"Why are we hiding?" Jaiyana whispered under her breath as she and Davina crouched behind a row of lockers.

"I want to see Leo when he comes in," Davina replied.

"Do we need to hide for that?" Jaiyana's phone dinged with a text. Judging by the silly smile on her face, it was from Val. "My boyfriend's asking where we are."

Davina looked at her friend weirdly. "Why did you say 'my boyfriend'? Why not Val? Or...should I be calling Leo my boyfriend too?"

"Why don't you try it?" Jaiyana suggested. "Say something and refer to Leo as your boyfriend."

"I arranged my boyfriend's locker," Davina said and then nodded after she felt a warmth spread through her chest at the statement. "That feels nice for some reason."

"See...Hush, they're here," Jaiyana said and made herself even look more invisible. Hadn't she not wanted to hide earlier?

Davina peeked over Jaiyana's shoulder and saw Leo, Val and Damian walking through the center of the hallway. Their presence drew far too much attention than Davina liked. "They're staring at him."

"Tell me about it," Jaiyana spat. "I want to gouge out some of their eyes with a fork."

Although Davina thought such measures were unnecessary, she began to slowly share Jaiyana's sentiment. She did not want anyone looking at Leo like he was a piece of Thanksgiving turkey.

Jaiyana's eyes suddenly narrowed to slits. "She just winked at Val. I'm going to go give her a piece of my mind."

Davina tugged her backwards. "Wait. You'll ruin our hiding spot."

Jaiyana struggled to pull her leg from Davina's grip. "We can always surprise Leo later."

"What are we doing?" a voice behind them said.

Davina turned to her left. "Oh. Hello, Tamara."

Tamara smiled amusedly, her eyes scanning their awkward position—Jaiyana crouching and Davina hunched over, holding tightly unto her legs. Her eyes flitted up and fixed on Damian. Slowly, she hid with the other two girls, her eyes shooting lasers at the girls who were surrounding him. "Who are those?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out," Jaiyana said. "But Davina won't let me leave...but I'm suddenly scared to go out there. What if he sees me?"

The three girls shared looks that spoke the same feelings. Although their boyfriends professed loyalty and love to them, they knew that remained out of the guys' leagues. They weren't the kinds of girls their boyfriends would typically go for.

Going out there, into the midst of the clingy girls and their hollering football friends was like staking an obvious claim over them.

Davina let go of Jaiyana and squatted. "Are we going to stay here? It doesn't make sense to."

"Maybe they'll see us," Tamara muttered.

"Are you sure?" Jaiyana asked, her head poking out. Suddenly, she stuck her head back in. "Leo's opened his locker."

A wave of excitement bubbled through Davina. "Really? Is he happy?"

"I don't know. I can't see his face."

Davina's chest deflated. "How will he even know it's me?"

Jaiyana looked back at Davina with an amused smile. "You color coded his pens and wrapped his books by color according to subject. Of course, he'll know it's you."

Davina tugged nervously on her skirt as she nodded, her feet tapping against the ground. When will they be able to–

"There you are," someone suddenly said. The three girls jolted, their hands going to hold their chests when they saw it was just Val. He looked to his left where Leo and Damian would be standing. "I found them," he said.

"What do you think you're doing?" Jaiyana hissed through her teeth. Val didn't respond and picked her up from under her armpits and embraced her with her feet, not touching the ground. Jaiyana's cheeks flushed. "Val, put me down."

Val kissed her cheeks and neck over and over. "No can do. Since you saw it fit to hide from me, I'm not letting you out of my sight."

"Is there enough time to run?" Tamara said to Davina, looking at Jaiyana and Val's public display of affection in horror.

Davina gulped, standing up slowly with Tamara in tow. Silently, they began to slip away while everyone's attention was still on Val and Jaiyana. "If we leave now, we might–"

"Not so fast," Leo said behind her and they were both yanked off their feet into their respective boyfriends' arms. Leo spun her around and after checking her headphones were securely on, tugged on the hood of her shirt. "Where do you think you're going?"

Davina blinked. "We were trying to run away."

He raised an eyebrow. "And why?"

"To prevent this from happening."

