Quarter High Chronicles: Fight for the Spotlight

Mysterious Rivers with a Mysterious Boy

     During the summer this is lake the hot spot for the high schoolers. During the day, we all hang out around the lake here and only the adventurous people like Cheyenne, Paige (my sister), most of the boys, and I jump off the cliff. When night falls after a long day of jumping off things and swimming, everyone comes up here and we build a campfire with s'mores and hang out.
I continue my game with Dylan by asking him a few more questions as we sit in the edge of the cliff looking down at the reflection of the moon in the lake water.
"What's your favorite color?"
"Blue."
"Animal?"
"Tiger." I start running out of questions and finally ask the one I don't want to ask but want to know.
"Do you like me?"
He responds quickly, "no." He replies with such a serious face that I get a little scared. I could feel all of the color in my face wash away. That was not the answer I was expecting or the answer I wanted. All of a sudden, he starts laughing. I can't believe he's mocking me. Without warning, he wraps his arm around my shoulder and whispers in my ear, "I don't like you, I really like you."  I could feel the smirk he had on his face. Although I'm relieved, I'm furious.
"What the heck! You can't play with my emotions like that!" I say pushing him away from me halfway teasingly halfway angrily.
"Oh. Whatever. You think I would really ask a random girl I didn't like to hang out with me?"
"Well... I don't know," I say blushing. "But, now I get to dare you!" I say recalling my rules while excitedly jumping up.
"Nope. The deal was if I lie. That was not a lie. I just withheld the truth for less than thirty seconds only to get a reaction out of you." He says standing up.
"Last time I checked, withholding the truth is the same thing as lying, so I get to dare you." I say smirking because I know there is no way he will find a counter argument to that.
"Haha, alright if it means that much to you, go ahead dare me." He says raising his hands in a way to show his openness to being dared.
I look around and realize that this could not have worked out more perfect. I look him straight in the eye and say, "I dare you, to jump off this cliff into the water." I reply excitedly, knowing that I've just found the ultimate dare.
"What?! That's crazy!"
"Do it or be named Quarter High's biggest chicken." I say with a shrug.
"Okay, fine." Dylan says with a role of his eyes. He looks down for a couple of seconds, laughs, then turns back around to me with a big smile. He takes off his shirt, revealing a very toned body. In fact I'm very impressed and taken back by how fit he is. I find it strange he keeps his shoes and jeans on, but whatever. He stands up, winks at me then turns back and does a front flip off of the cliff. I lean over the edge to see if he is okay.
He comes up out of the water and yells toward me, "Come on in!"
"No! it is freezing!" I shout back.
"Okay! I know pronounce you Quarter High's-" before he could finish the phrase, I have stripped down to my pink undershirt and took off my blue sneakers and mixed matched socks. I decide walking all the way back up here would not be fun in jeans so I also strip to my blue, boy short, underwear. Within seconds, I am falling through the night air. It's not long before the cold water rushes over all my bare skin, shocking my nerves, causing me to shiver. It is freezing! I come up take a deep breath and look at Dylan wide eyed. He lied to me!
"Dylan you are such a liar! It is freezing!" I say splashing him.
"It is not cold!" He says laughing.
"Oh, okay Mr. macho man!" I reply mockingly.
"What can I say? I am who I am."
"Oh, shut up." I reply with a laugh, splash him again.
"Hey! Stop that!" He exclaims pulling me close to him.
We are so close I freak out and don't know what to do. I completely freeze. Thankfully we were close though because I have just realized I stopped treading and am about to go under. Instinctively, I grab on to him but recover and say, "What are you gonna do about it?" while wrapping my arms around his neck. He looks at me with a knavish look in his eyes and for a second I am scared what his mischievous mind is thinking. He wraps his hands around my waist and once again I am unsure how to react, so I don't. His dark eyes are looking at mine intensively and I can tell he is thinking hard about something. Suddenly, he picks me up and everything but my legs are out of the water. "Dylan? What are-" I start but am interrupted by my heart dropping down to my stomach as I fly though the air. Once again the arctic water hits my skin. He freaking threw me! I come up out of the water and see he has thrown me like half way across the lake!
