I'm Carli Stee, a sophomore from Upward Bound High. I am tall, average, have green eyes that change colors when I am angry or sad, red hair with brownish-red highlights, and a laugh that everyone hears. I am loyal and have a sense of knowing how to help my friends. This is my story.

"Andrea!" I screamed when I saw my roommate. "Did you see my iPod?" I need my iPod for my next class, see I have a test and I need music to stay focused. I don't want to take a Chemistry test without my music.

"Try under your bed," she said. The all-knowing Andrea was right, it was right under my bed, on my dresser.

"Thanks, Tree," I said. I call Andrea "Tree" a lot. It was a Band thing, or was it a Speech thing? I forget but her and I go way back.

********

I aced my Chem. test, trust me, I know. That wasn't what was important though, it was the new guy... Arron Mitchelz. He's hot, nice, funny, and when he looked at me, I felt his eyes on my soul. The one time I looked at him, he was looking at me in a way that made me want to scream. I felt like he was looking past the wall I have spent years to build up. It really scared me now I don't really want to go to next hour because if he has it with me, I think he'll know the truth.

"Carli?" Arron asked after the last kid in the class handed their test in.

"Yes, umm, Arron," I said, scared and worried.

"Do you know where Mass Comm is?" he asked, giving me a quick, hopeful smile.

"Yeah, that's my next class too. I heard you just started this afternoon. So what are your other classes?" I asked to make conversation.

"Chorus with Mr. Eli Pollock, then Required English 10 with Ms. Jillian White, then Advanced Physics with Mr. Mike Dillon, and Band. Do you know where those classes are?" Did he really just ask that? I mean other then Advanced Physics, that was my class schedule.

"Um, are you kidding? Did you ask Trevor over there what my schedule was?" I was hoping that was all it was, because I don't know if I could handle him being in all of those classes. I could feel my wall crumbling as I asked those questions.

"No, I wouldn't do that, what kind of guy do you think I am?" He asked that kind of like he expected me to know him. It made me forget that I had my bag in my hand, and I dropped it.

"Oops!" I said. Gawd, I am such an idiot. He is going to see right through my shield. FUCK!

"Here," he said as he grabbed my bag and started carrying it. "Now, can you lead me to Mass Comm.?"

"Sure," I said in a tiny voice that I didn't believe was my own. I started walking to Miss White's room, which was Olin 210. When we got to the second floor of Olin I noticed that he was looking at me funny. "Is something wrong?" I asked, offended by his odd look.

He blinked and gave me a shy smile. "I was noting how cute you are compared to most of the girls here." I stopped, and I swear my jaw was on the ground.

"You - wait, you think I'm cute?" Yeah, I really said that, but all he did was smile and nod. My wall didn't matter so much when he said that, but if I would have known that the next thing I was going to say would be the beginning of its royal fall, I would have never had let it happen.

"If you would like, you could hang with me at the movie tonight. I'm not sure if you want to sit with me and all of my friends, because they all are dating someone or another, but I would be happy if you did," I said with a smile. Stupid, stupid me.

"What time are you guys leaving?" he asked, with a smile.

"Eight." I smiled and walked into Miss White's room. He replied with a "great."