I wouldn't be much of a friend in not doing so.

He preferred his tennis, fighting (when he saw fit) with other boys, eating, and sleeping. Those were just some main facts about him. It was also apparent that while Matthew might not have been the brainiest geek, he was intelligent.

"We should go to the Pizza Tavern after school to celebrate. Is that o.k?" He asked brightly.

I nodded.

"Sure!" I said smiling again.

Pizza sounded good.

"Good." he said.

A few minutes later he sat up and looked down at me.

"Hmm, how about we ditch school and go now?" he asked smiling, a boyish grin flying across his face. "Haha! No. We're at school now. We might as well stay, we've only got two and a half hours before we can leave. And anyways, would your parents be happy if they knew they'd been paying the twelve grand for your education if you only played hookie?" I asked laughing.

Matthew smiled back and held his hand out to pull me up. I took his hand as I felt him literally fling me upwards as I stood straight up in front of him.

"No, but who said they had to know?" He quipped laughing too.

Perhaps I should begin to explain some things more things in detail about both Matthew Jameson and myself:.

He was regarded as the most desired boyfriend by the dominant female population at Battle Ground Academy. In fact some group of girls had voted Matthew "Most Eligible Male". He dated girls, but never was serious about any one of them. This, and the fact that Matthew spent almost every vacant moment in school with me, I was sure was the reason why so many girls would cast envious looks at the two of us whenever we were hanging out.

But it was all fine with me. Let them think what they want. I would always say to myself. Besides, nothing was going on between us. Never had there been ever since out first meeting at the Coney Island water park.

Back then, I was 2 and he was 3, Matthew a few months older. He had slid down the slide right after me, and I was right at the end of the slide in the water, splashing around until he landed on top of me, kneeing me hard in the back. I had grown angry and pursued him in a fit of fury when he had rejoined his family and given him a hard blow to his head, that is for a two year old. In response, he tackled me and soon we were fighting eachother. The brawl lasted less than a minute before each of our parents had to pry us off of eachother: Matthew with a bruise on his left shoulder and untidy hair, and I with a scratch on my right arm. A few years later he and I ended up being enrolled at the same elementary school near my home, which I was to later learn was only a few blocks from his. We became close friends, despite our tendency to be involved in minor skirmishes with eachother.

After that, we were surprisingly inseperable, and spent alot of our young playtime days running around, Matthew making trouble for the neighbors, and me climbing trees, chucking things at him when ever I got annoyed. Sure, I had once before had other good friends: Carrie Craig, a girl who was the antithesis of me yet so funny. Robert Jackson a boy who always the more perverse and mischievous (More so than even Matt), but was still a good person to talk to. Those two among other people I had met that year in Middle School. Of course, none of them knew me as well and as long as Matthew did. I smiled again, thinking back to the times in Middle school when Carrie, Robert, Matthew, and I had hung out. But now, Matthew and I were seventeen and eighteen years old. As I looked at him, reliving my childhood memories with fondness, he looked just as he had over 10 years ago at the water park; that boyish grin across his face and his eyes alight with restlessness.
"Larry! What is wrong with you?" Matthew said, still looking at my face.

"What? Nothing." I said quickly, realizing I had spaced out. I smiled again.

"You really are a funny girl, Larissa Raines. Strange at times, but funny." he said his smile widening.

I laughed lightly and looked down at my watch: 1:00 p.m.

"Well, I guess we'd better go, the bell's probably ringing now and you know how Mrs. Jackson is about promptness to her Chemistry class." I said bending over trying to sling my shoulder bag, heavy with textbooks and the sort over my shoulder.

I groaned in my effort, and Matthew leaned over and helped me. I could immedietely feel the weight lessening as he took grip of the bag and lifted it. He had always looked so thin, and bony, but suddenly, I was taken aback at how muscular he really was. As we both stood up straight he gently slid the strap over my shoulder.

"You got it?" he asked holding the weight of the bag, his hair still in his face.

"Yeah its ok, thanks." I said reasurringly and he let go. We both stood still and looked at eachother.

"What? Do I have snot on my face?" he said lifting his hand, searching his face with his long fingers. I chuckled.

"Nothing, Matthew." I said realizing I had spaced out in thought.

"Well then, let's go, before I change my mind about staying!" Matthew joked. He grabbed my hand and lead me out of the courtyard, and back towards the school steps.

Chapter Two

"Evening Larissa." said my mother as I walked into the living room.

"Evening Mom." I replied.

