A grimace of dissatisfaction formed on my face for the eighth time already. "No," I said in the mirror while holding up an outfit to my body. I tossed the blouse and jeans on the bed before picking out a little black dress.

"Ugh, no!"

"Daisy, could you please just pick out something," Natalie pleaded, laying back on her bed.

I turned my head towards her. "We're not going anywhere until I find the right outfit."

I've been stressing over what to wear to school for almost an hour. It seemed as if no matter what I put on, I looked bloated. Seems like reducing sodium intake is nothing but a farce!

I then pulled out a blush pink blouse and a black mini skirt. Holding both garments up, I turned to the side, trying to see if the outfit would compliment my profile. "Okay, I'll stick with this."

"Finally, yes!" Natalie sat up.

"Oh darn! My Valentino heels aren't in the right shade of blush," I cried, realizing that I now don't have matching heels for my outfit.

Oh this morning is so tragic already!

"Daisy? Are you okay?" Natailie asked softly. "It's really not that big of a deal. Just put on your black Jimmy Choo heels."

"Oh don't you have any fashion sense, Natalie?!" I wept. "I can't just put on the same heels TWO days in a row."

There was a knock at the door, before the the knob turned. "Sugar plum? What's all the commotion about? You're gonna be late for school," mother said, entering the room.

"Daisy is being... a little emotional right now," Natalie said, a bit nervously.

"Emotional? I'm having a teenage life crisis right now, and I think you could at least show a little support!" I shot back.

"Uh, Natalie dear, you can just wait outside. I'll have Daisy out in five," mother assured.

Natalie then sighed before exiting.

Good, she was absolutely no help at all anyway.

"Daisy, sweetie, you really need to just pick out an outfit. I'm pretty sure everything in your wardrobe is a thousand times better than whatever the rest of the kids will be wearing anyway," mother smiled.

I narrowed my slightly blurry, damp eyes at her. "You're 'pretty sure?' So you're saying that someone might be better dressed than me?"

Mother sighed before picking out a pair of white Gucci sandals. "Sprinkles, just put these shoes on and be ready in no more than five minutes."

I stood there flabbergasted as I watched her leave the room. It's like no one is taking my trauma seriously. I might as well become depressed and goth again. Well that is, if goths and depressed people wear pink, frilly blouses and designer satchels, with matching sandals.

After getting dressed and touching up my slight runny eye makeup, I made my way into the car with Natalie.

"You know, if we take a shortcut we'll make it just in time and won't be so late," Natalie said as she drove.

I rolled my eyes as I was looking out of the window. "Who cares? Ever heard of being 'fashionably late?'"

"That term doesn't really apply to things like class."

"Whatever," I huffed.

The rest of the ride was then mostly quiet. Well except for the sound of me groaning in pain when Natalie started playing musical theater music.

•••

Homeroom went by smoothly. Mr. Peterson even complimented me on my, and quote, 'vast array of general and business knowledge'. Not that I didn't already know that.

Ryan even asked if he could borrow my notes. Ha! Guess he finally realized which one of us has the elite smarts.

Soon it was time for lunch. Except, after all of the drama that happened this morning, I forgot to grab my bento box out of the fridge!

Sighing in defeat, I made my way over to the lunch line.

"Oh it's you again," the lunch lady rolled her eyes.

Instead of giving her a witty comeback, I decided to take the optimistic approach. I was in the mood for a caprese salad again, and who knows, maybe being nice might actually get me one this time!

I put on the fakest smile I could. "Hi! Um, I think me and you might have got off on the wrong foot the other day. I was wondering if we could put that behind us?"

She looked at me blankly for a few seconds before smiling. "Why sure."

See. Hook, line and sinker.

I smirked in victory. "Well that's just peachy! So how about you head back into the kitchen and fix me up a caprese salad."

A disgusting look of annoyance engraved upon her face as she stared at me. "Well like I had already told you last time. We. Don't. Serve. That!"

You know, I'm starting to think she was just being sarcastic with me before. She wasn't really trying to put anything behind us!

Well then, I guess the gloves are coming off..

I dropped my incesire smile and put on a threatening look. "Look here, you overpaid sandwich maker! I want you to march back into that kitchen, and fill my plate up with some organic greens, fresh mozzarella, and California grown tomatoes, right this instant!"

"SECURITY!" She hollered out to the two wannabe rent-a-security guards near the far end entrance.

"No! I want a caprese salad, and I want it now!" I exclaimed back.

