"Daddy?"

Her voice was far more high pitched than usual as she stumbled forward, frantically craning her head for any sound other than the crackle of flames.

"Daddy where are you? I can't see a thing!"

The voice coming out of the girl was panicked and desperate as I watched her stumble around the devastation blindly.

"Open your eyes!" I tried to yell at her but she continued to yell for her father.

She circled the car wreckage thrice before coming to halt and crumbling to her knees sobbing hysterically. Clinging to a snow white teddy bear, she cried and cried and cried. She cried as thick black smoke wrapped itself around her like a heavy blanket, pushing her down until she was lying on the floor. She cried as the temperature increased rapidly making sweat drip from her brow. She cried as red, orange and yellow flames danced around her, occasionally prodding at her skin before leaping away when she jerked back.

"Wake up!" I screamed at her but her own sickening screams drowned my voice out as our voices merged as one.

There was no distinction. She was me and I was her. I felt every single inch of the heat that licked her skin, searing through every layer until all that remained was white bone and charred flesh.

"Wake up!" A different voice interjected.

It was distant, but I could hear every echo until crackling and screams filled my ears again.

"Ashley!"

Abruptly, I bolted upright, panting heavily as cold sweat trickled down my temple.

"Ashley!"

Mom's persistent yells reinforced my state of mind, chasing away the last of the flames like a fire extinguisher.

"Ashley!"

Dishevelled and irritated, I used the back of my sleeve to wipe my brow before I stormed downstairs to screech at Mom to stop yelling so early in the morning when I met an amused pair of sea green eyes.

"What are you doing here?" I exclaimed as I tightened my dressing gown around my waist to hide the fact that I was wearing just a tank top and pyjama shorts underneath.

"Good morning to you too Ashley. I slept well, thanks you for asking so kindly," Tyler's voiced fakely.

He leaned against the door that opened up to the kitchen, standing comfortably as if he had been in my house a thousand times before.

"Tyler kindly explained that he's your ride today and that you're both going to the store to pick up some ingredients for this Choc Ripple cake you're both making today," Mom beamed at me.

"Really now," I drawled sarcastically, sliding my narrowed eyes to meet Tyler's smug smirk. "I don't remember that being a joint decision!"

His voice was sickly sweet as he said, "I'm making an effort. Isn't that what you wanted all this time?"

Tyler raised his eyebrows to hold his innocent expression in place but I was well aware of the thunderous, scheming glint in his eyes.

"What I want is a for you to get out of my house, you irritating little--" I hissed before trailing off at Mom's stern expression.

"Ashley you have five seconds to leave the kitchen and shower before I ground you for your bad manners towards your hard-working partner. You should be appreciating his dedication young lady!"

Ignoring Mom, I burned a hole into Tyler's face with my scorching glare. He returned the intensity of my glare making my irritation flare up. Our staring match continued for a minute before I faltered when I noticed Mom shooting daggers at me.

"Since when did you even listen to Ms Smith. You're up to something, I know it!"

"Ashley. Shower. Now!" Mom snapped.

"Fine Mom! But Tyler's not staying for breakfast!" I yelled as I went to indulge myself in a scalding shower whilst fuming over his innocent act. "Asshole!"

Turns out he did stay for breakfast and Mom succumbed to his polite manners by asking him about how he was finding the project so far. I devoured my first croissant in less than a minute, glaring at Tyler as he gave Mom every detail about our assignment - deliberately leaving out the part where he refused to work with me.

Eventually Mom acknowledged my existence when her eyes scanned my face, taking in my puffy eyes and wearisome expression.

"Did you have another nigh-"

Panicked, my gaze slid to Tyler's curious sea green eyes and I cut mom off quickly with a brisk nod. Her blue eyes flashed with sympathy until she noticed me pursing my lips and eyeing Tyler. Thankfully she dropped the matter.

"We'll talk when you come home sweetheart."

As Mom carried on bombarding Tyler with questions about our assignment, I stuffed the last of my breakfast into my mouth and brushed crumbs off my lap.

"Cwome on, let's gwo!" I managed with a full mouth as I jumped out of my seat.

Mom dragged her warm gaze away from Tyler and arched an eyebrow at me. The fine lines around her mouth tightened as she frowned deeply.

"Ashley! Will you stop being so rude and wait for Tyler to finish his breakfast!"

I swallowed my mouthful and washed it down with a glass of milk before slamming it down on the table.

"He's done!" I narrowed my eyes at him. "Right asshole?"

"Ashley!" Mom snapped at my choice of words.

Tyler met my gaze with a challenging half smile until I huffed with defeat and mouthed 'Please?'. He eyed me carefully and then nodded before wolfing down the content of his plate in a nanosecond. Annoyance filled me when I realised that all this time, he had been purposely taking his time to irritate me.