My mother was sitting in a chair opposite my father, reading a book before she looked up as I walked in. I closed the front door and turned to look at myself in the mirror that hung next to it. My eyes were their usual dark brown color, and looked very tired, my hair which had been pulled into a low ponytail was beginning to come out of order. I sighed; It had been a long day.

"You look tired dear." My father said shifting in his seat and looking up from the paper he'd been reading.

"Yes, I am. How are you both?" I said wearily.

"Oh, we're good I guess." He said shrugging and looking over at my mother. He smiled broadly at me and resumed reading.

My mother lifted her head once more and trained her eyes on me for a few moments.

"Larissa, how was your day?" she asked quietly. She motioned for me to sit next to her.

I walked slowly and sat on the plush leather sofa that my mother frequently sat on when she wasn't at work, or bustling around the house. I sat still for a second gathering my thoughts. I could have easily just told her nothing, and gone on to bed. I was so tired. But, I thought otherise and began to tell her what had happened at school. She looked at me with avid interest, with those eyes so much like mine.

"It was good. Just busy as usual." I said honestly.

"I see. What's new with you and Matthew?" She asked

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I mean, how are things?"

"Fine. You know I'm still good friends with him." I said casually.

"Yea...friends."

I looked curiously at my mother, wondering what she was trying to say.

"Mom, what are you talking about?"

My mom just smiled and shrugged.

"Nothing. Nothing at all."

I nodded, suspicious about something, just unsure what it was. I yawned and decided it was time for me to go to bed.

I got up then, and kissed both my mother and father on the head murmuring 'good nights'and walked out of the living room, and upstairs to my bedroom.

After I'd gotten undressed out of my uniform, I dressed into my pajamas: a music camp recital t-shirt from 1999, and a pair of Reebok shorts.

Getting into my bed I started thinking about what my mother was saying. She hadn't said much in reality, but still...she didn't think there was something going on between us did she?

I shrugged, ignoring the thought and, placing my head on a pillow, closed my eyes to sleep.

As I slept, the moon outside shone brightly, and the black sky was alight with stars blinking down over my little neighborhood in suburban New York.

The next day, at school, I was very busy. Usually, BGA, kept everyone busy most of the time, but today was more so than usual. It was Wednesday, and that meant that Matthew and I had almost all the same classes.

In the latter morning, we were in the library. I was sitting at a small table near the library doors next to Matthew trying to help him with his Chemistry homework. He opened his red notebook,and handed it to me. I looked down at the paper: Ionic, and covalent bonds and conversions.

"What? This is easy..." I stared at Matthew who only looked determinedly at the paper.

"You see Larissa, this is why I hate you very much."

"Why?"

"Because you're a damn genious! Duh, dummy." he said throwing his hands up, his eyes widening in disbelief.

I laughed. So what if I was smart? I certainly was not a genious, because if I was I would have had a way to get Zachary, the love of my life, to like me as much I liked him. I took my pencil out of its holder and placed it to my temple in a pensieve way, thinking of a way to explain Chemistry methods to Matthew.

A little less than an hour later, after I'd finally begun to demonstrate certain processes to him, I noticed that Matthew was less clueless with science than he made me think.

"O.k so, covalent bonds are when two atoms share electrons?" he said with an unconfident tone.

"Yes! Exactly Matt!" I exclaimed beaming.

"Well that's easy! C'mon, is that all there is to this?" he said sitting back in his chair, folding his arms with a skeptical look on his face. I nodded.

"No, that's all, you've got it. Ionic bonds...covalent...conversions..." I said running my finger down the list on his cyllabus for the day's work.

"Dang, I guess I'm better off than I thought. Thank you Larry." he said grinning and placing his arm around my shoulders shaking me slightly. He left his arm around for a moment or so and resumed reading over the page we had just went over. I didn't give a second thought at this friendly gesture considering it was an act deomonstrating our friendship.

It was quiet as it should be in the library, and only a few people moved as they began to leave, headed for their next classes. However, Zachary Johnson I noticed was walking towards our table, headed for the library exit doors. He was his usual gorgeous and good looking self, carrying his shoulder bag full with books. He had a cool and collected look as he waved to several passers by (who happened to be all girls) as they grinned and began whispering excitedly. He grinned back at them, waving to them. He must have enjoyed all of this attention, rather cocky one part of me said...but, he was a great looking guy, and that compensated for any flaw. Another part contradicted.

