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I shook my head at him, no less baffled than I had been a minute ago.

“You tripped me,” I pointed out.

He shrugged again. “Yeah. I’m a dick, but if you go out on a date with me I promise I won’t be a dick to you anymore. And, as a bonus, I’ll beat up the person who messed up your face.”

In front of me Tyson coughed into his hand in an attempt to cover up his laughter. I didn’t find anything funny about this conversation. The people at this school were insane.

“I’m not going on a date with you,” I told him honestly. Like I’d ever go out on a date with someone who called me terrible names as they humiliated me in a very public way. Please. I had more self-respect than that.

“We’ll see,” Chucky muttered confidently. “Girls love me. Your name’s Ariel, right?”

I nodded as Tyson’s shoulders shook with his hilarity. I wanted to smack him upside the back of his head.

Mr. Franklin strolled into the classroom as the second bell rung.

“You want to be my partner, Ariel?” Chucky asked me quietly.

I shook my head in the negative.

“We’ll see,” he muttered again, also confidently. I ignored him. Even if I did want to partner up with him (which I absolutely did not) Mr. Franklin had made it blatantly obvious there would be no switching of partners.

“Please get out your papers and pass them forward,” Mr. Franklin barked without even so much as a good morning.

I tapped Tyson on the shoulder with my fingertip. He ignored me as he dug through his backpack. When he found what he wanted he passed it forward without so much as even a glance back in my direction.

“Tyson,” I whispered frantically. “What the heck do you think you’re doing? Give me my paper right this instant.”

He did no such thing. “You’ll get it back at the end of the semester.”

He could have written anything and refused to allow me to read it. I hated him.

I sat back in my chair and chucked my pencil at the back of his head. He just laughed quietly at me.

***

“Ariel, where’s your lunch?” One of the twins asked me.

“She didn’t have time to make a lunch for herself this morning, remember?” Tyson spoke from behind me as he placed a tray of food on the table in front of me.

“What’s this?” I asked in surprise.

“Lunch,” he stated calmly as he sat down next to me at the picnic table. Addison was seated directly across from me, Abel across from Tyson.

I looked down at the tray in awe and horror. Two water bottles. Two containers of curly fries. Four cheese filled breadsticks with a side of marinara. A medium sized, clear plastic cup that was supposed to be used for condiments but was now filled to the brim with sliced, hamburger dill pickles. Two chicken fillet sandwiches. And a plethora of condiment packets.

My eyes grew wide as I took it all in. Clearly, Tyson wanted me to get fat. What a waste of food and money.

I looked to Tyson and admitted, “I can’t eat all of this. I can’t even eat half.”

He grinned at me and flashed his white teeth, totally blinding me and robbing me of speech. I loved his smile. “It’s not all for you,” he told me after his smile faded away. “I didn’t pack a lunch either. Also, I wasn’t sure if the twins had brought lunches with them today either. This food is for all of us, but you get first pick.”

“I didn’t pack a lunch,” Abel admitted as he ran one big hand through his dark hair. “I waited until the last possible second to get out of bed today. Twin, what about you?”

Addison eyeballed his brother with concern as he pulled a brown paper bag out of his backpack. “Did you not sleep good, twin? I didn’t notice. You should have woken me up.”

Abel sliced his hand through the air, dismissing his brothers’ words. “It’s fine, just feed me.” He pointed at his brothers’ lunch bag. “What do you have in there?”

Addison pulled out an apple and sat it on top of the picnic table. Then a round container with a lid, he placed a white, plastic fork on top of it. Then he pulled out a yogurt container and a white, plastic spoon. The last thing he placed on the table was an apple flavored Snapple.