It's way too dark in here.

I don't normally do stuff like skip school. But Collin Jennings, that smart-ass from Jenna's Creative Writing class, passed me a note in the hall.

Let's go to the aquarium.

I don't know him. He doesn't know me. And all the way here we were giving each other these weird looks, and the looks Collin gave me prickled the hair on my arms. I don't understand why he decided to pass me that note today, and I don't know why I've come, but I've been on edge ever since.


Along the floor and low ceiling, yellow lights flicker, making my eyes ache. The low humming from the water tanks sends vibrations into the air, making me even more anxious than I already am. The murmurs and whispers from other visitors fill my ears.

Collin grabs my arm and points to a colorful school of fish that swim past us. He begins whispering random aquatic facts and commenting on their beauty against my ear. I quickly rub my ear, a display to show him that he's being a little friendly.

His lips curl upward as he looks down at me. "Tamara, I didn't think you shy."

No, I'm not shy at all. But the quietness and whispers of people all around us, makes me feel uneasy. He's standing so close to me, and he just keeps staring down at me with that practiced grin.

"Time to go see what's next!" I blurt out, scurrying away from him.


I won't admit it to Collin, but I've never actually been to an aquarium before. Why would I? Who has fun looking at fish? But now that I'm here, I might as well prepare for a boring afternoon filled with fish.

I wander into the shark tunnel, and when Collin catches up, he presses right up to the glass.

"Hey, Jaws!" He jokes, then turns back to me waiting for my laugh.

I roll my eyes and continue slowly strolling, looking up at the sharks looming in the tunnel above us. Collin follows along, eagerly pointing out which sharks are which. Then he touches my waist in this totally fake accidental way, he pretends to be just as surprised as me.

I rush towards the end of the tunnel, "I'm done with the sharks now!"


After putting a few feet of distance between us, I stumble into sting-ray pool area. Grouped around the pool are a bunch of kids from Thadwick private school, you can tell from their uniforms. With his pretentious attitude and fancy clothes, these kids look like the kind of people Collin would fit right in with. But instead, he's at Palos Hills. A public high school.

When Collin catches up with me, he grabs my arm quickly. "The rays are boring, let's go see the the eels."

Before he can pull me away, a guy from the Thadwick ground strolls over to look me up and down. "Collin," He laughs, still looking at me rudely. "Oh my, how you've fallen."

"Glad to see you haven't changed at all, Preston," Collin says through clenched teeth.

Preston completely ignores him and turns to laugh in my direction, "Palos Hills girls really are as trashy as they say, huh?"

I look back at Collin, he's trying to look calm, but his grip on my arm is tight.

I turn back to Preston, in a fixed cold stare. "Excuse me? I don't know which nanny raised you to be a condescending jerk, but why don't you go back to Daddy-Dearest and ask him to buy you a new personality? Oh, wait. He can't. I may not be rich, but I'll always have something you never will. I'm a good person. Now go run back to your little friends, you're not worth even a second more of my time."

Shocked, Preston swallows hard and walks away murmuring "... stupid bitch."

Collin lets out a joyful laugh and puts his arm around my shoulder. "You're incredible."

We make our way over towards one of the ray pools. As much as I thought I'd hate everything here, I have to admit that the ray pool is actually kinda pretty. I sit on the edge of the pool, watching the rays ripple along the sandy tank-bed. Collin sits beside me and dips his fingers into the water and playfully flicks a few drops at me. I flick a few drops back and next thing I know we've got into a full-blown water fight complete with laughs, splashing, and soaked clothing. But since we're drawing a lot of attention, our fun is short-lived.


Arm-in-arm, we head towards the eel room. It's dark in here, the only light coming from the floor-to-ceiling tanks.

"What kind of teenager skips school to go and see fish?" I laugh, jokingly nudging him in the side.

"Eels are not fish." He smiles, pulling me in even closer to him and whispers in my ear. "And FYI, you're that kind of teenager now."

