"I'm sorry I didn't invite you to my party," I said, faking sincerity. "That was mean of me to do."

Marissa didn't look confused, "Why are you apologizing?"

I fought back the urge to roll my eyes and settled on taking a deep breath.

"I'm apologizing because I realize now what I did was wrong. To make it up to you, you're invited to the party and you can come hang out tonight."

I waited for her to take the bait.

"Okay!" Marissa exclaimed.

I smiled, "Make sure to tell Willow that I invited you over tonight and tell her she's invited too."

"Okay," she said again. "But I thought Willow and you were fighting."

How dense was this girl?

"We were fighting because of you. Aren't you mad at me?"

"Yeah."

I tilted my head, "So Willow isn't mad at me?"

"No," she chirped.

I shook my head, already growing frustrated with the girl. Keep it calm, I reminded myself.

"Great!" I said, with a fake bubbly tone. "I'll see you later. I can't wait to show you guys the tape I found."

Marissa nodded and slipped away with her long raven-colored hair swishing in tow. That might be the one thing I was jealous of about her. How her light brown skin made her dark hair stuck out even more.

Pushing that thought away I wondered how I let her know about the tape. There was no doubt that it slipped out on accident, but I guessed it didn't matter. Maybe the girls would be able to help me figure out this tape situation anyway.

I shrugged my shoulders as I strutted into math class. Eyes flitted over to me as usual and I gave a few smiles. I made my way over to Willow to make sure Marissa had done her job. It had only been a few minutes, but a word with Marissa spread like wildfire.

"Did Marissa talk to you?"

Willow nodded, "I'm glad you came to your senses. Ignoring you was becoming hard! I had to be partners with Carter. I never noticed how much he smells before."

I let out a giggle, "I missed you too Wills. Carter does smell, probably cuz' he lives on a farm."

Willow scrunched her nose, "Yuck."

"Yeah," I agreed. "Anyway, you coming over tonight? I know Marissa is and I might invite Julie and Jess too."

She rolled her eyes, "It's so annoying how laid back your mom is. If my friends just came over I'd be beaten with the chancla."

I cringed, " Latina moms sound scary."

"You have no idea," she said, shuttering. "But yeah I think I can. I had soccer practice but it got canceled because of rain and my mother works the night shift."

"Perfect," I said grinning.

"All right class," Ms. Shell said, calling attention to the class.

I immediately sat in my seat and shut up. If I was going to accomplish what I needed to today, detention was the last thing I needed.

*************

"That's all for today's class." Ms. Shell said. "You May chat until the bell rings, which will be in about two minutes."

Writing down the last of the notes in my notebook, I sighed in relief. Math was my favorite class, but I hated taking notes. On the bright side, now I have the perfect opportunity to invite Julie over.

"Hey Harp-"

"Sorry Wills, I'll talk to you at lunch. I gotta ask Julie if she can come over."

"Okay," she said, gathering her things. "See you then."

I grabbed my things and hurried over to Julie who happened to be talking with Carson. I gathered my confidence as I walked over.

"Hey, Jules! Can you come over today after school?"

She looked a bit startled at my interruption and if I wasn't mistaken Carson looked a bit annoyed. My heart dropped a little but I kept up my facade.

"Uh, sure. I mean no, sorry." She looked over at Carson. "I, um, I don't have a ride."

I crinkle my brows, "We always walk to my house."

"Yeah," she said before pausing. "I mean I have a lot of homework."

I was beginning to get tired of her lying, but it was quite amusing to watch her scramble for an excuse. Although what did she have to do that was so important that she had to lie?

"It's the first period, Jules. Just tell me why you can't come."

She looked nervously over at Carson, "I have a date."

I looked at her to continue.

I didn't miss the worry in her eyes as she spoke, "With Carson."

Her words felt like a blow to the chest. How could she go on a date with Carson when she knew that I had a crush on him?

"Okay," I responded by keeping up my barrier. "And just so you know, your shirt makes your eyes look like vomit."

Barely containing my frustration I marched out the door as the bell coincidentally rang at the same time.

I practically ran to my next class which was Science. This was luckier than one. The first being I already had my stuff for that class so I didn't have to stop at my locker. The second reason was that my class only had about fifteen students in it, none of which kept up with the school drama. That was I wouldn't have to hear about Carson and Julie for a while. I knew for sure them dating would be all over the school by now.

Practically slamming myself into my usual seat, I didn't notice the boy sitting next to me. Well, not until the teacher's loud voice called him up to the front.

Just as the bell rang my attention was pulled to the dark-haired boy in the front. He wasn't in this class before.

"This is Archer Maze." Mr. Hall said firmly. "He is new here so I expect you all will show him the ropes of this class. Harper, Archer is your new lab partner."

The terse information wasn't what made me annoyed, it was the fact that I would now have to talk. At least he was hot. As he got closer that fact became even more apparent. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad.

"Hey, I'm Harper," I said with a smile.

"I know." He replied.

"Well, I'm happy to help you with anything you need, Arch."

"Don't call me that." He replied.

