The office door comes open, and Ms.Moore walks in with a stack of papers; she walks over to her desk and sits them on the table. "Here's the form Jessica." She hands one of the sheets to her.

Jessica stands from the chair and takes it out of her hand. "Thanks," She folds the paper down and sticks it into her back pocket before sitting back down.

Ms.Moore takes a seat behind her desk. "So, you girls may be wondering why I wanted to meet with you both this morning." She looks at me and then to Jessica. "Jayda, you have not started on a senior project yet, correct?"

"Um, no."

"What happened with the project Mr.Brooks suggested. I thought you and Mr.Adams were working on the Romeo and Juliet assignment together."

"It didn't really work out...my parents didn't want me to do the project." It's been only two months, but it seems like so long ago when I got assigned to work with Ryder on that project.

"I see, I see," she says, nodding her head.

"Jessica, you haven't started on anything either. Have you?"

"No."

"Did your parents not want you to do the R&J assignment, either?" Ms.Moore asks her.

"They said I could do it; I just didn't want to. I'm not a huge fan of Shakespeare," she says.

My mouth drops open. I turn my head to her. "What? Why not?" I ask, intrigued.

"I'm not really into exaggerated love stories." she simply says in a flat voice.

Exaggerated. "Wh-"

"Ladies, you guys can discuss the democracy of Romeo and Juliet on your own time," Ms.Moore says. I turn back around and face her. "Since you guys have not started on a senior project yet. I thought maybe you two would like to work together on one," she suggests. "You both are far behind. Everyone else has started on something except for you two. You guys don't have long before graduation, and your projects are due in May."

I don't say anything. I wait for Jessica to say yes or no. I really don't want a partner; I work best by myself. But I am behind, could you blame me? A project, graduating, isn't really important to me; I have more serious things to worry about. I wish my parents would have just let me just do the R&J project I would've done by now.

Well, if I were working with Ryder, I wouldn't have been anywhere near done. If I were working by myself, I know I would've been finished. Working with Jessica may not be a bad thing; I have no idea what to do; I don't even know where to start. So if she wants to work with me, I wouldn't mind.

"So?" Ms.Moore presses for us to respond.

"I don't mind, Jessica says.

"Jayda?" Ms.Moore raises her eyebrow.

"It's fine with me.

After about thirty minutes, we leave the office and walk down the hallway heading to class. "So when do you want to do this?" Jessica asks me as we turn the corner.

"Uhm." I have therapy after school today, so that won't work. Tomorrow I have STEM club that usually lasts till about seven. I could meet her after therapy at the diner. I stop walking, "Do you want to meet at the diner around five?"

She turns around, facing me. "Uh, sure. Five."

"Five," I repeat, confirming the time. I give her a small smile. "I'll see you later then."

"Okay." she walks away from me and down the hall. I watch as she turns the corner.

What class do I have? Oh yeah, history. Ugh, I really don't feel like going; I doubt we will even be doing any work. But I have to go. I have a folder full of work I need to turn in.

...

"Here you go." I hand my history work to the teacher.

"Thank you," Mr.Kim says. He takes the folder out of my hand and places it into his desk drawer. "I will have your grade updated by the end of the week." He says.

"Okay." I follow behind the last student out of the class. The hallway is crowded, more crowded than ever before. Or maybe it just seems that way because I haven't been here in forever. Ignore the staring eyes and walk to my class.

"Jayda!" A voice calls. I stop walking and turn around.

"Hey," Thomas says.

"Sorry I couldn't be here for your grand return," he says, smiling. I never noticed it before, but he actually kind of cute, not in a Caleb cute way but like a little brother cute. Even though he's bigger than me, he is tall and skinny, but it fits him.

"Shut up." I nudge him. We continue walking down the hall.

"So you ready for Friday?" he asks.

"Yeah, I'm kind of nervous, though," I admit.

"Don't be your coding is phenomenal; I'm confident we will take home a win," he assures me. When we turn the corner, I notice Ryder, Matt, and Zach up ahead. When we get closer, Ryder's eyes meet mine for just a second, and then he looks away from me. "Did you get the uniform?" Thomas asks.

"Uniform? you didn't say anything about uniforms."

"I guess you haven't talked to Liam yet; it was his idea," he says.

"What is it?"

"A black button-down shirt with a black tie. Oh, and black pants." We both stop walking; we are in front of our math class. "Or a black skirt," he adds. "Liam said he prefers the girls to wear black skirts."

"Alright." I have a black skirt, I think. I recall my mother buying me a jean one.

"Okay, great, well, I'll see you at lunch," he says.

"You're not coming to class?"

"No, I have a meeting with the counselor."

"Oh, okay. Well, I'll see you later."

...

"Was it just me, or was that calculus test extremely hard?" Violet asks, throwing her head back as we exit the class.

"Harder than usual, you mean?

"Ugh, I hope that test doesn't bring my GPA down. Why is it that they make your senior year the hardest? It's like they want us to fail and not go to college," she says.

We walk down the hall to our English class, my heart starts racing, and I'm getting all sweaty as we get closer. I really don't want to go in there; I don't want to see Ryder, I don't want to see Ashely, Matt, or Zach, Monica, and everyone else who sits on that right side of class. Violet opens the door; I stop and take a deep breath before following behind her. She walks over to her seat; I stop in front of Mr. Brook's desk. "Here you go."

He looks up at me. "Jayda!" he says, surprised. "I didn't know you were coming back today." I don't know what to say, so I just smile. He looks at the folder in my hands. "You did the work?"

