A/N: No time for a long authors note, halfway out the door to a football game and a dance, enjoy! Oh, and thanks to everyone for reading/reviewing/alerting/favoriting etc!

Chapter 5: Walking

After Chem it was finally time for lunch. I nearly sprinted through the hallways to get to my favorite table in the courtyard before the freshman did. I skidded to a stop and plopped down onto my seat facing the sun. It felt nice to feel the sun on my skin after the ice that seemed to have locked around my heart. I took my slightly squished lunch out of my backpack and removed my sandwich. I ripped little pieces off to make it last longer and waited for Aimee. She walked up and sat down, nearly spilling her salad all over herself. Again. I was so upset still that I couldn't even giggle.

"What happened Kayla?" She asked.

I explained to her my predicament and showed her the note.

She grinned broadly. "He likes you!" She practically screamed.

I shook my head sadly. "No. Have you seen the jerks he hangs around. They act like they rule the world and everyone loves them. This is just a prank gone way too far."

She looked doubtful but didn't press the subject, which I was grateful for. We ate in general silence, until my pressing question exploded out of my mouth before I could stop it.

"So what's going on between you and Levi?"

She looked up sheepishly from her salad and mumbled something that sounded a whole lot like "don't know what your talking about."

"I'm not buying that Aimee. Spill the details!"

She shrugged. "I don't know… I guess something might be there, but you know me…"

I nodded. Aimee was definitely not concerned about boys. She'd rather focus on school and tennis.

"He's kind of cute." I offered up.

"Yeah!" She blurted out without thinking and immediately covered her mouth with one hand. I busted up laughing and it didn't take her long to join in.

"I wish I could have recorded that! Ms. Independent just admitted to liking someone!" I teased.

She started to deny it but I silenced her with my famous "don't even try" looks. We managed to finish our lunches and make our way to Algebra II. I sighed and took a seat in the middle of the room. You have to be able to see the whiteboard from all angles to be successful in math. Last year I took a seat at the edge of the room and had a notebook full of half written notes, simply because I couldn't see the board. Mr. Jacobson entered the room and immediately began to drone on about why X+49 and I slowly felt my mind start to drift. I glanced at Aimee to see her doodling what looked suspiciously like Aimee + Levi with hearts around it. I wrote a quick note on the corner of my paper. C'mon Aimee, you can be more creative than that! ;) I slid my notebook towards her and she made a choking noise and started coughing, her face turning red. I stifled a giggle and thumper her on her back.

You okay? I mouthed.

She nodded. You caught me off guard.

She flipped to a new page in her notebook and I saw her brow furrow. Wow, she was taking me totally seriously. I drifted back into my daydreams. "You're very beautiful." Kept echoing through my head. The pessimistic part of me was telling the optimistic part of me all the reasons this wasn't true. Your hair is fuzzy. You have a big head. Your feet are too big. The optimistic part timidly responded. Your eyes are unique. You're muscular. You're tall. The negative part screamed back. Your eyes are weird. You're fat. You're a giant. Ugh! Why couldn't I just love myself for who I was? Why did I have to be five foot four, a size zero, with overly hair product laden hair, and size six feet? Why did those people have to be the ones that defined beauty? I decided then and there that I wasn't going to let Seth affect me anymore. If he meant it, I would take it sincerely. If he didn't mean it then I wasn't going to be depressed over it.

I smiled and felt the ice locked around my heart defrost and melt into oblivion. Aimee was diligently working on her new doodle, but I gave her some privacy and didn't examine it too closely. I soaked in the Algebra and repeated Seth's words in my mind. You're very beautiful. I sighed and let my fantasies take wing. Two hands entwined. Swaying to gentle music. Foreheads pressed together. Adorable smile. Lighthearted attitude. Warm, warm, hands. Strong arms. Sensitive. I smiled, because he was perfect.

We went to Government last. I was kind of excited, because not only did I love History, I'd had the teacher before, and he rarely assigned homework. He also was pretty funny and kept you engaged the whole class. I eagerly took my favorite seat and Aimee picked a random seat near me. The class filed quickly, and I noticed Levi come in. But he couldn't get a seat near Aimee. I stood up and walked over to him, leaving my stuff sprawled on the desk to claim it as mine.

"Hey Levi. Um, I've never properly introduced myself, but I'm Kayla, Aimee's best friend." He flushed a light pink when I said her name and I swear I saw him grimace as he noted the filled up seats around her. "So anyway," I continued, "I can tell she likes you so I'm giving you my seat!" I said brightly and with that, I boldly grabbed his wrist and tugged him over to the desk, scooped up my stuff, and waltzed away, shooting a knowing glance at a very grateful looking Aimee. I took one of the only seats left, and waited for Mr. Lehr to come. He started our lecture at the same point as every history teacher does: The Revolutionary War. Eighty-three extremely talkative minutes later, school was over. My mind was a whirlwind of thoughts; the day was so long it felt like a whole week had gone by.

