There was no time to waste. I pushed aside all of the horrible things I wanted to say to Rider and rushed to English. Rider was in my first block as well, but I don't think he cared about being late. He'd probably throw a 100 dollar bill at Ms. Hobson and take his seat like nothing happened.

He made me want to puke.

I know what you're all thinking; just a few minutes ago I wanted Rider Jackson to notice me. You all have permission to call me bipolar and insane and what not. Honestly, I had a reasoning behind it, but go ahead and jump to conclusions.

It never fails that every morning, Rider gets dropped off in a limousine and it's like the paparazzi are on him like glue. Not actual paparazzi - though I'm surprised they haven't figured out he goes to a public school - but girls with their cell phones, trying to get pictures, trying to get his attention. If he hates it, he has a funny way of showing it.

Each morning he waves to his adoring fans and chooses a new girl to wink at each morning. Okay, okay. Now you're asking why I stalk him, right? In all fairness, even if you turn a blind eye to him each morning - which I usually do - there's a different girl that ends up fainting, and you can't help but notice that. Therefore, he's a leading cause of why our nurse's office is so busy.

So now you get the big picture, right? He winked at me this morning -and I wanted him to - meaning he had winked at every other girl on this hall in the mornings before first block. He spotted me, and I'm the last girl he would think to look at - he would've already done it by now if I got his attention. I wanted him to look at me, just to acknowledge my presence.

Yes, I still seem a bit bipolar. I don't make any sense. I'll just go on with my story.

I took off my gray beanie once I sat in my chair at the back of the class. As I un-tucked my hair from my jacket, I realized this was the first time people would see the ends of my hair as purple. It wasn't like I was trying to stand out, it was just Kool-Aid. However, it was enough for one of my step sister's friends to go, "O la la, somebody's trying to stand out."

Kylie Reynolds, head cheerleader. School's mean girl. And wildly known to all the boys at our school.

Nah, I'm just kidding. It would be too cliché for her to be the head cheerleader and mean girl. But she is still one of the popular kids, and I didn't really feel like getting on her bad side.

"Kylie, no one can take the spotlight from you." I said, running a hand through my hair and watching her dumb founded expression. I nodded for her to walk away. Alright, so I lied, I get on her bad side. It's not intentional, I just happen to be really sassy (so I've been told).

A tap on my shoulder makes me look beside me. I smile at Easton, "Hey you ready for practice this afternoon? I think Russ has some new songs for y'all to try out."

Easton rolls his dark brown eyes. Russ always has new songs for them to try out. Being the lead singer makes him the judge of the whole band, apparently. Forget the fact that there's Milo, Tyler, and (who can forget) Mya. No, no. Russ must be the deciding vote each time.

For the past three years, I've been managing a band called Forever After. Easton plays drums, Milo plays guitar, Tyler plays bass, and Mya (the only girl in the band) plays keyboard. They sound pretty good, but it did take them three years to get to the point they're at now. In the past year they finally got some paying gigs, but it's only been a few. I'm probably the worst manager ever.

"Russ is gonna drive me crazy. Wait, no, he already has. We have a gig in one week, Brynn! One week! We only know of one song that we're gonna do, and who knows if he'll change that?"

Being the manager of Forever After isn't just supposed to be about booking gigs, having connections. But according to Russ, I shouldn't worry about choosing the songs we'll be playing or even allowed to give my input. Fine. Be that way.

It was a dream of mine to be in a band. I walked by the band and chorus room all the time and got chills. Seriously, music is a passion of mine. Too bad I can't sing or play an instrument. I'm too busy with begging people to hire our band to play at their parties to have any time to learn an instrument.

"Don't worry, we'll tie him up and throw him in a closet for today's rehearsal." I told Easton just as Ms. Hobson walked into class. We still had five more minutes before the last bell of the morning, but I like coming into class to talk to Easton. I usually can't find him any other time of the day except for lunch. Although, a lot of times he's sneaking off campus for lunch.

"And who would sing? Mya?" Easton asks, apparently taking my advice for Russ seriously. I blinked and then told him, "Well, sure. I've heard Milo and Tyler sing and even you, and I'm pretty sure Mya would beat all of you."

Easton laughed as he dug out a pencil and notebook for class, "No. Mya can't sing. If she's told you that, she's lying and doesn't know it."

Poor girl. I can't help but think of how many people can sing and won't and how many people who think they can sing but can't. It's an ironic situation.

"Well I guess we'll just have to keep listening to Russ complain about your terrible rhythm, Milo and Tyler's chords that need tuning, and Mya's... well he doesn't really ever say anything to Mya." Now that I thought about it, he really only seemed to whine about the guys.

Easton scoffed, "It's because he has a thing for Mya. Girl doesn't have a clue."

It's not that Russ was unattractive or had a bad personality. He just liked to complain... a lot. Which basically made his whole personality awful.

At last the bell rang and kids came piling in the class. Technically they were all late, but a teacher can't count half of the class late... every day. Let it be known that the kids like Easton and I were Ms. Hobson's favorites.

Students were still drifting into class, but Ms. Hobson went on to start the lesson. In her eyes, if you missed something it was your responsibility to make it up. A lot of people just barely pass her class.

"There is no bell ringer to start class today. I have a big project planned so we're jumping right into things. Ever since the first day of the semester, you'll recall that you've been given a writing prompt each day." The whole class seems to groan at the mention of writing prompts. Personally, I don't care one way or another. Usually a writing prompt means opinionated writing, and you can't be graded on your opinion.

"I have put a list of 13 different prompts on the board. Now," She pulls out a hat from under her desk - one of those black top hats - and continues. "I have put all of these on pieces of scrap paper, making sure to double them. There is a total of 26 papers in here, one for each of you to draw from." She doesn't explain any further before she passes the hat around.

When I pull mine out, it reads What is your opinion of secrets? Ah that was Ms. H for you, always being non descriptive, letting us write more freely than tying us down with what we needed to write.

Once everyone got their papers, Ms. H went back to the front of the room. She smiled brightly at us before giving us the rest of the instructions.

"Mr. Reed, what does your paper say?" She asked Easton. He was slightly shocked that he was the first one to be chosen.

"Um, it says 'What is your opinion of nature'?" She continues to smile, making me wonder what kind of coffee she's been drinking lately. She's never this happy.

"Raise your hand if you have the same as Easton." Just then my step sister, Demi, raised her hand from across the room.

"You two will be partners. The paper you're given is your subject. "Even though Easton didn't say anything, I could practically hear him groaning from his head. I wanted to apologize for his dumb luck, but then she called on someone else and I needed to pay attention.

She kept going through the list of people, and I saw a pattern of opinionated prompts. However, none matched what mine said. When we were down to six people, I realized it would be my luck to be partnered with Kylie or the other boy sitting in front of me who was always trying to balance a pencil on his nose. I just knew this was not going to end well.

Kylie was called on, and she ended up having the same topic as the boy in front of me. Thank goodness! That left Cory, Rider, Allison, and myself. I'd rather have Allison, she was very smart. But above all I would've rather had Easton as my partner or work alone. We can't always get what we want, though.

"Brynn." She chose me. I said mine aloud and tried not to make a big deal of who responded. But when they claimed they were my partner I almost fell out of my chair.

"I have that one."

[Brynn pictured above]