I tossed my bag over my shoulder and physically hauled him out of his seat. His eyes held nothing but amusement as I dragged him out of seat and shoved him out of the front door.

"Thanks for breakfast Mrs Martin!" He yelled over his shoulder before I slammed the door shut.

The car ride to the store was short and silent. Tyler made no attempt to converse with me and I was in no mood to so much as spare him a glance. What was he thinking turning up to my house at such an ungodly hour? I don't know about him but after a nightmare all I needed was a strong black coffee and a hot shower; not a stupid conversation with my mother about cake recipes!

Once we arrived at the store, I picked up a basket and followed Tyler as he manoeuvred his way down the maze of aisles and dumped item after item into the basket. I watched him in bewilderment as he tossed numerous brands of plain milk chocolate, cinnamon and vanilla essence into the basket.

"Why do we need so much chocolate?" I asked as we joined the self checkout queue.

He flashed me a deadpan look and sighed heavily as if I was a five year old kid that wouldn't stop asking questions.

"If you listened during breakfast you wouldn't be asking stupid questions," He retorted, handing me the bags as he swiped his card to pay for the ingredients.

"You know, a gentleman would offer to carry everything." I grumbled as I trailed after him towards his car.

"I don't see a gentleman, do you?" He drawled, dramatically looking over our shoulder and scouring the entire store before his murderous gaze landed on me. "Stop complaining and dump them in the back seat. We're gonna be late if you keep standing there."

I rolled my eyes at him but followed his instructions and let myself into the car as he turned on the engine. Now that my mood was no longer a blackened rain cloud following me overhead, I felt much calmer and at ease and appreciated the comfortable silence that fell during the remainder of the journey. I found myself stealing glances at Tyler as the pale morning light bathed the left side of his face in a white light that blinded me.

I absentmindedly found my eyes tracing the outline of his side profile, drinking in the smooth curve of his nose and his chiselled sturdy jaw. At a closer look, his chin was sporting the beginning fuzz of a new beard and his eyelashes brushed his cheeks whenever he blinked.

"You're staring at me again," He remarked.

"Was not!" I snapped, averting my gaze and glaring at the naked branches of the trees outside.

"Was too." His tone was nonchalant and factual.

"Was not!"

"Was too."

"I'm not going down this road. Especially not with you," I grumbled, using all my willpower to tear my eyes away from his strong, masculine bone structure.

"You really haven't changed at all. Still a grumpy chick in the morning."

"Do I look like a chick to you? I don't see any feathers or a beak!" I snapped.

His lips stretched into an amused smile as he glanced at me. I met his gaze with a scoff.

"Now who's staring?" I said smugly before sinking further into my seat.

By the time we reached school, the parking lot was bustling with seniors and juniors. As usual, their eyes followed Tyler's car as it drove past them and I wondered for a brief moment what they would think when they saw us together, not that I care anyway.

"You can get out of my car now," Tyler broke through my thoughts and I rolled my eyes in response.

Exiting the car, I ignored the numerous eyes on my back as Tyler grabbed our ingredients from his backseat. He offered me two of the bags but I shook my head and flashed him a forced sweet smile.

"It's on you jerk."

The brisk walk to class was short but Tyler spent the entire time lagging behind me while he grumbled to himself about balancing his schoolbag and the ingredients. For once, we were the first pair through the doors, causing Ms Smith's wretched mouth to gape open slightly as she drank in the sight of Tyler actually participating.

"Tyler? Ashley? What a...pleasant surprise."

I caught her looking at him with an expression of self-accomplishment but when she saw me staring her face returned to it's usual tight-lipped frown. The rest of the class piled in moment after us whilst Tyler dumped the masses of chocolate he bought onto our work station. I joined him after disposing my bag at my desk, grabbed two aprons off the peg and handed one to him.

With a grateful nod, he loped it over his head and tied a swift knot. Standing beside him, I watched cautiously as he took out the electric beater and poured a cupful of thick cream, sugar and vanilla into the bowl.

"Looks like you don't need my help. I mean, you did actually use sugar this time instead of salt," I joked as I hoisted myself onto the counter beside the bowl so that my body was facing Tyler.

He glanced up at me and for a moment he looked exactly like his old self again, wearing a floppy half smile. Something in my chest stopped as I savoured the sight of his twinkling eyes seeking out the astonishment on my face.

"You underestimate me way too much," Tyler shook his head with a small smile.

I leaned in closer, surreptitiously inhaling his clean minty scent that held a hint of lemons and watched him spread a little of the cream mixture along a serving platter to make the base as he stood a chocolate biscuit upright like a domino and spread it with cream mixture. Placing another biscuit alongside the cream, his slender fingers sandwiched the pieces together and continued to layer the cream mixture by positioning the remaining biscuits exactly the same way as the others to form a log.

