I stumble back in shock, holding onto the door to regain my balance. "No," my voice comes out laced with guilt. I clear my throat, "why would I be spying on you?" I cast my gaze to the ground to try and hide the blush that's creeping its way up my cheeks.

Lucky for me, it's dark so he might not be able to see it.

"You were staring directly at my door." He deadpans. I was doing that. I lean against the door frame to make our encounter look a little less suspicious and make my argument more believable.

"I was getting water." I lie.

He flashes me a smirk as he folds his arms over his chest. The look on his face tells me that he doesn't believe me. Hell, I wouldn't even believe me.

"I don't know what it's like in England but in America, our kitchens are downstairs."

I rub my sweaty palms on my trousers with a scoff. "I know that."

Deciding that I've had enough of our conversation, I head towards the kitchen. "Nice pyjamas." He teases before going back into his room and closing the door behind him. I walk down the stairs, holding onto the bannister to stop me from falling in embarrassment.

I look down at my pyjamas and hold my head in my hands. "You couldn't have chosen better ones?" I mutter to myself, mortified at his words.

My pink polka-dot pyjama trousers are slightly too big for me, so I have to pull them up as I walk towards the cupboard. My white t-shirt has an array of stains on it from god knows when. I curse myself for deciding to check who the footsteps belonged to.

*

It's been one day since our awkward encounter. Archer didn't mention anything about it to anyone though I wasn't expecting him to anyway.

I've only seen him a few times in passing and I've kept my eyes glued to the floor every time.

It's now Friday and, you know what that means, the first game of the season. It's all anyone's been talking about. I've seen in movies the excitement that people have towards these games, but I didn't think that it was this big of a deal.

Some of the girls tied ribbons in their hair to match the team's colours. The players, including Tyler, were hounded by at least fifteen people as soon as they stepped out into the corridor.

Everyone treated them as if they were celebrities like it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to see them. In reality, they see them every day at school. They walked past the players, patting them on the back and wishing them luck. Anyone with eyes could see that they loved the attention, some even went as far as blowing kisses.

"It's the first game of the season," Penny drags me into her room and pushes the door shut. "We're going." She rummages through her closet in an attempt to find something suitable to wear.

"But I'm tired," I drag out as I fall back onto her bed.

It's the truth, I am tired. I don't understand how some people can leave school looking the same as they did when they entered. I look like I've been in a fight with a rabid bear and barely survived...okay, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration.

"You can't not go, going to this game is a rite of passage around here." The volume of her voice gets louder as she goes on. She's almost completely submerged in her closet, ripping out clothes left, right, and centre.

"Do I have to?" I groan, covering my face with my hands.

"You have to." She confirms before ordering me to go get changed.

We both manage to find an outfit; she took longer than me because she was being indecisive. I just grabbed a random blue dress out of my suitcase that I still need to unpack and chucked it on. It's been a warm day today, so I didn't want to risk wearing trousers and sweating an obnoxious amount.

Penny forced me to make more of an effort, so I settled on straightening my hair instead of just running a brush through it and calling it a day. I slip my usual white trainers on before we head off to the game in her car.

She ended up wearing some blue denim shorts and a white sweater with Doc Martens that she's owned for over two years, yet they look like they were bought yesterday. It's ironic because she tried that outfit on first and decided it wasn't good enough.

It doesn't take long for us to pull up at the school. We climb out just before Brody rushes over to us. "How long does it take?" He gives us an incredulous look, his eyes narrowing in accusation. "You said you'd be here ages ago."

"Blame her," I nudge Penny. "She's the one who made us late."

"You're exaggerating, it didn't take me that long." She claims despite it taking her at least forty minutes. I dread to think how long she takes to get ready for something more important than a high school game.

"Yeah, right."

"Okay, well, you're here now. That's all that matters." Brody pushes his hair out of his face as he turns away from us. "Now if you don't mind, I'm going to get food before we miss even more of the game." He sprints towards the stall.

We choose to take more of a leisurely stroll over there.

Someone laughing catches my attention. I see the one and only Archer leaning against his motorcycle talking to a handful of people I don't recognise.

