After Kyla dropped me back home from school, I sat in the living room, dreading the moment mom and dad would walk through that door and shoot me a disappointed look followed by a long talk.

The day started off on a grim note and I could tell it was only going to go downhill from here. At least I managed to avoid Seth the whole day and Carla wasn't following us around anymore. I almost forgot what it was like to have a nice, peaceful meal without her constant chatter.

To dissipate my parents' anger, I decided to cook dinner today. Finding a good recipe for stir-fried vegetables, I lined the kitchen counter with bowls of various vegetables. Making sure to follow the recipe carefully so that I didn't end up with the fire department having to pay us a visit tonight, I successfully finished making the dish. After that, I steamed enough rice for the three of us and laid the dining table with cutlery. Standing back and examining the dining table, I felt quite proud of myself.

I was watching TV when I heard the front door unlock and then, mom and dad stepped in.

"Hey guys!" I said, sounding like the host to a children's TV show. "How has your day been?"

Dad exchanged a look with mom. He knew what I was doing, but it was still worth a shot.

"Did you cook dinner?" mom asked, ignoring my question.

"Yes, I did!" I exclaimed. "I thought I'd give you the night off."

"Ava, we need to talk," dad said, cutting my act short. Damn it.

"What's wrong?" I asked, sitting up straight and muting the TV.

He came and sat down on the couch with mom following. "We received a mail from your school's principal. Would you like to tell us what happened on camp?"

I sighed. I couldn't escape this, might as well own up to it. "Fine, we played a few harmless pranks that were supposedly not funny to the teacher who accompanied us."

"Playing pranks amongst yourselves is still fine but you guys pranked the teacher's trailer? What were you thinking?" mom said in an accusatory tone.

Should I deny doing those pranks or tell them we did it? We lied to Mrs. Delia and only the seven of us know that it was us, everyone else is simply assuming we did the prank.

"We didn't do it!" I exclaimed. "They're just assuming that we did."

"Ava," my dad said in a stern tone, his grey eyes staring into mine.

"Okay, fine," I said, sagging. "We did it but it was Seth's idea!"

"First, you were dumb enough to help some boy out with those pranks and then, you lie to your teachers and us that you didn't do it?" dad asked, his eyebrows rising. "I expected better, Ava."

"Which is why we have decided to ground you for the next two weeks," mom declared.

"What!" I exclaimed. "That's not fair! We're already getting detention and community service from school. I don't need you to ground me, too!"

"You should've thought of that before you decided to go ahead with those foolish pranks," dad said in a tone that indicated there was no more room for discussion.

"It was just for fun. We didn't-"

"Ava, that's enough," mom cut me off.

With a scowl on my face, I stood up and walked up to my room. They were just pranks for heaven's sake! I agree that the one on the teacher's trailer was going a bit too far but that didn't mean I deserved to attend detention, community service and be grounded.

Could this day get any better?

*

The next day after school, I waited for Kyla by the canteen to go to detention together. I was really not looking forward to this. I've only been to detention once in 9th Grade for talking back to a teacher because she moved me to the back behind a huge football player which made it difficult for me to see. I tried to explain this to her but somehow, I landed myself in detention.

"Ava!" I heard Kyla's voice from behind me.

"Excited for detention?" I asked in a sarcastic tone and she nodded enthusiastically.

"I am psyched," she commented, making me grin.

At least, I had Kyla, Kian and Derrick with me.

And Seth.

No, I will try my best to ignore him and not let my feelings resurface. I didn't like him for long, I'm sure I'm already over him.

We were told to make our way to the art room for detention today. I had a vague idea of what they were going to make us do but I really hoped it was not that.

We entered the art room to see the art teacher, Ms. Shay, waiting for us. Ms. Shay really was like a typical art teacher with the head turban and faded pants and sling bag. I promise I am not exaggerating.

"Oh boy!" she exclaimed as Kyla and I entered the room. "That's a lot of helping hands today!"

"Helping hands?" Kyla asked me with a snort. "She does know we are forced into this right?"

I shrugged in response. I spotted Derrick and Kian standing by the side and made my way towards them followed by Kyla. Carla and Mason were next to them, as well. Brilliant.

I looked around to see a few familiar faces. There was another boy from our Year. Tyde? Troy?

"I would like to thank all of you for agreeing to help me clean the art room today," Ms. Shay said with glee.

"Agreeing?" Carla repeated with a roll of her eyes.

Just as she began continuing her thank you speech, the door opened and in stepped Seth. He had a pair of dark jeans on with a white t-shirt and he managed to look good even in that. He muttered an apology for being late and as his eyes scanned the room, they landed on me. His eyes studied me as he neared us. Flustered by his gaze, I focused my attention on Ms. Shay and tried to concentrate on what she was saying, which was becoming increasingly difficult now that Seth was here.

She began listing out the jobs she had for everyone: cleaning the windows, washing the dirty brushes, cleaning the tables, clearing out the paint boxes and the list goes on. I chose to clean the tables. Partly because I didn't want to do any of the other jobs and because I noticed Seth put on gloves to wash the brushes so there was no way I was doing that.

Going to the table with supplies, I grabbed a rag and a spray bottle of some liquid that I assumed was there to clean the windows and tables.

The boy whose name starts with T stood next to me and grabbed a rag too.

"Hi," he said.

I stopped what I was doing and looked at him to make sure that he was talking to me. When I was certain he was, I responded with a 'hi' too.

"So, what are you in detention for?" he asked, looking up at me as he reached for the spray bottle. His eyes caught me off guard for a minute. He had the most striking shade of blue eyes that contrasted well with his dirty blond hair. They were not really blue, more of a deep green color.

