English, recess and Bio went by in a blur and it was finally lunch time.

I put my books in my locker and started to walk to the cafeteria. Hopefully they decided to turn on the heaters so we wouldn't freeze to death.

And no I wasn't being dramatic. If the heaters aren't on in the cafeteria it is the same temperature as outside, which was four degrees.

Just before I walked into the cafeteria I caught my reflection in the glass window in the door. My dark brown hair was flowing over my shoulders in waves from under my dark blue beanie which was pulled down to cover my ears. My blue eyes were watering from the cold and my light blue jeans and red coat were damp from the rain which had begun in fourth period.

I pushed through the doors and thanked God that the heaters were on. I scanned the cafeteria to find my friends and was happy to see Tessa, Leah, Brooklyn and Seth sitting at a long table towards the back of the cafeteria. I walked over to them quickly and sat down opposite Tessa and Seth and beside Leah.

"Hey Rylie," Leah greeted me, flipping her black hair over her shoulder as she faced me.

"Hey Leah," I responded, smiling at her then putting my hands in my pockets.

As warm as it was in the cafeteria, my hands were still cold and I had unfortunately left my gloves in my locker.

"How was class?" Brooklyn asked, not to anyone in particular. She didn't seem in a good mood as she was just rolling food around her plate with her fork.

"It was so boring! English sucks!" Seth complained, raking a hand through his blonde hair while Tessa smiled at him.

Leah shook her head. "It's better than double Chemistry!"

Suddenly Brooklyn perked up, a wide, fake smile covering her face as she looked over my shoulder to someone who must have been coming towards us.

Tessa smirked at me for some reason and Seth just nodded at whoever it was, so I turned.

When I did, I saw August walking towards our table.

Obviously that's not what got everyone's attention.

No, what got everyone's attention was the new guy walking next to August.

I glared and turned around, planning on ignoring him.

"Hey everyone," August said when they arrived at our table. "This is Max Harris. He's obviously new here and is going to hang with us."

Max was wearing the stupid smirk still as he looked at me, so I looked back down at the table. But of course, being the annoying guy he is, he slid onto the bench beside me, completely dismissing the general rules of a personal bubble. His left arm was nearly touching mine.

August sat beside him and I interally rolled my eyes. August never brought new people into the group and was generally not someone who talked to new people. Of course the one person he asked to hang out with us was the one person I didn't like.

I decided to ignore him, so I got my hands out of my pocket and started rubbing them together to get some warmth into them as having them in my pockets was doing nothing.

"Want me to warm up your hands instead?" Max asked from beside me, holding out his hands, the ever present smirk on his face. I was so surprised by this, but I wasn't the only one.

Tessa was a mix of surprised and amused, Seth was grinning, Brooklyn was scowling at me and Leah and August wore the same confused expression.

"Are you trying to make me hate you or is it just a natural skill?" I asked, glowering in his direction but he seemed completely unaffected.

"Hmm," he seemed to contemplate the answer. "I think it's just a natural skill."

I ran my hands through my hair in frustration then put my head in my hands. "Well can you use your natural skill on someone else? I'm sure Brooklyn would love for you to do so."

I looked through my fingers and saw Brooklyn smile flirtatiously at him while batting her eyelashed. I just shook my head.

She could be so pathetic around guys.

"No I much rather use my natural skill on you. Speaking of natural skills-"

"Oh my God will you stop talking??" I groaned.

"I was just going to say I am naturally skilled at drawing but whatever you want, sugar." Without looking at him I could hear the smirk in his voice and I could image the wink that would have followed.

"Do you two know each other?" August asked, confusion in his voice. I peeked through my fingers and everyone had bewildered expression.

"No, why?" Max asked.

"Well because this is the most I have ever heard Rylie talk in an entire lunchtime so...." August trailed off.

"HELLO GOOD PEOPLE!!!" A deep voice interrupted our conversation from behind us. I turned to see Nate, his twin brother Isaac, and Chase walking towards our table.

I had known the twins for the longest - apart from Tessa - and they were the best guys I knew. Such a refreshing change after stupid Max.

"What did we miss?" Isaac asked, sitting down beside Brook while Chase sat beside him. Nate sat next to Leah.

"Rylie talking," Leah smirked and the twins dramatically gasped in unison. It must be a twin thing.

"Oh em gee she didn't," Nate said girlishly, making me laugh.

"She did!" Seth confirmed and I laughed quietly.

"Wait, who are you?" Nate asked, leaning across the table to look at Max.

A smile replaced the smirk on Max's face. "I'm Max Harris. Just started here today."

"Nice to meet you!" Nate exclaimed brightly. He was always way too happy.

"No it's not." I said sarcastically under my breath.

I didn't think anyone had heard me but I was clearly wrong. Max started laughing. "That's it. We have to be friends!"

I immediately shook my head and stood up, swinging my legs over the bench so that I was right to walk away.

I looked at Chase. "Where's Olly?"

Chase looked surprised. "Uh.. I think he's in the library."

"Thanks."

With that I stalked off.

