The party on the rooftop was mostly the football team, some of our other friends, and the girls from the volleyball team. I was dancing with Tris, Marlene, and Shauna, when the music stopped and I saw Aidan, Trick, Dominic, and Peter standing up on a table.

"This is for the girls on the volleyball team," yelled Aidan as he held up a bottle of beer. "To my sister, Dauntless's starting setter, Alex!" People started to cheer.

They called out Deena, our outside hitter, Jessie, our other outside hitter, Letty, our middle hitter, and Rogue, an outside blocker.

Then Peter jumped off the table, walked over to Lauren, pulled her close to him and then raised his bottle.

"This is for the craziest, sexiest bitch that I know. I can't see myself being with anyone else, but her. I love you, you know that?"

"Shut up," Lauren laughed. Peter and Lauren then kissed. "I love you, too."

"To my awesome girl, Dauntless's libero, your team captain, Lauren!"

"I thought he never tell her 'I love you'," said Marlene as we all started to laugh.

Sometime during the middle of the party, Eric found me dancing with Edward.

"I think your boyfriend is looking for you," Edward whispered. I turned to see Eric staring at us. Once I smiled at him, he turned to walk the other way.

"I better go," I said to Edward.

"So you two are going out? If so, then Uriah owes me $50."

"Eric and I aren't dating." Edward gave me a questioningly look. That's the thing. We weren't. Eric wasn't my boyfriend, but I did really care about him as if he was. "We're not," I said one more time for emphasis. Edward didn't seem convinced.

"Well, you may not be right now, but trust me, I know you two will. I'm so confident that it'll happen, I should tell Uriah to double it." With that Edward left to find Uriah and I turned to find Eric.

"Eric," I called after him. He stopped in the doorway. "You leaving already?"

"Yeah, I..." he paused and looked up and then looked back down at me. "I suddenly didn't feel good."

"Why don't I follow you?"

"You looked like you were having fun. Besides, this is sort of your party. You should stay."

"It's not really a party, unless all my friends are here," I said remembering that he ditched a party to stay with me. That was the first night I asked him to stay with me and he did. I smiled at the memory as I looked at him. He thought about it for a while, gave me a weak smile, then finally took my hand and led me down the stairs.

We ended up this time at Eric's room. I was about to walk to Aidan's bed, but Eric pulled me over to his bed. We sat down on his bed, with him holding me in his lap.

"Your first game is this Saturday, isn't it," he asked as one of his hands rubbed my back. I lowered my head and snuggled into his chest.

"Yeah. We're going to end up missing your folks game," I replied as my hand found its' way under his shirt and to his abs. He was quiet for a while and then I just remembered something. I sat up to look at him.

"Eric, I'm so sorry," I whispered.

"For what," he said some what chuckling. "You didn't do anything wrong."

"I said that I would cheer for you at every game," I said kissing his cheek. "Remember," I asked pulling back to look at him.

"Alex, it's fine," he replied as he kissed my forehead. Eric let his head rest against mine. "I am going to miss seeing you there, though."

"I know I'm sorry."

Eric pulled away to look at me and ran his hand down my cheek. "Alex, it's fine really." He then looked down at his bed and then back to me. "Why don't you stay with me tonight," he asked.

"I can't. I still have curfew on the weekdays. Besides it's 10:15, past curfew for me. If Principal Phifer decided to send someone to check in on me tonight, I would be even more deep trouble."

"Please Alex," he whispered into my ear. My whole body became weak. I shook my head and looked at the floor trying to clear my mind. His hand came around, cupped my face, and brought it back to look at him. I saw him slightly smile. Slowly it was turning into that smirk I loved so much. I immediately threw my hand up to cover his mouth. Eric started to chuckle against my hand.

"Don't you dare," I warned him. I slowly removed my hand to show that he was trying his best not to smile. I laughed a little and shook my head.

"After this weekend's game, I'll stay with you that night," I informed him.

"Why do I have to wait until after a game, that you're not going to be at," he questioned throwing me a wicked smile. "When you can just stay with me right now?"

I suddenly felt a bit naughty and wanted to have a little fun. "I would like to stay, however, given tonight's circumstances I just can't. So I thought that I give you a reason to win by offering to stay with you this weekend."

