I was not ready to go back to school after the weekend. I was tired beyond belief because for some reason, Forkle had us do a concert in London on Sunday night, so I was running on half an hour of sleep and about thirty-two ounces of pure caffeine. Even that couldn't cure my tiredness.

I ran face first into Noah while stumbling to my locker. He grabs my arms before I fall over from sheer exhaustion.

"Woah, are you okay?" He asked. Umm, do I look okay? I didn't think so when I was looking in the mirror that morning. I kind of looked like some cross between a zombie and a freshly dead person, where they're all waxy.

"Tired." I mumbled. "Need coffee." Dex turned to look at me.

"No you don't. Don't get her more coffee, she's already had like, ten cups." He told Noah. My boyfriend (can't believe I actually get to call him my boyfriend) laughed.

"Noted. Here, let's get you over to your locker." He had his arm around my shoulders, taking me to my locker and also keeping me from falling over and falling asleep. "There you go. I'll see you in band." He winked as he walked away.

It took me five tries to get my locker open, the numbers blurring together. When I did get it, I felt even more tired. Unlocking a locker took way too much brain power. I was reaching for my books when I noticed a piece of paper that wasn't there before. I unfolded it, seeing what it was.

I'm coming for you.

That's not at all ominous. You know, I would've been really scared if it weren't for the fact that I recognized the handwriting. It was either Fitz's or Biana's, they both wrote like they lived in the eighteen hundreds. So, instead of being ominous, it was quite cute.

"Aww." I said out loud. "Dex, they're trying to prank me! I think I'm officially in the friend group." He looked over at me.

"Really? They haven't tried to prank me yet..." He sounded a little sad, so I did the only thing I knew to do.

"Womp womp." This time he glared at me.

"You're spending way too much time with Keefe."

"Womp womp." He rolled his eyes and walked to the cafeteria for morning announcements. I trudged after him, the excitement from knowing my friends were trying to prank me wore off.

I saw Dex standing with Biana and Fitz so I walked up to them.

"Hey Sophie!" The brunette girl greeted me. "What's up?"

Hmm, asking me 'what's up.' That's oddly suspicious. Maybe it's her. She's trying to see if I'm scared and if the note concerned me. Well too bad for her, I saw right through her little trick.

"Oh, nothing much. Found this random piece of paper in my locker, something was written on it but the handwriting was just so bad, I had to throw it away, I couldn't even read it." I watched their expressions carefully. I saw some changes, some sadness, maybe a little anger. Yep, it was definitely Fitz's note.

"Shush." Dex put his finger to my lips in the 'shh' way. "Announcements are starting."

Fitz, Marella, Tam and I were walking in the hallway, our next classes in the same direction, when I felt my phone vibrate. Ooh yippee, I got a text!

When I looked at my phone, I almost wanted to laugh.

Do you want to disappear?

It was from Unknown, with a knife emoji at the end of the text. This was actually really good, I couldn't believe they actually knew how to make numbers show up as Unknown. Oh, maybe, just maybe, all of them are working together, trying to prank me. Dex was probably the only one who knew how to do that, so he had to be part of it.

Okay, so I had at least two suspects working together, Fitz with the note and Dex with the text. Except, they would never work together, just the two of them. So there had to be at least one more person, but I knew it wasn't Keefe. He was too clever for this, he would've come up with something better.

I hated to admit it, but a part of me did wish it was Keefe who was doing the prank. Knowing that he'd want to prank me, or at least try because we all know I can't be pranked.

Anyways, I needed to figure out who the other person was. I was assuming it was someone in Dex's group instead of mine, since none of them were all too close besides with me. That left Biana, Tam, Linh, and Marella.

I didn't really feel like it was Tam because of his relationship with Fitz and Dex, but he really didn't like me winning on our day of competitions. Biana would probably do it, to show me no hard feelings about the volleyball thing, and she was Fitz's sister and a good friend of Dex's. I didn't feel like Linh would be cool with the whole 'knife emoji' thing, but also she could've not known about that part. And she gets along with everyone so they could be working together. Marella could possibly do it too, but Fitz was giving her the stink eye awhile ago so I didn't really think he liked her all too much. So basically, it could be any of them.

Oh well. I'd just have to wait for them to strike again, then I could find out more.