Why did Max have to annoy me so freaking much?? I swear he just wanted to make my life difficult. He didn't try to annoy anyone else!!

Actually, he might have annoyed Brooklyn when he ignored her flirty looks and chose to tease me instead.

I turned left at the end of the hallway to go to the library. I pushed through the door and was greeted with warmth, the smell of books, and silence.

Finally, silence.

I found Olly in the back corner of the library, his glasses resting on his nose while he was bent over the table.

He looked up from his work when I sat beside him, crossing my arms.

I leaned over to see what he was doing and it appeared that he was trying to draw something which vaguely resembled a rectangle.

I smiled at him and whispered. "What are you trying to do?"

He pulled his notepad and pen out of his pocket and wrote something down, then showed it to me. It read:

I'm trying to draw a vase for stupid VisComm.

I bit my lip. "Sorry but it looks like a rectangle."

Olly put his head in is hands, exasperated.

I put my hand comfortingly on his shoulder. "Just look at the picture," I reached over and got the picture and put it beside his book. "And copy the lines. Don't try to do the whole picture, just do line by line and focus on the curves and indivual details." I instructed.

When I first started to do art in year seven I would always make my drawings much more detailed and extravagant than they needed to be. So I did what I had told Olly and focussed on individual lines, instead of going from memory.

Olly gave me an appreciative smile then got back to drawing.

I always go to Olly when I need to calm down. He is just generally a calm person and the fact that he doesn't talk helps.

When Olly first told me, well wrote to me, that he was a mute I felt bad for him. But he automatically said that he didn't want any pity, and he hadn't known any different so it didn't bother him.

I sat with Olly and watched him draw, this time it started to look like the picture.

"Much better," I told him as he angled the book towards me for my opinion.

The bell rang so I waited for him to pack up his books. We walked out of the library and because we had our next two classes together he walked with me to my locker. I got out my history and media books and closed my locker.

We slipped into History just as the class had begun and we went to the two empty desks at the back.

There was a substitute teacher today and it was obvious that she had no idea what she was doing. "I trust you all know what you're doing. Please keep the noise to a minimum and no passing notes," she finished and I was glad that we had missed the first part of that speech.

I got out a random piece of paper and started to draw when Olly raised his hand.

"Yes?" The teacher asked, not showing any signs of moving out of her chair.

Olly motioned for her to come see him and she rolled her eyes but got up never the less.

He wrote something on his tattered notepad and showed it to the teacher. She smiled sympathetically, nodded, then turned and went back to the front of the room.

I looked at Olly questioningly and he simply tore out the sheet he had shown the teacher.

I'm mute and I have an assignment for this class with my friend to my left. Am I allowed to pass notes to discuss the rest of the presentation?

I nearly laughed but bit my lip to stop myself.

Obviously we didn't have an assignment but Olly could get away with pretty much anything he wanted. The teachers pitied him and he figured there was no point in trying to convince them not to so he took advantage of it.

I saw him writing another note so I didn't bother responding to the last one.

He threw it with precision onto my desk and I opened it.

Why were you mad at lunch?

I frowned.

How did you know I was mad?

I tossed it back to his desk and started sketching a rose.

The folded piece of paper returned to my desk after a moment and I opened it again.

It was written all over your face. What happened? =)

I explained the thing with Max and how annoying he was, having to turn the page over to fit in everything.

I got the reply that was only a few short words.

Oooh he so likes you!!!

I responded with:

Oooh you're such a girl!!!

I knew our conversation was over when he smiled and turned back to whatever he was doing.

I finished the rose by the end of the class and wasn't entirely displeased by the result.

Olly and I had to walk across the entire school to get to our next class so we walked fairly quickly.

As we turned a corner to go to the outdoor corridor a class was being let out, and of course as we passed it Max was strolling lesuirely out of the room.

I started walking a bit faster but he caught my eye and jogged to catch up with me.

"Hey Rylie," Max fell into step beside me and I blatently ignored him.

Olly raised his eyebrow in questioning and I nodded.

"Hi, I'm Max," Max introduced himself to Olly, smiling and holding his hand out.

Olly shook it and got his notepad out.

Max read it and nodded, smiling.

I turned into the arts building and walked quickly up the stairs and to class.

Olly was trailing slightly but Max was keeping up with me.

"Oh look at that, we're in the same class," Max smirked, opening the door.

I angrily walked into the room and sat at a table across the room.

The best thing about this room was that there were six big tables with 4 chairs around each.

Olly sat beside me and Max sat on the other side of me. I crossed my arms and looked directly at Max. "Can't you just leave me alone?"

"Where's the fun in that?" He retorted easily and I shook my head, getting my laptop out and logging on.

"Good afternoon class!" Miss Kyla greeted us cheerily, putting her shoulder bag around her chair.

We all murmured our greetings before she continued. "So today we have a new student, Max Harris." She looked at Max and smiled. "Would you like to introduce yourself, Max?"

Miss Kyla getured towards the front of the room and Max scratched his neck and got up.

"Hi, I'm Max," he started. Half the girls smiled excitedly and some batted their eyelashes at him. "I came from SSC but moved here for my Mum's work." He said confidently, smiling politely.

