I continued my journey through the hall being bumped and nudged every which way by the traffic of excited students. I hurried past them and stopped in a nearby nook cut out of the wall where a bench was placed and decided to wait for everyone to calm down a little so I could at least make it down the hallway. But the busyness never stopped. It only seemed to worsen. I decided that if I was ever going to make it back to my locker I would just have to try to plow through the crowd. I took a deep breath bracing myself the stood up and began walking forward.



It was even harder than I thought. By now the seniors had made their way down from the top story and now flooded the lower classmen halls. I dodged them all awkwardly as I hurriedly turned into the second set of stairs in the main corridor of the school. No one every used these stairs. For what reason I didn’t know, they were just as good as the first set.



Now on the nearly empty stairs I could effortlessly continue towards my locker. Luckily the second story hallways weren’t nearly as busy and I easily reached my destination. I couldn’t keep my emotions in when I recognized the boy leaning against my aqua colored locker.
“Ian!” I darted over as quickly as I could manage.
“Hey!”Ian’s smile lifted my spirits even higher. He jerked his head to move is blonde shaggy hair out of his light hazel eyes. I started on my combination as he began to speak, His voice low and smooth. “So Liv tells me you’re going to Rivera’s party.” I could tell he was hiding a scowl behind his smile. Ian hated Kate as much as I did, maybe even more because she hurt me, and to him, hurting me was like killing me. Ian was a real best friend that way. I know he would never even think about doing something to hurt me.
“Against my own free will.” I chuckled and Ian mimicked the gesture.
“Well I guess that means I’m going too.”
“Oh, Ian you don’t have to. It’s fine, really.” I did want Ian to go though. Ian was my rock, without him I don’t think I could take the party.
“No, I want to. Besides someone has to protect you from the big bad Kate.” Of course Ian would want to. As much as he hated Kate he loved parties.
“So do you know where it’s at? Penny didn’t give me the full details.” I guessed Ian had gotten an invitation, and Penny and Olivia probably did too. Knowing Kate she would invite everyone but me. But even if she didn’t do that Ian would have gotten an invite anyway. You see Kate’s liked Ian ever since I can remember and the fact that he wants nothing to do with her and wants everything to do with me makes her hate me even more.
“Yea, Kate has some huge house on Silver Lake. I have the address at home. Oh and uh do you think your mom could drive me? My mom has to work tomorrow night.”
“Sure, I don’t think she’ll mind, Penny’s already spending the night so were taking her too.” At least I hoped my mom wouldn’t mind. Corinne really wasn’t the type of person to get angry over something small like that. I mean seriously, she does have to put up with my dad twenty-four seven.
“Hey are you and Penny walking home then?”
“I think so, we already missed the bus so I don’t think we have any other options.”
“Sweet, I’ll just walk home with you guys then.” Ian and I usually walked home together. We both lived in the same subdivision which was only a few miles away from school.



I crammed all of the books left in my locker into my exceptionally puny backpack and Ian and I headed off to go find Penny. We hastily made our way to the cafeteria entrance of the school but Penny wasn’t there. I groaned and turned back around hoping to find her somewhere in the hallway. Ian and I searched for only a few minutes before I was fed up with looking for her.



“Where is she?” My tone was frustrated and hurried which I didn’t know why. It’s not like I had to get home to do anything important, I had all summer to do whatever I wanted. Maybe I was just anxious.



“Probably with her new man candy.” Ian smirked, trying to be funny. Somehow even if he wasn’t trying he could always calm me down.



“Yea, who is that guy anyway?” Ian was walking looking at the ground, I guess he was tired, he was telling me in second hour how he had to stay up all night babysitting his little sister Anna while his mom worked the graveyard shift.
Ian shrugged his shoulders before responding. “Some tenth grader, I give them a week, two weeks tops.”



“Is he going to be at the party tonight?” Ian jerked his head up quickly, removing his hair from his eyes again and also using the gesture as a partial nod.



“Great, so the only ones protecting me will be you and Liv.”