Before he reached his hand to push the door open, his blue eyes averted from the door's direction and to the table Matthew and I were sitting at. He stared for a moment with a blank expression. I had forgotten that Matthew's arm was still around my shoulders and I quickly knocked his arm away.

"Huh? What?" Matthew said still engrossed in the textbook hardly noticing I had taken his arm off of me.

I looked back at Zachary who weakly smiled and proceeded to walk out of the library.

I sighed. Maybe he wanted to talk to me. But here I was sitting with another guy's arm around me.

He may have gotten the wrong impression. I stood up suddenly, almost knocking the book Matthew was reading off of the table. Matthew jerked his head up at me.

"What?!" he said.

I knew that I had no real reason to be mad at him, but I was sure that Zachary thought Matthew and I were together now, and it was technically Matthew's fault.

"What'd you do that for?!" I said loudly, causing several people around to jump and turn around to see where the noise had come from.

"Larissa... wait, what is the matter with you?" he said taken aback.

"Oh you wouldn't care." I said reaching down to grab my book from him and stuffed it into my shoulder bag and hurriedly slung it over my shoulder.

"Larissa would you calm down and tell me what you're talking about?"

"Oh figure it out for yourself! Now he'll never talk to me!" I cried, the librarian on the other side of the room had stood raising her fingers to hush the disruption I had caused.

"Who? Wha-Z-Zachary? Is that who you're talking about? What did I do?" Matthew said frowning. "Larissa where are you going?"

"To study what else?!" I said exasperatedly as I stormed away not paying attention to the spreading murmurs of the other students in the library room, an occasional "Shh!" being heard sporadically.

Later on that day after school, I was walking out of the courtyard at school, still thinking on how I had just left Matthew without a deserved explanation. I had not talked to him for the rest of the day, and despite his several attempts to ascertain what had bothered me so much, I had only ignored the question yelling that he was disturbing me.

I wanted to go tell him what was on my mind but I figured he would probably not want to deal with my sudden outbursts of fury anymore. Angry at myself, I sighed and began to walk away from the school, stupidly thinking I was going to walk home instead of ask for a ride, and feeling downhearted. A few minutes later I heard footsteps behind me coming at a jogging pace. Without turning to see who it was and assuming it was Matthew coming in another attempt to talk to me, I burst,

"Matthew, I'm sorry. I meant to tell you what was bothering me. It's just that, Zachary looked at me in the library this morning and you know how I feel about him, and there you were with your arm around my shoulders, I was just you know annoyed that he may have gotten the wrong impression. I guess I'm just still in that phase of wishing he liked me and-oh shit."

I stopped myself immedietly as I saw the person who had now caught up with me.

"Zachary, uh...I..." I sputtered.

Why the hell did I have such a big mouth. Of all the things!

Zach smiled, looking at me with a look of surprise.

"Wow. I didn't know how you felt about me. That's awfully flattering Larissa." he said.

"Look, I um, you know, you weren't supposed to hear that..." I said, blushing deeply, and grinning sheepishly.

"Well, that's o.k, I was wanting to talk to you today but, I dunno you seemed busy." he said looking down for a moment. He was too cute.

"Well, we can talk now, that is if you still want to..." I said, still blushing.

Stupid Larissa, of course he wants to talk to you, that's why he followed you here.

"Um, well," he began slowly, not looking directly at me. "It's just that, I have been wanting to tell you that..." he paused and then looked up to stare directly at me.

I felt my heart flutter a thousand times, I felt so nervous it was if I might break out in a sweat from the anticipation. "That I like you Larissa."

He blushed too, and I felt like angels had just swept me off of my feet and into the cool fall air. I suddenly beamed.

"I like you too." I said looking down.

I was half embarassed at acting so flustery.

Zachary laughed nervously and looked down too, shuffling his feet uneasily.

"Well," he said, "I guess I'd better go, Matthew might get a little, uh...angry." he said laughing again.

"Oh Larissa, don't worry about him, we're not together. We're just you know, friends."

"Oh, heh, o.k then. That's g-great." he said blushing. "I'll talk to you tomorrow Larissa." he said, and with that he bent down and kissed me on the cheek. His cologne's scent washing over me. He smiled at me and walked away, whistling and humming to himself.

I was on cloud nine. The dream I had so wanted to come true had happened. Zachary Johnson liked me. Me! Yes it seemed sudden and unexpected but...who cares?! I thought happily as I readjusted my shoulder bag and began to walk again, feeling thousands times better than I had before. Maybe this year would turn out just as I hoped! I was so engrossed in this feeling and the feeling of his lips to my cheeks that as I dreamily held my hand to my cheek I hardly noticed Matthew run from behind me and catch me off guard.