"Like an incentive," he replied.

"Ring, ring, ring. Give the boy a prize. See you are smart," I said as I poked his side. He started to laugh.

"So, if we're losing and I need that extra push, just try to hear you telling me about this weekend?"

"Not telling. Cheering." I started to clap. "W-E-E-K-E-N-D." That was a lame cheer. Apparently he agreed with me.

"That was by far probably the worst cheer I heard you do," he joked as I started to laugh. "However you were so adorable doing it," he finished as he ran his hand down my cheek again.

"Thank you. And for calling me adorable, I'll throw in a bonus. Kind of like an extra point after the touchdown."

He started to laugh. "Okay. What is it?"

"It's a surprise," I answered as I threw him a wink.

"Okay then. I guess I'll see you when you get back from your game."

"Aren't we being overly confident," I teased. He smiled. I kissed his cheek. "Goodnight Eric." Then I jumped out of his lap and raced down to my room, hoping I wouldn't get into any more trouble.

The week went by rather fast. The first draft of mine and Eric's paper for Psych was due on Wednesday, not to mention the teacher decided to throw in two more projects. Later when I found Al, I started to tease him. He told me that AP Psych was fun, but there was just so much projects. Eric seemed to enjoy the work though, and helped me out on one of em. Thursday, we had to turn in three reports on three different books from the list that AP English teacher gave to us. Eric only did one, so I helped him that night finish the other two in exchange for helping me in AP Psych.

On Friday during lunch, Jessie ran up to the table towards Lauren and I, practically out of breath.

"What's going on Jess," asked Lauren.

"I just had PE third period and Tori told me that there's a change in our game," she said still trying to catch her breath. Both Lauren and I looked up at her. "We're playing Erudite Academy."

"They're not even in our district," I argued.

"No, they're not," agreed Lauren. "However, they are the #1 team in the state. How in the world did we get them for our season opener? What happened to Veron High?"

"They had to forfeit," explained Jessie. "Tori wanted to just take it as a win. We would rest this weekend and get ready for our first home game. But apparently Erudite Academy's principal called Principal Phifer to request a match and you know that they're really close friends. He didn't want to say no. Plus he thinks it'll be good to show off our team this year. So now we're playing them tomorrow," she said quickly and loudly.

"Okay, Jess, breathe, calm down," said Lauren while Jessie tried to inhale and exhale. Lauren then turned to me. "I don't know if we're ready to play them tomorrow."

"Oh my god, we're not ready," screamed Jessie. I reached over this time, grabbed her hand, and held onto her tightly.

"Relax already Jessie!" I turned to back to Lauren. "We're going to have to call an emergency practice tonight." And we did.

Lauren, Jessie, and I text the other twelve girls to get a practice tonight, even though Tori told us to rest. After practice Eric showed up.

"He really is handsome," said Letty.

"I heard that you and Dominic just started going out," I asked.

"Yeah, but that doesn't change the fact that there's this totally hot guy," she said nudging me. "Waiting for you right there." Just then Eric looked up and smiled. "Lord, how can you resist that Alex? So tell me, I heard Eric is totally good, if you know what I mean."

"I wouldn't know. We haven't..."

"You haven't had sex, yet?" Letty practically screamed. I looked up to see if Eric heard us from the stands.

"Shut up Letty."

"Man, he must really be in love with you."

"That's what I was telling her," agreed Deena.

"Really, guys, Eric and I are friends."

"We're going to go through this again," cried Lauren.

"Will all of you just shut up? He's going to hear. Besides we still have practice."

"Oh, I'm calling it a night already," said Lauren. "I think we're good. And if you ask me, I have a good feeling that we're going to win tomorrow. I just know it."

After we changed, I walked up the stands to Eric and sat down in front of him.

"What you thinking about?"

"You. I heard that you're playing Erudite Academy tomorrow," Eric answered.

"We are. We're kind of worried, because they're #1 in the state. They're actually #1 in almost everything. Because of that, some of the girls are freaking out. I'm a little worried too, but Lauren seems to be confident that we've got it."

