"Emmery... what happened to your hair?" Haley asked, trying to sound as nice as possible.

I half-smiled at her and shrugged. This morning after I dried my hair I went to look in the mirror to do it up, but of course, a prediction came.

This one was an interesting one. A couple of freshman in the sixth period biology class had decided to mix random chemicals they found in the classroom together. Not to my surprise, there was a destructive explosion that destroyed the whole room, and probably ending up killing a few people. It was easy enough to stop though.

I sighed and tugged my hand through my hair. I still hadn't figured how out how to stop this one, since I wasn't in that biology class. I was in my Algebra 2 class. To top it off, I hadn't seen Hudson all morning. Did he even know about this yet?

"Here," Rose said, handing me a pocket mirror and brush. "Why don't you fix it?"

"Thanks," I responded gratefully, taking them and flipping open the mirror. I quickly glanced into it and waited. No prediction. I quickly brushed my hair and made it look at least slightly good before handing the mirror and brush back to her.

"Anytime," she responded, stuffing the items back into her purse. "But now I have a question..."

"Hm?"

"Are you and Hudson dating?"

"W-what?" I responded quickly, whipping my head around to stare at her and feeling my face becoming hot. "No! No, no, no! Why would you think that?"

Haley snickered. "What's that reaction?"

"What reaction?" I demanded.

"Such denial," Rose teased, wagging a finger at me. "Denial is bad."

"I'm not in denial! I've known him for what? I moved here April 5th and today's the 17th so that's about..." I quickly counted the days up on my fingers. "Twelve days? Not even two weeks!"

"Love doesn't have a time limit," Haley told me, elbowing me in the side.

"I'm not in love with Hudson," I told the pair, shaking my head. "No way."

The bell rang and everyone stood up, slinging backpacks or shoulder bags over their shoulders. I readjusted my backpack and headed towards the exit of the room, Rose and Haley following me.

"Why not?" Rose pestered, crossing her arms, not letting it drop. "He's nice, he's hot, and he's totally into you."

"No way."

"Yes way," Rose continued. "You guys are together constantly! I've seen you guys together outside of school too!"

Yeah, but you don't know what we're doing, I thought, rolling my eyes. Definitely not secretly dating. That's probably what Rose thought we were doing. "That's because he's my neighbor."

Haley and Rose both scoffed.

"Yeah, okay," Haley said, rolling her eyes.

"I mean it!"

"Whatever you say," Rose continued, holding up her hands.

"Guys!"

"Oh look," Haley started, nudging my side. "Here comes lover boy now!"

I looked in the direction Haley was looking in, and sure enough Hudson was sauntering down the hallway, looking as though he didn't have a care in the world. His hair slightly covered his face and the earring in his ear protruded from the mop of it on his head.

I caught myself staring and blushed, looking back at the two girls.

"You're reactions are so honest," Rose teased.

"S-shut up! I don't like him!"

"Whatever. See you, Emmery! Have fun with your crush."

Rose and Haley waved once before giggling and walking away from me. I scowled after. "I don't like him!"

"Like who?"

I turned to see Hudson standing a few feet away from me, tilting his head to the side curiously. I felt my face flush a deeper shade of red and I looked away, clicking my tongue.

"Never mind."

"You like someone?" he inquired, frowning at me.

"None of your business," I snapped, crossing my arms.

"But I want to know!" he complained, grabbing my backpack as I tried to turn and walk away. "Tell me Willow!"

"I don't like anyone," I told him, urging the blush on my face to go away.

I didn't like Hudson. There was no way I like him. Not his soft hair, or shiny bright blue eyes. Not his suave demeanor, or his caring attitude. His random sweet moments, or his silly grin.

I stopped and mentally slapped myself. What was I thinking? That made it sound like I liked him. And there was definitely no way of me liking him. No way.

"Earth to Willow!" Hudson nearly shouted, cupping his hands around my ear.

I jumped and pulled away, growing embarrassed once more. I slapped my cheeks a few time, hoping the red would fade. I scowled at Hudson for a moment before sighing.

"So what class do you have sixth period?" I asked him, heading towards my fifth period class.

"Gym," he informed me, pointing to his gym bag. "I'm afraid I'll have to leave this prediction up to you, Willow."

I clicked my tongue and frowned slightly. How would I get out of class? My math teacher was a stickler for going to the bathroom between classes and once in class, not leaving it. Not to mention I didn't even have my green card. And of course, my math teacher was a stickler for those too. There was no way I could get out of class.

"If you're worried about how you're going to get out of class, I got you covered," Hudson told me as if reading my thoughts.

"How?"

"You'll see," Hudson told me with a sly smirk.

"Alright," I responded, stopping outside my class. "I guess I'll have to trust you."

"And I shall be trusting you." He winked and then set off down the hallway in the opposite direction.

In English I stared out the window, slightly mesmerized by the clouds in the azure sky. They were all different shapes and sizes, colors and textures. I doodled on the edge of my paper as the teacher droned on about Macbeth and the great chain of being.

This caught my attention. Macbeth had killed Duncan, which was considered one of the highest offensives on the great chain of being. He had disrupted the natural order. But that was what Hudson and I were doing. We were disrupting the natural order of things by stopping something that would occur if we didn't know about it.

