The next day, I made sure not to make the same mistake as yesterday and instead got to school early. Perhaps too early.

Walking into school was like walking through a ghost town. The hallways were silent, and the sound of my converse hitting the floor echoed with every step.

Alas, I reached my homeroom. I lightly pushed open the door and winced as it creaked. Hesitantly peeking into the classroom, I raised my eyebrows when I realized not even the teacher was here yet.

"Goodness, how early am I?" I muttered, glancing around the room for a clock. As I looked around, I froze. "Oh... hi," I greeted in surprise.

There was a petite and pretty blonde girl tucked away in the back corner of the classroom. I hadn't even noticed her.

"Hello," she timidly said back, averting her blue eyes.

I walked into the classroom and settled down in the seat in front of her. There was a heavy silence, and I couldn't take it. Eventually, I turned around to face her.

"Do you always come in this early?"

She looked surprised that I even addressed her. "Oh—I—yeah."

I hummed thoughtfully. "What's your name?"

"Lily."

"Cool. I'm—"

"Rose," she interrupted, then blushed. "Sorry. I only know because you're the New Girl."

"New Girl?" I crinkled my nose. "So this is one of those places."

"What place?" She quietly asked in curiosity.

"Those small towns where everyone knows everyone. And they fawn over the newcomers," I sighed knowingly. "I hate being labelled New Girl."

"Don't worry," she softly spoke, tucking a strand of her pin straight hair behind her ear. "They'll stop calling you that soon enough. At least your label won't stick, whereas I..."

She trailed off almost sadly.

"What's your label?" I couldn't help but ask in curiosity.

"Lonely Lily," she answered quietly.

I suddenly felt bad and wished I hadn't asked.

"Oh, well... that's not so bad," I offered, twisting a strand of my curly hair.

"It is, but thanks," she grimaced, tugging at her sleeves. In a desperate attempt to change the topic, Lily raised her head. "Hey, I just realized we're both named after flowers."

I suddenly perked up. "Yeah. Rose and Lily," I smiled. "It's like our friendship was destiny."

She slightly giggled and looked almost relieved, as though she'd been expecting me to run for the hills.

Flowers. What a coincidence.

I suddenly thought back to yesterday.

"No wonder he called me Flower!" I suddenly gasped in realization.

"What're you talking about?" Lily cast me a weird look.

I told her everything. How I'd crashed into Antonio and found out we attended the same school, where he practically accused me of stalking him.

"He sounds arrogant," she laughed. "What's his name? I probably know him."

"Antonio."

There was a long silence in which Lily gawked at me.

"What?" I asked in confusion.

"You don't mean... Antonio Brown?" she gasped, dramatically paling.

"I'm not sure, I never caught his last name," I paused. "Let me describe him... tall, messy hair, dark eyes, smokes, dimple—"

"—on his right cheek!" she squealed.

"What?" I asked in bewilderment.

"He has one dimple on his right cheek," she repeated with wide blue eyes.

"Yeah, I guess that's him," I laughed. "What's the big deal?"

"What's the big deal?" She repeated in disbelief. "You bumped into Antonio Brown. You called him a jerk. And he called you Flower!"

"Yeah, I know," I laughed. "I still don't get it."

Her blue eyes bulged and she had to take a deep breath. "He's kind of iconic around here. Everyone knows him and his dumb friends."

"Tell me more," I said in feigned awe. Lily didn't quite catch onto the sarcasm and continued.

"Antonio's got a reputation around here. Y'know, the generic troublemaker who smokes and fights—which is kinda weird, considering he's crazy rich. Of course, no one ever questions the delinquent. He's got everyone here wrapped around his little finger, even the teachers. One wink and he'd have every girl in this school on their knees. He's always the center of attention—always making everybody laugh. It doesn't help that he's insanely good-looking."

"Goodness, he sounds horrible," I grimaced.

"Horrible? Did you not just here a word I said?" Lily looked shocked.

"He's just another rich kid who breaks rules to seem tough," I shook my head in dismay.

"You might be the first person at this school with half a brain," she admitted after a moment. "I'm impressed."

The sound of faint chatter caused us to glance look at the door. Students were steadily trickling in. I'd been so engrossed in my conversation with Lily that I had nearly forgotten I was at school. In such a short amount of time, I was already growing to like her.

I noticed that as more people came in, she sunk in her seat and became quieter.

"You can turn around now," said Lily, looking down.

"What?" I frowned. "Why?"

"Well, now that everyone's here, you don't have to talk to me."

"Why?" I repeated.

"I dunno..." she trailed off wistfully. "I'd just hate for your reputation to get ruined because of me. You're new... don't you wanna make friends?"

"I just made a friend right now," I coyly smiled.

"That's not what I mean," she snorted. "People have already started talking about you. You're gorgeous, talkative, and you have that intriguing new girl thing going. If they see you with me, they're gonna think you're a weirdo by association," Lily insisted.

"Thanks for calling me gorgeous," I playfully grinned.

She cast me a straight face in return.

"Look, the jocks are throwing a party on Friday night to kick off the school year."

"Okay," I leaned on her desk, "why are you telling me this?"

"Maybe you should go. It sounds fun," Lily lightly suggested. "You can get yourself out there—make some friends."

"Are you going?" I pried.

"Of course not," she swiftly said, as if the idea was ghastly.

"Why don't we go together?" I asked, perking up.

She seemed rather surprised. "I don't know. I've never—"

"If either of us don't like it, we'll leave straightaway," I urged.

Lily looked up to the ceiling doubtfully. At last, she shivered. "Fine. But I think this is a bad idea."

I smiled. "What harm could it be?"

Just then, the bell rang. The last quarter of students swarmed in. As I glanced at the doorway, my breath hitched. Antonio was hovering outside of the classroom with his friends.

Tufts of his dark hair stuck out underneath the grey beanie he wore. The purple bruise around his eye was beginning to heal. He was with the same friends I'd seen him around yesterday—those rowdy boys who'd been smoking and shoving one another. One of them nudged Antonio's side, goofily laughing at something that the other had said.

I could see the way it hurt Antonio. His face contorted in pain and he immediately went to clutch his ribs. None of his friends had noticed, but still, he looked around to make sure no one had seen him in pain.

Embarrassingly enough, his dark eyes found mine. I gasped and immediately faced forward. What a creep I must've looked like! When I hesitantly glanced back, he hadn't torn his eyes away from me. There it was. That dimpled, smug smirk directed at me, as if to say caught you.

Just then, the teacher approached the classroom and shooed away the herd of boys. He scornfully muttered at them to get to class, before walking into our classroom and closing the door.

I sunk in my seat, glad that Antonio was gone. His mere presence had me on my toes. Sighing, I grabbed out my binders in preparation of the long day ahead of me.

• • •