Written in the Stars *EDITING*

Chapter 7: Fear Factor But Without the $50,000 Prize

On Monday, during lunch, Nathan told Mia they had to talk after school. She spent the rest of the school day wondering what it was they needed to talk about. Perhaps, their first kiss. Maybe the terms of their deal? She would know soon enough. Hazel pouted at first that she wouldn't drive Mia home, but then she realized that meant more time with Violet. Mia waved goodbye at her with a laugh as Hazel rushed out of the parking lot.

In the passenger seat of Nathan's car, Mia turned on the radio and turned to the pop station.

"Don't you know the driver picks the music?" he asked while at a stop sign.

"Oops, Hazel, and I always alternate who picks the music. You can change it if you want." He didn't bother changing it, however, since it wasn't that long of a drive anyway. After the two of them entered her house, Nathan sat on the couch. Mia joined him a few minutes after situating herself with snacks. She handed Nathan a water bottle and opened her bag of BBQ chips.

"Alrighty Nick, what do we need to talk about? And are you sure you don't want a cookie," she inquired while holding the bag out to him.

He stared at her hard, his hand clutching the water bottle. Slowly he hesitantly said, "Mia, I don't want to be rude or anything. Um, are you sure you don't have amnesia or something? My name isn't Nick."

Mia laughed at his question for the next minute, eventually needing to take a sip of her water to calm down. She wiped the tears of laughter that were streaming down her cheek away with the back of her hand. "I don't have amnesia. I know your name is Nathan. Honestly, I just think it's funny to call you the wrong name." She sobered up from her laughter. "If it bothers you, I swear I'll stop. I just tend to call things the wrong thing on purpose. Like one time in sixth grade, Hazel and I were having a sleepover running on no sleep at five am and she said she wanted to eat macaroni. But she pronounced it marconi and ever since then that's how we've pronounced it."

Nathan blinked a few times, his brown eyes filled with confusion. With a defeated sigh, he moved on. "Can you please go get the fears?" Mia took one last bite of her cookie before standing up. She then quickly grabbed the bag of cookies before going up to her room. She returned a minute later with the mason jar. He held back a laugh when he saw the state of the jar.

When he had first seen it, it was a blank empty mason jar. But in just a few days, Mia had transformed it. Now there were various paintings on it. A sun, a bunch of sunflowers, grass, a blue sky, even poorly painted little animals like ducks. There was a purple string on the brim of the jar and a brown label written in white that said "Fears" in all capital letters. She handed him the jar with a sheepish smile. He held it in his hand and noticed that there was also pink and blue glitter on the outside of the jar. "Pick one out," he commanded.

Reaching in, Mia's hand shuffled the papers before pulling one of the strips out. She unfolded it and read what it said out loud. "Ask someone out." Mia's eyes widened and her lips parted. "Nope, I can't do this one. Not ready yet. Besides, you and I are dating. What would people think? Nope."

Nathan placed one of his cold hands on top of hers, "Breathe Mia. Put that one back and choose a different one." She did as instructed. This time, when she unfolded the paper a smile made its way onto her face.

"Compliment strangers. I can totally do that."

"Do you have homework?"

"Yeah, but I wasn't planning to do it until tomorrow night."

Nathan stood and reached his hand out to her. "Come on, we're going to the store." Once again, the two were in his car. When they walked into the store, Mia got distracted by the candy display, causing Nathan to gently grab her hand and drag her to a different aisle in the store. They stood in front of all the flowers, and carefully observed them. They were still holding hands.