Quarter High Chronicles: Fight for the Spotlight

Daring Dylan on a Friday Night

Annabelle POV

Should I go up there? I'm sitting in my car staring past the swing set where Dylan is sitting on the bench casually on his phone. This situation is kinda creepy. Right? I just met this guy Monday and it's only Friday and now he is asking me to meet him in the park at night. That's weird. Isn't it? My mom always told me don't take candy from strangers, but Dylan isn't offering me candy and isn't completely a stranger, so it must be okay. Right?
"I'm going to get out of this car and walk over to him." I finally say to myself as I unbuckle my seatbelt and reach for the door handle. But, what if he is a phsyco?! My brain yells at me and I instantly retract my hand from the door handle. There really isn't anyone walking around or hanging out. He could kidnap me and no one would know. I look at him sitting there on his phone. That is not the face of a serial killer. He's too cute. Come on Annabelle, do you seriously think he is the guy to do that? He probably doesn't have any friends and is an upstanding citizen. I have to be friendly. It is who I am. I haven't found a person I don't like so why am I so nervous to be HIS friend?
Okay, Annabelle time to make a decision. If I go, I'm risking my life but if I don't go, I'll be missing out on a new friend that just so happens to be super hot. Before I knew it I was walking up to him.
"Hey, Dumbo!" I awkwardly say when I get beside him. I obviously couldn't think of any normal greeting at the moment, so I stuck with the rare 'Hey, Dumbo!'.
"Hey." He replies with a little smirk looking up from his phone.
"What was with the cryptic message on my phone earlier today?" I ask and all he does is shrug. It's kind of cute but it's annoying me that he won't tell me why I'm here. I mean who puts a note that says "Park 7:00" on someone's phone and doesn't have a reason for it?
"Dylan! What the heck! Stop being mysterious! Tell me why I'm here! You're freaking me out!" I shout my feelings.
"Haha, I'm mysterious? Also, you're here because I want you to be here."
"Yes, you're mysterious and a little creepy." I say jokingly while also blushing at the fact that he said he WANTS me to be here. What guy has ever said that to me before? The answer is actually a few guys but I don't think they ever said quite like Dylan.
"I am not mysterious or creepy! If anything, I'm the exact opposite, I'm predictable and normal." He says argumentatively.
"Ummmm, no you're not. You're definitely mysterious and creepy. For example, when you put random notes on people's phones, it usually creeps them out ." I say with a smile.
"What ever you think, Tinkerbell. Where I come from girls find it intriguing." He says with no problem as if a statement of fact.
"Oh so you picked up a lot of girls?" I ask not sure of how I feel about that yet.
"Sure, but none as pretty as you." Dylan says. To my disdain my stomach starts to flutter. Come on, Annabelle, you are better then this. Are you seriously getting flustered by some stupid pick up line? Yes. Yes, I am. Well, snap out of it!
"Whatever, Dumbo. I still think it is creepy." I respond still feeling slightly flushed at the reassurance that he might actually be into me. I keep talking to hide the strange feeling. "How about this. To prove that you're not mysterious and CREEPY, you have to let me ask you any question I want and you HAVE to answer truthfully. Then if you come up with no creepy answers I'll know you're normal, like you claim. If you answer mysteriously, then it will prove that you are in fact mysterious and then I'm right. "
"What if I don't answer truthfully?" He challenges.
"No one will ever know if you're lying except you. That is, unless I catch you in a lie. If that happens then I will dare you to do something and if you don't do it then you will forever be known as the biggest chicken at Quarter High! Well, next to Brenda and Emily." I reply with a devious smile.
"Okay, deal." He says with a cute smirk.
"Yay! But we should get up because I can't just sit here! I need to move around!" I reply while jumping up off the bench. He follows my lead. We start walking along the side walk that frames the park.
