After Art class was over, Diana and I went to meet Addie in the girls' bathroom. While we were walking down the hall, we passed several students who kept on whispering and sending looks our way. Diana didn't care because she thought they were admiring her outfit which I had to say was fantastic and I hoped that had been the case.

"Guess what I heard," Addie said to the two of us as we entered the bathroom. She was in the process of putting on lip gloss but stopped to look at us for a second. "Astrid, you didn't tell us that Kai Asher gave you a ride this morning."

Diana's mouth dropped. "Seriously? How did that happen?"

I shrugged. "He felt guilty for ruining my car."

"You know what that means, right?" Addie hinted, raising her eyebrows suggestively.

"Oh, girl. You're his next target," Diana told me before she got temporarily distracted by her reflection in the mirror.

"I'm really not," I insisted.

"How did he even know where you live? Did he just show up at your doorstep? I'm confused," Adelaide said, pouting before putting away her lip gloss.

I ended up telling them that he was my new neighbor and ripping off the bandaid. They had many, many questions for me which I myself did not have answers to and I tried to steer the conversation away from Kai as soon as possible, especially when a group of our school's socialites entered the bathroom and said hello to my friends, ignoring me as always.

We walked out of the bathroom and in that moment, Kai and his group of friends neared us. I kept my head down and pretended not to notice. Kai was respected around here, the star of the school if you didn't count my brother. Every girl wanted his attention and he was happy to oblige to some.

The three of us headed toward our locker again, with me at the front and it just so happened to be the same direction that Kai was walking to.

I tried to ignore him as Diana and Addie fell into conversation about Diana's loss over a pair of shoes.

"Hey, Astrid!" The entire corridor stopped as I heard the too-familiar voice shout my name. People were staring at Matt, my brother's best friend, and parted ways as he walked up to me. We had just reached the locker and I fidgeted with the lock, needing to occupy my brain for the next few minutes.

"Are you deaf?" Matt asked. "I called your name."

"I know," I replied calmly.

"Connor says you're going to write his essay. Here's the title of mine. You can hand it to me when I drop your brother off," Matt said to me.

I hated the feeling in my gut when he stood so close to me. I hated that I was attracted to him once. I hated him with all my heart but at the same time, I wanted him. I felt something for him because he wasn't like this when no one was around. He was only like this in the presence of others.

People slowly stopped paying attention to us soon after he reached me and went their separate ways which is what gave me the courage to speak up.

"I'm not doing that," I said quietly, taking out my books.

"Excuse me?" He asked.

"You heard me. You can find someone else to write your essay. And you can deliver that news to my brother as well. I'm not your slave," I told him, my heart thumping in my chest. We were creating a scene again and I could feel my insides shake. A flash in my mind reminded me of my very first panic attack in front of the class. I needed to get away from him.

I slammed the locker shut and tried to get away but he grabbed my arm. "It wasn't a request."

"Matt, stop it. That's not cool," Diana said to him, putting her arms around me.

"Don't pretend you're not using her to get better grades," he said. "You know how hard the coach is on us these days. He's drilling us like crazy. The least you could do is help me out and stop being selfish."

"Shut up, Matt," Addie snapped. "Go bother someone else."

"Whatever," he said and walked away.

I could feel my head become full with pressure as the urge to cry became more and more unavoidable. It wasn't even a big deal but I really hated confrontations and being put in these horrible positions.

I took a deep breath, ignoring the way my friends were staring at me and decided to walk away from the situation with a shake of my head. I went to my next class with the two of them. When we shared a class together, usually the two of them paired up and I sat alone. I didn't mind it most of the time since nobody ever bothered to sit next to me.

The students piled into the classroom, some more eager than others to get to their seats. The chatter didn't die down until our teacher walked in, followed closely by Kai.

"Settle down, everybody," Mr. Collins told everyone and motioned for those who were still standing to take their seats. I looked around and noticed that there were no free seats left, except for the one next to me. Of course.

Sometimes I wondered if my life was a parody of a really cheesy, cliche romance novel. The most popular guy in school sitting down next to the school nerd. Puke.

I suddenly gulped, intimidated by Kai's presence as he walked over to my table and pulled out his chair. Of course, he seemed to be nice to me but there was definitely something he wanted. Never before has anyone like him acknowledge the existence of someone like me. Not at school – not in front of everybody.

There was a short silence in the classroom before everything started. A girl at the front of the class nudged her friend and whispered something. I heard paper tearing and saw a note was passed. I felt my throat closing up.

Reminding myself how to breathe, I mustered up all the courage to steal a look at him before turning my attention to Mr. Collins, who has been writing something on the board.

Kai didn't say anything and he didn't even bother opening a book and paying attention to what we were doing. He was texting someone and tried to hide his phone under the table.

I was busy taking notes this whole time. Mr. Collins went on and on about who we were and what made us special. He tried to explain why it was important to know ourselves and others in order to understand how society worked. To understand each other's struggles.

"Okay, now I want you to discuss this with the person sitting next to you. Talk to each other about who you are, what drives you to your goals and what is your biggest mental or physical struggle in the present moment. I want you to get to know your friends on a deeper level and then write an essay about them, one that you have to send me by the end of the week."

Was this the same essay that Matt and Connor wanted me to write? If that's so, they had each other as partners and couldn't be bothered to write a few words about their best friend?Shit.

I had Kai to worry about.

Putting my head in my hands, I sighed and looked up at him, the noise of surrounding conversations now getting louder and louder.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"In case you might not be aware, this is a learning institution and I don't know about you but most people come here to learn," Kai replied, trying to be helpful and informative.

I narrowed my eyes at him.

"Fine, I'm here to annoy you a little. Get your feathers ruffled up. Thought I'd keep you company. Unless you were saving this seat for your boyfriend..."

"Oh shut up," I waved him off. Kai laughed and then glanced down at my notebook, at the questions we had to answer.

What are your goals in life?

"Having my fanbase expand worldwide. I think we can really do amazing things together," Kai nodded, pretending to be completely serious. "Or wait, my goal in life is to write a murder mystery autobiography. Yup, sounds about right."

"Seriously, this is getting old," I told him.

"I know, it's about time I get to work and stop talking about it," Kai agreed.

"Let's move on. Here's an easy question," I pointed and prepared to write down his answer. "What makes you happy?"

"Sex," he blurted out. I dropped my pencil, meeting his eye. "What? It's fun. You should try it sometime."

I had grown so frustrated with him that I kicked his leg. He hadn't expected it and flinched, digging his knee into the desk. Served him right.

"I deserved that," he laughed.

"Can you please be serious for once? I want to finish this by the end of the period," I told him."Hand me the notebook and I'll write down my answers and you write down yours in mine," he suggested as if it were the most obvious thing ever. Yet it had not occurred to me before. I was stupid.

I passed him my notebook and started writing down my answers. Kai seemed to be immersed in his too and we wrote in silence for about ten minutes before he spoke again.

"Are you going to the game next Friday?" Kai asked me.

"Nah, it's not my thing," I told him. I didn't like football games because there was too much screaming and I considered it a waste of time since I could be reading or studying instead.

"How come? Your brother plays. Aren't you like twins or something?" He asked.

"It doesn't mean we like the same things. Besides, going to the game would also force me to spend time with his friends. And I like my sanity so..."

The bell rang, cutting our conversation short. I handed Kai my notebook with complete answers and waited for him to do the same.

I watched him smirk as he handed me my own notebook and the only thing on the page that I could see were not the answers but one sentence and a goddamn phone number.

If you want the answers, you'll have to give me a call.

When I looked up, Kai was already walking out the door.