I fought the urge to roll my eyes and kept up my vivacious exterior. I wasn't about to be seen sad twice today.

"Do you not like that nickname? I could think of another-"

"No," he said, cutting me off. "Nicknames are a form of endearment. So I don't need one, especially from you."

"That's cold," I said, let some of my annoyance slip through.

"Maybe," he shrugged. "But it's the truth. Now let me pay attention so I don't fall behind on my first day. I'm sure you know about falling behind."

I was about to fire a witty remark back at Archer but I decided against it. It would not only give him satisfaction but also make me seem like the jerk. I mainly knew that because I played by the exact same rules.

Instead, I focused on my work. If I wasn't going to win over any hot boys, I might as well become a doctor or something. Well, that was until I was harshly poked in the shoulder with what felt like the tip of a pencil.

I narrowed my eyes at the dark-haired boy sitting next to me, "Are you trying to give me led poisoning?"

Archer rolled his dark eyes, but I could see the ghost with a smile on his lips.

"It's graphite, not led, drama queen."

"Fantastic. Wanna tell me why you poked me with it?"

I made sure to let sarcasm seep into my tone to show him just how annoyed I was. He wasn't about to turn me down and then act as I owed him my life or something.

"You are supposed to be my lab partner, correct?"

"Yes," I said dryly.

He tilted his head as if that answered my question. It certainly doesn't you bipolar idiot.

"And?"

"And the teacher just said for us to decide on who gets the materials and who is going to do the writing. Were you not paying attention?"

His condescending tone almost made me snap but instead of answering him I took out my pencil and copied the title of the experiment off of the board. Archer took the hint and grabbed our tray of materials.

"So first, we are supposed to weigh everything, then measure their mass, density, and volume."

"Easy enough," I replied by taking the wood block off of the tray and placing it on the scale.

We went through all of the data points we needed with Archer giving me the data and me writing it down. It seemed to work well enough until we got to density.

"Um, I can't seem to remember how to find density," Archer said.

The urge to make fun of him rose to my lips but I shoved it back down as I saw the embarrassment and anxiety already written across his face. I decided I would spare him, for now.

"It's just mass divided by volume. Any easy way to remember it looks like a heart," I drew him a diagram with the m on the top, the division line in the middle, and the v on the bottom. "See?"

He looked at the little picture, "Oh yeah," he mumbled. "Thanks for the trick. You actually seem kind of smart."

The tickle of butterflies filled my stomach. Did he mean that? Usually, I wasn't one to get held up over a compliment, but I could he wasn't the type to hand out compliments. Not to mention he is totally good- looking.

"Thanks," I muttered, suddenly feeling shy.

We didn't have much interaction the rest of the class, which didn't completely bother me, because I needed time to work up the courage to hear about Julie and Carson all next class.

As the bell rang I let out a heavy sigh, "God, please have mercy on me."

"Are you all set?"

I nearly screamed as I turned to look at Archer who had a confused look on his face. And a strand of raven-colored hair obstructing a sea- blue eye that looked as if...

"Harper?"

"Uh, yes! I am just peachy! Adios amigo!"

I quickly grabbed my books and dashed out the classroom embarrassment piercing through my sea of emotions. I wasn't sane. I would have thought I could have chuckled as I dashed to English. But I was sane...ish.

"Really Harper? Adios amigo? That's the best you had? Damn girl, I thought you had some game."

Luckily, nobody heard those thought-aloud words as I slumped into my seat next to Jess in English.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, Harp. You look kinda red." Said Ella.

Ella wasn't necessarily my friend, as much as I pretended to tolerate her presents.

"No, I am going to die, hope you can attend my funeral, Jess."

"What about me?" Asked Ella.

I internally groaned but gave a fake smile, "Oh yeah, you too."

Well, now there was going to be no way I could ask Jess to come over tonight and not have Ella invite herself. Well, she did have all of the newest and most expensive face masks so maybe I could benefit from inviting her. Plus the more people to see the tape the better, right? Then I would have plenty of proof my parents are lying.

"Hey, do you want to come over tonight? Willow and Marissa are already coming." I asked Jess.

"Yes," she said, drawing out the word. "I have so much I want to rant about. Is Julie coming?"

I could feel that Ella was eavesdropping so I would have to say the least I could right now.

"No, she can't."

"Are you inviting me?" Ella asked, just as I knew she would.

I looked at her, "I guess, but only if you bring your new pearl infused, Dead Sea face mask you've been bragging about."

"Fine."

With that, the bell rang signaling the start of class.

"Great see you both later!"

***********************************

The rest of the day went by in a total blur. At lunch, I ended up inviting a few more girls one of which said if I let her come then we could use her pool and another that said she would bring pizza. Now I had eight people in total coming, which seemed like a good number. I had texted my mother earlier and she gave me a cap of ten so eight would be perfect.

Finally getting on the bus to head home I couldn't see my mother's face when I called her out of her lie. This was going to be a great night.

**************************

Hey peeps! I hope y'all are doing good!

What do you guys think of the characters introduced in this chapter?

Who's your favorite?