After leaving the cake in the fridge to set, he turned to me, the corners of his mouth tilting up with smugness as he pointed at the dirty tools in the sink.

"Go on. Make yourself useful."

**

During lunch, I was halfway through my tuna sandwich when I felt the weight of brown eyes watching me eat.

"What?"

Mona ran a hand through her dark red bob and carried on watching me with a thoughtful expression. I turned to Blake and sent him a glance that cried for help but he just carried on downing his pasta like he was chugging water after an exhausting marathon.

Turning back to Mona, I sighed heavily and set my sandwich down and swiped my mouth with a napkin.

"There's nothing on my face now. You can stop staring."

It was like she never heard me at all. Brown eyes continued to bore into face.

"Mona?"

Pursing her full lips, I grew slightly anxious. She was daydreaming into my face which was just plain weird, creepy and unnerving. Slowly, her eyes came into focus and she blinked about eight times before grinning up at me.

"Yup?"

"What was that all about?" I asked, frowning deeply.

"Oh nothing," She replied in a singsong voice, flicking her ketchup coloured bangs out of her eyes.

"Sure it's nothing," I drawled as I picked up my abandoned sandwich again.

This time a slow cat-like grin lit up her eyes as she leaned forward, planted her elbows on the table and used her hands to cup her cheeks.

"Sooooo," She dragged the word into three syllables, ignoring my eye roll. "What's all this I've heard about you and Tyler?"

I froze and my jaw came loose, hanging open as it clanged to the ground. Blake's eyes flashed at Mona with a warning glare before they met mine with an apologetic. But still, they held a great deal of curiosity. Narrowing my eyes at the two, I picked at the crust around my sandwich and rolled my eyes again as they continued to watch me. Stuffing the remainder in my mouth, I patted at my lips for any stray crumbs.

"What exactly have you heard?" I asked between mouthfuls.

"Oh just the usual," Mona shrugged before smirking at me. "Just that you hooked up with him and that he drove you to school this morning."

Spluttering at her, she leaned back and watched me as my face morphed into what could only be described as extreme horror.

"Why does everyone think I hooked up with him?" I exclaimed, throwing my hands up in frustration.

Blake frowned as his face became contorted with concentration before he turned to look at me. "This isn't news to you?"

"Duh! Michelle has been using her bitches to poison everybody's lovely image of me just because Tyler won't pay her any attention," I grumbled, quoting my speech with my fingers as I slumped my shoulders and leaned back.

Mona frowned at the mention of Michelle but she grinned at the last part. "She's just jealous."

Blake nodded, slurping his juice nosily as he gave me that same knowing look in reminder of our conversation in Physics the other day.

"Jealous of what? What could I possibly have that she doesn't already?"

Dumbfounded, I looked at Mona as she gave me a deadpan look.

"Tyler's attention." A deep voice interjected before Mona could answer me.

I looked at the source of the voice and met honest green eyes. Blake shrugged his shoulders before repeating himself.

"Then that means Tyler's the problem, not me. She should take it up with him, not make up bullshit rumours about me whoring around," I protested.

"Well, technically, you are the source of the probl-" Mona started but I lifted my hand up to cut her off.

They were feeding me the most absurd reasons to answer to Michelle's hostility. We all knew that she's had a grudge against me since middle school. But what I could never figure out was why?

I mean she's really attractive, popular, and has friends who worship her. Her family is perfectly intact and really well off since she lives in Tyler's neighbourhood. To simplify everything: Michelle has everything she could possibly need so it makes no sense that she's jealous of me.

Let's be realistic here, I should be the one envious of her. She has a loving father who's still alive and what have I got?

Sighing heavily, I ran my hands through my hair to untangle the knotted curls before pulling the tips to straighten out the curls until they reached my waist. Releasing my hold, I watched the curls bounce back up to my lower back before I looked up at my friends again.

"You guys are being ridiculous. If she really wants attention from Tyler then she should try speaking to him. It's not that hard," I shrugged my shoulders.

Blake barked a bitter laugh and I grimaced.

"Yeah actually it is," He shook his hair before raking a hand through it. "Talking to Tyler is like talking to a brick wall. He doesn't talk back or show a flicker of emotion. Trust me, I've been there."

Reaching out, I squeezed Blake's arm and gave him an apologetic smile.

"Sorry, I didn't mean it tha-"

"Don't sweat it Ash, I know you didn't." He smiled back at me in reassurance but the pain in his eyes still remained.

"There's no doubt that you get along with Tyler pretty well compared to before," Mona commented as she fiddled with her empty sandwich container. "Like no offence but he couldn't stand the sight of you last year and now you guys are talking...it's kind of miraculous actually."

