The blaring sound of my alarm woke me up. I groaned, rolling over and slamming my hand down on the old clock. Once the noise ceased, I sat up and rubbed my eyes.

I sighed. After a peaceful and relaxing summer - well, as peaceful and relaxing as it can get at the Matthews' household - school was beginning again. Although I did well in most of my classes, I hated school. There were too many prying eyes and judgemental peers for my liking.

I climbed out of my warm comforter and trudged over to my closet. I pulled out my favorite hoodie and a plain black teeshirt, as well as a pair of stretchy high-waisted jeans from my dresser. I tucked the gold necklace that I always wore underneath the hoodie. Once I was dressed, I brushed my unruly blonde hair as well as my teeth and slung my backpack over my shoulder.

As I walked down the hallway, I checked my phone. Once I made it to the kitchen, I looked up to see my sister, Olivia, sitting at the table with a bowl of cereal in front of her.

"Good morning, Lindsey," she said to me with a bright smile on her face.

I nodded at her. "Morning, Liv," I responded, dropping my bag beside the door and heading over to the cupboard.

I grabbed two slices of bread and dropped them in the toaster. While I was waiting for them to pop back up, I hopped on top of the counter.

"Are you excited to start your junior year?" my sister asked me.

I shrugged. "I just want to get it over with."

Olivia laughed. "I feel you, man. I'm so glad to be a senior."

I smiled a little, jumping off the counter and placing my toast on a plate. After spreading butter and jelly on my breakfast, I walked over to sit across from my sister. "Have you got any colleges  in mind?"

She bit her lip. "No, actually, I was thinking of taking a gap year."

I furrowed my eyebrows. "Really?"

Ever since we were both little girls, Olivia had always wanted to graduate high school and go to college to become a doctor as soon as possible. Her saying that she wanted to wait a year before starting college was not expected.

She shrugged. "Why not? I think I deserve a break, no?"

"It's your choice, Liv," I told her. "I just wasn't expecting you to say that."

Olivia narrowed her eyes at me. "Well, Linds, people change. Things change."

I blinked, shoving the rest of my toast in my mouth and standing up. "Got it. I'm going to head to school. See you there?"

She nodded, looking into her soggy Frosted Flakes. "See you."

I shoved my feet in my black and white Converse, grabbed my keys and bag, and rushed out of the house.

Once I was seated in my car, I rested my forehead against the wheel and took a big breath. This day was not off to a good start.

I began the short drive to my high school, which was less than ten minutes down the road from my house. As I pulled into the busy parking lot, I took in all of the bustling students, all wearing their best outfits and a bright smile. I never understood why there was so much excitement surrounding the first day of school. It was just signifying the start of another one hundred-eighty days of stress.

I parked my car and climbed out of it. I dug my crumpled schedule out of my backpack and scanned it, looking for my first-period class. I had English first, which wouldn't be too bad. English was one of my favorite subjects.

I rushed across the parking lot and to the front door of the school, ignoring the groups of students chattering happily. I went directly to my class even though ten minutes remained until the bell rang. 

One boy was already sitting at the front and center of the class, so I didn't want to be up there. The back was where the annoying troublemakers always sat, so I decided to sit in the middle of the room next to the window. Since the desks were set up in pairs, I set my backpack on the chair to my left. I scrolled through Instagram while I waited, looking up every time a student walked into the room. 

A brown-haired girl sat in front of me. After she had settled in, she turned around in her desk and smiled at me. "Hi," she greeted.

I looked at her. "Hey."

"I'm Rachel," she introduced.

On instinct, my hand flew up to my collarbone to touch the chain of my necklace. "Lindsey," I informed.

"Are you new?" Rachel asked.

"No," I answered. "I've been going here since Kindergarten."

She frowned. "Oh, I'm sorry. I've never seen you before."

"It's fine," I told her, before bringing my attention to my phone again.

"Are you shy?" Rachel's voice piped up again.

I rose an eyebrow. "I don't think so."

She scrunched up her face in confusion as if she couldn't comprehend a person not being as friendly and outgoing as she was. "Oh, okay. I'm sorry for bothering you."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. "It's fine," I repeated.

Rachel turned to face the front and I relaxed back into my chair. Did some people not understand that not everyone was like them?

Finally, the teacher strutted into the room. I didn't recognize him, so I figured he replaced the elderly woman who used to teach upperclassmen English. He sat down at his desk just as the bell rang and began to call out everyone's names to take attendance. After hearing the list of people taking this class, my excitement for it decreased.

It wasn't that I was shy, or mean, or rude. I just didn't see the appeal of creating bonds that I knew would inevitably perish. If the friendship didn't end in a fight, it would end in the two people distancing without any reason. Both scenarios were equally sad.

