When Dusk Meets Dawn

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Asher

The teacher shot me a disappointed look as she placed the test paper on my desk. I rolled my eyes at her. I didn't need to look down to know I had failed. I had failed almost every single test that year, but I didn't really care. My parents basically paid the school to keep me in. Otherwise, I probably would have been suspended on the third day of high school. School was a place to have fun, not care about grades or studying. "Failed again?" my best friend Aaron peeked over my shoulder. I just shrugged. "Who cares?" Aaron chuckled lightly looking down to his own paper which had a big A drawn on it. "No way, did you actually study?" I glanced at him in genuine shock as his cheeks reddened slightly. "My parents made me, okay? Keep your voice down," he hushed, his eyes darting around the room to make sure no one had heard. I couldn't help but laugh. Aaron's parents weren't as wealthy as mine but they still spoiled him too. So him studying for a test was a pretty big deal. Aaron bent over to tie his shoelace. "They said I was doing really bad in school and I had to study at least a little bit," Before I could respond, the bell rang and all the students rushed out of the classroom. Aaron and I were last because he was still tying his shoes. "Hurry up, man, we can't let that nerd we promised we would beat up get away," I tugged him to his feet before he had even finished and almost dragged him out of the classroom. "Okay, okay, I'm coming, geez, Ash,"

I stepped out of the classroom and scanned the hallways. A smirk spread across my face when I saw Jordan. He was nervously glancing around, obviously trying to avoid us. He hadn't seen us yet. I charged toward him. "Hey Jordan," I looked at him as if he was absolutely nothing to me. Tension rose in Jordan's eyes. "Oh, H-hey, Asher," he stuttered. "I was just leaving for a chess tournament, so it was nice seeing you, bye!" He tried to run away but I grabbed him by his shirt. The hallway crowd had now seemed to have disappeared. We were the only people there. "You're a loser, and do you know what losers get?" Jordan was trembling with fear. I pinned his shirt up on the locker and pulled my hand back getting ready to punch him. I looked around one more time to make sure no one was watching. It was only Aaron. Suddenly, the door opened. And that's when I saw her.

Blue crystal eyes and the most beautiful smile. Her hair was a hazel brown and bounced around her shoulders down to her chest when she walked. I was so lost in her that I had forgotten what I was even doing. Her radiant smile suddenly turned into a frown. "Excuse me, what are you doing with him?" I didn't realize that she was speaking to me until she snapped her fingers in front of my face. "What are you doing?" Her voice jolted me back to reality. Why did she care what I was doing? "None of your business," I muttered and turned back to Jordan. She suddenly came in between me and him. "Are you going to beat him up?" I rolled my eyes. "Why do you care?" I tried to punch Jordan but she came in the way again. "Answer my question," Her blue eyes had darkened now. I sucked in air. What was her problem? "You must be new here if you don't know that you should never mess with me," "Why's that?" I rolled my eyes at her stupidity. She was glaring at me now. I suddenly dropped Jordan and watched as he quickly scrambled away. "I can show you if you'd like," I said tauntingly, glancing down. Her eyes widened and she took a couple of steps back. "No!" she crossed her arms and looked away when I started laughing. "I'm joking," I assured.

She glanced around the empty hallways. "I'm new here, I just moved from New York," she twisted her light brown hair around her fingers. "And what does that have to do with me?" "Nothing, but you asked," "No, I assumed that you were new here but I never asked you to tell me," She glanced back toward me, and her face stiffened again. "If you don't have anything better to do, I'm sorry, but I actually have a reason for being here," she started walking toward the staircase that led upstairs. I jogged to catch up to her. "You're in ninth?" she stopped. "How did you know?" I shrugged. "All of the ninth-grade classrooms are upstairs, so it's kind of obvious," She continued walking but paused again. "Why are you following me?" "As you said, I have nothing better to do," She rolled her eyes. "Fine, I guess you can come," "Great, so where are we going?" We reached the top of the stairs. "I left my notebook in the classroom," "Wow, it's your first day of high school and you left your notebook at school? You must have had a really bad first day," I joked. "Actually, I made a lot of friends. But there is one girl who seems to hate me." "Who?" She suddenly frowned. "Why are you asking so many questions?" "Because you're willing to answer them," She bit her lip and looked down. "Candace...do you know her?" Candace. Candace. Why did it have to be Candace? Of course I knew Candace, she was my girlfriend! She was my age but still in ninth grade because she failed school last year and had to repeat the year. She was also kind of a jerk to new kids. Scratch that, a jerk to everyone.

"No," I lied. "Good, she was kind of mean. She dumped her lunch all over me today. Luckily, I had a change of clothes. She also kept on throwing paper balls at my head in class and even stuck her gum in my hair," She turned around to show me a sticky piece of gum stuck to the back of her head. Dumping lunches, paper balls, and gum sticking in hair? Candace was giving this girl what she called "The new girl treatment". I always laughed at how stupid she made the new girls look but this time, it only aggravated me for some reason. "Here, let me see if I can get it out," she turned back around before I could touch her hair. "Don't you think I've tried? It'll only make it worse. I might just have to cut it off," she sighed. "No, don't do that," Her hair was so beautiful and long. I couldn't let her just cut it off. "Just let me try," She hesitated for a moment before turning around. I pulled the sticky, pink gum out of her soft hair in less than a second. "See?" "What? How did you do that?" she felt her hair, astonished. "Must have been the grease from that nerds' shirt,"

She chuckled lightly but her face quickly turned serious again. "What you were doing wasn't funny, you could have hurt him!" she scolded. I rolled my eyes. "This again? Why do you care about him? Is he your boyfriend or something?" She glared at me while I tried my hardest not to laugh. "Okay, okay, I'll leave now," I said, realizing that she was probably pretty annoyed with me already. She twirled around and started to walk away. "But just tell me one thing first," she looked back at me. "What?" I couldn't help but notice that a soft layer of blush had spread across her face. "What's your name?" The blush on her face faded away and she glared again. "Really? That's your question?" "What were you expecting? Did you want me to ask you on a date?" She blushed again, harder this time but quickly denied it. "No! Of course not! Never mind," "So what is it?" She turned around again and started walking away. "Kendall."