I looked at Rider, my eyes almost asking permission to panic. I tried to remain calm but the only thing we could do was quickly place the wig on my head and sneak out the back door.

The problem would be getting to his car at the front door.

"Wait! I have an idea!" I exclaim. I hand the wig back to him and start to walk through the main door. I can almost see his thoughts floating around his head. She doesn't realize what she's doing! They're going to question her to no end!

"Rider. Just watch. I'm going to push right through them and start walking. When I get out of sight, come out the same door and get into your car. I'll be walking along the road and you can pick me up. I'll put the wig on before you pick me up and the paparazzi will never know. Except..."

He's been biting the inside of his cheek the whole time I've been talking. I'm worried he might be bleeding.

"Except what?" Rider stops chewing on his lips to look at me.

"I'll need your jacket. So they won't recognize my dress at the restaurant."

"Deal. Let's do this."

"Should we synchronize our watches?" I ask as a joke.

He rolls his eyes as he shoves his jacket at me. Someone's cranky.

I never thought of how often the Jacksons' privacy was invaded. This was in public and they spotted his car. Maybe next time we should take my car.

Wait. What am I saying? Have I become delusional? There won't be a next time. After this "date" and I turn in the English project, we'll part ways. There shouldn't be any signs of us ever knowing each other. I know Rider thinks the same thing.

Plus, the semester is almost over. Next week is winter break and we'll have new classes once we come back. I won't have to deal with this rich boy anymore.

I start to walk out the main door as the paparazzi start to take pictures. They aren't as interested in me when they see I have nothing to do with Rider. But they continue taking them anyways. My step mother will freak out when she sees my face on the cover of her weekly magazines.

Once I begin walking along the sidewalk, I find it peaceful to be by myself and the nature around me engulfs me in a loud silence.

Ten long minutes go by before Rider's corvette pulls up beside me. There is no sign of any paparazzi.

Oh look, I spoke too soon.

"Get in." Rider hisses at me. I jump in and right as we pull away, the press is almost right on our tail. It was close, but my plan worked.

"So..." I comment after we've been speeding for five minutes.

"Yes? What?" Rider says in a panic.

"What's the name of the restaurant?" I ask, to see if I've heard of it.

"Golden Bistro." He replies, keeping his focus on the road in front of and behind him. He's still looking for the press, even though we lost them two stop lights and three left turns ago.

The Golden Bistro doesn't ring a bell in my memory bank. Then again, it is a five star restaurant, so it would make sense that I haven't been here.

We pull into the parking lot. He looks over at me for his jacket. Ah, yes, his signature jacket. I'm quite flattered I got him to shrug it off in the first place.

"Okay. Wig, check. Dress, check," He looks in the rearview mirror and smirks.

"Handsome as always, check."
Rolling my eyes? Check.

Once he puts his attention back to me, I put on a fake smile. I can't believe I'm doing this for him.

"Let's get this over with. The press will be here any minute." Rider says. I can't imagine how much of this he's been through, but apparently enough to where he's not excited to go out in public anymore.

"You really hate being here with me, don't you?" He asks me, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"What? No. Maybe? Hate is a strong word. I'd just rather be anywhere else but here." I respond, because he's been such a jerk towards me.

He frowns, slightly taken back by my attitude. I didn't mean for it to sound...okay so I meant to show him how cranky I was. But he should know better than anyone how stressed out I am because of this ordeal.

"You do realize this is my daily life. I have no sympathy for you. If you had just told me no-"

"I did tell you no, Rider. You were so persistent though, and I knew you needed help-"

"Hey. Shut up for one minute. The press are here and we need to make an entrance."

He just cut me off. Who does he think he is? I'm never talking to this narcissistic, egotistical, self centered, arrogant boy ever--

"Now would be a good time to get out." Rider broke me out of my trance as he opened my car door for me. The press were crowded around me in less than 10 seconds. It freaked me out how close they were.

Rider pushed through them, holding my hand as he drug me along. The paparazzi took a million pictures and I was starting to see spots everywhere. Finally, we made our way in the restaurant.

