It's been a rough morning, to say the least.

School started in an hour, and my parents were absolutely devastated by the news they received about their diner.

Which I was too, when I got home last night it wasn't even ten minutes before my Mom came up to my room to break the news, and I of course started to break down with her as she had tears falling down her cheeks.

The place was very special to my parents, and for it to be taken away from the people they hated most made them that more angry.

"Sam, you ready for school?" My Mom knocked quietly on my door before peaking her head through it.

"Yeah, almost." I gave her a small smile before fixing the loose strands that framed my face.

She came up behind me as she crossed her arms, smiling at me through the mirror. I smiled back and turned around to face her.

"Will you and Dad be okay today?"

Her eyes fell to the floor with a small shrug of her shoulder, "The best we can be. There's not much we can do to win this fight. The Sandars shut us down for poor work conditions."

"I just don't understand that, your kitchen was spotless." I shook my head in disbelief. It really made no sense that the Sandars went this far to shut down their diner just because of their hate towards each other.

To be honest, I have no idea what their beef is even about. Sammy and I don't like each other just because we annoy each other, but how can these grown adults act so childish?

Sammy's parents, not mine.

"We don't understand it either, but they have money and power, and we don't. For now, all we can do is search for jobs." She reasoned, making my lips turn to a frown.

"I'll help out in any way I can, Mom." I leaned in, giving her a tight squeeze of a hug before releasing.

"I know you will, honey. Now get to school or you'll be late." She pointed a finger at me as she tried to lighten the mood with a playful smile on her lips.

I rolled my eyes before grabbing my bag off my desk chair, "I guess I'll go to school." I joked, making her roll her eyes right back.

With that, I was off to the wonderful place they call school.

Sammy: good morning eviee

Eviee: Are you sure it's a good morning, and not just a morning?

Sammy: great, you're one of those people

Eviee: Not always, but when I talk to you yes :)

I grinned down at my phone as I walked through the halls of school.

Sammy: very funny, just wait till the day we meet, I'm going to change that

Eviee: Who says we're meeting?

I replied jokingly with a grin appearing on my lips as I neared my locker.

Sammy: you think I'm letting the chance to meet you go to waste? hell no

My cheeks burned at his words, mainly because we weren't ever going to meet as Sammy and Eviee. The farther I went with this whole dating app, the more I thought about backing out. All my plans with flirting with him, and learning more about him have somewhat been working, especially now that he's been bringing up meeting more.

But what do I do when he actually is serious about taking Eviee on a date?

Eviee: Hm, I don't know. You're going to have to work for it ;) plus we still need to get to know each other more.

Sammy: oh? I can definitely work for what I want, and let me tell you when I want something...I get it.

Damn, why was it hot in here?

I quickly stuffed my phone in my pocket once I realized Sammy was right across the hall on his. I shuffled slightly, opening my locker up to grab my English book for class.

I grabbed the book where it was placed, sprawled out in my locker because I just threw the books inside without a care.

I really hate school.

I closed the locker, turning around to be met with a taller figure towering above me. I jumped back into the locker, my heart racing in the process, but soon realized the warm, brown eyes belonged to Sammy.

I ran my hand through my hair before throwing a pointed finger to his chest, "Don't scare me like that!"

"It's not my fault you don't pay attention to your surroundings." He shrugged, and as I always say, I wanted to strangle him.

"What do you want, Sammy?" I groaned, throwing my head back as I started to walk to class.

"Can I not say hello to my amazing partner?" He teased with a grin on his plump lip as he followed me down the hallway.

"No."

"I'm hurt," He huffed, acting as if he was shocked, but all I did was narrow my eyes at him until a chuckle escaped his lips, "Anyway, we may have a slight problem."

"And what's that?" I trailed out with raised eyebrows.

"My parents may or may not be having dinner tonight at my house." He scrunched his nose up as he scratched the back of his neck.

"Oh, so we just can't do the project tonight?" I asked, curiosity filling my voice on what he meant.

"No...they are having a dinner, so we can't do the project there. Can we do it at your house or something?"

His parents are having a dinner without him? Well, that's odd...

"Oh! Well, that's a problem, yeah." I admitted, trying to think of what to do. With my parents being shut down from their diner, they are going to be home more often until a place accepts them somewhere.

And going to the library and whatnot probably will be a no considering it's Sammy we are talking about.

"And before you say ask Ryan and Skye, they are  going out on a date so we can't use their homes." He added as I started my way to the classroom with him following by my side.

"So you think the best logical thing to do is use my home when my parents are right downstairs?" I asked, making sure I heard right and all he did was nod casually.

"I mean, you said it, not me."

I raise my hands towards his neck, acting as if I was going to strangle him then flopped them down to my sides with a groan, "I can't stand you."

He smiled at my actions with a small chuckle, "I know."

"What the hell, Sam?! Sammy Sandars, the man you can't stand, is sneaking in through your window tonight? Like tonight, tonight?" Skye squealed through the phone as I raised my phone away from my ear at her loud voice.

Honestly, at this point, I should be used to it.

"You make it sound wrong." I huffed, glancing out my window every few seconds just to be sure he wasn't climbing through it.

Sammy and I made a plan earlier in the day at school. Since we had this project due in a few days, and nothing really done on it, we would have him sneak in through my window later on in the night. In hopes not to be caught, I would tell my parents I was feeling sick and going to bed early so they would leave us alone in my room.

