Thomas knows.

Alex was getting desperate to know.

I was getting desperate to avoid the question.

From the corners of my eyes, I noticed a familiar blond hair a bit behind me. I turned around and as I expected I found Lin hiding behind a wall, staring at us.

"Lin! " I gestured to her like crazy telling her to come. she came over next to me slowly, taking her sweet time, probably confused why was I with a guy. knowing how resourceful she can be, she probably already knows it's Alex Shimmer, the guy I'm supposed to ask out. I tried to be as honest and relaxed as I can be in this situation. "Alex, meet Lin. I'm sorry I ignored you on the way out, but I was in a hurry to meet up with Lin since we have our next class together "

Suddenly Lin's whole face lit up.

OH NO. If ever Lin's face lit up it's either the end of the world or she has the wrong idea about us. Let's go with the second option. before I could speak and explain that we just met an hour ago, her voice boomed over us all.

"You did it!! you asked him out! oh my gosh! Roxy you are- "

"LIN" I cut her off before she could doom us all. "Lin, you must be confusing two people. no this isn't HIM, this is Alex Shimmer, new transfer student, we became- er friends? " I didn't mean to say that as a question, but with Alex, you never know.

He, on the other hand, had the same excited look that Lin had, only with even more sparkles in his eyes. I think blondes have it in their blood to be bursts of sunshine in other people's lives. especially dark-haired people. (cough solangelo cough)

I sighed knowing what was coming; more explaining to do.

"Who's HIM ??" asked Alex. He was looking at Lin knowing I wouldn't answer.

Thank god Lin was amazing at baffling and lying. She had a motto of; « if you can't blow them away with your facts, baffle them with your...» uh you know what never mind that one.... which she got from some site I wasn't supposed to ever hear of.

She put on a dramatic lovesick face and gestured to me.

"I am so sorry my Roxy! I thought you finally got the boy of your dreams! "

What a great thing to say, Lin. Now you guys should know I never even told her about HIM. she thinks I'm a great student whose head is in the game, she doesn't know I actually do have a "dream boy " as she said.

You might ask, how do you have a dream boy if you're going to ask out someone else. Well for starters, I'm doing my best to avoid that crazy grandpa's party. And second, he never noticed me. I decided that this year is the year where I get over him.

"She was talking about him as if he was the most handsome boy on earth! and I saw you two, smiling together... When I saw you Alex, a beautiful handsome boy, I thought you were him! I got so happy for my poor heartbroken Roxy..." Lin put her hand over her heart and did a really sad face. How will Alex believe this whole drama show, I don't know. If she didn't stop talking she might have actually shed a tear.

And somehow this gullible bundle of joy believed her. He had a seriously concerned face on and was now looking at me with big teary eyes. Oh please! Was he really that naive?!

"Who is he? Rex tell me who is he! I might be able to help! you know, talk to him guy to a guy and I'll help you! "

If I'm ever gonna murder someone it's gonna be Lin first then this guy.

I sighed and glared at Lin. She flinched her instincts probably telling her to run.

Lin gave him a sweet smile. Yes, her famous smile. Maybe she was trying to turn his attention away from me. It didn't work. Actually, the situation became worse because now he grabbed Lin's hands, and was looking at her like a little kid who's expecting a new gift.

"Lin do you know? I mean sure you don't know how he looks but at least give me the name!"

Lin suddenly overwhelmed has looked at her right, and yelled the name of that person.

When I said I had bad luck I had serious bad luck. Why? Oh simple. who was at her right? My dream guy. She yelled the name of who? The guy I actually had a crush on for over a year now.

"I remember! Alex, I remember his name was Thomas!"

Oh yes, thank you, Lin, for that amazing lie.

Alex's face lit up even more, which shouldn't have been impossible, and turned to me.

"The Thomas?! I know him! I mean who doesn't but I'm friends with him! "

I'm pretty sure this guy was supposed to be new but if he is as friendly with everyone as with me then I don't doubt everyone is already his friend.

Alex had a crazy look in his eyes, the same one my sister has when she gets a crazy idea in her head. Hopefully, Alex doesn't have a determination as strong as my sister or we're all gonna die tonight. Especially me. I shook my head, probably turning pale, and Lin had realized her mistake.

I grabbed his hand.

"No!! I changed my mind, I don't like him." Well, it's not like I was lying, technically I really did change my mind.

" Then why are you all red... again?" Alex still had the crazy look on his face, but he was also grinning like crazy. I was tempted to answer; "The only difference is that I still didn't change my heart." But I figured that if I said that out loud it would make things worse

Driiing driiing!!

The bell!! Thank you!! Thank you bell for saving me!! This is the first I'm happy that I have to go to a computer science class.

"Well, we're off to com class!!" , shouted Lin, "See you later newbie!!"

"No, girls wait!", objected Alex behind us, " we have next hour together too. You're not getting rid of me easily "

"Figured", mumbledLlin. If she ever had a little bit of appreciation towards Alex it's all gone. Why? Honestly, I don't even know.

"You have a lot of explaining to do!!" Lin exclaimed as she sat next to me. " I can't believe you're friends with Alex Shimmer!! what happened exactly while I was in class?"

"Beats me, all I know is that he suddenly showed up and boom, we became best friends, end of story"

"Best friends?" She had a horrified look on her face. "You? with Alex? what has he done to you?!"

"Nothing! We didn't even talk that much" I blurted a bit too loudly. Wrong move. The teacher glared at us.

"Miss Lonford, Miss White! since you're both uninterested in this class, LEAVE!"

I looked at Alex who was sitting next to some boy at the front. He just smiled, probably trying to make me feel better, then turned his attention back to the boy, and continued talking to him.