"Hey! What's up with you?" he said demandingly.

I turned to smile at him and began to chuckle.

"What? What is it now?" he said. I felt bad for having let Matthew have to second guess me for so long.

"Oh nothing." I said smiling. "Nothing at all."

"Whatever Larissa." Matthew said shrugging and holding his hands up in surrender.

"Oh, I'm sorry Matthew." I said grinning and nudging him in his side.

I began to explain to him everything that had happened minutes before he had appeared, and why I was acting so strange after the library.

"Oh..." he said slowly and frowning.

"What?" I asked.

"It's just...he's not who you think Larissa." He said.

What?! That was definitely wrong. Zachary Johnson was everything I had thought about him and cute as hell.

"What are you talking about?!" I said taken aback.

"Well, he's changed. He's different now. I don't think you should hang out with him." he said calmly.

"Oh Matt, don't worry about that. He's fine."

"Okay, whatever you say." he said flatly.

"O.k." I replied.

We were quiet for a moment, continuing to walk.

"Maybe, we should go back to the parking lot, and get my car. We can't walk home you know?" He said after awhile.

I nodded in agreement.

"Sure, we can do that."

So we both turned around, and walked in the opposite direction we'd come.

As we walked along, I looked around at Matthew, noting his somewhat calm face. His green eyes were directed ahead of him, and he seemed to be thinking deeply about something.

"What's up?" I asked, curiously.

Matthew's eyes met mine for a second as he prepared to answer. There definitely was deep thought in those eyes of his, and I wondered what it was about.

"You think something's wrong?" he asked finally.

"N-no, but I wanna know what you're thinking about." I said honestly.

Matthew placed both of his hands in his uniform slack pockets and looked back in front of him again.

"I was just wondering what's going to happen to me when we graduate...er...if I graduate." He said solemnly.

I nodded slowly.

"You'll be fine. And don't worry, you will graduate." I offered.

Matthew's calm and somewhat serious expression slowly turned into a weak smile. His green-turquoise eyes stared at me momentarily.

"Thanks Larry, but I doubt it." He said.

"Oh c'mon! You and I both know you're too smart to not graduate. And you'll make it to college too, probably on scholarship or something on being the world's best athlete!" I chimed, thinking about how well Matthew played tennis. His favorite sport.

He had always been so deft and ambidexterous with the tennis racket, always getting that last hit, no matter how hard. He was an extremely talented doubles partner, and an extraordinary singles opponent, so either way you looked at it, he was the ideal tennis athlete. I knew for a long while that even if he wasn't academically perfect, he'd make it in the world as some tennis sport superstar. I smiled, imagining his lanky body positioned on a podium, accepting a medal, award, or trophy, hoots and hollers from thousands of spectators and fans. What a dream it would be for him. He'd talked about it so many times. As though it had really happened.

"You're funny." He said mockingly and grinning.

"But it's true! You always do well at the matches I've come to." I said in defense of my own point.

Matthew rolled his eyes and smiled.

"Yeah...that's about every match Larissa." He said in a dull tone. "You're implying I always do well, at every match."

"Well I'd hope so! I am there as your star cheerleading girl." I said proudly.

"You are my retarded cheerleading girl. No one cheerleads at a tennis match except you."

"So? I'm unique. I'm not trying to embarass you, ya know?"

"I don't know, after the season ending last year, some people might argue that..."

"Shut up." I said beginning to laugh.

We finally reached the vast parking lot and strode towards his car. The sun was just beginning to set as we both got into his car. After we'd both closed our doors, I sat back in the seat and turned to Matthew, who looked around at me.

"I'm bored." he said dully.

"Don't you have homework?" I asked.

"Yeah, but I don't get it. And besides I'm not in the mood."

"You can be so lazy!" I said laughing.

"And this is new to you?" he said smiling, his green eyes twinkling.

Well, what are you getting at anyways?" I asked.

"Wanna watch a movie? My mom got this freaky sci-fi, based on some book called, the Glass Pendelum." He said grinning. He knew I was reading that very book.

"Yes. That'd be cool. But on one condition..." I began.

"Yeah?" Matthew's boyish smile was across his face as he awaited my ultimatum.

"You'll let me help you with your homework. And you'll finish it." I said.

Matthew smirked and then nodded.

"Deal." he said smling.