"The assignment requires us to behave like adults," I said as I grabbed the rubber ball from Cale and shoved it in my pocket. "I've never been this stressed," I added as I slumped into my seat.

"Well then, it looks like we are on our way to an A." Cale sat back as he brushed his floppy brown hair out of his eyes.

His eyes; he got away with everything from his deep brown eyes. The female classmates weren't the only ones; all females seemed to give in to his pools of chocolate. It was beyond frustrating, especially now that we had to work together on our junior community capstone project.

"Seriously, Delly, it's like day one of a year-long project; simmer down." Cale's words broke through my thoughts.

"Simmer down, Cale, simmer down? This is our junior capstone project; this one-year-long project is our entire grade for the entire class." While all the other girls may have found his laid-back personality charming, I did not. "You have to take this seriously and start looking outside your clique."

"Last year, Chad planted a couple of flowers and got an A; I don't think we need to be worried about this the first week of school. Don't you have like friends or whatever you want to see?"

"Yes, Cale, of course, I have friends. Just because I'm not the queen of the pep squad like Melissa Carpenter doesn't mean I don't have any friends."

"Okay, okay; don't you like want to see them? We can catch up on this; I don't know, next week?" He pulled his tall frame from the chair and picked up his bag. "It'll be cool, Delly. Don't stress out so much." And then he flashed the smile, the one that added a twinkle to his eyes, the sparkle that got him out of everything. It came with matching wrinkles on either side of his nose that were so damned adorable; I almost got sucked in... almost.

"Fine, go. We can meet next week, but we have to meet next week." I spoke as sternly as possible so Cale knew his boyish charms did not affect me.

"Next week, you got it, Delly." He was already halfway out of the library.

"Don't call me Delly; I don't make sandwiches," I called after him, gathering a shush from the librarian.

I packed up my books and headed to the door, muttering. My partner for one of the most important classes of junior year was Cale Benton. What did he know about the community? He barely looked at anyone that wasn't in his circle of perfect people. I unsuccessfully tried to sigh out my annoyance.

"Hey, Dee, what's the big sigh for?" Chris was magically by my side as though I had sent up a bat signal of discontent.

"Cale Benton," I squeaked out as I tightly pressed my eyes shut, trying to will away my reality. I knew Chris would steer me clear of any oncoming obstacles, so I kept them clenched shut. "He is so, ugh."

"How did Cale Benton get you so annoyed?" Chris' voice matched my irritation, which I appreciated.

"Oh, didn't you notice? He's my capstone partner. Whom did you get?"

"Sophie Kim." He shrugged. "I'm not sure if she even talks, so that should be fun. We just got our partners today. Did you guys already meet?"

My annoyance at Cale turned on Chris. "Yes, of course we did. This is the class of our junior year. We have to take it seriously; we have to make a difference."

"Easy, I don't disagree." Chris stiffened at my ire.

"Sorry, it's just Cale. Our partner is supposed to support us and push our individual goals forward. I feel like all Cale will do is push this off until the Spring and plant a tree; like that's a huge difference."

"Actually, I read somewhere that planting one tree can take in over a ton of carbon dioxide in its lifetime."

I just gave him the look that he was dangerously close to experiencing my full wrath.

"But yeah, I mean, at least he could plant two trees." Chris nodded, eliciting a laugh from me.

"Chris, I don't know how I'd get through a single day without you," I admitted, feeling better.

"I got you, Dee." He smiled down at me from behind his glasses.

Chris Baker had been my best friend since freshman year. There are a few defining moments in life, moments that form how you handle situations. One of those moments is walking into the school cafeteria on the first day of high school. Do you have a table waiting for you? Does someone stand to wave you over to their table? Or do you look around for anyone that you know, anyone that seems mildly interested in watching you chew for thirty-five minutes? Chris was that person for me. He was sitting alone in a back corner, crunching on carrots behind a book. At the perfect moment, his book dropped, and our eyes met. He gave me a half-smile and shrugged as he put his book down.

"Hi," I shyly said as I pulled out the chair across from him. "Is it okay if I sit?"

"Of course, I'm Chris." He stuck out a hand to me in greeting. I couldn't recall anyone ever shaking my hand before; maybe it was a high school thing.

"I'm Delilah, but everyone calls me Dee." I timidly smiled as our hands dropped.

He was awkward and gangly then and still awkward in our junior year. He had filled out a bit but carried his presence as someone that has never fully gained control of their height. His soft brown hair always seemed disheveled, but not fashionably, more in that he-forgot-to-comb-it way. Gold wire-rimmed glasses hid his shy green eyes.

"So, what middle school did you come from?" I asked, using one of the planned conversation starters I had collected over the summer. I had created index cards all summer with talking points to prepare for awkward lulls. I liked to be prepared.

"My family just moved here from New Hampshire." As he spoke, his eyes fell on his half-eaten baby carrot as though he was estimating how loud and disruptive biting the second half would be.

"Oh, so you are new-new," I said in surprise.

"Yeah." He shrugged.

"Well, it's nice to meet you." I tried to smile casually.