"Well, I figure that I give you an incentive," he said smiling.

"What kind of incentive?" I smiled back at him and sat up straighter to accept his challenge.

"When you win tomorrow, I'll have a surprise waiting for you, when you come back."

"What is it?"

"A surprise."

"That's not fair. I told you what you're getting when you folks win."

"You didn't tell me every detail of the incentive. Remember I got to get a little bonus for calling you adorable," he said as his hand ran down my cheek. I rolled my eyes.

"Fine, don't tell me," I replied smiling back. We both stood up and left.

I had to tell him that people were starting to talk. I mean Edward and Uriah were making a bet out of it and all the girls on the volleyball team and the cheer squad wouldn't let it rest. To be quite honest, we were giving them something to talk about by us being friends. Hopefully, he wouldn't get upset if I asked him to stop walking me back to my room from practice. I could easily have walked with the other girls. But I never did, because I really did want to be with Eric. I guess Christina was right. I did know, I just didn't want to admit it. Eric sensed something was wrong, so he stopped right before we got to the dorm room building.

"Stop worrying about the game, Alex. I believe Lauren is right. You and the team got this."

I looked down and nodded. I'll just let him believe that that is what's bothering me.

We arrived at Erudite Academy four hours before game time. The school fed us an early dinner. Later we were given a tour of the campus by a few members of their staff. The campus was huge. The buildings were mostly glass. Everything felt so open, shiny, and bright.

"I think I want to break something," said Letty.

"I know, everything looks expensive here," said Jessie. It probably was expensive.

"Alright," called out one of our tour guides. "You can wait in this conference room here. Our Principal wants to meet you all."

We sat there laughing and teasing the school, until a pretty lady with long blonde hair came through the door.

"Well, Evenlyn Johnson," called out Tori to the lady. They walked up to one another and hugged.

"It's been a while, Tori," the lady replied. "How have you and George been, since the move?"

"Wonderful," Tori said with a slight laugh. "You seem to be recovering well. Principal, now?"

"Yes, it's a step in the right direction for me. Hopefully I can get this school back into the right direction, too."

We all knew that last year's principal for Erudite Academy was young and used the school's resources and students for her own ambition. There was a lot of corruption at the government side of things in Erudite and last year they got the school involved through it's principal.

"So this is the team that I've heard so much about," she said turning to look at us. Tori introduced each of us to her.

"That's Four's mom," whispered Lauren before Tori made our way to us.

"I thought Four's last name is Eaton," I whispered back.

"It is. But she left Four's dad last year, changed back to her maiden name, and moved back home to the Erudite district. Four doesn't talk about it. So no one knows what happened, well except the boys and possibly Tris."

"And this is our starting setter," said Tori breaking up mine and Lauren's private conversation. "Alex Kent."

"Kent," Principal Johnson repeated with a smile. "Martha Kent is your mother?"

"That she is."

"I've met your mother several times, worked with her on a few different government projects," she said turning to Tori who nodded. What is that supposed to mean? My mother wasn't involved in the government. My dad was the one who was a political advisor. "She's a delightful woman. Very dedicated and hard-working. The next time you see her, tell her I said hello."

"Of course. Thank you, ma'am."

"And this is Lauren Michaels," Tori said continuing on with introductions.

What projects did my mom work on? This was all so confusing. Then, I wondered what happened to Four's mom? But pushed it away. It wasn't any of my business. Besides I was having trouble trying to get information out from Eric about his family. And he was the boy I really wanted to know about.

Suddenly the door opened and two girls came forward. One of them had strawberry blonde hair just like Shauna. I always thought that hair color was nice. Of course it doesn't match on everyone, but like Shauna, this girl pulled it off. Principal Johnson turned around to introduce the girl, who happened to be their team captain. I didn't catch her name. She spoke to some of the team, informing them how grateful she was for this opportunity to play against us. The other girl had made her way up to me.

She was pretty too. She had dark brown straight hair, average height like me, and a warm smile. She lifted her hand to me which I shook.

"You must be Alex."

I smiled. "Yes, I am. May I know your name?"

She smiled, looked down as if she were a little shy or nervous about telling me who she was.

"My name is Cara."