"So if you can't sit for long. How were you able to sit in that little blue car of yours for over twenty minutes." Omg! He saw my emotional dilemma?! That's embarrassing. Quick come up with an answer. Oh my gosh! Awkward silence is about to close in! Think Annabelle. Think! Ahhhh! I'm drawing a blank. Shoot! Abort! Abort! Run away! Run! Wait. That is it. I don't have to answer. I turn to him and smile and suddenly take of running. After a second I yell back, "Race ya!". And this ladies and gentlemen is a perfect example of running away from your problems. Literally.
I run past too many trees to count and I think I'm doing great but within three seconds he catches up to me. My competitiveness jump starts and I start running faster than I thought was physically possible. He matches my speed with no problem. Agh! He is going to win. I think to myself. I need to do something to throw him off. I take a sharp turn off the side walk and head to the forest. With that, I am finally in the lead. We get to the middle of the woods still neck and neck.  I look beside me and see Dylan through the trees that we are both passing by. My lungs feel as if they are going to burst and my heart feels as if it will jump right out my chest, I don't think I can run like this for much longer. I look to my left and see if Dylan is about to die like me. To my surprise he seems like he could run for another two miles. Normally, I would run until my legs give out, even if that means eating dirt but I'd rather not face plant in front of Dylan. At least not until our second date. I stop and I guess he was following my lead because he too stops. I am out of breath but manage to say, "Okay, I can't go anymore you win." as I lean with my hand against a tree.
"Haha maybe next time, Tinker Bell." He says with a little laugh teasing me. He is only slightly out of breath where as I am practically hyper ventilating. I don't think I have ever felt like this. I have always been really athletic and in softball when we have to run laps I am always in the front and complete it with ease.
"Most definitely, Dumbo." I reply still slightly out of breath but a lot better. I am most definitely beating him next time. No way he is going to win twice!
We begin to walk and I completely catch my breath fairly quickly. The moon is shinning through the tree tops. We walk for a minute in silence before I ask, "Where are you from?" Which officially starts our game on finding out if Dylan Castillo is in fact mysterious or not.
"California." He responds easily.
"How old are you?" I ask again, secretly hoping I can catch him in a lie so I can dare him.
"Seventeen."
"Why did you move here?"
"My dad is going to get married."
"Oh, to who?" I ask.
"Some lady." He replies generally.
"Bzzz! Mysterious answer!" I say excited that I finally get to dare him!
"You are right, about that answer, it was pretty mysterious. I just don't want to talk about her. That's the one thing that's off limits." He replies. I accept his answer knowing that some subjects can be painful to talk about.
"Well, you don't HAVE to tell me if you don't want to." I say giving him one last chance to reply and squinting my eyes as if to say, that's fine, whatever, don't tell me.
He only replies with, "Don't look at me like that." Followed by a beautiful laugh. "By the way that answer proves nothing. I'm still not mysterious."
"If you say so." I say passive aggressively disagreeing. After a second I say,"Since, I am such an amazingly nice human being I will let you play by baseball terms. Three strikes and your out. Tread lightly, Dumbo, because striiike one!". 
"Okay." He says with a cool shrug.
"Do you have siblings?" I ask getting back to the game.
"Two."
"Sisters?"
"Little brother. Older sister. What about you?" He responds.
"Hey! I'll be asking the questions around here." I say sternly and he gives me a look of surprise. "Haha, I'm just kidding. I have three older sisters."
"Oh wow, I can barely handle one sister I can't imagine three!"
"Yeah well, it was crazy when we were younger, but now I'm the only one still living at home." After a few seconds I ask the question that has been killing me,
"How did you find out about Rodger?".
"I told you, I have my ways." His answers cryptically, making me angry. How in the world did he find out about my embarrassing past? I mean it's not like I have a story about me and Roger hidden in my notes on my phone or a picture of me and Roger together, for goodness sakes he was my pet rock!
"That's an illegal answer! Too mysterious! Striiike Two!" I shout expressing my annoyance. We have wandered our way through the woods and ended up by the cliff that leads down to the lake... This looks like fun.