"Dylan, you are such a Dumbo!" I yell at him as I swim back to him.
"I actually didn't mean to throw you that far." He says laughing once I get to him. "I just didn't account for your pixie like size."
"Haha, okay for real though, I am freezing so like lets go." I say quickly getting out as he follows my lead. A cold gust of wind makes me even colder than I already am. "Agh! That was such a bad idea!" I say running in place trying to warm up. Once he is standing beside me, I turn to him causing my hazel eyes to meet his dark brown ones and shout,"Race ya!" before taking off. Again, he catches up to me quickly. No shoes plus running equals sadness for my foot because I stepped on a rock. "Ouch!" I automatically shout holding my foot and Dylan immediately stops and comes back to me.
"Oh my god. Are you okay?" He asks.
"Umm yeah." I say trying to stand on it but it is throbbing and hurting like crazy.
"Stop. You'll hurt yourself more." Dylan says.
"Well, what do you want me to do?" I ask.
He groans, turns around and replies, "Get on.". I smile, hop onto his back and wrap my arms around his neck. He carries me all the way up to the top of the cliff while I continue asking him random questions like, "What is your favorite food?" and "If you suddenly transformed in to a girl what would be the first thing you do?". His answers were "tacos" and "drop you".
By the time we made it to our starting place, my foot conveniently feels as good as new and I am completely reenergized. I jump off of his back and put on my clothing. I am so glad this morning I decided to wear real jeans with pockets so my phone was safe and wasn't strategically placed in my bra. All Dylan had to do is put on his shirt so he patiently waited on me. As I tie my shoes I ask, "When we first met you were like super rude. But after I gave you attitude, you suddenly became nice. What's with that?" 
"I'm a complicated person." He simply answers.
"Fine. " I say while I finish tying my shoes. "Also, that answer would've made strike three. So, I now pronounce you as the most mysteri- " before I could finish he suddenly jumps up and just takes off running in the direction of the park without warning. I guess I'm not the only one who likes to run from their problems. With my shoes tied, I jump up and race after him. I soon catch up with him. I might win this time! I think it helped that I tired him out making him carry me the whole way up to the cliff, but seriously it was impressive to see him keep up with me. I've never met someone with as much energy as me. I push my self as hard as I've ever pushed myself and pull ahead.
The air opens up as I step across the line of trees. I don't know how far back Dylan is but he is probably not too far behind. If I can keep my lead for a few more feet I will make it to the bench and I will finally win! As my fingers touch the yellow painted metal victory flows through me. I told you I would win!" I say casually leaning against the park bench like I had been here for a minute or two but in actuality I was here for only about five seconds.
"You cheated!" He counters a little out of breath. I guess he is referring to me making him carry me up the cliff because this time he is the one that had a head start.
"Please, I used the situation to my advantage. That's not cheating, that is cleverness."
"What ever you say, Tinkerbell." He says with a smile stepping closer towards me. Once again I am frozen. I never freeze in situations. Why is this freaking happening to me? I have had boyfriends before but I have reacted to them like this. I have kissed and been kissed, but this is not like any of those times. Am I nervous? What the heck is wrong with me?!
"Did you know a group of pandas is called and embarrassment?" I hear myself blurt. What? How do I even know that? Okay, Annabelle you need to get yourself home before you loose more control of your brain. I tell myself. I don't give Dylan time to say anything before I turn and casually walk away. I get to my car and tell myself not to look back at him. Awkward eye contact will make things even more weird. Before I get in, I ring out my hair and shirt. Taking my shirt off was useless because my undershirt is soaked and so is my hair so it drenched my shirt. I try making myself dry enough to not get my car seats wet but I soon figure out that it is impossible so I get in. I look back at the bench, but Dylan no longer stands there. I shrug figuring I weirded him out and he just went home.
When I get home, I am still dripping wet. Plus it is eleven-thirty, an hour past my curfew. To get to my room, I have to walk by the living room where my parents are watching television. Crap! What am I going to say? How am I going to explain this? The only option I can think of is to attempt to quietly sneak past them and avoid the conflict entirely.