I bolted from the classroom and started to nearly sprint down the hallway. The class I was in was towards the very back of the school and my bus was parked in the front. Aimee followed close behind me, both of us trying to reach the bus so we wouldn't have to sit with strangers. We were making good time, dodging people and taking shortcuts. Then someone slammed into me and sent my stuff flying all over the hall.

"Go get seats!" I shouted to Aimee.

"Okay!" She said back, taking off in a fast walk, her backpack accidentally slamming into a few freshman who were stopped in the hallway to chat. I giggled and proceeded to gather my stuff up as fast as possible. I didn't even care what order it ended up in, I just wanted to finish and get to the bus. Oh and not get stepped on, but that's another story. Our bus only took that one minute wasted to go from half empty to all the way full with people having to crouch down in the isles. And unfortunately, even if Aimee got there and got us a seat, she couldn't save my seat to save her life. She found it hard to tell people no, plus people on our bus were apt to sit on people to get them to move.

My papers finally in hand, I resumed my near sprint to the bus. It turned to a full sprint once I got outside and I bounded up the steps into the bus to see that the spot next to Aimee was in fact, taken. She gave me an exasperated and apologetic look. Every seat was full and more than half the seats had three people in them already. I glanced out the window and saw that the sun was shining the most it ever did here. I pondered and decided to walk home. My house was only a mile away, but it was uphill and my backpack was already killing my shoulder. I decided the walk was better than the torturous ride. I waved to Aimee and mouthed I'm walking! She looked surprised but waved back. I exited the bus, nearly falling on my face after tripping on the steps.

I started to walk along the sidewalk away from the school, past the tennis court, towards the hill. I didn't even hear footsteps behind me, but all of a sudden, Seth was next to me.

"Hey Kayla. I thought you rode a bus."

I grimaced. Not only was he not forgiven, but just that memory of that stupid bus irritated me. We walked in silence for a while before I answered.

"The bus was at maximum capacity so I decided to walk home. My shoulders are killing me though." I sighed.

"Let me carry your backpack for you." He said, and grabbed it. I felt really great inside that a boy was carrying my stuff for me, but I still wasn't all the way convinced that he wasn't about to hurl it in the street.

"Don't you need to catch a bus?" I asked as the first bus rumbled by us. "Rather, did you just miss your bus?"

He shrugged. "Yeah, but I don't mind walking." He just missed his bus for me.

"Where do you live?" I asked timidly.

"Eh, maybe two miles up the road." He said nonchalantly.

Wow. "Well, I'm right along your way then, but isn't that kind of a long walk?"

He shrugged again, my backpack seemed feather light on his muscular shoulders. "Not for me."

I let the topic drop and we walked in a somewhat awkward silence. I heard a slight buzzing sound. It was a cell phone in Seth's back pocket. He fished it out and flipped it open, trying to talk quietly,

"No Jacob, I'm going to be late." He got a strange look in his eyes. "Yeah. I'll explain when I get home. Ok. Thank you Jake. Bye." He hit the off button but left it open, turning to me. He hesitated for a minute. "You have a cell phone?" He asked.

I nodded. My grandpa had gotten me a pink Razr for my last birthday.

"Can I give you my number?" He asked, looking as though he was waiting to be reprimanded. I felt bad. He was probably waiting for another one of my bizarre reactions.

"Sure." I answered softly. He rattled off his number and I entered it into my phonebook. The only male in there besides my dad and grandpa. We had crossed the street and were starting up the daunting hill. My calves were already starting to burn, and I was thankful he had my notebook laden backpack.

"Um…" He started to say something but he quickly stopped.

"Yeah?" I asked, curious now.

"Um, can I have your number?" He asked, sounding hopeful.

Shock must have crossed my face, because his hopeful expression faltered. "Sure." I said, surprise coloring my tone. I gave him my number, and I couldn't help but wonder at how his big hands didn't crush his phone. A wide smile had lit up his face, and I felt one slowly come across mine. I noticed a new spring in his step. I wondered what I looked like. We rounded the corner, still going uphill.

"How much farther is your house?" He asked.

"Um, the street right after that big brick dentists office. Next time the cars clear we'll have to cross the street because the next crosswalk is too far up." "Okay." He replied, his eyes scanning the street. Suddenly he grabbed my hand and sprinted across the street, pulling me along. We reached the other side but he didn't let go of my hand for just a couple seconds too long. I blushed again, much to my surprise. We rounded the last corner and arrived in front of my house.

"Thanks for walking me home." I said, suddenly shy.

"No problem." He said, and it sounded like he meant it.

A/N: Ta da! Reviews are like laughter, there's no such thing as too much! -smiles-