"Alright, class," the teacher called, "if you could settle down for me that would be amazing."

The chatter of my peers slowly died down until we were enveloped in silence.

The man clasped his hands. "Perfect. My name is Mr. Lyons and I am brand new this year, so I don't know any of you at all. With that in mind, please be patient while I try to learn your names. The first thing we will be doing is changing seats."

The class groaned and Mr. Lyons chuckled. "I know, I know, assigned seats are the worse, but I need to use them. It'll help me learn your names and gauge your behavior. Once you earn my trust, we can try out free seating, but for now..."

He pulled out a chart and began instructing students where to sit. When a girl was assigned to sit where I was, I stood up with my belongings.

Mr. Lyons was reading off names for the last row and I still hadn't been called. There were only three other students remaining, and I didn't necessarily want to sit next to any of them. Once the teacher had two girls sit beside each other at one desk pairing, I sighed, making my way towards the final two seats.

"Asher Wilde, you'll be sitting there," Mr. Lyons said, pointing to the seat on the left, "and Lindsey Matthews gets the window seat."

I sat down in the seat, which was tucked into the back right corner of the class. Asher sat beside me and sent me a friendly smile. I nodded and gave him a half-smile in return.

"Thank you, everyone. Now, let's go over the syllabus."

As Mr. Lyons droned about what we were going to be learning this year, I did my best not to look over at the guy on my left.

Asher Wilde was a name known by everyone in our school. With his stark black locks, sparkling blue eyes, tanned skin, and sculpted body, he definitely was good looking. Apparently, he was a sweet, friendly guy who had only ever had one girlfriend. He was the quarterback of our football team and excelled in most of his classes. He was known to throw a punch here and there and only had one close friend, but was an all-around good guy.

My attention was brought back to the teacher when the squeaking sound of a marker against a whiteboard filled the room. "You may have noticed the desks are set up in pairs. That is because we will be doing much partner work throughout the year. Since today is the first day, I'm going to give you a simple and easy assignment."

He scribbled out what he wanted to be done on the board as he spoke. "Share three facts about yourself with your partner. Once all six facts have been shared, see what you have in common. Compare and contrast some things about yourself from your partner. Got it?"

The class gave him an affirmative response, so he set us off.

I took a sheet of paper from my binder out and set it on my desk. When I looked over at Asher, I saw that his blue eyes were already on me. 

I cleared my throat. "Do you want to start?"

He grinned, showing off his perfect teeth. "Sure. My favorite color is green."

I raised my eyebrows. "Couldn't tell," I joked, pointing at his forest green shirt.

Asher chuckled. "Let's alternate," he suggested.

"Alright," I agreed. "Um, my favorite color is blue."

He rolled his eyes. "Couldn't tell," he mocked.

I looked down at my blue sweatshirt and blushed. "Shut up."

Asher smiled. "My favorite sport is football."

"I've never played a sport," I informed.

He cocked his head. "Really?"

I nodded, looking into my lap. "Yeah, I'm not the athletic type."

"So what do you do for fun?" he asked me.

I shrugged. "I read a lot," I said. "I like to draw on occasion. I'm also known as quite the movie marathoner around my house."

"Favorite movie?" he prompted, pushing his black hair out of his eyes with his left hand.

I scooted back, noticing how close he was to me. "Um, I'd have to say The Matrix."

"Never seen it," Asher told me.

"It's good," I mentioned. "What's your favorite movie?"

He bit his lip. "I don't really watch movies. I like The Hunger Games."

"I like those too," I said.

Asher grinned and scribbled something on his sheet of paper. Under the word compare, he wrote about our shared fondness of The Hunger Games. I rolled my eyes but did the same. 

"You said you like to read?" he asked, and when I nodded, he questioned further, "What's your favorite book?"

I rested my head on my right hand. "That's a tough one. I like The Hunger Games books, but I wouldn't say they're my favorite. Maybe Fahrenheit 451."

He nodded. "That's been on my 'To Read' list forever," he mentioned.

"I have it," I told him. "You can borrow it if you'd like."

Asher grinned at me. "I'd love that."

I stared up at his bright blue eyes and couldn't help but smile back.

Mr. Lyons got the class' attention and asked us to give him some examples of things we had compared and contrasted. He called on separate students for the rest of the class, which had gone by surprisingly fast.

When the bell rang, I stood quickly, gathering my things. I was about to rush off when Asher rested his hand on my forearm.

"It was nice meeting you, Lindsey."

I nodded, sending him a quick smile. "You too, Asher. I'll see you tomorrow...unless we have more classes together or something."

He grinned. "I hope so."

And with that, I rushed to my next class.