Collin hovers behind me as I gaze at the tank. He points out a moray eel to me. It's disgustingly huge and it's teeth look razor sharp. It darts straight at me from behind the glass. Scared, I jerk backwards right into Collin's arms.

As I turn around to face him, his arms wrap around my waist, pulling me tightly into him. My chest tightens with nervousness and I can feel sweat prickling on my forehead. And the next thing I know, I press my lips to his. He makes a surprised noise, but enthusiastically kisses me back. Things don't go well to start; I'm shaking in his arms and our teeth bump together a few times. He pulls back a little to flash a smile and giggled at me, then he leans me up against the tank and plants a gentle kiss on my forehead.

"Let's go." He grabs me gently by the arm and leads me towards the hallway.

I hate to admit it, but the aquarium is a lot more fun than I thought it'd be.


We make our way to the last area - tropical fish. It's just as dark as the eel enclosure. I take a seat at one of the benches in front of a tank. Collin sits next to me, but keeps his distance and doesn't say anything. I gaze at the fish, some of them moving slowly across the water, others are darting back and forth so quickly that I can barely see them.

A few minutes pass, I try to act casual as I turn to look at Collin. He's on his phone texting someone, his shoulder are hunched over and he looks upset.

Noticing me, he let's out an exaggerated sigh and then stuffs his phone back into his pocket. He glares at me a little, "Yes?"

Something's definitely up with him. Is it whoever he was texting? Maybe he's just bored? Is he not interested in me anymore?

I finally work up the courage to ask, "What's wrong?"

But he doesn't answer for a few minutes. The silence makes me even more nervous.

Collin finally talks, "My family's still upset that I got expelled from Thadwick." He shrugs. "It's complicated. Anyway's, let's go to the roof."

He gestures over towards the door labeled 'Staff Only'.


On the other-side is a stairwell. Our footsteps echo all the way to the top until we reach the door to the roof. Opening it lets out a blaring creak.

The air is colder than usual and it's refreshing. Collin leads me over to the railing, the warmth from his fingertips resting on my neck. Then he slides them to the small of my back, pulling me closer. I turn my head to look up at him, and he kisses me so hard that my lips hurt.

I shiver, not because it's cold, but he notices anyway and removes his coat to wrap it around my shoulders. After, he holds my hand in his and we head back down the stairs and to the small cafe in he aquarium. Collin keeps smiling down at me while we wait in line. I'm was bout to order us two coffees when he cuts me off, "We'll have two ice creams, please."

We grab a few scoops of chocolate ice cream and Collin adds whipped cream and sprinkles to mine. He orders a plain scoop of vanilla for himself. We take a seat at table by the window and giggle at each other, not really talking about anything important, when suddenly he leans forward to softly brush some whipped cream off my lips.

"I'm glad you decided to come out with me today," He smiles sweetly.

I smile back. There's a few more minutes of silence, so I decide to ask "So, why the aquarium?"

He chuckles, taking my spoon out of my hand to feed me. "To be honest, I just wanted to be alone with you. I notice you around school all time, you're quite distracting."

I blush as he feeds me another scoop of ice cream.

"Tamara, can I ask you something?"

I nod, trying to stay calm, but I'm so curious and so nervous.

"Well... I didn't think you were the type to skip class," He starts. "Why did you decide to come with me?"

I can't answer right away because he's right - I'm not the type to do this. Why did I come? I wasn't sure. But I was glad I did.

I smile at him before answering, "I really don't know why I did, but now that I'm here, with you, it feels right."

"Whatever made you say yes, I'm grateful for it." He flashes me a huge smile and reaches across the table to hold my hand. "On our next date, we should go to one of your favorite places."

I start making plans in my head - the places I want to show him, the things we could do. But I don't share my ideas with him. I'm too nervous.

While I become lost in our next date possibilities, Collin gently squeeze my hand and gestures towards the door. "Are you ready to go?"

Collin slips his around around my waist as we head back towards school.