Apparently there's an unwritten rule that the press doesn't go past the doors of the restaurant because they stalked us through the windows. All I could do was keep my head ducked down as we got a table in the back.

We sat down, and I was anxious already to get home. I had always placed food in high regards, but this experience made me lose my appetite. I was tempted to sit there and twiddle my thumbs.

"Kinda makes you sick to your stomach, right? These people stalk you and won't leave you alone. Don't they have anything better to do. I promised myself I would stay out of the light but they always find me."

Rider seemed to be talking to himself, mostly. But I found it slightly odd of him to share this aloud. He felt comfortable enough around me to vent his feelings. I was truly honored.

"You wanna sneak out and go to Burger King or something?" He asked suddenly. Just a few minutes ago I hated to think of food being in front of me. As good as Burger King sounded, I wasn't actually on a date with Rider, and I didn't want to make this anything but business.

"You don't want to eat here?" I asked him. He looked down at his lap.

"Give it a minute. You'll see that the press won't stay out there for long. They'll barge in at any time. So, I'll ask again, do you want to sneak out?"

Sneak out of a five star restaurant with a boy I can't stand to get fast food?

"Sure, why not." I sighed in defeat. He grabbed my hand as we ran out the back door. I wondered for a brief second if he got the same jolt of energy when he touched my hand as I did. I quickly shrugged the thought off. It was probably static electricity.

Rider didn't let go of my hand until we got to the car. Thankfully, we had moved at just the right time and the paparazzi had just barged in the doors to the restaurant. Rider gave me a slight smirk as we buckled up and drove off.

"That's pretty great that you knew exactly when to get out of there for us to not get caught." I commented, as soon as I felt the tension between us dwindle. It was as if before now there had been a wall between the two of us, both of us trying to tear it down but making things more awkward in the process. Now, if there was any awkwardness or spite towards each other, it was barely noticeable, like a cloud instead of a wall.

"Great? Brynn," Okay, I think I'm sick. I got chills when he said my name. "I think it's pretty sad that I can predict when I need to sneak out of a place to avoid getting my face all over magazines."

"Well, it's not like you're doing anything bad." I tried to reassure him that the skill was actually useful. He slowly turned on the street where Burger King was located. To be honest, I hadn't been to Burger King in such a long time. I didn't know what I'd order, so I'd have to make sure he went before me to order. He seemed upset with me all of a sudden.

"Maybe not this time. I can't live my own life without everyone else getting involved, though." His voice was scratchy, it sounded like he was going to cry. I felt bad for him. Oh my word, I felt so bad for him. For once, I stopped feeling self pity and decided he might have it worse than me.

"So, you're saying you want to go out and do rebellious things?" I asked, in disbelief. I have never been anything but the school good girl. What was it like to have a rebellious part of you?

"I want to go to parties without someone saying I got drunk and was busted for underage drinking. I have never done that, and I hate people who make up stuff like that. I want to be able to pick a girl to hang out with and not be afraid if the public will approve or not. Courtney is a great girl, but we have nothing in common! I'd rather..."

He stopped abruptly, leaving me on a cliffhanger. His attention was suddenly focused into putting the car in park. I wanted to ask, but... Oh, who am I kidding? I was going to ask him to finish that sentence.

"You'd rather what?" I pried. He froze with his hand on his keys. There was no way to avoid it now. My anxiety started to build up, and I felt like this was the moment where I would find out some huge fact about his life.

"I'd rather come to Burger King with the coolest girl at Westover High every day." And with that we both let a smile come across our faces. We were starting to understand each other, and that's when I realized I'd never stop smiling with him.

A/N

Terribly sorry that I'm about a week behind on updating! I wish I could update every week. All I can say is.. school. And I'm pretty sure that sums things up right there.

Please keep reading! I lovvvveeee all of you readers out there who are voting and reading but please comment! I want to know your thoughts! Thank you!

Look for another chapter about two weeks from now. It might be sooner than that, it might be later. But I hope you all love the plot as of now. There will be more characters, I promise! I have much planned for this book!

Thank you all!

Always, Sunny