It was as almost as if we were playing God. I shuddered at the thought. Was what Hudson had been doing for who knows how long going against nature? Going against God? I chewed on my lip for a second. If god even existed: I wasn't really into religion.

"Emmery, could you please answer question three?" Ms. Bush, the English teacher, asked, startling me.

I sat up, a little more alert and looked down at my paper. I wrinkled my nose. It was a quotation. "Is it about Lady Macbeth?" I guessed hesitantly.

"Correct. And why is she wringing her hands like that and telling the spots to come out?"

I thought for a second. "Because the guilt of murdering Duncan has come back to her, and she said before that water would wash away the deed of murdering him, but now she's hallucinating that the blood is on her hands and that no amount of water can wash it away."

"Very good!" Ms. Bush responded, smiling at me. "Glad to see someone is paying attention in class!"

I smiled and nodded back at her. As soon as she moved onto the next question I went back to staring outside the window. The date caught my attention now. June 17th was now only two months away. Wasn't Hudson growing worried? An uneasy feeling settled in my stomach and I tried to keep my thoughts away from him, and out to the sunny sky.

The bell finally rang and my palms began to sweat. I walked to my next class, looking around for Hudson, but he never showed. I bit my lip nervously. Was he really going to get me out of class? Or did I have to think of a better excuse? I sighed as I approached the classroom. I entered and sat down at my seat, glancing at the clock. There was still fifteen minutes left.

Class started, and the teacher took attendance and checked our homework. She than put the answers on the board and told us to correct them. I could barely focus on my work; I was too focused on the time. What was Hudson doing? Only ten minutes left.

With every passing minute the uneasiness increased and my heartbeat rose. My palms became so sweaty it was hard to hold onto my pencil. I was beginning to panic slightly. What was Hudson waiting for?

With five minutes left, I finally stood up. I would have to make an excuse. Just as I was heading for Ms. Kirk a student came in with a note. He talked to her for a minute and Ms. Kirk nodded and the boy walked off. She turned to me and gestured for me to go to her. I did and she gave me the note.

"They're looking for you in the guidance," she told me. "Why don't you go down quickly?"

"Sure," I responded, grabbing the note and quickly hurrying out of the classroom.

As soon as I was out of sight, I started sprinting down the hallway. I was all the way on the other side of the science wing. The slapping of my feet was the only thing I could hear and I was very grateful no hall monitors were out at the moment.

I slid around the corner of the science wing entrance and sprinted down the bright blue hallway. When I came to the class I paused a few moments, trying to catch my breath. I realized I didn't know the time and quickly slid into the classroom.

To my luck, the biology teacher was busy helping another student in the corner of the room. I located the two negligent students right away. I maneuvered myself through desks towards them as quick as possible. Just as one was about to pour the chemicals into the others test tube I quickly swiped it out of his hand and scowled at him.

"What are you doing? That's dangerous!" I scolded him and his friend, grabbing both test tubes and holding them away from each other.

The two freshmen looked at me a bit surprised, and turned red. I frowned at them and jumped when a voice spoke from next to me.

"Oh my God," the biology teacher, Ms. Tracy gasped, grabbing the two test tubes away from me. "Jack! Colin! What were you two thinking?"

The two freshmen in front of me looked down at their feet.

"Detention for the both of you! You should no better than to mix random chemicals! Do you know what would have happened if you had mixed these?" She looked livid.

The one named Jack shook his head.

"Big explosion," I told him simply, spreading out my arms. "Very destructive."

"Emmery is right!" Ms. Tracy told them, nearly glowing with rage. "You could have destroyed the whole school. To the principals, now!"

The two boys began to march out of the classroom and I slowly followed them, slipping out without being discovered by Ms. Tracy, who was already pouring out the test tubes in different sinks.

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly as I headed back towards math. That went pretty well. It was an easy one to stop. I stretched and slowly walked back to the classroom, enjoying the time I wasn't in there. Math really wasn't my subject.

Sixth period ended about fifteen minutes after I returned and seventh period flew by in a breeze. I quickly hurried out of the building, hoping to avoid Rose and Haley's teasing. They had done it every time they saw me between classes and at lunch today.

"Willow!" I heard a voice call after me.

I jumped for a second, thinking it was Rose, but after hearing my name a second time I realized it was Hudson. I waited for him as he came hurrying down the steps. He ran over to me and put a hand on my shoulder.

"Good job today!"

"Thanks?" I responded, raising an eyebrow. "What did I do?"

"Broke the prediction," he reminded me, mimicking my look. "Did you forget?"

I shook my head. "No. It was just easy. Anyone could have done that."

"I see," Hudson responded, frowning slightly. "Well still, I'm proud of you."

"Well thank you then."

"You're welcome. I'm so proud; I think I'm going to invite you out to dinner. That's okay right?"

"Yeah sure," I responded, waving my arm. "It's no problem... wait, what?" I stared at him, freezing in my steps. "Dinner?"

"Yep! Wednesday night! Don't be late!" he told me, and than waved. "Now see you, I've got to get to track!"

"Wait!" I called after him as he started running back into the school. "Hudson!"