By the end of History class, she felt almost normal again, well at least normal for her. She packed up her stuff, and was standing to leave, when Tairin called her attention back to his gorgeous face.

"Hey, can I grab a ride with you to the pool?" His expression holding no motive other than the innocent question.

Ryder had to force a cough to cover up her choking. She stared blankly at him for a moment, waiting to see if he would recant his question. He didn't, he simply sat there watching her, waiting for an answer.

"Sure." She managed to get out, despite her bewilderment. She did however succeed in keeping her face under control, releasing only half of a smile, rather than the jaw dropping reaction that was running rampant inside her.

"Great!" A genuine smile taking hold of his perfect lips. He stood grabbing both his bags, as they walked out of class together.

Ryder took the lead directing him through the enormous student parking lot towards her sedan.

She shot Tairin quirky sidelong smile as they made their way through the extremely crowded parking lot, checking to see if he really was coming with her. He returned the smile, holding her eyes longer than she expected. Of course, her body threatened to betray her as she began to feel weak in the knees.

She forced herself to look around the parking, anywhere but him, she must look like a crazy person. As she scanned the lot she saw the one person who could make this new experience with Tairin that much more internally dramatic, Mikaila. She stood by Stephanie's car staring at Ryder with an amazed, wide-eyed expression, that practically screamed 'Oh. My. God!'

Ryder returned a crippling look, that communicated if Mikaila dare say anything at that moment she would throttle her in the middle of the parking lot. Mikaila got the message, and simply gestured to her phone, indicating she expected a full report tonight in exchange for her silence.

"Isn't that your car over there?"

Ryder was brought back to the real world only to find new embarrassment. She had lost track of where she was walking and had walked two aisle passed of her own car.

"Oops, yeah that's my car." She self-consciously laughed. "I usually get stuck parking in the back, because I never seem to manage to be here on time." She smiled up at Tairin, his 6' stature, seeming to tower over her 5'7". She rarely felt short, but she did at that moment walking next to him. She realized it was because he stood up so straight, his broad swimmer shoulders making him look that much bigger. She corrected her own posture, thinking she really needed to stop wearing a backpack. Maybe those wheelie ones would come back in style and save her spine.

"Don't you live like right across the street?" He asked.

"No, I live down the street." She corrected.

"Oh yeah, you live in that big almond orchard." He said, making it more of a statement than a question.

She looked at him puzzled, "How do you know where I live?"

For the first time she saw a twang of embarrassment flash across his face. "I don't know, I guess I've just seen you turn in there when I was driving home."

Her heart began to pound against her rib cage, she couldn't believe what she was hearing, he had noticed her, well at least enough to remember where she lived. She tried to calm herself, trying to remember that it really wasn't that big of deal, but she could feel the signs of her excitement breaking through her pathetically weak defenses and blooming into a full grin. His face softened as he took in her smile, his embarrassment seeming to lift.

As the sound of her heartbeat made its way into her burning ears, she was the one to break the connection. She had never felt this way before.

She walked to the driver's seat, throwing her backpack into the backseat. Tairin did the same from the passenger side. She drove them to their schools brand new Olympic-size pool. The campus was a huge, all-inclusive complex, that made more sense to drive around than walk. It was aptly named a 'Mega School'.

She found a good parking spot in front of the pool and pulled in. Wanting to act normal and not linger too long, she turned off the car, and reach into the backseat to grab her pink sports bag for practice. Before she could get out, Tairin caught her by the wrist, "Hey wait, can I ask you something?"

She settled back into her seat. "Yeah sure." She couldn't stop her brain from noting that this was the second time he had touched her today.

"Is it possible for me to get a ride home with you after practice? My car's in the shop and everyone in my family is busy until later."

Ryder couldn't find her voice. She felt like she was on a roller coaster that had just taken the first big drop, giving her that feeling of losing her stomach.

She finally managed to say, "yeah sure".

"Great. I really appreciate it." With that he grabbed his sports bag and hopped out of the car.

She looked to the backseat and saw that he had left his backpack, she couldn't believe it, this was really happening. She managed to get her legs to comply to her will and got out of the car. Tairin stood at the back of her car, apparently waiting for her. She hit the wrong button twice, but finally managed to lock the damn car doors.

Ryder jumped into the warm pool, grateful to escape the cold breeze that had picked up. She loved diving, despite how critical she was of herself. She found peace when embraced by the water, and a complex freedom when flipping through the air. She reveled in experiencing the calmness the water offered as she floated, suspended in it. One of her favorite things was looking up and seeing a storm raging above the surface, all the chaos unable to reach her in her water cocoon. She felt more comfortable submerged, surrounded by its calming silence, than she did on land amongst her peers.

At the end of practice, she swam as fast as she could to the far edge of the dive tank, trying to beat her teammates, and scampered over to one of the outdoor showers. She felt relief as the warm water hit her shivering body. She never understood why the diving season started at the end of January, they might live in California but that did not mean that it was actually bathing suit weather all year.

A few minutes later the swimmers began to haul themselves out of their pool lanes and made the mad dash to either the few remaining outdoor showers, or to the locker rooms. Her searching eyes found Tairin as he pulled himself out of the pool. She couldn't help but look at him, starting with his wet slicked back hair, to his broad muscular shoulders, his cut abs, down to his powerful legs. She was used to seeing guys in speedos, she had been on the dive team since she started Junior High, but for some reason she found herself blushing as she looked at Tairin. Lucky for her, her eyes had wandered back to his face when his gaze found her huddled under her shower.