"Yup."

"Wow, okay." he takes the thick folder out of my hands. "Thank you, go ahead and find your seat."

I turn around and walk right to my desk. James sits in front of mines as he always does, and Violet sits beside me. "He asked you out again?" Violet gasps.

"Yup, we are going out tonight," James says with a huge smile on his face.

"Wow, what are you going to wear?" Violet asks him.

James opens his mouth, about to go into detail on his outfit. "Okay, class," Mr.Brooks says, cutting him off. James rolls his eyes and turns around in his chair. I hold back my laugh.

...

The bell rings, everyone stands up from their chairs and heads out the door. "Remember, the word for the week is Oblivion! Go home, study that word, figure out what it means, and have your poems ready on Friday!" Mr.Brooks shouts. "If you don't know what the words mean, you won't be able to write an essay based on the poem of your choice, let alone write your own."

I grab my notebook and follow behind James and Ashely. I look at my phone. It's eleven fifty. I wonder if Travis is outside now, he probably is; I need the hallways to clear a little more before I walk outside; I don't want anyone seeing me.

"Did anyone else think about The Fault In Our Stars?" Violet says.

"Bitch I did!" James says, excited. "I thought I was the only one." they both laugh. "I love that movie. I remember when I first saw it, I couldn't stop crying."

"Right! We really all thought Hazel was going to die." Violet places her hand on her forehead.

James fans his eyes dramatically. "Oh my god, now you got me about to cry."

"Have you seen it?" Violet asks me.

"Yeah, once. But I reread the book multiple times."

"Should've known." James jokes.

"What?" I squeal. "I liked the book better."

After stopping at James's locker and then Violets, we finally reach the cafeteria. It's twelve now. "I'll catch up with you guys. I have to go... to the counselor's suite." I lie.

"Alright," Violet says. She and James walk into the cafeteria.

I turn around and head the other way. I walk upstairs and grab my keys out of my locker, and then head outside. As I exit the building, I see his familiar black car across the street; it's Traviss car. I walk down the stairs and unlock my car door; once I reach the car, I open the glove department and take out the envelope full of money.

I close the car door and then walk across the street to Travis's car. I look around, making sure that no one is out here, and then get in. My eyes immediately go to the blonde girl in the back seat. "Kayla?" I say, shocked. I wasn't expecting to see Travis's sister here.

"The one and only!" she smiles with a cigarette in her hand. She blows out a puff of smoke. I gag at the smell.

I turn and look at Travis. He hasn't even acknowledged me since I got into the car. He's too busy on his phone texting. Once he finishes, he stops and looks at me; his eyes are red and glary, and there are dark circles around them. He must be high. "You have my money?" he asks. I can smell the weed on his breath along with the alcohol. I give him the envelope, he forcefully takes it out of my hand and examines it, making sure all the money is there.

"Is that it?" I ask. I need to get out of here; I don't want to stay here any longer than I have to. He puts the envelope down and then looks at me.

"You haven't told anyone about our little..." he pauses, searching for the word. "Arrangement, have you?"

"No." I lie. I did tell Blair, but that's it.

"I really hope your not fucking lying to me, Jayda," he says.

"I'm not." I am. "Why would you think I told someone?"

"I heard someone has been asking about me," he says vaguely.

"Who?"

"Your friend Ryder!"

My heart skips a beat... Ryder? Why would Ryder be asking about him? "I didn't tell him about anything."

He smacks his teeth. "So why am I hearing that he's asking about me... and my connection to you,"

"Well, I don't know who you're getting this information from, but it isn't true; it wouldn't even make sense. He doesn't know about anything relating to you and me."

"Well, obviously, he fucking does, or he wouldn't be asking people about me," he shouts. I stay quiet, not saying anything more; no matter what I say, he will never believe me. "So, if you don't want anything to happen to him, go back into that school and tell him to stop asking about me." he unlocks the door, and I hop out of the car.

He drives away so fast the car makes a screeching sound and leaves black skid marks on the pavement. I watch as he disappears down the road. Once he leaves, I look across the street back at the school. I see Ryder walking across the school's parking lot; he looks furious. Did he follow me? He walks across the street.

"Who the hell was that?" he growls.

"That was the guy you have been looking for." I shout. "why the hell are you looking for, Travis?" I question him.

"I have my reasons," he says sarcastically.

"You shouldn't be asking around about him. What do you want from him? Drugs?" That's the only logical reason I can think of. But it still doesn't really make sense; if he wanted drugs, he could've just asked Zach. He's one of Travis's customers. I know because I'm the one that puts it into his locker while he's in class; I'm the one that slips it into his gym bag when he isn't looking.

"No, I don't want fucking drugs from him. Do you? Why the hell are you hanging with a drug dealer?" he throws his hands in the air.

I press my lips together in anger. "Maybe I wasn't clear yesterday. I told you to stay the hell away from me. That means to stay the hell out of my life!"

"I can't do that," he says.

I blow my breath aggressively. "No, no, I'm not fucking doing this with you again. I really don't want to hear shit you have to say, you know why? Because that's all you do is 'say things' that you don't mean." I continue rambling. "You say them because they sound nice, and you think that's what I want to hear, but I don't."

"But-"

I cut him off. "Ryder, no. I don't want to hear anything you have to say; you're the same ass you were a month ago, nothing has changed even after you promised me you were going to change, and you didn't." I stop waiting for him to say something to make an excuse, but he doesn't; I shake my head. Please just leave me alone. I walk away from him across the street.