He brushed her hair into her hoodie, balancing her onto his body with one arm. Davina marveled silently at his strength. "You arranged my locker and then hid to see my reaction. What did you expect I would do when I found you?"

"You haven't done it yet," Davina said.

Leo remained silent for a few seconds. Without warning, he pulled her to him and kissed her. Davina immediately melted into the kiss, feeling all kinds of things and more. His fingers dug into her scalp and turned her head to the side to deepen the kiss. His tongue slipped into her mouth and he groaned softly. The sound reverberated all though Davina's body and she pressed herself closer to him.

Finally, they pulled away, panting heavily. "Do you want to do that again?" Leo asked with a grin, staring at her lips.

"I think we'd be late to–"

"I'm guessing she's the angel who arranged your jungle of a locker," someone said behind Leo.

Davina ducked her head into Leo's shoulder. He wrapped both arms around her and looked behind him. "Yeah," he replied.

"I wish I had a girlfriend to arrange my locker," another one said.

"Nah. You wish you had a girlfriend at all," Leo said.

"That wasn't very nice," Davina murmured.

"It's just the way guys talk to each other. There's no hard feelings."

Davina raised her head to look him in the eyes. His hair caught her attention. Her hands slipped from around his neck to dig into his hair, pulling on his scalp occasionally. He closed his eyes, sighing. "I wonder how you guys sound when you fight." Suddenly, one of his hands darted out to stop her hands. She withdrew. "Oh. You don't like that?"

"I do. Just not here when I don't have the time to kiss you senseless."

Davina nodded in understanding. "Okay. When will you have time?"

His eyes widened and his jaw dropped. "Come find me after school."

One of his friends coughed behind him. "Football practice."

"Ah...after practice then. Better yet, come for practice." He kissed her again but briefly, clearly more excited than he was before. "I'll see you then."

He placed her on the floor and turned in the opposite direction for his next class, waving at her over his shoulder. Davina turned to Jaiyana. "Am I light or is Leo strong?"
***
Davina washed her hands under the tap, humming a cartoon's tune under her breath. After all her anticipation, school was finally over and she was going to watch Leo play football.

It was a waste of words to say she was happy. She stopped washing her hand to stare absentmindedly into the mirror.

Leo was really her boyfriend. The fact that she had a boyfriend made zero sense and to think it would be the most wanted guy at school. What did he even see in her?

"You think you've won, huh?" an irritatingly familiar voice said.

Davina made eye contact with Kendall in the mirror. Her heart began to pound nervously. She was not ready to face her alone. Davina focused on washing her hands and getting out of there.

Kendall came to stand right behind her. "You can't answer my questions now because you're dating Leo?"

"I do not want to talk right now," Davina said as softly as she could manage. No matter how out of tune Davina claimed to be with her surroundings, even a blind person could tell Kendall was angry and had probably been for a while as she was flushed in the face, wearing baggy clothes that swallowed her.

"How dare you speak to me like that? Who do you think you are?" Kendall yelled.

Davina stilled, unclear on how to respond. Kendall was usually calm, manipulative, using gentle words to hit Davina right where it hurt but this Kendall...she was something Davina didn't know how to deal with.

Davina thought to apologize but couldn't bring herself to do so. Should she apologize for liking Leo? That was something Kendall shouldn't lash out at her for. "Kendall, Leo–"

"Don't you dare say his name," Kendall screamed and grabbed Davina's head by her hair and smashed it against the mirror. Added to the loud noises, the pain was blinding.

Davina's knees gave way and she slumped to the ground, her whole body vibrating. Kendall stood over her and lifted her by her neck. "I don't care if you bleed to death. Stay away from him," Kendall said and kicked her chest before dragging Davina into one of the stalls and locking her inside.

The bathroom doors seemed to close in, squeezing all air out of Davina's lungs. She didn't want to die. Not when she had just found–

The sound of squawking penguins pierced through the haze of her mind momentarily. Davina's hand fumbled for her phone that was in her skirt pocket.

Jesus. Jesus. The green button. She needed to press the green button.

Her hand hit the button and Leo's concerned voice rang through the line. "Davi, where are you?" When she didn't respond, he called out more frantically. "Davina. Davina. Answer me."

"B-Bathroom," Davina whispered with her last strength before fading into darkness, hoping he would find her before it was too late.