A/N: Okay, guys, I'm fairly sure that this will be my last chapter for a while. I finally got an idea for another story, so that's the one I'll be focusing on. I may add to this one once in a while, but it's on semi-hiatus for a while.

"Hey, watch where you're going, jerk!"

As annoying as it was, having her books knocked out of her hands just sealed her already terrible day. She'd woken up thirty minutes late, been thirty seconds late to class and gotten in trouble for it, spilled her lunch all over her brand new clothes, forgotten to turn in a homework assignment that was thirty percent of her final grade, broken the zipper on her backpack, and now had all her books knocked out of her hands.

Kayla was done with this day.

"Can I help?"

Kayla jumped. She hated when people snuck up behind her. But when she turned to glower at her personal space intruder, she found herself instead staring at him. He was cute. Really, really cute. And he was standing above her and smiling.

"Sorry. What?"

"I said can I help? You look like you're in a bit of bind."

"Um…" Kayla started to say no, until she looked around and saw her papers and books scattered all around. "Sure. Thanks a lot."

"No problem. I'm Todd." Todd reached out a hand, which Kayla took in her own. "Nice to meet you."

"Kayla."

Todd proceeded to help Kayla pick up all her things from the ground around her. He suddenly got an idea, reaching into his backpack and pulling out a couple of reusable shopping bags he kept in there.

"Do you want to use these? Until you figure out what to do about your backpack?"

"Sure. Thanks." Kayla took the bags and carefully placed her things inside of them. "I can bring them back to you at school tomorrow."

"That's okay. Keep 'em. My mom has a thousand of them."

"Thanks again for the help."

"You need some help taking your stuff home?"

"Um, that's probably not a good idea. No offense, but I don't really want a thousand questions from my family about who the random guy is from school."

"It's okay. I get it. I'm new in town so my parents want to know all about what 'friends' I'm making at school."

Kayla laughed. "My mom's the same way."

"I should get home. My mom's still worried about being in a new place and all that."

"Okay. Thanks again."

"Hey, you wouldn't, um…want to go out sometime, would you?"

Did she want to? Yes. Should she? That was a bit of a more complicated question.

"Would you think I'm totally weird if I asked to give you an answer later?"

Todd squinted a little at the unusual request, but shrugged. "It's not a no. So I guess not."

"Tell you what. Ask me in a different way every day for a month. The more creative you get, the better chance of me saying yes."

Todd smiled. "Okay. Deal."

"Nice to meet you, Todd."

"Nice to meet you, Kayla. Guess I've got to get home and come up with something for tomorrow."

"Okay. I'm not an easy catch, so make sure you get creative."

Todd turned and headed back in the direction of his house. He blushed when he turned back around to get another look at Kayla and she was still looking at him. Kayla headed back to her own house. It was only another couple of minutes walk, but she spent the minutes cementing something in her head. Kayla didn't believe in love at first sight, but there was one thing of which she was certain.

She would marry Todd Whitaker one day.