"Uh, come on Daisy. I brought my lunch, you can have half of mine," Kaitlyn said as she came up beside me.

"You got lucky this time!" I said to the heinous lady before walking back with Kaitlyn.

"Well someone's a little crabby today," Alex commented as I flopped down in the seat across him.

"Oh I have every right to be a little crabby," I said while taking half of Kaitlyn's turkey burger. "All I wanted was a freaking caprese salad!"

"I have kale chips?" Kaitlyn said, trying to compensate.

"Eh, they'll do," I said before grabbing the bag from her.

As I was munching on the salted chips, a finger tapped my on shoulder behind me.

Ugh, who is this? And why do they think they can interrupt my eating time?!

"What?!" I fired back, turning around.

"Hey to you too," Ryan rolled his eyes.

Beside me, Kaitlyn was literally almost hyperventilating from being at such a close range to Ryan. Wow, talk about being desperate.

"Oh. It's you," I eyed him boredly before taking a sip of water.

"I never got your number," he said.

Ohh, so now Mr. Lombardi is interested. Well too little, too late pal!

"You know, for the project." He added.

Oh right, I forgot about that. Um, just disregard my last thought.

He then handed me his phone so I could put my number in. I also may have added the 'crown' and 'fire' emojis by name. You know, just for reference.

He smirked as he looked at it. "I'll text you where to meet me outside so we can go to mines after school."

I nodded before he casually strolled off. I then faced forward to see smirks resting on the faces Kaitlyn, Natalie and Alex face.

"Wipe off those smirks," I said seriously. "I'm only going for an after school activity."

"And will this 'after school activity' be age appropriate?" Alex asked with a sly look.

"IT'S JUST AN A.P. CLASS PROJECT!" I retorted.

The bell then rang, signaling for lunch to be over. I honestly couldn't be happier to get to my next class. I must get away from these three dummies immediately.

•••

I stood at the front doors of the school, waiting for Ryan to pull up front.

I soon saw a black Audi stop in front of the leading up steps. It wasn't a new Audi, of course, but still a higher end vehicle, nonetheless. Plus, it definitely was an upgrade from the piece of tin that I'm forced to ride in with Natalie.

I made my way down to the passenger side and waited by the door.

The window then rolled down. "What are you waiting for? Get in," Ryan said, annoyed.

Oh, I know this poorly mannered man doesn't think I'm going to get in his car without him opening the door for me first, does he?!

"A true gentleman would open the door for a lady," I stated simply, folding my arms under my chest.

He sighed as he reached over to the door handle, opening it from the inside.

"I would have preferred it if you actually got out of the car to open my door," I said, turning my head in the opposite direction.

Ryan rolled his eyes. "Look Princess, I'm not your usual chauffeur. Either get in or don't."

Oh he is lucky he isn't a chauffeur, because if he was, I'd make sure he'd never work in this town again!

I huffed as I took a seat in the car, putting on my seat belt. And thank goodness I did, because Ryan clearly can't tell the difference between a regular road and a Nascar racetrack.

"Has anyone ever told you, you drive like Spongebob?" I asked while horrifiedly watching him speed down a curved road.

"Has anyone ever told you that you complain a lot," Ryan countered back.

"I'm serious Ryan!"

"Relax. I know what I'm doing," Ryan nonchalantly told me.

His focused dark orbs were glued to the road as his large hands sternly gripped the black leather wheel. For someone who was going at such an intense speed, he sure was calm about it. I don't know if it was hot or creepy, honestly. Maybe creepily hot?

We soon arrived in an area not very close to Aunt Hana's. I could tell, because the house we pulled into was nicer. It still, however, couldn't hold a candle flame to my old mansion.

The grass was green and freshly cut. There was a single, large Oak tree standing firm on the lawn. The house was made of white brick and was noticeably bigger than its neighbors'.

We soon walked up the steps to the front door. Ryan then unlocked it to let me in first. Hm, so now he wants to have manners?

"Take your shoes off at the door," he said, locking the door behind us.

I rolled my eyes. "What do you think, I'm a slob or something?" I asked, already kicking off my sandals. I didn't need him to tell me to take off my shoes, upon entering a house. I'm the one that's part Japanese here!

There was a carpeted stairwell in front of the corridor. To the right was a tidy, cream colored themed living room. To the left of the stairs was the spotless, hardwood floored dining room. It appeared to have been an open floor with the chrome kitchen.

I turned my attention to Ryan, who was already walking up the steps.

"Aren't you going to give me a tour?" I asked.