Why was I going along with this idea? I was asking myself the same question as I was panicking in my room, waiting for Sammy to show up at my window.

I could've just snuck in his, but there was no way in hell I was risking to be caught with his parents plus all the other rich friends they had downstairs. No thanks.

"I'm rooting for you two." Skye sang, making me freeze from pacing back and forth in my bedroom.

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that."

Suddenly a small tap was heard against my window, making me snap my head toward the direction of it. I caught a glimpse of Sammy on the roof before my window, and my eyes widened with my heart dropping to my stomach.

"Shit, he's here. Bye!" I quickly hung up on Skye, throwing my phone to the side of my bed. I walked up to the window, and unlocked it so I could open it.

He was crouched down with his brown hair shading over his eyes, looking at me with pure amusement, "Wow, who would've known that it would be this easy to get inside your bedroom."

"Sammy," I warned with an annoyed tone, slowly closing the window back on him until his hand caught it with narrowed eyes on me.

"Just kidding," he added before slipping in through my window. The way he looked so small on the outside of my window soon changed as he stood to his feet with a bit of a struggle to get inside.

His eyes wandered around my room, "Nice room." He pursed his lips out, impressed.

"Stop snooping," I walked over to my desk to find the notebooks we used from his house until I found the green one under a few books. I quickly picked it up and turned back at him to see him sitting on the edge of my bed.

"But snooping is so much fun." He pouted as he laid back with his back hitting the bed.

I sighed, ignoring his comment as I sat in my desk chair to flip my laptop open. I continued to get everything set up until I turned the chair back around with the laptop sitting in my lap, "Okay let's get started."

So we did just that.

"Hobbies?" I asked.

"Football and piano."

"Piano?" I perked an eyebrow up, unaware of that fact about him.

"Yeah," I watched his shoulder shrug from the bed as he continued to be sprawled out on my bed, "I guess I enjoy it more than football, it helps get your mind off things."

"Damn, Sandars, didn't take you as a musical genius." I grinned, typing in his facts about himself, "Well, I didn't take you to be a genius at all but..." I trailed off, flickering my eyes up to him to see his reaction.

He sat up with a smirk tugging on his lips, "Yeah? You wanna go there, Ryder?"

I looked at him with my eyebrows knotted together on what he meant until he spoke once more.

"I have the highest grade in our class, put that down on your little notes of me." He winked at me, making my jaw drop.

"You what?"

"It's no big deal," He acted as if there was something on his shoulder, dusting it away with his cocky, accomplished self.

"There's no way."

"Oh, but there is."

"I'm not putting that on your stupid paper." I crossed my arms in front of my chest, refusing to do so.

"Okay, either way, we both know I'm the smarter one out of us."

"Why do you care to make everything a challenge?"

"Because without a challenge, what's the fun in that?" He cocked an eyebrow, his playful grin spreading against his lips before he stood up before me.

Well, he wasn't wrong.

We both were competitive.

"Well, I don't believe you, I obviously do better on papers," I replied stubbornly, making him tilt his head to the side as he looked down upon me with those warm brown eyes of his.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." I pressed my lips together with my eyes following every move of his. He slowly walked toward me, taking the laptop off my lap and back to the desk.

"I'm going to ask you again, who's the smarter one between us?" He asked, leaning down to place both his hands on either side of me on the chair's armrests.

My eyes locked onto his, and for a moment my breath hitched at the back of my throat at how close we were. I could smell him, and damn did he smell good along with his hair hovering over his eyes slightly.

"Okay, we can play this game." He added before his hands made their way to my waist to start tickling me. My hands flew toward his chest as I tried to push him farther away with laughter filling my room.

"Sammy! Shh—my parents!" I scolded him through laughs, and all he did was shrug his shoulders.

"I'm waiting for my answer." He continued to tickle my sides, and I finally pushed up out of my chair past him and ran to the opposite end of my room.

"This is not learning about each other nor writing essays!" I motioned between us, slowly backing up in fear he would come to tickle me again.

"Let's admit, we both don't want to write these essays." He rolled his eyes as he took a step closer to me, "And I'm not going to participate until you admit I'm smarter." He crossed his arms in front of his cheek, and I shook my head.

"No."

Should I have said yes? Probably so.

Why you may ask? Because he currently is taking wide strides to come tickle me.

My eyes widened, and I dove onto my bed trying to get away from him, but instead, I failed and rolled off the opposite end. I hit the ground with a loud noise, making the room go silent. I awaited footsteps from my parents freaking out that I probably had died or something, but nothing.

All I did was stare at the ceiling until I saw a head pop up above me, looking down at me from on the bed.

His smile was wide making his dimple stand out, and he shook his head at me in amusement.

"What the hell was that?" He asked.

"I don't want to be tickled!" I slapped my hands down onto my wooden flooring.

"Okay, so you're finally admitting I'm smarter, yeah?" His eyes twinkled with amusement, and for a moment, I got lost in his brown orbs.

They were yellow on the outer edges but different shades everywhere else. His dimple was vivid on his left cheek with him looking down at me with strands of his hair hanging forward.

His lashes were so dark yet long, making me wish I had those same exact lashes along with the faint freckles painted on his nose.

God, he was hot.

"You're smarter than me." I finally admit, making him reach a hand down to help me up.

"Thanks for noticing, you're so kind." He replied with a hint of sarcasm.

I rolled my eyes before taking his hand in mine with him pulling me up to stand.

This was going to be a long night.