I had Drama next. Lord knows I did not need more drama in my life but here it went. I got in there and saw Annie and Landon. They waved me over to sit with them. There were perks to having a large friend group, even if you weren't close to all of them, there was usually a friendly face if you needed one.

We found out that we would have the option to sign up to be in the shows or in Tech Theater behind the scenes. Considering I was only in this class because my counselor suggested it, I was more than happy to be behind the scenes and out of the spotlight.

We had a couple of spare minutes at the end of class and I found myself talking to Annie. "You choreographed the musical last year didn't you?"

She smiled, "Yep, that was me. And this year I get to do a senior play. You only get to direct one if you were in theater all four years of high school and I am one of three who have been for seniors."

"Oh that's awesome. Do you already know what play you want to direct?"

"No idea, I might even write my own. I started working on a one act this summer and I am considering asking if I can use it."

My mouth hung open, "You wrote a play?"

She blushed, "You'll have to read it and tell me what you think."

I nodded, "I would love to."

"I still need to edit it some. I am hoping to get to during Creative Writing this year."

I smirked, "Do you have that one with Tyler?"

Annie smirked back, "Why yes I do. And he was all smiles in class today. I guess that little make out session you two had in the parking lot got him in a good mood."

I froze, "Y'all saw that?"

Annie laughed, "Uh, yeah, everyone saw that. We were all watching you leave after you burned Ari to the ground. He sat there picking at his food the rest of lunch while that dipshit Darcy wouldn't stop blathering on about what had happened. Good for you girl. He deserved for you to finally say something."

That was a lot of information to process. I went quiet myself until the bell rang. I rushed out to Math class because I knew Elle would be there. She was already seated when I arrived.

"Alex, holy shit. Was that your first kiss with Tyler? Finally!"

"Elle, I am mortified. I had no idea everyone was paying attention to us."

"Girl how could we not? You about unalived, Ari and then walked out like you had ice in your veins. It was epic. He's my brother and I love him but that idiot needed to hear that."

The bell rang and we had to put our conversation on hold. We had eighth period together too and I was looking forward to going over every detail of the Tyler kiss with her. I was hoping having Mr. Hale twice today meant that this class would be even easier. We walked in and it felt like I was being slapped with cold water.

Ari was sitting in the back corner of the room.

I looked over to Elle, "Dude, you promised me he was only taking photography."

Elle looked confused until she realized who I referring to, "Oh, shit."

Ari looked... uncomfortable, to say the least.

I looked at Elle, "Do you want to go and sit by him? I can sit at the front."

She shook her head, "No, it's fine. I had no idea that he changed his schedule or I would have told you." We grabbed seats at the other end of the classroom and waited for class to start.

Mr. Hale walked in and I looked at Elle to see her reaction. She sat up straighter and I noticed that she started to slowly twirl her hair.

Elle, no. Ew. Girl no!

As predicted, a lot of the information he was giving was a repeat from earlier in the day. Apparently about half the class also had him for either Journalism or Photography too. That was going to make for a lot of overlap for him I was sure. For our class, we would focus on a mixture of Film Theory and Film Production. I could get behind that. Watching movies for a grade was a lot easier than having to read books.

He passed out a sheet titled AFI's 100 Greatest Film List and wanted us to circle all the ones we had seen. I had seen Toy Story, Snow White, and ET of course. Lord of the Rings was a given too. A lot of the ones on this list were older than my parents. The tenth anniversary list was from 2007 and I was barely born then.

Mr. Hale had us all raise our hands and then he started calling out asking to see who had seen one move, five movies, and so on until all of our hands would be down. I had seen ten of them and felt proud of that. At least half the class was there with me. Elle had to bow out at twenty. I wondered who she had been watching these old movies with.

And then there was one hand left and it made sense. Ari loved vintage. He had vintage cameras in his room and used to love talking about the old days of film being better than the crap they put out today.

Mr. Hale addressed Ari to ask, "So how many have you seen Adrian?"

That made several people giggle. No one called Ari by his birth name. Ever.

"Uh, it's actually Ari. And Eighty-eight."

A few kids gasped quietly. This didn't surprise me about Ari in the least, though.

Mr. Hale looked impressed, "So you know about this list then?"

"And the 1997 list too. I started watching my freshman year and have been checking them off slowly. A few of them I still haven't tracked down yet."

"Well then you ought to be more than prepared for our first project." He turned to the rest of us and said, "You will all pair up and discuss what you think makes a great film. Be prepared to share out in five minutes."

I looked at Elle, "Partner?"

She nodded, "Partner."