"Annabelle May Shepard! Where have you been?!" I hear my mom's voice shout. I stop dead in my tracks causing my wet sneakers to squeak. Stripping, did me a lot of good. I sarcastically think as I turn, smile and reply,
"I was hanging out with the new kid.". At this my dad mutes the t.v. and turns toward me.
"Is this new kid a boy?" He immediately asks.
"Yeah?" I say with a shrug knowing lying would do me no good. They can always tell when I do. All my other sisters are able to lie without any kind of tell, but sadly I am practically see through.
"I don't like the idea of you hanging out with him."
"You haven't even met him!" I shout feeling my father is being unreasonable.
"I can already tell he is bad news and you don't need that kind of influence."
"Dad, you can't possibly know if he is bad news." I say rolling my eyes.
"Annabelle, I do know. I was a teenage boy once. I forbid you-" my dad says but gets interrupted by my mom shouting, "Ralph!". She turns away from me and gives my dad a look then turns her attention back to me, "Annabelle, go change into dry clothes then we will talk."
I quickly walk to my room get into dry clothes and sit on my bed.
I check my phone and see Dylan texted me,
Did you know a group of Elephants is called a memory?
I can't help but to smile to myself. My heart is beating fast and butterflies start. I guess I didn't weird him out. I think I really like him and I know he likes me, he said so.
I text back,
Did you know a group of ants is called an army?
And we text back and forth like this for over fifteen minutes until a knock disrupts my google search for what a group of lemurs is called. My mom comes in before I could even answer.
"Why were you soaking wet?" She asks noticing my wet clothes on the floor.
"See what had happened was we jumped off a cliff." I say bluntly.
"Annabelle! Are you alright? Why would you do that?!" She exclaims her blue eyes huge.
"Mom, I'm fine. You know, I am really impulsive and I met a licentiousness boy, naturally that resulted in an effrontery decision such as, us jumping off a cliff." I made sure to use some of the SAT words I had learned to show my mom how smart and how good of a child I truly am. Hopefully this will cause her to trust me to make less insane decisions and may ease up on any punishment that might be going through her mind right now.
My mom starts to laugh and shakes her head saying, "I should have known one of you girls would end up with my personality.".
"Paige is just as crazy as me." I point out. "Why did she never get treated like I just did?" I ask.
"Well, first of all she was better at hiding her craziness then you. Plus your the baby of the family. It is hard for us to see you growing up because you're it. You are the last child. Once your grown up we have no other child to parent."
"I know I just really like this guy." I say looking down.
"Tell me about him." My mom says sitting beside me.
"I don't know how to describe him. He is like no one I have met before." I answer meeting her eyes again. "I mean he has my energy but is kinda mysterious while still being really fun. He also has this like magnetic way about him that.....I don't know." I say trailing off.
"What's his name?" She asks probably thinking that describes no one in this town.
"Dylan Castillo." I respond and she nods as if I answered more than just the question she asked.
"Oh, well I think he sounds swell." My mom says with a smile. After a second she can tell I don't want to disclose anymore and retreats back to the door. She is about to step out before she turns around points to the pile of wet clothes and says, "Put those in the washer.".
Finally I am left to my thoughts. What was with me freaking out? Maybe I actually am interested in him. I mean like more then a fleeting attraction like in middle school. Maybe I like him like him. I lay on my bed thinking about Dylan's smile and how concerned he was when I hurt my foot. I love how when I ran, he ran. I love that we have only known each other for a week but have nick names for each other. I love how I was practically naked but he didn't say a thing about it. I love how wild he is. I love the way when I see him my heart does a little flip and I just want to run up to him. I love the way... hold up. You have literally known this boy for a week. You don't love anything about him. You don't actually know him. My logical brain interjects my love sick thoughts.
Ummmm, yes I do. That was what tonight was about, getting to know him. I know all about his family.
No you don't, he didn't even tell you who his to be step mom is.
Fine but after I asked him questions he answered.
Only if it was trivial things.
No, he told me why he was being so rude when we first met.
No he didn't! He just said he was complicated.
Agh brain! Let me be happy!
Agh Annabelle! I am trying to keep you happy! Your in danger of trusting someone who won't tell you the truth.
He will tell me the truth. I'll just have to ask him the right questions. Now shut up brain, we are going to sleep.