f you could take my pulse right now

t would feel just like a sledgehammer

f you could feel my heartbeat now

t would hit you like a sledgehammer

My dad came in and tickled me until I yelped and fell on the floor.

"Get up!" He said and I groaned, staying on the floor for another ten minutes before moving. My alarm was still playing when I woke back up.

My classes passed by uneventfully. Art, calc, bio, history, lunch. Lunch was what I lived for everyday. I did eat in class but it was loud and people always thought it sounded like an animal munching.

"Guys, don't forget the carnival is this Friday!" Nicole reminded us and I'd almost forgot about it.

Every year we had a carnival to raise money for our class. There was a ton of games to play, popcorn and pretzels to eat, and even a ferris wheel. It was always a fun time.

But there was also one down side. . .

"What are you going to sign us up for this time?" I groaned. Since Nicole was basically in charge of the whole thing, she always signed us up for random things. Last year we were on the cotton candy machine and the year before that was balloon animals.

"Well, let's just say I'm not putting you on cotton candy ever again." Stella and I burst into giggles. We were terrible at making cotton candy, we forgot to turn it off and when we got back from our break, there was cotton candy flooding from the machine.

It was hilarious.

"Well, that should teach you not to trust us with something so simple." I shrugged.

"How about the dunk tank?" Nicole said hopefully.

"Isn't there something easier?"

"Ferris wheel?"

"Dibs!" Stella said quickly and I swore. That was the easiest job, all you had to do was take the tickets.

"Lia? Only thing left is dunk tank."

"At least you don't have to actually go in the dunk tank." Taylor pointed out, as she was always the one to volunteer to get dunked by kids.

"I guess," I groaned, really not wanting to but having no choice, "At least I get to dunk Taylor when we're on break."

After lunch was gym, which was the same as always but instead of dodgeball, we played capture the flag. Long story short, my team lost and we had to run six laps around the gym.

I rushed out of the school as soon as the bell rang to beat the rush of cars out of the parking lot.

I took the shortcut behind the library but as I drove by, I saw a person walking on the sidewalk with a familiar blue backpack and black sneakers.

What was Roan doing walking home? He lived, like, a hundred blocks from the school.

I rolled down the window and slowly pulled up beside him.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" I grinned.

"Shit, it just had to be you." It was weird, sometimes he could be nice but sometimes he could be mean. He bullied me all the time. . . yet again I bullied him, too. I honestly couldn't tell if he liked me or not.

I hesitated. Should I offer him a ride or keep driving away?

I decided to be nice. You know, since I'm usually the epitome of Satan.

"Get in,"

"What?" He stopped walking, like the sky was falling.

"Get in. This is my one good deed for today."

"More like for a year."

I gave him my sternest stare and patted the passenger seat.

"How you've changed."

"Me? Let's talk about you."

He'd changed a lot from when I first met him.

Roan and I weren't always on the best of terms when we first met.

I was a small ten-year-old she-wolf who needed to control her "anger issues".

He was a stupid-ass punk who was all talk but couldn't take a hit to save his life.

It was a nice, sunny day out during the recess of my fourth grade. Finn hadn't switched schools yet so he was at that same recess unfortunately.

I idiotically left Finn for no more than two minutes to get a drink of water. And what do I find when I get back? Finn was crying and Roan was the one making him cry. He was calling him terrible names that no fifth-grader should've ever known.

"Are you retarded or something?" Roan taunted and my blood boiled. But the worst part was that no one was doing anything about it, they were all standing there doing jack shit.

So what does my stupid-ass do?

That's right, I kicked Roan so hard in the balls that he had to stay in the Nurse's for the rest of the day.

I landed straight in the principal's office, getting a huge lecture about how I should use my words and not my fist. Blah, blah, blah. I told him I had violent tendencies and that it wasn't my fault Roan had no brain cells.

I told him I didn't regret it. It may have been stupid but I didn't regret it.

My parents spent hours yelling at me. Well, at first. When a week passed, they forgave me because I'd defended Finn and defending family went a long way.

So, the moral of the story is that sometimes you have to use violence to get what you want. Wait, that's not it. . . I'm not really sure what the moral is.

Anyway, he had to repeat fifth grade and, as luck would have it, ended up being in the same class as me. Why would the school put me and him in the same class together when they know we hated each other? Just why?

I didn't really have to deal with him anymore after that because Roan went to another school in sixth grade. I didn't see him again until freshmen year. And damn, did he change.

He'd always been a short, scrawny kid with a passion for nerdy things like Harry Potter and Star Trek. But now he's like a different person. He's more mature, stronger, like he's been to hell and back.

"Hey, are you going to the carnival on Friday?" I asked through the silence, trying to get him to speak.

"No."

"Why not? It'll be fun!" I tried to sound excited but it was too forced. I was excited for the rides and games and food but not running the dunk tank.

"Right."

Then this crazy idea popped into my head. I should ask Roan to be my "date" for the carnival to make Asher jealous.

"Are you going with anyone?" I asked.

"No. Because I'm not going." Why was he always such a pessimist?

"Come on, just go. We need money for prom." I begged.

"Prom's not until next year. Besides, it's not really that important."

I almost hit the brakes right then and there.

"Prom's not important?"

"Not really."

"Never say that to a girl." Prom was what I lived for. Well, besides graduation and getting accepted into college and getting a good job and making a lot of money. It was a close fourth on my list of most important things.

"But seriously, you're going."

"Fine." He didn't say anything after that, not even after I dropped him off and said goodbye.

I just hoped my idea would work. I couldn't wait to try it out.

🎉