I stared around at the Crystal Cave.

"Why are we here?" I asked, Katherine (Kat), my best friend, who was grudgingly taking pictures for her parents.

"Grades," Kat answered, grumbling. "And 'cause our parents say we need to get outside more."

"But we get out enough!" I protested, a little too loudly, because the teachers pet, Brian, shushed me. I just glared at him.

"Walking to school doesn't count," Kat said. She sighed. "Sadly," she added.

I gestured to her camera. "What's the point of that anyways?" I asked her, changing the subject.

She shrugged. "Mum said she wanted some pictures to put in her, 'Places my Katherine Has Visited' scrapbook." Kat sighed. "Damn, it's so dusty, 'cause she doesn't touch it anymore."

I laughed, causing Brian to shush me again. I glared at him, again. "Leave us alone, Brian. We're just talking."

"Don't be so loud," he said. "Mrs. Smith will get you… me… in trouble." He shuddered.

I snickered. "Oh get over yourself," I said, still snickering. "I'm not afraid of…"

Mrs. Smith stepped in front of me, tapping one of her perfectly shined shoes loudly on the cave floor.

"Of who, Miss Jones?" she asked, her eyes ablaze in fury.

Damn, I thought. "Er… I'm not afraid of…" I happened to see a local, standing on a rock, surveying the caves. "…the locals!" I cried. "Yeah, them!"

Mrs. Smith laughed. "God, you must think I'm stupid enough to believe that!" She burst into loud guffaws of laughter. She abruptly stopped. "Essay on the locals here, 500 words, no more no less, on my desk, tomorrow." She resumed her position at the front of the class, pointing out the obelisks and odd statues as we continued deeper into the cave.

"Witch," I muttered under my breath. But, hey, you know what I meant.

"Yeah," Kat said, clicking her camera. "500 words… so cruel."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm trying to ignore your sarcasm."

She flipped her slightly curly red hair. "Hey, that's how Katherine McCollin rolls." She beamed widely.

Kat wasn't exactly the most popular girl in our grade. She had a pale complexion dotted with a million freckles, and had this odd, but cute, button nose. She also had rather small almond shaped eyes that were just made to look smaller by the thick lensed glasses she wore. And I have never seen her in anything but either a pair of jeans, or leggings with a skirt. Not Miss Popular material.

Me, eh, I have plain, boring straight brown hair (Kat envies it, but hey) with streaks of blonde here and there. I hated my glasses, which I had got just a few months ago. I love this particular sweater, a black one with a tall collar, but I never take it off when I'm at school. My mom says it's because I'm "self-conscious", but I say "I'm just damn cold". I hate skirts, and love wearing good old skinny jeans. And a T-shirt. No frills, at all, and not much pink either. I'm a bit of a tom-boy, I'll admit it. Leave me alone.

Suddenly, Kat gasped. I whipped around to see what was wrong.

"What?" I asked.

"There's a bat!" she exclaimed, but not with fear, as I imagined. Her parents are wildlife preservers, so I guess I wasn't surprised.

"I need to get a picture of it!" she cried, pulling me by my sweater sleeve and dragging me towards the direction the bat went. "Come on!"

"What? Hey! Leggo!" I exclaimed, yelping a bit when I stubbed my toe on a MASSIVE rock. Soon, we were far away from the rest of the group.

Suddenly I heard footsteps behind me. "Who's there?" I asked as Kat gleefully took photo after photo of the colony (if you could call it that) of bats.

Brian stepped out of the darkness, unfortunately bumping into me in the process.

"What the hell?" he yelled, staggering backwards.

"I'll say!" I said, brushing off some dust from my sweater.

This was the first time I had seen Brian Baker up so close. He wasn't handsome, but he wasn't ugly either. He had dark brown hair that was sort of wavy, and chocolate brown eyes. He had slightly tanned skin too, and was a few inches taller than me. No blemishes, but he did have this odd scar beside his left eye….

What the hell are you doing so close to the guy? a voice inside me screamed. Get away from the guy's face and leave him alone! What were you planning to do, kiss him or something? And why should you care if-

I cut the voice off by smacking the side of my head.

Brian looked at me like I had just grown another head. "Why did you…" He shook his head. "Nevermind."

Kat came over then ("Thank GOD!" I wanted to scream) and said, puzzled, "Brian? What are you doing here?"
"Well…" He paused before saying. "What are you doing here?"

She held up her camera. "Bat pictures." She grinned.

He kicked a lone pebble aside. "Oh… Well, okay then…"

"Why are you here, Brian?" I asked.

He shifted his weight from one foot to the other. He looked as if he were debating whether he should answer my question or not.

"I followed you!" he blurted out.

"WHAT?" Kat and I said in unison.