He raised his eyes when he noticed I was staring at him with a dumb look on my face. I raised my eyebrows in return.

Realizing he was waiting for a response, I said, "Sorry, I was just-"

"Checking me out," he finished my sentence for me with a smirk, making me raise an eyebrow at his confidence.

"I wasn't checking you out," I said, defending myself. "Besides, I've seen better."

"I really doubt that," he responded. "It's okay if you were checking me out, it happens to lots of girls."

Rolling my eyes at him, I turned around and made my way to the table. I looked up to see Kyla raise her eyebrows at me with wide eyes. Presuming she was referring to -I really need to find out what his name is- I shrugged in response.

Reaching the table, I began spraying the table but nothing came out of the bottle. I struggled for a few seconds before sighing in frustration and deciding to get another bottle. I turned around while examining the bottle in my hand and walked straight into that boy's hard chest. I almost lost balance as I tried to take a step back. He reached forward and held my elbow to steady me.

"What are you doing?" I asked with a scowl.

"Saving you from falling on your ass, you're welcome," he said with a lop-sided grin.

"No, I meant what are you doing standing behind me like a creep!" I exclaimed.

"You're the one who walked into me and instead of apologizing, you're saying it's my fault?" he said, raising his eyebrows.

I freed my arm from his grip and sighed. This boy was infuriating. "Well, could you kindly do the honor of stepping out of my way?"

With a small smirk on his face, he stepped to his left and outstretched his arm out with a bow as if I was some kind of a royal person.

"Thank you," I said sarcastically and started walking away from him but that didn't work out since he was right behind me, again.

I looked up to see Seth staring at our little encounter curiously while he mindlessly wiped a paint brush that was in his hand. When our eyes met, his frown disappeared but he didn't look away.

"You didn't answer my question."

I blinked and looked away from Seth to look at my left to see that boy waiting for my response.

"Isn't that like a question you shouldn't ask? Like how you don't ask people what they're in prison for," I questioned.

"Last time I checked this wasn't prison," he said, gesturing around with the rag in his hand. "Although, the school's doing a pretty good job at making this place a prison."

Without wanting to, a chuckle left my lips which caused him to smile proudly.

"I was caught while doing a prank at the trip so Mr. Harvey decided I needed detention for a whole freaking month," I said grumpily.

"You were a part of the prank of the teacher's trailer?" he exclaimed as I reached forward another spray bottle. "Man, that's sick!"

A slow, hesitant grin spread on my face. He was the first one to appreciate how very brilliant the prank was. So far, everyone had only expressed their disappointment in me and my decisions.

"I know! Thank you!" I exclaimed with a grin. "I've just been hearing people tell me how irresponsible and wrong it was of me to do that."

"What, no! That was a daring prank. I wish I could've seen what it looked like," he said.

"It looked really messy but it was our masterpiece," I stated with a proud smile.

We walked back to the table and started cleaning the paint splats from the table.

"Gosh, do these kids paint on the canvas or the tables?" he said while he rubbed a spot on the table with a frown.

"I know right," I agreed with a nod. The wooden tables had various colours of paint on them splattered almost everyone.

"What are you in detention for?" I asked after a moment's silence.

"My reason isn't as amazing as yours," he answered with a shrug. "I just didn't hand in any assignment for most of my classes this term so..."

"Oh," I said since I didn't really know what to say.

"Told you it's not as bad-ass as your reason," he said with a smirk.

I laughed, attracting the attention of people around us, one of who was Seth. Honestly, I did not understand why he seemed to be so displeased to see me talking to...what is his name!

Seth was the one who decided to push me away after kissing me away. He doesn't have any right to get upset over me talking to another boy.

Time passed surprisingly quickly, thanks to I-should-ask-him-for-his-name. We returned our supplies where we found them and waited for Ms. Shay to dismiss us.

"Hey, Ava," I heard the boy as I was about to leave. He knows my name and I don't know his!

"Yeah?" I asked, halting in the doorway.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket and outstretched it to me. My eyebrows pulled together in confusion.

"Add your number to my phone," he said, waiting for me to take his phone.

That was...direct.

"Is this a new way of getting a girl's number?" I questioned, taking his phone from him.

"It will be once you give me your number," he answered with a smirk.

I suppressed my laughter so as to not boost his ego even further and entered my number in. Just as I was returning his phone to him, Seth came up to us. I stared at his deep brown eyes for a moment before realizing that I was blocking the doorway.

"Oh, sorry," I mumbled.

He gave me a tight smile and if my eyes weren't deceiving me, I'm sure I saw him shoot a look at the boy whose name I still don't know. I watched him walk him away from me as quickly as he could, the muscles in his back flexing as he walked briskly.

I felt my phone buzz in my back pocket and pulled it out to see a missed call from an unknown number.

"It's my number, you can save it."

I looked up to see him smile proudly at how smooth he was being. "Um, this is embarrassing but I didn't catch your name."

He chuckled before saying, "It's Tyler."

"Tyler. Right, I'll keep that in mind," I said with a nod and started walking away from him.

"I'm hoping you will," he said and shot me a wink.

A/N- So we've got a new characterrr! Do you guys like Tyler? I know Seth doesn't like him much :P

Thank you so much for being so patient guys! My exams went quite well other than Maths that decided to be an ass to me. The day my exams finished, I came home and took a nap from 6pm to 11pm and then I was up all night. I am so sleep deprived. 

Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter. If you did, please hit that star- it only takes a few seconds and it makes me really happy! Leave a comment if you liked this! I love reading them and I try to respond to as many as I can.

Love you guys!