Taking a seat at the table, in between Gen and one of the other girls, Erica couldn't help but feel out of place.

She had never been in a group this big before, and her mind was running all over the place imagining everything that could possibly go wrong.

"Girls, this is Erica, she's new here." Gen informed the rest of the group.

"Hey...welcome to the school, my name is Gina." One of the girls, with ginger hair introduced.

Straight afterwards, another one of them spoke.

"Erica, my name is Valerie, but you can call me Val." One with light brown hair informed her.

"My name is Isla." A brunette at the table stated.

"And I'm Reagan." The strawberry blonde one introduced.

She smiled at them all, appreciative of their friendliness. Despite being surrounded by people though, she just couldn't get Ryder out of her head.

But why? He was as annoying as a fly that wouldn't quit buzzing around. It made no sense for her not to get him out of her head, then again...he had something that had confused her when they were sat in their English class.

When that blonde boy....Dawson, as she remembered him introducing himself, had been speaking to her, he seemed so friendly and talkative, that she didn't quite understand how anyone could view him as anything other than that. Then again, she had only spoken to him for like a minute and that was barely enough time to get to know someone.

She couldn't help but wonder about what Ryder had told her about him...was he being sincere? Possibly, but then again with all the sarcasm and cockiness, it was hard to tell.

All she knew was that she was curious, and nothing ever stopped a curious Erica from finding out anything.

"Haha...what you staring at?" Gen quizzed, bringing her back down to earth.

Up until that moment, she hadn't realised that she had been staring over at Ryder who had entered the cafeteria, God knows how long ago, and was now standing in the line.

"Uhh...oh...nothing." She answered, scrambling for words.

Never in her life had she felt so embarrassed. It was her first day, and she had already began making a fool out of herself.

"Don't play the dumb game....we all saw you. You were checking Ryder Griffin out." Gen teased.

"No...nothing like that. I was...daydreaming." She improvised, only to realise that it sounded worse.

"Daydreaming about Ryder Griffin." Gen teased again.

She didn't mind the teasing, she knew that it was all meant in a good way. If anything she was more annoyed at her inability to improvise. Just as she was about begin eating lunch though she felt a tap on her shoulder and turned around to see Dawson stood behind her.

"Uhh..." She began, not knowing what to say.

"Hi, I...I realised that I forgot to give you back your pen after class." He greeted.

That answered her question of what he was doing.

"Oh...thanks." She said as he handed her the pen.

Taking it and placing it back in her bag, she gave him a friendly smile as he turned to leave. As he did, he stopped in his path and turned around...

"You wouldn't happen to wanna maybe hang out sometime...like this Saturday, would you?" He asked, a hopeful look in his eyes.

Her new friends all whispered and giggled amongst themselves as she thought about what to say to the boy.

She had to take a moment to think about this. They had only talked for a minute, and she didn't really know him, so she had to question how safe she would be. But then again, it was a great way to make a friend...weighing up her options, she quickly decided what to do.

"Sure...that would be great. Where and when?" She accepted, wanting to know the details beforehand.

"Outside the mall, dead on twelve." He stated and walked back to his table as his friends were calling for him.

"Erica has a date! Erica has a date! And it's with Dawson Faye!" The girls chanted teasingly.

"No..no...it's not a date, we have only talked for like a minute so definitely not a date." She corrected them.

"Doesn't matter what you say, a boy and a girl hanging out together at the mall...that's definitely a date." Vivian stated.

The rest of the lunch break was spent with the girls teasing her mercilessly. But it didn't matter what they said, it was not a date. She wasn't that careless, and would never go on a date with someone she had only known for like an hour or so.

The last class of the day was science, which passed in a boring blurr, and then it was time to head home. Unlike this morning, when her mom had dropped her off, she would have to walk home because her mom had started a new job in a small American diner.

Her options were to go to the diner and wait for her mom to finish, or walk home. She chose option number two since it had been a long enough day, and all she wanted was to get home.

So once class had finished, she headed out of the class and down the hall towards the front entrance of the school. Her hopes of avoiding everyone she had met today were completely shattered when Ryder started walking alongside her.

"Hey Tootz." He greeted.

How rude of him, she thought to herself, completely unimpressed by his nickname.

"What are you up to?" She asked him suspiciously.

"Me? I ain't up to nothing. Just walking alongside a fellow classmate and friend." He explained, the same smug expression on his face from earlier in their English class.

"Hmm...we've been talking for a total of a few minutes per two to four hours...I would hardly describe us as friends." She corrected him.

"Ouch! No need to be rude...I'm just looking out for you, after all, you are new here." He replied, feigning a tone of hurt.

"Why would I need you to look out for me? I'm a big girl, and I'm perfectly capable of looking after myself." She questioned, once again confused by what he was saying.

"You know that Dawson boy is a real snake...if I were you, I wouldn't go on Saturday. " He told her.

How on earth did he know about her plans on Saturday?

Was he somehow eavesdropping on their conversation earlier? That is such an impolite thing to do. Gosh, he really was a daring young man.

"Yeah you keep saying that, but what does it actually mean?....Also how on earth did you know about Saturday?" She questioned, demanding answers.

"Dawson is not who he appears to be. He once dated this girl, she was new here also, it was about a year ago actually....one night when they had a date, she disappeared and is still missing to this day." Ryder explained.

Erica stopped in her tracks. There was no way that it could be true. A boy that was so sweet and kind could never have such a darkness. Besides, the only one who could confirm that was Dawson himself. Not that she was going to ask, since that would be incredibly rude of her. It was even ruder of Ryder to assume that he was behind such a thing. 

"Just because it happened on a night that they had a date, it doesn't necessarily mean that he is behind it. You know it is rude to make such assumptions?" She corrected him, disapproving of his disgraceful accusations.

"Currently I have no proof. But I'm working on it...and sooner or later, I will find some." He informed her.

This whole conversation was bizarre, it was bad enough to point a finger at someone, but to do it with no proof what so ever....it was just totally wrong.

Poor Dawson, she thought to herself as she began walking again.

"Just think about it Tootz....there is something off about that boy." Ryder called as he watched her walk away.

Something off about that boy. He must have been talking about himself, she joked silently to herself. The bad boy of the school was most likely just jealous because most girls preferred boys who weren't arrogant and cocky jerks. That was a fact, and clearly one that he did not like. Otherwise he would not be trying to make her question Dawson's kindness.

Not wanting to think about it anymore, she pushed the conversation to the back of he mind and focused on taking in all the unfamiliar sights of the route home.

She was excited to explore but unfortunately it would have to wait until the weekend when she had more free time on her hands.

It was proving to be difficult to keep the events of the day off her mind.

Was Dawson really not as nice as he came across as?

Was Ryder really telling the truth, or was it all just lies?