"Uh, Ri…" A voice whispered behind me.

I turned around to face the 3'2 brown-haired boy, Jason, who was blushing crazily and holding a flower.

My eyes widened.

"Yes, Jason?" I asked bravely, swallowing. I put my hands behind my back in fear that they were sweating, like the way my babysitter's did every time her boyfriend was around.

I don't know why, but Jason always seemed to make me nervous.

I didn't want to admit it much, but… I did kinda like him. He was cute, after all. And very mature for his age. All the other boys only cared about eating worms and giving the girls a disease called 'cooties'. But Jason was much more deeper than that.

"R-r-riley, will you g-go out with m-me?" He stuttered, looking at me hopefully and handing me the flower.

I gasped, covering my mouth with a hand.

"Do you really want to…?" I asked, my voice trailing off. What if this was a joke, like my babysitter always talked about on the phone with one of her friends?

A… 'Prank' or 'bed' I think she called it. Or maybe a 'beat'?

Jason shook his head quickly. "I want to. But only if you want to…"

"I…" I bit my lip. Should I say yes or no?

"Yes!" I cried, jumping up and down.

Jason smiled widely, and handed me the flower. "This is for you," He said.

"Thank you," I responded politely, taking the brightly colored daisy.

Jason tilted his head hesitantly before putting his arm around my shoulder.

I giggled, hugging him.

"Riley, I promise we will be together forever." He stated, nodding.

"I promise too."

---

"WITCH!"

"JERK!"

"BITCH!"

"BASTARD!"

"WHORE!"

"MANWHORE!" I spat, narrowing my eyes up at the 6'2 jackass.

He growled, and stared back down at me.

"Ho," he said softly, before turning around and walking off.

"DAMN YOU!" I yelled after him. He ignored me and continued walking.

"Jesus, Ri," Celia, my best friend who was standing next to me, muttered. "Could you try to notch the anger down a bit…?"

"He started it!" I cried, with tears filling up my eyes.

Hey, that rhymes!

Shut it.

And that does, too! Well, not the 'shut it' part, but before that-

SHUT UP! RAWR!

…Wow. You're pathetic.

You're patheticer.

That's not even a word.

See? YOU'RE NOT EVEN A WORD!!!

…

"Fine," Celia rolled her eyes. "What happened, anyway?" She didn't get there until the 'You're a fuckhole' part.

"He left his big foot in the middle of the hallway!"

Ah, yes. Because lots of people tend to leave their feet just lying around.

They do!

I swear, you were dropped on the head as a child…

That'd mess you up, conscience.

So it'd seem.

"And you tripped and called him a fuckhole for it?" Celia guessed.

"Yep." I said, tugging on the hem of my shirt, which was riding up to my waist like an ant climbing on a picnic table.

"I don't get what your problem is, with him…"

"He's a pain in the ass," I said, readjusting my two notebooks in my arms and starting to walk off down the hall to my next class.

"Not really." Celia's voice claimed, trailing behind me.

"YES!"

"He's hot, if anything-"

"CELIA!" I yelled, turning around to face her.

She bit her lip. "Sorry, Ri. I didn't mean to offend you, or anything… I'm just stating the truth. He's one of the hottest guys in this damn school. And you know it."

"I guess." I sighed, walking to the door of the Chemistry room. "See you later, Celia," I turned and glanced at her.

She smiled at me hopefully before continuing to walk down the hall to her own class.

"Hey, Ri!" Another friend of mine, Nick, called behind one of the many desks. He gave me a wide smile.

Sadly, we only had a couple classes together. Chemistry was one of them.

"How are ya, girlfriend?" He asked as I took the empty seat next to his at the same desk. At least we were lab partners.

"I'm okay. Jason the Jackass tripped me on my way here, though. You?"

Nick giggled. "Jason is such a hottie. I'd die if my feet touched his. You have no idea how lucky you are, Riley. I mean, really. And I'm good. I got grounded for sneaking out last night, though. I swear, my mom is so flippin' strict."