"Thank you, Max." Miss Kyla said, gesturing for him to return to his seat.

"So today you are all going to continue editing your music video clips that you started two weeks ago. Due date is this Thursday and it all has to be rendered before class this time!"

Everyone started on their laptops, plugging headphones in and getting everything set up.

I had one headphone in because my other was broken, which unfortunately meant I couldn't block everything and everyone out.

"Miss, what do I do?" Max asked, raising his hand.

"Oh," Miss Kyla frowned, pulling at her ponytail. "You can just see what Olly or Rylie are doing and they can maybe explain what they're doing."

I scowled even more as I dragged a three second clip to the middle, moving it around and editing it to be black and white.

Max turned to face me, his green eyes glowing teasingly.

"Ask Olly." I nodded in Olly's direction but he was oblivious, or at least pretending to be.

Max clearly saw that Olly wasn't paying attention so he turned back to me.

"What song are you doing it to?" He asked, leaning over to look at my screen.

"Do you not know what personal space is?" I asked, leaning away from him.

He smirked "I do. I just enjoy being in yours!"

I ignored his jibe. "I'm editing the clips to I Write Sins Not Tragedies."

Max looked at me in disbelief. "You know Panic! At the Disco?"

"You do?" I fired back, equally as surprised.

"In my top 5 bands," he responded, frowning.

We spent the rest of the class discussing music and what bands we did and didn't like. We had more in common that I would have ever thought possible.

You don't like him, remember? You HATE him, okay??

Near the end of the class I looked over Max's shoulder and saw all the girls glaring in my direction.

"Hey can you get your bimbo followers to quit glaring?" I asked, turning back to face my laptop.

He turned around to face the bimbos, leading to the girls giggling and looking away, red cheeked. When he looked back to me, his normal smirk returned to his face. "Awh are you jealous, babe?"

My mouth turned into a frown and my eyes hardened. "Awh do you want to get your balls cut off, babe?" I asked in the sweetest voice I had, batting my eyelashes.

The bell rang to signal the end of the day as Max laughed.

I rushed to my locker then out to the parking lot.

As I was getting in my car a shiny black motorcycle caught my eye.

I had never seen it before.

I looked at it for a moment, frowning, until I saw Max walk out of the building and toward it.

He saw me staring and flashed me a real smile, showing all his teeth.

Of course he has a motorcycle. What else did you expect??

The more he smiled, the more I wanted to hate him. Yet it was the very thing that made hating him impossible.

I shook the thought out of my head and got in the car, driving the ten minutes home surrounded by the sounds of Panic! At the Disco.

When I pulled into the driveway I was happy to see my older sister's car in the driveway. She had been on holidays somewhere for a while and I had missed her.

I all but ran to the front door - partly to get out of the cold and party because I wanted to see my big sister - and opened the door.

"CHARLIE!!!" I squealed, dropping my bag and my keys and running to give her a hug. She was sitting at the kitchen counter but when she heard me she ran.

"RYLIE!!!" She squealed back, pulling me into a tight hug.

"How was your trip??" I asked, disentangling myself from my sister and picking up my keys while slinging my bag over my shoulder.

"Oh my God it was amazing!! And it was so warm!" She exclaimed, following me to my room.

I smiled. "Yeah compared to here which is freaking freezing!!"

Charlie laughed and sat on my bed, flicking her long, straight, light brown hair over her shoulder.

"So how was school?" She asked.

I slung my bag over my desk chair then sat in it, crossing my legs and spinning it to face her.

"It sucked." I responded. I pulled my beanie off and raked a hand through my wavy hair, trying to untangle it.

Charlie's forehead crinkled as she frowned. "Awh why?"

"Well there's this new guy," I started, then launched into a detailed explanation of every reason he was annoying, from his stupid combat boots to that smirk that continuously stayed plastered across his face.

"Ugh he sounds like a pretentious douchebag," Charlie commented as I heard the front door open.

We both got up to see who was home. "Oh, he is." I responded.

When we got to the kitchen I saw a tall, sixteen year old boy with his back to us, looking through the refridgerator with his hand on his hip. His dark brown hair was spiked at all different angles as he turned to face us with a smile.

"Hey Kye!" I greeted my little brother, pulling him into a hug.

His blue eyes that matched mine lit up while he closed the fridge and got an apple off the counter, rubbing it on his soccer shorts.

"Hello multiple older sisters!" He responded while Charlie hugged him, ruffling his hair.

"How was your trip?" Kye asked, biting into his apple.

Charlie sat down at one of the stools at the counter. "It was great! How was soccer practice?"

"It was really good too," he responded and dissapered to the other end of the house to his room.

I shrugged and went back to my room, putting a CD in the CD player and getting my sketch book out.

I drew until my father came home, then we all had dinner together and played cards until it was late and we all needed to go to bed.

As soon as I got into bed though, I wasn't tired. I tossed and turned until it was about three in the morning.

Groaning, I rolled onto my stomach and screamed into my pillow.

Not again... Oh God please not again...