A girl slaps her hand onto his chest as she throws her head back in laughter at something he said. I roll my eyes. He doesn't try to move her hand so I'm assuming she could be his girlfriend or one of his girlfriends. Penny hasn't mentioned her before though.

"This is a corn dog." Brody places it in my hand, stealing my attention away from Archer.

"I know what a corn dog is." Laughter bubbles inside of me.

I think he assumes that I don't know any American food because I've never been here before. I'm sure everyone knows what a corn dog is though.

"But have you ever tried one?" He raises an eyebrow. I shake my head. His eyes fill with excitement once more. He urges me to take a bite of it, so I do.

"And?" He pushes me to tell him my judgement before I even have a chance to swallow.

I give him a thumbs-up. "I knew you'd like it. How could you not?" He hands one to Penny and grabs one for himself before thanking the woman.

*

"Did we win?" I shake Penny's arm to get her attention, completely clueless as to what's going on. I've been like this throughout the whole game. Everyone around me seems to know exactly what's happening when it's happening whereas I just clap when they clap and groan when they groan.

"There's still ten seconds left." Her eyes grow wide in anticipation as she leans forward to get a better view.

I watch the board as everyone counts down the final seconds. They chant with pride dripping off of every word.

My eyes find Archer in the crowd of people. He jumps up when the game ends, cupping his hands around his mouth and cheering. Everyone else joins him.

I copy Penny and stand up as well, clapping my hands and watching in awe as everyone is united. During school everyone is different. You wouldn't see the students who are deemed popular hanging out with the ones who are deemed nerds for studying. But now everyone is doing the same. They all have a shared joy for the victory of their team.

Tyler runs towards Archer with a full-blown smile on his face. He's breathing heavily as he rips his helmet off and pumps his fist in the air.

He actually is as good as Penny told me he was. Although she made sure I knew that just because he was good at American football doesn't mean that he's good at anything else, according to her he's an imbecile.

Everyone disperses from the bleachers and gets into their cars, racing out of the car park. I follow the crowd of people, holding onto Penny's arm when we nearly get separated. They're all going to the party. I'm not sure where it is but I know that it's a place where they can get drunk and have the best time of their lives. I think I'd rather remember my night though.

"I don't think I'm going to go to the party," I shout over the crowd of people to them. Penny furrows her eyebrows and grabs Brody to stop him from leaving without her.

"What?" She asks when we move to the side.

I repeat what I said causing their faces to fall. "Are you sure?" They both search my eyes.

"Yeah," I confirm. "I'm going to call a taxi and head back."

"If you're sure." They take it in turns to pull me into their embrace before joining the crowd once again in the hunt for her car.

I pull my phone out of my purse and call a taxi, groaning in frustration when they tell me that I'll have to wait twenty minutes. But I wait at the side of the road anyway. Cars full of seniors high on life pass me as I do.

Ten minutes pass and nearly everyone has left. There are only a few cars here that have either broken down or the drivers are too drunk to get behind the wheel.

"What are you doing?" A boy pulls up in front of me on his motorcycle. I squint my eyes to try and work out who it is.

He pulls his helmet off, automatically running his hand through his dishevelled brown hair to flatten it. Archer.

He waits for my answer. I have to walk closer to him for him to hear me over his obnoxiously loud engine. "What does it look like I'm doing? I'm waiting for a taxi." I state the obvious.

"And you're okay with waiting an hour?" My eyes fill with confusion once I process his words. The person on the phone said that it would be here in twenty minutes, but they could have just said that to keep me happy.

I cross my arms over my chest and shrug. "I don't mind waiting."

The wind starts to pick up. I tuck my hair behind my ear, shivering involuntarily. I run my hands up and down my arms to try and warm myself up, but it's no use.

He gets off of his scary-looking motorcycle and walks up to me. I try to ask him what he's doing but before I can he's taking off his leather jacket, holding it out in front of me. My confusion grows.

"Put it on," he demands plainly. I look at him as if he's crazy. Before I can complain he continues, "you're coming with me."