He finished talking with his coach and jogged towards her. "Hey, can I share your shower? All the ones in the locker room will be snatched up by now, and I'm too cold to wait my turn."

She felt her mouth open a little as her jaw forgot how to control itself.

"Uh, yeah sure." She managed, and scooted over.

This wasn't an uncommon thing for teammates to share showers on the pool deck, but it was new for Ryder.

They quietly stood for a while, both simply enjoying the warmth. Tairin was the one who broke the silence. "That's a cool suit, is it new?"

"Yeah it is." Those few measly words being all she could manage. She had never felt so inarticulate. She wanted to slam her head against the tiled back wall of the shower in hopes of knocking some sense back into her mush brain.

"The red in it makes your eyes stand out."

All Ryder could do was give him a crooked smile, that she was pretty sure made her look constipated.

Tairin turned his attention to a teammate that had snagged the shower to their left.

Ryder finally had to run away, after her arm accidentally grazed his stomach as they shifted positions to warm a different part of their frozen bodies. She went straight into the girl's locker room and locked herself in a bathroom stall, "Pull yourself together Shaw." She commanded. Shaking her head in her hands.

After she felt that some sense had returned to her brain she changed out of her wet swimsuit into sweatpants and her favorite maroon hoodie. Twisting her hair into a bun she made her way back onto the pool deck. She almost tripped over her own flat feet when she saw Tairin waiting outside the girl's locker room, presumably for her.

"Ready?" He asked.

"Yeah, let's get out of here."

He fell into an easy stride right beside her. As they walked off the pool deck she could feel some of their teammates watching their departure. Ryder was sure some of the girls were whispering as they gawked at the mismatched couple.

Ryder didn't know where Tairin lived so she needed prompting as she drove. He finally told her to stop in front of a large blue house with white trim, and a red front door.

She pulled her eyes away from the impressive house and brought them to rest on its even better-looking resident.

"Nice place."

"Thanks, my mom has good taste." Tairin said, glancing to the house. "Well, thanks for the ride, I really appreciate it."

"No problem at all. Any time." She said, almost too enthusiastically. "You do live pretty close to me." She added, trying to justify her willingness.

"Well, since you said that, I kind of have another favor to ask." He paused, his eyes searching her face. She thought he must be looking for any sign of annoyance. Despite her best efforts, she was pretty sure her face was conveying the exact opposite.

"Is it possible for me to bum a ride home with you for the rest of the week?"

"That's no problem at all." She said, attempting to sound as casual as possible.

"Really? Are you sure? I don't want to be a burden." He pressed.

"Honestly, it's fine." Her gaze dropped to her lap in an attempt to hide her annoying face that had now betrayed her for the umpteenth time today. Her attention falling on her hands which were fiddling with the lose corner of her sweatshirt's front pocket.

The distraction was no help, her damn tongue went rogue, "To be honest I like hanging out with you." She didn't know where this unchecked girliness was coming from or how to make it stop.

"I like hanging out with you too. Even though we haven't done it much." He added, a quizzical arch forming on his brow that suggested he found her curiously entertaining. "I have never enjoyed working with a partner as much as I did with you last semester. Maybe we could hangout after practice sometime this week, if you want? We can just come here, my parents aren't usually off work until later, so we'd have the place to ourselves."

Ryder struggled to keep a straight face, the idea of being alone with him in that big beautiful house brought on an armada of conflicting thoughts.

"Well... Maybe I could squeeze you into my schedule. As long as you promise we will study some for our History test that's coming up." She attempted to hide her excitement behind sarcasm, her go-to defense mechanism.

Tairin chuckled, "That's actually not a bad idea." He pretended to mull over her proposition.

Even though she knew he was joking, she found that there was a tightness in her throat, induced by the ridiculous fear that he might say no.

Get a grip Shaw, she thought remorselessly to herself, irritated and confused by the way her mind and body were reacting to what really was an uneventful conversation.

"Deal." He said firmly, sticking his hand out to her, a gesture of sealing the accord they had jokingly negotiated.

Despite her best efforts, that gesture brought on the most organic smile Ryder had, had all day. She laughed and clasped his hand.

Damn, he's funny too, she thought. She realized this boy was dangerously close to turning her into a full fledge boy-obsessed teenage girl. Please just hold onto some dignity, I would die if I turned into Stephanie, she thought desperately. Then she laughed out loud, thinking that even if she tried, her brain could never stop functioning enough to render her Stephanie Leonard level.

"What's so funny?" Tairin asked, laughing a little trying to join her inside joke.

"Oh, it's nothing." She said, unable to come up with anything clever to say.

"Sure, it isn't." He said sarcastically, now reaching to the backseat to grab his bags. "Thanks for the lift Ryder, I'll see you tomorrow." Before closing the car door he bent over to look in at her. "I'll meet you out by your car after school. Sound good?"

"Sounds good. See you tomorrow."

"See ya." He said shutting the car door.

She watched him unlock the front door, wave bye and shut it behind him.

She felt like running home, there was so much adrenaline and excitement coursing through her. But her mind took a surprising detour, as her dream from last night flashed in her mind at the thought of running, and the memory of her feet gripping the earth. Crushing her desire to run anywhere or do anything that made her think of that disturbingly vivid dream.

She shook her head, attempting to clear it, not wanting to get hung up on something as silly as a dream. She turned on her radio as she pulled away from the curb. She couldn't help but join in as Taylor Swift belted "You Belong with Me". She laughed as she sang, feeling a very new appreciation for the lyrics.