"Sophie!" I jumped at the shout from down the hallway, watching as Noah came towards me in a combination of jogging and speed walking. Did he seriously have to yell across the entire hallway? And jeez, that guy is loud.

"Hey Noah, what's up?" He wrapped his arm around my shoulder, continuing my walk to class with me.

"I was wondering if you would like to go on a date tonight? I was thinking about dinner at a nice restaurant." I couldn't help but notice the amount of hope in his voice, and it warmed my heart. He really wanted me to say yes!

So that's what I did. Because he's cute and funny and nice and dinner with him sounded amazing (especially if he pays).

"Great! I'll pick you up tonight, around five-thirty?" I nodded my head.

"Sounded great." We stopped at the door to my class so I turned to face him. "I can't wait."

True to his word, he picked me up at five-thirty, on the dot. And I had been ready for about ten minutes, so I'd say the before portion of the date was going well.

I had stressed over what to wear for a long time. Edaline was trying to help me, but no offense to her, she doesn't have the same fashion rattle that I do. I was not going to wear a dress on our first date.

When I asked Noah about the restaurant, he said it was a surprise but to dress nice, so that didn't exactly narrow down my options. I was going to dress nice anyways. Since it was December, I ended up going with a cropped beige sweater that had a wide neckline. I arranged it to go off my left shoulder. I had a white tank top under it because the material wasn't the most solid. I threw on some dark blue jeans, my makeup, shoes, and struggled with my frizzy hair for the rest of the time.

Grady opened the door to let him in. I could hear him giving Noah 'the talk.' I was kind of worried, given that it involves lots of mentions of wooden, steel, and spiky bats, but I also knew that Grady wouldn't hurt him without good reason, so everything was fine.

He walked into the living room, where I was sitting with Edaline. His hair was in its usual messy style, with a slightly nice dress shirt and jeans, with some type of special edition Nike shoes. I was glad with my outfit choice, both being about the same level of fancy.

He talked with my parents for a while, charming them, before Edaline shooed us out, much to Grady's dismay. I smiled as Noah opened the passenger door to his car, giving me plenty of room to slide in. Even with the wide door frame of the (most likely expensive) car, I still managed to hit my head on the top on the way in.

I blushed while he laughed, shutting the door and going over to his own side. He was still chuckling when we started driving. I glared at him until he stopped.

"You know, I was really hoping to be more graceful than that." I told him. "You'd be all shocked like 'woah, that's the most graceful girl I've ever seen, she's so... full of grace!' And I'd be like 'heck yeah I am!' Guess my dreams will never come true." I sighed dejectedly. He started laughing again, even harder as he accidentally jerked the wheel in his fit of laughter.

"Jesus." He said when he stopped laughing, a smile still wide on his face.

"Actually no, I'm Sophie, though I've heard the resemblance is uncanny." He snorted in shock and I smiled a bit, sadly at my own joke.

"I'm actually gonna get us in an accident if you keep doing this." He shook his head, still smiling.

We got to the restaurant soon after, it being fairly nice, like a casual date night. The name was something Italian that I couldn't possibly have a chance pronouncing accurately.

We both just got water, then ordered some fancy type of pizza with tons of toppings to share. I picked off all the olives on my slices and he did too. Well, there goes olive theory. Oh well.

The rest of the night went fairly well, we talked and hung out at our table until a little past eight, which was when Noah started to freak out about getting me home before the curfew Grady set. I just laughed at his panic, walking as slowly as possible back to the car. At that point he just picked me up and threw me over his shoulder, also throwing me into the passenger seat, more gentle than I thought possible. He ran to the other side, hopped in, buckled my seat for me, then drove.

We got to my house one whole minute before my curfew, my parents waiting at the door. Grady looked extremely impatient while Edaline was practically bouncing with excitement.

"How was it?!" She squealed while leaping over to us. I hugged her when she finally reached me, laughing at the force behind her launch.

"It was really great." I turned to Noah and hugged him after Edaline let go of me. "Thank you. I'll see you tomorrow?"

He smiled. "See you tomorrow." He kissed my cheek then left. I turned to see Edaline bright red from squeaking so much, and Grady also bright red, but from anger.

Gosh darn, guess this means I'm getting the talk. Aw shucks.

Done and done! Boom! This chapter took way too much brain power and idek why. Bet y'all really liked the super cute date night. Couple goals! Ha ha ha... anyways that's all! Hope you enjoyed! 

Avery, out ->

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