My locker door slammed. I assumed it was maybe Jeremy or Brennan trying to scare me, but nope! If your guess was anyone close to dorkis Chanson, collect your free cookie at the nearest subway. "Good morning, Em," Aaron smiled, his bright pearly whites gleaming in the hallway lights.

I rolled my eyes, avoiding his happy-go-lucky gaze. "I see you're taking lessons from a full-cocked Jeremy Arche," I snorted.

"I have something I want to show you?" He exclaimed. Shoot me now, Arche. It wasn't even eight in the morning.

"What is it?" I grumbled, giving in.

Aaron reached into his backpack, dug around, and yanked out two tickets to Carnaval de Los Muertos, Los Angeles, California's most important day of the Dead carnival. "Would you like to be my plus one? My stepdad is working one of the carnival booths, and neither of my brothers wanted to come, so I thought I would invite you instead." Aaron shrugged his shoulders.

It was the first time I was tongue-tied in a while. Aaron was asking me out on a date. How precious. I wasn't that girl who went out on dates with guys I barely knew, let alone nerdy guys, but dorkis and I had something special. Something I had with no other student. He was unlike other boys in this school, and I debated whether I should do this.

"I'll think about it," I said, snatching a ticket from his fingers. Would it be a waste of his money if I didn't attend?

"I'll take that for now," Aaron said. I stuffed the ticket in the front pocket of my backpack, searching the near-empty hallway as the final warning bell rang, and wandered off, feeling his heavy footsteps follow me to class.

I plopped in a random seat, and Aaron slid down beside me. "Can I help you?" I growled.

"Look, it's me or one of the two assholes in the corner," Aaron said. I followed his eyes to the corner of the room where Brennan and Jeremy sat against the wall.

"Is there a third choice?" I asked him with a raised eyebrow.

He scoffed. "Sure, if you rather have their company—"

"Nope," I boasted. "I rather have a dorky smartass stay here."

"Who, me?" He asked.

"Yeah, you," I replied. It was better this way. I liked him, which wasn't usually something I did. Aaron was less annoying anyway, growing on me, like the best friend I didn't know I needed. Not to mention, he was cute. Not in a hot daddy type of way, at least for now. More like a little puppy dog begging for table scraps.

"I like you, Emily Hart," He said, repeatedly showing off his perfectly straight pearly white teeth. I rolled my eyes.

Great.

"Don't push your luck, Dorkis," I muttered. His arms shot to the sky in protest.

"Oh, trust me. I'll stay in my lane if you want me—" The bell rang, interrupting Aaron, and Mr. Hawke wandered through the door, throwing down his briefcase on the front desk.

Mr. Hawke was a usual substitute teacher who often taught a lot of different subjects, but he also gave little effort into teaching any of them, which gave us loads of free time whenever he was here. If you missed one detail, he was also Jeremy's father and the resemblance was uncanny to the lady's man's attitude.

"I'm assuming everyone is here?" Mr. Hawke said, pushing his glasses into place as he looked up at the class. His eyes shifted at me, and he confidently smiled.

"Yeah, Dad. We're all here," Jeremy retorted, rolling his eyes.

"Great," He said, flipping his feet on the desk. "You're free to text or whatever, as long as it won't get you into trouble," He said, watching me again.

Aaron nudged me, aware I was uncomfortable, and scooted his chair closer to mine. He whispered, "Is it me, or is Mr. Hawke googling you with his eyes?"

"Way to make it obvious, genius," I whispered back; I reached into my backpack, pulled out a notebook and a pen, and started stabbing my paper.

"Well, would you like me to say something about this to Mr. Davis?" He whispered to me.

"I don't need you to be my dad or my hero, Aaron. Please stay out of it," I whispered loudly at him. I've had plenty of dads already do that for me, anyway.

"I'm just trying to help," he said. His hands shot to the sky. He was one of the few people I wanted help from.

I snorted. "And you thought that was helpful?"

"Yeah," he muttered, irritable as his eyes rolled.

"Emily," Jeremy heckled my name from across the room. Looking back at his little delinquent gang, I gave in and sighed.

"What do you want, Jeremy?"

"Did your boy toy pay you to sit with him? You know his step-daddy is loaded with cash. Did dorkis forget to mention that?" Jeremy's eyes bounced to Aaron, his flawless, bright red cheeks turning darker as he clenched his sharp jawline.

"She didn't need to know that," Aaron grumbled, irritable, his eyes shifting in my direction.

"Why don't you join us, Aaron?" Jessica said, tapping the empty seat next to her. "You don't need a fake needy wannabe bit—"

"Shut up, Jessica," I snapped, rising from my seat, but Aaron yanked me back.

"Goddamn it," Mr. Hawke shrieked. "Either you shut up, or I'll pass detention slips."

Cecelia and her group rolled their eyes simultaneously as Aaron exchanged glances. His pen tapped against his notebook, and he scribbled down on the page before nudging me and showing me a short note saying, "They're not worth it." I scoffed, avoiding eye contact. He was right. It wasn't, but I would never let a bully beat me for anything. I made a mental reminder to let Cece and her freaks know harder than she thought. Karma is a bitch.

Rich or not, Aaron was growing on me; believe it or not, I craved his company like a baby craved its bottle. I was inevitably crushing hard, thirsty for whatever Aaron offered. Maybe I would go to the carnival after all.