“Not necessarily,” I looked at him with a shocked expression. Before giving me a chance to ask he answered the question in my head, “I think Liv’s gunna be spending some quality time with Peter Landry.” I sighed. Oh great, just me and Ian. How am I supposed to keep hidden behind one person? And why did Olivia and Penny even want me to go to this stupid party if they weren’t going to hang out with me? I was angry now. Not angry at them, but angry at me for letting myself get dragged into this.



Ian, sensing my frustration wrapped his arm around my shoulder and rolled his eyes at me sarcastically. “Don’t worry Sam, I’m sure you’ll be fine. Besides maybe this way you’ll end up making some new friends, Drew Garrison might make a good friend for example.” He winked at me after he finished the sentence. So this was what this was about. Why couldn’t my friends just get it through their heads that I didn’t want a boyfriend!



“Ian Wolfe! How dare you try to set me up with one of your stupid friends!” While finishing my sentence I ducked under Ian’s arm and began to storm off down the hallway, angrier than before. I heard Ian’s footsteps behind me trying to catch up. He placed his hand on my shoulder and spun me around. I tried to wiggle free from his grip but couldn’t. Ian was strong. He laughed at my escape attempt which made me tighten my jaw.



“Come on Sam, just give him a chance. I know you’ll like him.”



“That’s what you said last time you tried to hook me up with one of your friends. Remember Brett? You invited him over once when I was conveniently at your house. I sat through two tedious hours of listening to him talk about hockey!” Ian laughed at the memory and I scowled. How could he possibly think that was funny?



“Lighten up, I promise if you don’t like him you can just give me a signal and I’ll come save the day.”



“No, not happening.” I tried to break free from Ian’s hold again but he still easily held me back.



“That’s where you’re wrong. Because I’ve spent over a week planning this and you being stubborn is not going to ruin it.”I should have known it wasn’t Olivia’s or Penny’s dirty work, Ian had always been the one trying to get me a decent boyfriend. Why couldn’t he just accept the fact I was going to grow up to be one of those crazy old ladies that lives in a house full of cats because she never married? Besides, I didn’t want to date anyone, well maybe one person. I’d been in love with him almost my entire life, but there’s no way he would ever think that way about me.



“Listen. There is no way in hell I’m going to that party!” Ian sighed, but not in defeat. I knew some way or another he would end up convincing me to go to the stupid party. Ian moved his hand from my shoulder to my wrist and began almost dragging me through the halls. Now impatient his grip had gotten fiercer and made my wrist sore. “Ouch! Ian, what’s your problem?”



“Right now, you.” He wasn’t going to let this go. Ian led me down the hall until we made our way back towards the entrance where Penny was now waiting. Her greeting smile turned into a frown when she saw the way Ian was handling me.



“Ian, what’s wrong?” She asked. I could tell her concern was for the look of agony written all over my face. I really wasn’t in that much pain, I was just angry. No, furious.



“Guess who decided she’s not going to Kate’s party?” Ian’s sarcastic tone stung and I cringed when his eyes turned to look at me.



“What? Sam you have to go!” All concern left Penny’s voice when she realized I was screwing up the plan.



“I said I’m not going, and that’s final!” I shouted as I tried to pull away again but Ian yanked me back, this time hard. “Ow! Let me go.” Ian loosened his grasp when he saw the pain he inflicted but didn’t let go.



“Not until you promise me you’ll go.” I knew this was coming, but I wasn’t giving up without a fight. If I was going to give in I had to get something in return. Ian sensed I was deliberating what to do and his facial expression turned into a smile, he knew he’d won.



He released me completely and I quickly crossed my arms across my chest, just in case he decided he couldn’t trust me from running off. It’s not like I’d get far anyway, I was a slow runner. I probably wouldn’t make it five feet before he caught up to me.



“There’s no way out of this then?” I tried to give Ian the old puppy dog eyes treatment but he just rolled his eyes impatiently at my pathetic attempt to make him change his mind.



He smiled my favorite smile before answering. “No, now let’s get out of here. One more minute in this school is going to make my head explode.”



I grinned in a devious manner and Ian’s smile instantly fanished. He hadn’t been expecting I had a plan. “I’m not going anywhere until you listen to my proposition.” I made my voice sound big and powerful, one more thing that caught Ian off guard. I turned my head to Penny who by now was tapping her foot eagerly near the exit. She was noticeably fed up with my tenacity.