I nodded slowly trying phrase my next words carefully but it didn't matter because I just let the truth tumble out as usual. I was hopeless at lying when it mattered most.

"I guess, but that's after I went to his house and begged him to give the me and the assignment another chance. Things were really rocky at first but I'm glad they're working out," I admitted sheepishly.

Both my friends opened their mouths and shut them again about three times before Mona spluttered and coughed as she came to terms with what I had just said.

"You went to his house?" Blake gaped, leaning back and stretching his bulky arms over his head.

"Well duh, how else was I going to apologise to him? You're the idiot who told me to make him accept my apology so that's what I did. I made him."

His green eyes shone with admiration as he slowly smiled at me and nodded.

"Told you it would work out eventually."

"Yeah," I breathed, giving him another grateful smile. "Thanks for that."

"Anytime."

Turning my attention to Mona, I began to snigger at her still frozen and very much astonished face.

"Quit staring at me like that or I will take your eyes," I threatened her.

"You went to his house?" She breathed, shaking her head repeatedly in disbelief.

Her squeaky voice made me regret ever mentioning going to Tyler's house. Of course Mona wouldn't be able to handle that information. She was an over-energetic dreamer who drew the wrong conclusions in every situation.

I watched as she slowly grinned at me and shot Blake a knowing wink. Caught off balance, two pink spots formed on his cheeks as he coughed and we both eyed him cautiously. Then he rolled his eyes at her but mirrored her infectious grin. The two of them just sat there grinning at me and it was the most infuriating thing ever.

"Well, that settles everything then," Mona waggled her eyebrows suggestively. "No wonder Michelle thinks you guys hooked up."

I sighed heavily, propping my head up on the table using my elbows for support. I ran my hands over my face, slowly dragging my fingertips over my eyelids until my nails gently scraped my chin.

"All I want it for Michelle to lay off me for a while."

"Swap pairs with her?" Mona laughed, knowing full well that working with Dylan was like working with a walrus: slow, simple-minded and too touchy-feelly for my liking. He was just incapable of keeping his hands to himself, not to mention his extreme hot-temper.

He was the complete opposite of Tyler and deep down I knew that I wouldn't trade Tyler for Dylan, Mona or Blake, or even a quiet kid in class.

"I'd rather drink acid than work with Dylan," I motioned throwing up and Blake chuckled at my nauseous expression. "Plus, Tyler makes a pretty good partner when he's into it. Sure, he can't follow instructions sometimes, but he's dedicated, careful and the closest thing to Einstein when it comes to combining the weirdest flavours you'd never think of putting in a cake."

Blake propped his head up on the table and for a change, he was the one grinning wildly at me.

"What?" I looked at the two as they shared another glance.

"Nothing," They replied simultaneously before looking at each other and bursting out into loud laughter.

"What is up with the two of you today?"

They were driving me crazy with their weird behaviour. I would totally expect it from Mona, but Blake? Sure he went a little crazy when he had a sugar rush or too much alcohol but he's supposed to be the sane and calm opposite of Mona. Plus all he had for lunch was pasta and orange juice.

"Nothing," They sang, sharing another look.

I narrowed my eyes at their simultaneous act, making their innocent grins widen.

"Can we stop talking about Tyler and Michelle and anything related to Home Ec.? I'm getting a headache now."

They nodded repeatedly so that their hair jumped up and down as they shared yet another glance. Blake pursed his thin lips but the tiny little twitches made me follow his gaze to Mona who was mouthing something at him. Just as she caught me looking at her, she immediately dropped the act and flashed me a bright smile, flipping her short hair back.

"Can you just clarify one last thing for me?" She asked before pausing dramatically. "Did Tyler actually drive you to school this morning?"

Sighing heavily, I swallowed my uprising annoyance.

"Yes but that was nothing," I took a sip of my water as she raised an eyebrow.

"Nothing?" Mona flashed me a toothy grin. "Mmm hmm, yup, totally. It was nothing."

I tried to ignore her teasing tone but when she grinned at Blake, I had to snap at her.

"When he gave me a ride yesterday, I left my bike here so obviously he had to drive me to school as well!"

"Duh! Of course! Psshh what was I think? I mean, obviously! It's not like Blake and I could drive you! Duh!" Mona's grin widened.

"Oh for the love of god!" I raked my nails over my face slowly.

Exasperated, I scraped my chair back and stood up.

"You know what, I just remembered that I have to go," I announced, shooting Blake an irritated glance and Mona a deep frown.

"To Tyler, I presume?" She chirped happily.

"Maybe we should give her break?" Blake suggested after experiencing the full force of my glower.

"Hell to the no!" Mona laughed before flashing me a suggestive wink.

Blake patted my arm as I passed by but one look at those teasing eyes and I groaned.