"I already have an answer incase he calls on us."

"Oh thank God."

"So what do you think of the new teacher?"

"I think I have seen at least seven girls check him out since the start of class."

"You being one of them." I laughed.

Elle blushed, "He's not your type?"

"Not in the least."

Elle rolled her eyes.

We made it through the rest of the period and my first day of Junior year was done. Ari rushed out of the room when the bell rang. I stayed behind, pretending to collect my already packed things. I wanted to avoid a run in. Elle had gone on ahead to meet Aaron.

I didn't have practices after school for Cross Country until the spring semester so I was blissfully free. I also realized that I had not arranged a ride home yet. There were plenty of names in my phone that I could text for a ride but only one that I wanted to.

Turns out I didn't need to text.

Tyler was waiting for me outside my class. I wanted to attack his face with my mouth, but even I knew that would be weird. We weren't even set to have our first official date until this Friday so I wasn't sure what to do.

I just smiled shyly and said, "So did you hear everyone saw us making out at Chew Chews?"

He laughed, "Yeah, I had a few people mention it to me. I say, let 'em watch."

We walked out to the parking lot. When we reached Tyler's truck he stopped, leaned down, and kissed me softly but forcefully. How those two went together I wasn't sure but it was happening.

I felt Tyler start to part my lips with his tongue. He the slipped it into my mouth just long enough to tease my tongue into his mouth. He gently massaged my tongue with his before I led him back into my mouth. I had never really been kissed like this. Especially not in public. It felt completely natural to be doing it with Tyler though.

One hand went to the small of my back and the other wrapped around the nape of my neck. I leaned against the truck for support as Tyler pushed against me.

I didn't care who could see us and I didn't feel rushed to stop kissing Tyler. He made me feel like it was just the two of us that mattered. Everything else could wait.

When I finally needed oxygen, I pulled back to ask, "Can I get a ride home?"

"Anytime, Baby."

Baby.

He had called me that the night of the Valentine's dance last year. I liked the sound of it then and I loved the sound of it now. It reminded me of my favorite movie, Dirty Dancing.

Tyler leaned against me then and slowly kissed me some more. He wasn't in any hurry to stop.

I stopped Tyler after a few moments and gave him my best puppy dog eyes. He looked back quizzically like he knew I was about to ask for something big.

"Could you take me for a driving lesson? I want to start learning."

He put his hand over his face in an 'Oh shit' motion and said, "If you crash my truck, my mom will kill the both of us."

I clapped my hands together and said, "Is that a yes?"

Tyler sighed, "I will take you to a parking lot. Your ass is not driving my truck on the streets until you have a G1."

I squealed and we resumed our very public make out session before heading out. We spent the next hour in a vacant lot. Tyler patiently showed me what everything in his truck did and then we went over how to operate it. When he let me behind the wheel I adjusted my seat and mirrors and tried to look like I was terrified.

It took a while but eventually I started to feel like I could handle this giant motor vehicle. He let me drive it around the lot for a few laps before we started working on parking. I had to work on pulling into a spot, backing into it, and then he even made me work on parallel parking. Tyler had covered more in an hour than my dad had ever.

We sat in the lot listening to Tyler's Spotify playlist, not wanting to go home and face the mountain of homework waiting for us thanks to Ms. Colewood.

I smiled and turned to him, "So Friday..."

He smirked, "Friday."

"What are the plans?"

"I figured I would drop you off at your place and let you get ready. My set is at seven so I was going to come and get you at six. We should be done by eight. They have a shower in the back of the club so I will shower up really fast and then we're going out."

"Where?"

His smile broadened, "Now that, Baby, is a surprise."

I smiled back as he leaned in to kiss me. I had never really had this stage of a relationship before. Ari and I just hung out at his house or at one of the other houses of The Families. His idea of a date was going to see Running With Scissors and then going back to his house to make out.

Tyler actually had the night planned out. It made me feel very... wanted. I appreciated the effort.

I also really liked this whole kissing thing with Tyler. It was very different than the kind of kissing I was used to. I could tell he was much more experienced than I was.  I had gotten enough information from Elle to know how far he and her sister Brenna had made it and it was further than I had ever been with anyone.

But I didn't feel pressure to go that far, yet. Tyler made taking it slow feel so natural and was setting the expectation that there were no physical expectations. I had half expected that not to be the case with someone so experienced. I wondered if he was like this with all the girls he had dated or just me?

It did make me feel special either way.

After a moment, Tyler pulled back and said, "Better get you home. We have a lot of homework to get done and I for one, am starving."

I nodded and we headed to my house.