WHEN THE FINAL BUZZER SOUNDED, Darren's cheeks were still a hot pink shade and had a temperature that could be diagnosed as the flu. He could feel the girl's eyes on him – and everyone else's, for that matter. As he was looking for a different seat, one further away from the girl that made him nervous, he was constantly recognized by strangers who congratulated him or gave him a pat on the back. He didn't know what to say every time it happened, so he just nodded and gave a weak smile, while wondering why they were applauding him. He didn't achieve anything.

As soon as an opportunity had opened up, Darren had gotten his sketchbook out of his backpack again to focus on the drawing he had been working on before all of this happened. It seemed as if the world had been an entirely different place then, and he didn't know if that was a good or a bad thing.

But now that the game was over, the only thing left for him to do was go home. He'd been the supportive friend to his host brother, but he didn't feel the need to stay any longer than necessary at this game that hadn't interested him in the first place.

However, he wouldn't get away that easy. As he was hoisting his backpack up his shoulder and about to walk away, he was surprised by a familiar figure waiting up for him at the end of the row, just a few seats down from where he was standing. If he wanted to get away, he'd need to go past that person.

"You can't seem to get away quickly enough, huh?" a silvery voice asked. She had an amusing smile and folded her arms over each other before her chest.

"Hi," Darren said. He didn't know it was possible, but his cheeks reddened even more. His palms began sweating, both because of the temperature he was in and the fact he was talking to the girl he had just kissed but had never said a word to, so he wiped his hands against his denim shorts.

"You almost ran away just now," she said. Her eyes twinkled. "As if you wanted to get away from me as soon as possible."

"Right," Darren said, while wanting to facepalm himself. Had he been that obvious? "Sorry."

"Don't worry." She smiled apologetically. "If it hadn't been for the kiss cam, I wouldn't have kissed you so spontaneously." She cocked her head to the side, thinking to herself. "Well, maybe if I had some alcohol in my system."

Darren laughed as if he knew what she was talking about. Fact is, he'd never had a drop of alcohol in his life. He'd only been 18 – the legal drinking age in Scotland – for two months, but hadn't found the opportunity to try it out, and now that he was in Jacksonville, Florida, he would have to wait another three years before he would be legally allowed to. However, the girl didn't seem to be as concerned with the law or society's norms as he was.

"So, I thought I would just take this opportunity to get to know the random guy I kissed," she said. "I want to be able to tell this story later and not refer to you as 'the guy'," she added.

"Right," he said, nodding. He avoided looking into her round, blue eyes that shone as bright as the sun in Florida on this end-of-summer day.

"So..." she said, raising her brows. She was waiting for something, he knew, but he couldn't get his mind to work to figure out what it was she expected of him. "What is your name?"

"My name?" he repeated. He wanted to slap himself again for how high his voice got when saying those two words. For some reason, all he could think about was that kiss, and the situation he was in right now just went by him. "Darren," he said. He forced himself to look at her. This shouldn't be as awkward as he made it out to be. "My name is Darren."

She smiled. "Darren." Her eyes left his, and she repeated the name to herself. "Darren." She played with his name on her tongue and kept smiling while she did that. "Nice name."

He forced himself to say something, knowing fully well the conversation was curt because of him. "And yours?" he asked.

She turned back to him. "Sorry, what?"

He cleared his throat and spoke louder. "I asked, what is your name?"

She tilted her head. "You're not from here, are you?" she said, not answering his question on purpose and being distracted by something else already. "That accent... Not your typical Jacksonville or Floridian accent." He waited a second too long to answer, so she kept on pondering. "Probably not even American."

He shook his head and gripped the strap of his backpack tighter. "No, I'm not– not American."

The stranger raised one eyebrow and smirked. "Then, tell me, Darren: where are you from?" Simultaneously, she took a few steps closer to him. The seats that filled the distance between them were all not taken, so she sat down in one of them.

"Scotland," he said. He wanted to say more, about how he'd come here for a year to prepare himself for the American life because he wanted to study at Princeton after his last year at high school, but for some reason, he couldn't get the words to leave his lips. The problem wasn't necessarily the girl; he just wasn't a talker in general, even when he tried to be.

Although, the girl was breathtaking too, that was a fact hard to ignore. She was taller than Darren, wore her long hair freely, was dressed in a yellow top and denim shorts and had a flannel wrapped around her waist. Her face spoke of curiosity and kindness. "Scotland, you say?" she said. "As in, the country across the ocean?"

"That one, yes."

"That's so far from here!" she said, her eyes wide open. It made them look bigger than they already were. "What are you doing in Jacksonville of all places, attending a football match?"

Darren put his hands in his pockets. "I – uhm – am here on exchange."

"Exchange?" She spoke in a cheerful, joyous tone that, even if just for a while, made the whole world a little brighter. "That would explain why I've never seen you around here before. So you'll stay here for a while?"

"A year," he confirmed.

"That's so cool!" she said. She turned around to look at her friend, who was sitting a few rows from them. "Marley!" she called out. "Darren came all the way from Scotland!"

A voice that Darren couldn't see because the girl got lost in the mass of people replied, "Who's Darren?" It was the girl that had been sitting next to the kissing stranger.

"He's the guy I kissed!"

Again, Darren felt his cheeks redden. Everyone who was still on the bleachers could hear the conversation between Marley and the mystery girl, and everyone would know him as "the kissing guy."

"Just hurry, okay?" Marley yelled back. "We have to prepare for tonight and you're eating away our time by talking to a Scottish stranger!"

The girl turned back to Darren with an apologetic shrug. "Sorry," she said. "Don't worry about her – as lovely as she is, she can be so annoying when she is punctual." She smiled. "But Scotland, that's so cool. And you'll go to high school here?"