I recall taking a moment to determine if we could be friends. At fifteen, friends that were boys were a new world for me. I only had a sister at home, so aside from my dad, I didn't have many male interactions, except for my obsessive addiction to rom-com movies. I looked him up and down and determined he could be my Duckie. We were inseparable from that lunch forward.

"Okay, so I need two plans," I said as I sprawled out over my living room floor after school, still slightly annoyed at Cale being assigned as my partner.

"Oh no," Cami, my little sister, groaned from the couch. "She has a fresh binder and highlighters."

"Cami, this is important. I need a plan to deal with Cale and a brainstorm binder for my capstone."

"Who's Cale?" She sat up from her slump at the mention of a boy. At twelve, Cami was already obsessed with boys, not just those we watched in movies.

"Cale is a high school delinquent and, unfortunately, my partner for my capstone," I grumbled as I prepared my binders.

"A bad boy." Her eyes went dreamy. "There are like a dozen movies streaming with this exact meet-cute."

"What's a meet-cute?" Chris tossed popcorn at Cami.

"Ugh, you spend so much time with Dee; how do you not know what a meet-cute is?" Cami had mastered the tween outraged voice.

"It's when the two people destined to fall in love meet for the first time, usually in an adorably memorable way, not being forced together as partners." I shot Cami a look as I accented that a school partner was not a meet-cute.

"Meet-cute," Chris mumbled to himself. "Are they always with bad boys?"

"Oh, no; meet-cutes happen across the various boy stereotypes." Cami's eyes blurred as she listed the common ones. "You have your bad boys, you know, like Danny from Grease, Patrick from 10 Things I Hate About You, Sebastian from Cruel Intentions, Johnny from Dirty Dancing..."

"I thought you said there were meet-cutes that aren't bad boys," Chris cut her off.

"I guess we all know Cami's favorite cliche," I teased.

"Anyway," Cami raised her volume to move on from my joke. "There's also the out-of-your-league love. This is where your popular kids, jocks, prom queens, movie stars, and rock stars fall for the average or sub-average girl. Although, rock stars sometimes also cross over into bad boys. This also is the home of the one, the only, the Jake Ryan."

"Who's Jake Ryan?" Chris looked between our faces.

"Chris, I've only made you watch Sixteen Candles like a million times," I griped.

"Oh, is he the one that wears the too-small khakis?" Chris asked.

"Too small khakis? Who are you, and how dare you think you can talk about Jake Ryan that way?" Cami was not feigning her annoyance; this was genuine white-hot indignation.

"Anyway," I tried to redirect.

"All these guys are popular," Chris groaned. "What about us average guys?"

"Oh, don't you worry. There are the best-friend-turned-lovers. My favorite is Chris from Just Friends. Oh, how I love Ryan Reynolds." Cami sat back on the couch, lost in thought of her crush on Ryan Reynolds."

"Oh, great, so best friends have a shot if they look like Ryan Reynolds," Chris muttered.

"Don't worry; there's also Harry from When Harry Met Sally. Billy Crystal isn't hot," Cami definitively said.

"Cami, that's so rude!" I shot at her.

"Sorry, he's not hot... to me," she added with a roll of her eyes. "There's also the geek-chic boyfriend. Here you have every character Patrick Dempsey played in the '80s," she concluded.

"What are you implying?" Chris threw a pillow at Cami as he teased.

"Focus, people, it'll be October before we know it, and I can't burn months like this!" I redirected.

"It's literally the first of September." Cami shook her head in disbelief.

Chris glared at her and slid down to the floor next to me. "How can I help?"

"Can you be my partner?" I sighed.

"I'll be whatever you need me to be," he offered.

"I don't know what I'd do without you." I leaned into him for a moment before starting my brainstorming of ideas on how to deal with Cale.

"Ugh, you two are a movie cliche," Cami grimaced before pulling herself from the couch and sulking away.

"Is that what you're waiting for in a boy, a movie cliche?" Chris absently asked as he worked on his homework while I planned.

"Maybe. I've never really thought about my love life that much. I'm one of those girls who doesn't date until college." I shrugged.

"Is that a thing?"

"Yeah, of course it is. I'm just too focused on school to think about boys."

"Right... school... focus." Chris absently nodded.

"What about you? Any girl caught your eye?"

"There's one girl, but I don't think she thinks of me in the boyfriend-way."

"Well, she's an idiot. You're the best. Any girl would be lucky to date you. You're like all the movie boyfriends rolled into one package."

"Why does that feel like when my mom compliments me?"

"Rude! I'm a girl, you know. Maybe that is why I'm waiting to date... because no one has asked me out," I admitted.

"That's not true. That guy Pete asked you to a dance last year. You said no, remember?"

"Yeah, but that's because we already had plans."

"If you liked him, you could've just told me. We could've broken our standing plans."

"What? No, I love going to dances with you. I don't have to get all awkward about my breath or dance moves."

"You should get awkward about your dance moves, though," he teased.

"Enough of this!" I wanted to change the subject because I needed to focus, and I didn't want to hear Chris' endless jokes about my terrible dancing skills.