He stopped and turned slightly to face me. "I couldn't see how that would matter. Come on, the sooner we get started, the sooner we can finish."

I pursed my lips in frustration. This guy is so darn difficult!

I followed him up to his room. It was pretty spacious. Bigger than Natalie and I's shared room, that's for sure. His carpet was dark grey and his furniture was themed in black, blue and red.

"Sit wherever," he said as he slung his backpack beside his door.

I then sauntered over to his king sized, blue comforted bed and sat on it. It was way more comfortable than the one I was sleeping on back at Aunt Hana's, but still not as plush as my old memory foam bed... Oh how I miss it.

He sat at his black desk in front of me as we began to get started.

"So we also need to come up with an idea or invention that we will have to present to the class. Any thoughts on what that should be?" I asked.

"Well I assume shopping is your thing, so I was hoping you'd be the one to come up with that part," he said.

"So basically you want me to do all the work." I narrowed my eyes up at him.

"What? No!" He said, seeming to be taken by surprise. "But wouldn't you know more about what consumers would want to buy?"

I put my finger up to my chin in thought. "Nah, I already have everything."

He let out a brief chuckle before rolling his eyes.

"You know, are you always this judgy?" I asked, getting fed up with his attitude.

"Are you always so high maintenance?"

I scoffed. "You know what, how about we both just brainstorm ideas SEPARATELY, and then pick which one sounds the best.

"Fine by me," he said, spinning back around in his chair to face his desk.

After almost 25 minutes of brainstorming, we started pitching ideas to each other. We ended up picking an idea that was based towards furthering technology.

I was scrolling on his red laptop, which I'm still shocked he let me use, when something occurred to me.

"Hey Ryan?"

"Hm?" He hummed as he was writing.

"...Are you emancipated or something?"

He looked up from his notebook and gave me a confused look. "No, why'd you ask?"

"Well I've been here for almost an hour, and I haven't heard anyone else in this house," I said.

"My dad works long hours, and my mom usually does the shopping around this time. She shouldn't be back until a few more hours," he said.

"Oh. Cool, cool," I nodded my head. Curiosity was then getting the best of me. I hardly knew anything about the guy. "Got any siblings?"

He then sighed and looked up at me. "Are we working or playing 21 questions?"

"Geez, I was just making conversation," I retorted.

I shivered as I went back to scrolling on his laptop.

Man, what does he have the A.C. on in this place? -10 degrees? It also doesn't help with me wearing this strappy blouse and mini skirt, ugh.

I shivered again when Ryan noticed. "Are you cold?" He asked.

I gave a fake, closed eyed smile. "No, no. I'm just Harlem shaking."

"Funny," he rolled his eyes. "You can get under the covers if you want."

I looked suspiciously up at him. He was being nice. Too nice...

I carefully lifted the sheets and half expected a snake to jump out just to scare me. Thankfully, the coast was clear. I wrapped myself up in the cozy, warm sheets. The relaxing feeling started making me feel sleepy, so I laid backwards into his bed.

"I didn't invite you over for nap time," I heard Ryan say.

"I'm not sleeping. Just resting. Go ahead and read out your half, I'm listening," I said.

Okay, maybe I was drifting off, but I couldn't tell him that.

He read out half of his presentation before stopping. "Hey, could you hand me my phone charger plugged into the wall?" He asked me. "It's beside the bed."

I turned on my side and scooted toward the edge of the bed. I raised an eyebrow as I saw nothing but air. "I don't see anything."

He sighed before getting up. "It probably fell under the bed." His jet black hair flopped a bit as he knelt down in front of me. He was so close that I could smell his ocean scented cologne. It was alluring and compelling. A lot like him actually. I watched as he reached under the bed frame. His arms up close were strong and built. I could see the slight vein going across his right bicep as he seemed to have grabbed the charger.

"Got it," he said lowly. He then brought his face back up, not too far from mine.

My breathing hitched a bit as I eyed the handsomeness of his face. Noticing my gaze upon him, he turned his attention towards me. I took notice of how his angled jaw clenched slightly as his onyx orbs peered down into my own. It was as if we were both getting pulled into each other's gravity, neither one of us willing to look away.

"I hope I'm not interrupting," a voice called out.

We both looked towards where the voice was coming from.

I saw a woman standing at the doorway. She had long jet black hair, pale skin and was very beautiful. Her eyebrow arched as she looked upon us in. With Ryan being so close to me as I laid under his sheets, from the outside perspective, did look a bit compromising.

...Oh no, don't tell me this is his...