His nod brought an even bigger smile to her face.

"Maybe I'll see you around again, then!" she said. She got up from her seat, and just when Darren was about to say bye, she came in for an unexpected hug. Her arms wrapped around him, and it took a few seconds for him to return the gesture, although hesitantly.

"It was nice meeting you, Darren from Scotland," she said. "I'll have to go now, but in case we never meet again, just know that drunk me will never stop telling the story about when I kissed a guy twice on a kiss cam."

He chuckled, but didn't want to think about not seeing her again. It felt so strange to imagine that he'd never see the girl he seemed to know so well but at the same time knew nothing about, and it would make this the shortest but most intimate friendship – relationship? – he'd ever had.

Then, he thought of something else. "Wait!" he said.

The girl had started walking away, but when she heard him say this single word, she turned around. She seemed to be as surprised as he was that he'd raised his voice to call out to her.

"I still don't know your name," he said.

A chuckle escaped her lips. "Right," she said, laughing. "It's Dakota."

Dakota. He mouthed her name. For some reason, everything about that name felt right. It fit her.

She only smiled to him in a way that made her whole face light up. "Bye, Darren."

He answered once she'd already turned away. "Bye," he murmured.

✩

"Darren!" a female voice exclaimed through the speakers of his laptop. "You have no idea how happy I am to see you."

"Hey, mum," Darren said at the sight of his mother on his laptop screen. Even in her pixelated form, seeing her again made his heart calm down. It was the first time he'd seen her since he'd moved, and while this was only his second day in the States, he missed his family enormously in a way that made him doubt if he would ever be able to go to Princeton for such a long time without seeing them again. "I'm sorry about yesterday," he said. "It was so hectic, and after I finished the call with dad, I didn't have the energy anymore to call you."

She smiled generously. "Don't worry, boy," she said. "Never apologize for calling your father. And I get to talk to you now, don't I?"

His parents were divorced, and yesterday, he'd only had the opportunity to call his father. This morning, he slept in late – he blamed the jet lag – and then the whole thing with the football game happened. At this moment, it must be very late in Scotland, but he had to see his mother and couldn't wait another day.

"How was your flight?" she asked. "Anything crazy happen?"

"It was all right," he said. "Just a delay, but that was all."

Another figure appeared next to his mom Elizabeth on the screen. "Hey, boy!" he said to Darren. "Good to see you." It was Larson, his mother's fiancé. "Elle, I didn't know you were already calling him – you should have told me!"

"He called me," she protested. "And I wanted to talk to my son for a second."

"I'll talk the blame," Darren said, laughing sheepishly. "I hadn't told her I'd call, but I had some time and really wanted to see you. Both of you."

Larson grinned and turned to Elle again. "Don't worry, boy," he said. "I'm just glad our American boy still found the time to call his family in Scotland."

"He was just telling me that his flight went well," Elizabeth said to Larson.

"That's great," Larson said. "They pick you up from the airport?"

Darren nodded. "They're really nice people," he said truthfully. From the moment his host family had laid their eyes on them at the airport, they had showered him with love. They were so welcoming and really wanted him to feel at home. "They have a son my age too, and a daughter who's two years younger than me."

"Are you getting along well?" his mother asked. Darren detected a hint of worry in her voice.

"Yes, especially with Liam," Darren said. "I'll also have some classes with him, he told me." It would only be a week before those would start.

"You made any friends?" That was Larson again.

Darren thought of Dakota. Were they friends, were they more, or were they nothing at all? "Not yet," he said. "It's hard to meet people, especially with many of them still out of town for the summer."

Elle nodded understandingly, but couldn't help but wish that her son would find some buddies to spend the year abroad with. Knowing he had a support system to fall back on in America too would give her some peace of mind.

"It'll come," Larson said.

"I saw a football match today, though," Darren said with renewed enthusiasm. During the game, he hadn't enjoyed it, but he looked back on it with pride that he'd dared to step out of his comfort zone to try something new, even if it was to find that it didn't suit him.

"A football match?" Those words got Larson's interest. He'd been asking Darren to play football with him for years now, but Elle had always told him that Darren wasn't into sports and that if he wanted to bond with Darren, he would have to find another way.

"Not that kind of football," Darren rushed to say. "American football, where they hardly touch the ball with their feet. They wear these weird uniforms that give them wide shoulders and everything."

Larson looked disappointed. "Chief, you're turning into a real American."

Elle ignored that comment. "And?" she prompted Darren.

"I didn't understand a single minute of it," Darren said. "At least the Scottish football makes sense."

"So, not for you?"

Darren shook his head. "Definitely not."

It was then that Liam peaked his head around the door to look into the guest room where Darren was sitting behind a desk. He'd cleaned up nicely compared to how he'd looked an hour ago, all sweaty and dirty. "Dinner is in ten minutes," he announced.

"I'll be there," Darren said.

Liam disappeared again and Darren turned back to his mom and her fiancé.

"Do you have to go?" she asked. She seemed sorry to have her mother-son time be over already.

"We still have a little while," he said.

That brought some joyful expressions to the faces of the couple on the screen.

"Well, tell us more," Larson said. "How are the States? Have you seen any of those famous actors yet?"

Can I just take a moment to thank you all? I published the first chapter of this story and was overwhelmed by the love it got right from the start. It means so much, you don't even know! After The Downside to Perfection, I wanted to write a light, quick romance, and on a whim, I decided to write this story. It became my happy story, one where I would forget the world around me and could get lost in the world of Darren and Dakota, two characters I loved right away.

I hope you'll continue loving the story and that you want to go on this journey with me. Only 38 chapters to go 😉