Lin talked her way out of trouble with the headmistress. Me? my rotten luck strikes as always. She called dad, and thank god, it was Emilie who picked up. I don't really know what they talked about but according to Lin, they let me off with a warning.

Just one other warning and I'd be expelled. the first time I took a warning was at the beginning of the year from the calculus teacher, no surprise there. It was because she caught me drawing, and thought I wasn't following the lesson. Trying to embarrass me in front of my classmates she gave me an equation to solve. Being the very smart student I am, I answered correctly and topped it off with a; "you know miss-what's-your-name, next time a boyfriend dumps you, don't take it out on your students. that will only worsen your reputation."

Yes I know, bad move, and a seriously mean thing to say, but that day was a really bad day for me, and all the teachers knew that.

Well since that day I tried to lay low, no problems, no more sassing the teacher, but here we go again. Something must have really ticked off Mr. Semington, cause I'm pretty sure we weren't that loud.

Lin decided to spend the rest of the hour at a nearby Starbucks. Her parents signed a paper allowing her to leave school at times like these. I haven't talked to my dad for a while, so I wasn't able to get him to sign the paper.

I decided to stay at the gym to watch the boys' basketball team practice. Of course, Thomas was there. I really tried not to come here but my feet lead me here on their own. Thomas, who was still new to basketball, looked so small compared to the other kids. Are all of them really sophomores...? they looked much older as if they were from college...

Thomas noticed me in the bleachers and waved at me. Of course, I froze and wasn't able to wave back properly. I probably looked like I was shooing off an insect. Their coach whistled for them to get a 15-minute break and to get showered and be ready for their next class. I stood up preparing to leave too, but someone held me up.

"Hey, Roxy" shouted a guy's voice behind me.

I turned around only to find that the guy is Thomas Leville. WAIT WHAT?! WHO?!

*the brain is currently in mode PANICK. I repeat!! Hit the freeze button!!*

I froze. I just stood there, probably red, staring at Thomas. He smiled at me, and I forced myself to wake up and focus.

"Um, can u stay for a bit, I wanted to talk to you." He offered in his dreamy British accent. You see his mom is British and he lived there most of his life. Recently his parents divorced and he and his father moved to America.

... And no I'm not a stalker, everyone knows this.

I nodded and sat down, no, plopped down.

"So... Are you ok? Alex texted me to look for you, and I got scared...", admitted Thomas.

I shook my head. "No no, I'm fine."

ALEX! When did he text him?! And to look for me? Seriously?!

"Are you sure?" insisted Thomas.

"Yes, thank you for worrying about me, but I'm fine! And when did you get Alex's number?" I sighed.

" Oh, a while back. It was kind of because of me that AL had to come here." murmured Thomas.

Interesting. So Thomas and Alex know each other from before school too. This Alex Shimmer is starting to get a bit, weird. He knows my dad, he knows Jessica and he knows Thomas?

Thomas simply smiled at me, then he waved goodbye and joined his teammates in the changing rooms.

I stood there watching him leave. Before he entered the rooms, he turned and smiled at me, then put his hands in a cup format in front of his mouth.

" ROXY! ALEX TOLD ME EVERYTHING!" shouted Thomas before running in the rooms.

I was too stunned to move or react. Wait... Told him what?

Then I realized.

OMG NO. no.

I waited in front of the class for Alex to get out. As soon as he did, I grabbed him from his shirt and dragged him away from the rest of the class.

"Whoah! Rex! What's wrong?" pleaded Golden blabbermouth.

"YOU is what's wrong!" WHAT did you tell Thomas?!" I growled.

suddenly Alex became very pale. "Nothing much really", promised Alex, "I only told a few minor details and pointed out a few things, that's it! I didn't think he'd react so fast!"

I let out a heavy sigh and glared at Alex. "You are not allowed to tell anyone about anything I tell you!"

"You live up to your name, Rex" laughed Alex. I glared at him and went ahead to my next classes.

How dare he? Thomas is a secret and he was supposed to stay a secret, so WHY did he tell him?

The rest of the day went on pretty quick and normal since there was no Lin or Alex for the rest of my hours. Art class was a bit weird and awkward since Thomas was there and we were both obviously very embarrassed but other than that, the rest of my classes were boring.

"So... How was school?" asked my dad as he picked me up from school.

"Pretty weird actually. I was chosen as the new Dare It, so my life went from 0 to 100 real quick" I shrugged

My dad had his mouth open wide probably shocked that I responded to him for the first time ever.

"uh....., wh..., no...., what?!" yelped dad. "ok wait wait wait, slow your horses, and let's start from the beginning. Your sister chose you as the new dare person?! even though she hated being chosen as It?!"

"Yes, Ironic Isn't it. Guess we need to carry on the tradition of Older dares the younger, and no she didn't intend to choose me. She spun the bottle yet it still landed on me."

"And is it bad?"

"Maybe. I'm supposed To ask Alex shimmer out" I'm starting to like talking to my dad. He usually looks so strict but to my surprise, he's very understanding.

" Wait, Shimmer?..... What is she doing?!...... no, she should have a plan..." mumbled my dad. he suddenly stopped and turned to me, "well, Good luck Rex. And my advice to you is to enjoy it. The Dare won't last long but its effects will"

As if I didn't know that. My mom got this family because of the Dare. My sister got Her Fiance and is pregnant with little Amy because of the Dare. She is still one of the few to win the dare, yet she still hated being It.

I thanked my dad and tried to focus on what do I have to do to win.

Just like that, I had a plan.

" if you enjoyed this chapter, please do take your time to comment and click the cute star. sorry if there are some uncapitalized letters that I skipped past or maybe some small mistyping mistakes."

- Mira. R