The cafeteria was bustling with teenagers all finding places to sit with their friends or hurrying to the lunch line.

I sat with Grace and three of her other friends. Lila, Ruby, and Taylor.

Twirling my pasta around with my plastic fork, I let out an overly dramatic sigh. "Grace? Do you think Mr. Rosenberg would let me switch partners? I don't want to be stuck with someone who does no work then gets into a good college all because I did their work for them."

Grace shrugged. "Ehh, probably not. You get who you get."

"But to be honest," Ruby chimed in, "I think you working with Ryder will be useful."

I stopped twirling my pasta and looked at her, confused. "What do you mean?"

Ruby chomped on her red apple. "I mean like you're really pretty, maybe that will motivate him to work with you. And it may be useful to you because it will teach you how to work with people who aren't as corporative. May help in a job."

I rapidly blinked. "Wait what I wasn't listening."

Taylor nodded her head in agreement. "Ruby's right. Plus if he does say that he's not gonna do the work, put him in his place and tell him his whole 'bad boy' act won't help him later in life and that he needs to stop acting better than everyone else."

Grace rested her elbow on the table as she leaned on the palm of her hand. "But he is very handsome," she sighed with admiration, "you have to admit."

"Shut the hell up about Ryder, Gray!" Ruby elbowed her in the stomach, "you literally have a boyfriend that, not to mention, also goes too this school." She glanced around, turning her head in every which way. "By the way, where is he?"

Grace also glanced around. "I dunno," she shrugged as she plopped a grape into her mouth. "He usually comes by right about now. I think he went early to football practice."

Ruby face-palmed her self. "If he told you that he's at practice then he's bullshittng you. Grace, football doesn't start till 5:00pm, it's freaking 12:10pm!"

"Ok well then he's sick."

"We hung out with him yesterday what do you mean he's 'sick'," she put air quotations around 'sick'.

Grace scratched her head furiously. "I don't know! Oh wait I know, he's out banging another girl! Perfect!"

"Wouldn't be surprised if he was," Taylor whispered but we all heard it.

The girls continued to eat their lunches as I began to think of all the things I was going to say to Ryder.

Ok how about this: hey man, wassup?

Ew what the hell Autumn, you're not a dude.

Fine. This?: hey Ryder, do you want to start our project?

Yeah yeah that's pretty good.

I closed my container of pasta and shoved it into my backpack. "I'm going to go talk to Ryder. Do you know where he sits?"

"I heard he sits at the bleachers watching the girls soccer with his friends." Grace claimed.

I rolled my eyes. "What the hell is with him and soccer girls? He couldn't stop staring at them in class?"

All four girls shrugged and then giggled.

"Are you sure you want to confront him in front of his friends?" Ruby questioned.

Throwing my black bag over my shoulder, I nodded. "Who cares about his friends."

Then, I headed out of the cafeteria and to the bleachers.

***

As expected, Ryder was with his let's just say 'crew' at the bleachers. They were all high-fiving each other about probably the most dumb things ever.

A tight knot formed in my stomach.

Why are you so nervous? You don't even know the kid.

I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding and walked up to where Ryder was siting.

None of them noticed me until I called out his name. "Ryder?"

I swear I felt my body freeze to ice when all his friends stopped talking and turned their heads towards the tiny voice that called out Ryder's name. I couldn't even move.

He looked up at me and for a second I swear I couldn't breathe.

"And you are?"

Clearing my throat, I introduced myself. "My name is Autumn. Autumn Cross. We're partners for the English projec–"

"Oh, so this is you," he said in the most disgusting tone.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked offendedly.

"Nothing," he scoffed, "just thought you would be prettier."

I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came out.

He smirked. "I mean, the name Autumn is pretty, so I thought it would belong to a–"

"Enough," I held my hand up, "I don't care what you have to say next. Its probably as pathetic as your grades."

His friends didn't 'ooo' or 'OHHH' or say 'roasted', they just sat there silently, knowing if they took my side, their friend would beat them up. Or probably because they thought my comeback wasn't good at all.

I'm gonna go with option two.

Ryder's face contorted into a frown. "I'm not working with you."

I took a step closer to him. "Well guess what loser, you have to. And I heard horrible things about you and how you don't do any of the work in projects but guess what, I'm not giving up on your abilities. I believe you will actually work hard."

He also took a step forward. "You don't even know me."

My glare pierced through his scorching, brown eyes. "Doesn't mean I can't have hope that you will actually try on this project, Ryder."

"You say I'm pathetic?" He boasted. "Look at you. Putting your hope in all the wrong people."

"Actually, I said your grades are pathetic," I corrected him which made him more mad for some reason.

"I'm gonna make you loose all your hope in me."

Now this confused me. Why wouldn't he want someone to have hope for him? "Why?"

He leaned down so his lips were next to my ear. "Because, pathetic girl, hope will leave you with nothing. So do you really want nothing?"

Even though what he said wasn't pleasant, shivers raced down my spine as his hot breath touched my skin, making me crave more.

You can't crave this, not him.

"You are already giving me nothing."

He stood up tall with a proud smirk on his lips. "Then I guess it's working."

I looked deep into his eyes. "That's a sad way to live your life, Ryder."

His eyes showed no emotion what so ever. "It's how I survive."

We continued to stare at each other. Nothing felt as important to me in that moment except looking into his eyes. It was like I needed to find something, anything in his eyes.

But there was nothing. No emotion. Not even pain. Nothi–

"Guys. Why the fuck are you staring at each other? It's creeping me out." One of Ryder's friends said.

Not taking his eyes off of me, he glared even harder. "Give up, because I'm not working with you. Not now. Not ever."

"Good luck getting into college. You need me," I scoffed.

"I don't need anyone." But the way he said it said other wise.

Realizing this conversation was pointless, I stormed off back into the cafeteria and sat down with my new friends.

"Well," Grace nudged my arm, "how did it go?"

I covered my face with my hands. "Horrible. He's certain that he doesn't want to work with me on this project."

"Oh Autumn, he will come around eventually. It's only the first day."

I dropped my hands into my lap. "Eventually? We don't have eventually! I need to sort this out. That's it I'm going to talk to the teacher."

Grace stood up but I stopped her. "No Grace, I'll do this alone."

She awkwardly stood still. "I have to go to class..."

"What? Oh sorry." Ok so maybe not everything revolves around what I do.

Gathering all my books, I said goodbye to the four girls and walked to Mr. Rosenberg's classroom.