I raised an eyebrow. Nick just said a whole paragraph in under five seconds. He tends to talk fast.

"Okay, class! Today we're gonna get started on learning about was happens when you ignite certain liquids! So, open your text books to page 253…"

I glanced at the 'EW, CHEMISTRY' in glittery letters on the front of Nick's textbook as I opened and flipped through my own. A couple seconds after everyone found the page Nick finally opened his own.

"Jason is NOT hot," I hissed. "And I'm sorry to hear about your mom. She's probably just stressed because of the baby."

"The baby my ass," Nick whispered.

And that was the end of it.

I sighed and prepared myself for an hour of boredom.

---

"I'M HOME, OKAY!?" I yelled to no one in particular in my house.

I don't think you were loud enough. If you do it just a bit louder, the aliens on Pluto MIGHT hear you!

Grrr.

I put my bag on the stairs and walked into the kitchen.

"Hey, hun!" My mom said to me as I entered.

"Hello," I said, sitting at the decent-sized island we had.

"How was school?" She asked, shoving a pan of soon-to-be-cupcakes in the oven.

My mom makes good cupcakes.

"Good, I guess," I said, nodding.

Parents.

They want to know everything about you.

"I'm glad," She said, shutting the oven door and ripping off her oven mitten to continue frosting some already-baked cupcakes.

I reached for one that already had green frosting on it, but my mom slapped my hand away.

"Hey, it was screaming 'EAT ME'," I confirmed, frowning at my mom.

"They're for tonight, Ri, not just the Cupcake Queen!"

The Cupcake Queen.

That's what my mom calls me.

So what if I have a thing for cupcakes?

"What's tonight?" I asked.

"Well, it's a really funny story, actually," my mom giggled. "I was calling up your Aunt Gina to see how her birthday last weekend went, but, subconsciously, I dialed our own area code, and ended up calling—get this— the Kranes'! And-"

I felt my face go pale.

The Kranes' and my family used to be very close when I was younger. Eventually, though, the two families grew apart from being busy all the time.

You can guess who was a member of the Krane family.

Jason.

"-So, after talking for a while, Jessie invited us over for dinner! Isn't that wonderful, Ri? We have to be there at 5:00, so get ready around 4:15, okay?"

"Okay," I answered, getting up.

Bad move. My mom glanced at my outfit.

"And wear something nice, will you? I'd appreciate it."

"Will do." I said quickly, leaving before she could tell me to change anything else.

As soon as I got to my room I belly flopped onto my bed and picked up my cordless phone, which was lying innocently on the table beside the bed. I dialed Celia's number.

"Hello?" Celia's voice answered.

"Celia?"

"Yeah?"

"You'll never guess how much I hate my mother right now." I growled.

"Oh god, did she delete your episodes of Supernatural that you've been recording all year on TiVo? That totally sucks-"

"No, it's not that. Actually, I think I'd prefer that happening. This is bad. Really bad."

"Did she find the condom I gave you for 16th Birthday? Aw, crap. Tell her it was a joke."

"NO. Celia, my family is having dinner with the Krane's tonight."

"…Oh snap."

"Yeah, I know! It's gonna suck-"

"RILEY JANE PARKER YOU ARE BY FAR THE MOST LUCKIEST GIRL ON EARTH. I ENVY YOU FROM HEAD TO TOE. YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW LUCKY YOU-"

"Thanks for understanding, Celia!" I said sarcastically, hanging up the phone as she was ranting about how lucky I was.

I'm not lucky at all.

For the rest of the afternoon I listened to random CDs, and watched TV, until it was finally time to get ready. I ended up wearing a normal pair of jeans and black long sleeve shirt, with my usual checkered vans.

By five, exactly, my dad, my mom and I were all squished together on the Krane's front porch, waiting for them to let us in.

This was going to be interesting.