Everly.
Once again the weekend had gone by incredibly quick and before I knew it, it was Monday again. While I loved Mondays as I had always seen them as a fresh start, which in some ways they were, I hated the fact that I had to wake up at six. Anyone who knew me knew that I was anything but a morning person. But today was different. I didn't feel the usual dread of going to school and was actually up and ready on time for once, something which surprised both Mum and me.

"Okay, what have you done with my daughter? You're on time, a bit early even. Did you want something?" Mum glanced down at the gold watch on her wrist that Dad had given her for their anniversary last year.

I laughed and shook my head. "No, I guess I just wanted to get to school at a good time, nothing wrong with that."

"The Everly I know hates her school and wouldn't want to be there any longer than she needs to be. So again, who is this?"

I simply shrugged my shoulders and grabbed my usual cereal bar and a few snacks that I could eat later on during the day. I bit back a smile as I thought of the real reason why I wanted to get in early today. Evan may or may not have been a part of it.

"Okay, I'm going now before I'm late and Isabel kills me today. Owen's already gone hasn't he?"

"Yeah, he left about twenty minutes ago. He said that the whole team has an extra training session today before their match. Are you coming tonight?"

"I'm not sure yet, but I'll text you after school and let you know." I kissed her cheek and gave her a small hug. "Okay, bye, I love you."

I grabbed my bag and shoved my snacks into it, quickly making my way out of the house and over to the bus stop. I let out a small sigh in relief that I was actually on time and that I hadn't missed the bus. I got on and smiled as I saw Isabel sitting at the back and went to sit next to her, nudging her shoulder gently. "Hey."

"Hey, care to tell me why you're dragging me into school at this ungodly hour?"

I turned my body a little so that I was facing her, my voice lowering so that only she would hear me. Even though the bus wasn't too busy, there were still a few people from our year scattered about. "So I wanted to get in a bit early so that I could maybe get to see Evan, I mean it's stupid cause he probably isn't even in at this time but-"

"But what?"

"I don't know, I feel like he might not even want to talk to me after how I left him yesterday." I groaned and buried my head into my hands. "Why did I do that for? I'm so stupid. I probably ruined my only shot with him."

"Hey, look at me." Isabel's intense stare instantly shut me up. "It's going to take him a lot more than that for him to stop talking to you. If he claims to like you as much as he does and he doesn't talk to you then maybe it just wasn't meant to be. If that's the case, don't force it, some crushes are just meant to stay that way. Either way, just remember that we don't let ourselves get upset about boys." She smiled gently and held out her pinky finger which I wrapped my own around.

◆◇◆◇◆◇

"But in all honesty, if that woman even tried to throw a sneaky comment my way today, I'm going to lose it Ev. I just don't understand how that little witch is the head of English. I'm telling you, she's out to make my life a misery." Isabel spun round on her heel and looked at me as we entered the main building. Her annoyed look quickly turned to a surprised one as she looked at someone over my shoulder. "Don't turn around now but your possibly future man is walking this way with Nolan."

Before I could say anything, Isabel waved at them, and I turned around, my breath hitching slightly as I saw Evan standing in front of me. Nolan glanced over at me with a look that I didn't quite understand before starting a rather animated conversation with Isabel.

Evan gave me a smile that almost made me pass out, I honestly don't know how he managed to look so good even when wearing this ugly uniform. "Are you doing anything this weekend?"

I shook my head slowly. "No, why?"

"In that case, will you go out with me? And you can't say no since you literally just told me you're free this weekend. C'mon, we both know you want to."

I shrugged my shoulders, looking down at my nails as I tried my hardest to not look too excited. "I mean, I'll have to think about it."

Evan's smile widened slightly, his piercing blue eyes sparkling as he spoke, "I'm taking that as a yes then."

I playfully rolled my eyes and bit back a smile, letting out a soft groan when the bell went.

Evan threw his arm around Nolan's shoulder and winked at me "See you around Everly." The two of them turned and walked off in the direction of their form rooms but before they turned the corner, Evan suddenly yelled out, "Hey, Everly!"

"Yeah?"

"You look beautiful today!" A smile crept up onto my face as I tucked a curl behind my ear, watching the two of them disappear into the sea of students that had formed.

◆◇◆◇◆◇

For the rest of the day, the only thing that I could think about was Evan, no matter how hard I tried to think of something else and actually focus on my work, his smile kept popping up in my mind. For the first time in a while, I was excited to go to history with Mr Wilson as it was the only class that I had with Evan and I was willing to put up with Mr Wilson's monotone voice for the next hour because of that.

Walking into the classroom, my eyes unintentionally scanned the room. My smile instantly got bigger as soon as I saw Evan sat down in the back corner of the class, throwing his head back slightly as he laughed which very quickly earned him a disapproving look from Mr Wilson.

I sat down by my usual seat by the window, letting out a small huff as I realised that Kasey was nowhere to be found. I pulled out my phone discreetly and texted her, asking if she was planning on showing up to history. As soon as she replied, I put my bag on the chair next to me. I got out my book and occasionally copied down some notes from the board, my mind being elsewhere for the most part.

Halfway through the lesson, Mr Wilson turned off the board and sat down on his desk. "So, I've decided that we're going to do a little project to serve as some revision before exam week. You'll be working together in pairs and coming up with a presentation that will be no more than six minutes about something that we've covered. Before you ask, I will be giving each pair a different topic so that this will actually be useful."

Mr Wilson told us we had exactly a minute to find someone to work with. While the rest of the class moved around in a frenzied rush, I decided to just stay where I was as I figured that I would just work with Kasey.  I looked up in confusion as Evan moved my bag off from the chair next to me and sat down, placing my bag under the desk. "Hey partner, how's it going?"

"Very bold of you to assume that we're even working together Evan," I stated as I raised an eyebrow in his direction.

Evan glanced around the room before looking back at me again. "Well, it seems like you don't have a partner unless you were planning on working with a bag." He let out a little laugh "Sorry, I was just trying to imagine that and-"

Evan had barely finished his sentence before he was soon laughing rather hysterically. Mr Wilson looked at the pair of us, clearly being far from impressed. He rubbed his shiny bald head as he spoke. "Evan, you either calm yourself down or you get out of my class. I honestly don't care which one you pick but do make a decision quickly or I'll make it for you."

Evan bit down on his bottom lip and took a few deep breaths, staring rather intensely down at the textbook in front of us. I shook my head in amusement and tried my hardest to concentrate on Mr Wilson's requirements for the project. Evan nudged my shoulder and whispered quietly, "Hey, do you want to come over after school and we can start this presentation on whatever we're meant to be doing?"

"Evan, shut up and pay attention to what he's saying." For the next couple of minutes, Evan kept trying to crack jokes or tell me rather pointless stories as I simply tightened my grip on my pen. I pinched the bridge of my nose and then turned to face him. "Look if I say yes, will you please just stop talking and let me concentrate?"

"If me getting your number is part of the deal too, then yes."

"Fine, as long as you stop talking," I whispered. He started grinning like the massive idiot he was and acted like he was zipping his mouth shut, placing his pretend key on a piece of paper that he had torn out of his book and slid it over to me. I wrote down my number on the piece of paper and gave it back to him. My attention went straight back to Mr Wilson, the faintest of smiles on my lips.