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Dakota Ridgewood was possibly the most confusing specimen on this planet. Time and time again, he called me "Sandra" without an ounce of hesitation in his icy voice. He made it more than obvious that he didn't like me because I was the daughter of Jonah Ellington, the man who apparently ruined his family.

I tried to remind myself that as I flipped through his sketch book, discovering other sketches of me near the back. Toward the beginning, there were drawings of a girl with bleach blonde hair (he'd colored this one, unlike the sketches he had of me). The words "Diana" was written in quick, swift strokes of a pen. I was pleasantly surprised to see there weren't any drawings of Carmen. Other than the sketches of his sister and I, he only ever had pictures of nature.

One of my favorite drawings he had of me had a little sentence, intertwining with the image of me.

"I find my sin within her existence, I find my destruction within her persistence."

This drawing was made after the first week of school, after I'd gotten in countless arguments with him in Mr. Finley's AP Government class, cursing him out more than anything else.

He had a few poems in the front, some on loose leaf pieces of paper, tapped inside. But there was something intimate-too personal-about going through his poems. I would've felt even more wrong to have gone through them. I was already invading his privacy enough by looking at these sketches.

After glazing my eyes over the drawings for a fifth time, I still didn't understand why he made it seem like he hated me all the time. But, behind my back, he drew me in his sketch book. Why was that? Was this drama between our two families so deeply rooted into him that he couldn't even show some form of kindness to me?

****

Doug, Pierson, Beth, and I had all agreed to meet up at the cafeteria before we'd go out to the field for the soccer try-outs.

Beth and Doug were there earlier than everyone else. Stuffing the sketch book into my backpack, I walked to them and sat down next to Beth. I vaguely told her about the conversation I had with Dakota. I made sure not to bring up the drawing or him being alarmingly close to me while applying a Band-Aid. Beth tried to ask about my wound, but I waved it off, saying I'd fallen.

Beth scrunched up her nose. "I don't get what you see in him. I didn't see you as someone who gravitates towards bad people."

"You don't know him well enough to call him bad. Heck, from what I can see, no one can because everyone just ignores him and talks about him behind his back," I admitted.

"Do you always have to ask about that weirdo?" Pierson jumped in, taking the seat directly across from me. A deep frown was set on his sculpted face. "I feel like every time I see you, you're always bringing him up."

"And are you jealous about it?" Doug teased. "Because you sound a little jealous."

"Pierson Redmond does not get jealous." Pierson said, unconvincingly. "I just don't get why you're so keen on learning more about him."

"Don't talk in third person," I scoffed. "You should do obsessed with yourself."

"He is." Doug noted. "That's a fact. Just like it's accurate to say that you're obsessed with the Ridgewood family."

I shook my head. "I'm not. I'm the new kid in town. I've got some catching up to do. There's a lot that's happened that I don't know about. I just want to know the truth; I know it's out there. Especially because it has to do with my family name."

"Sorry to break it to you Agent Scully, but there's some things you just shouldn't know about," Pierson joked. "It's better if you don't know."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked.

"Curiosity killed the cat." Doug mused.

Pierson brought out a bottle water and took a swig of it. "If you're so intrigued, you could ask the guy himself and stop asking around." I wiggled in my seat and shook my head. "Then you should drop it. I swear, if he hadn't walked off so quickly, I would've gladly kicked his ass in for talking to you like you were the scum of the earth. I can't believe you even care about the guy when he says stuff like that to you."

"He didn't even know your name!" Doug yelled. "He kept calling you Sandra. He might've as well called you Petunia."

"I already told you, you didn't have to get involved." I sighed. "I can handle myself."

"I never said you couldn't handle yourself," Pierson confirmed. "I said I would've gladly kicked his ass in. I would be doing a disservice to you and the rest of the community if I didn't. See it as me being a good friend." He beamed.

"Oooh, right in the friend-zone!" Doug shouted, he moved a fake microphone in front of my mouth. "How are you recovering from that devastating move, Ellington? What are you going to next?"

"Nothing. No feelings were hurt in the making of this devastating move. It's mutual." I replied, pushing his hand away from me.

I was still thinking about Dakota had sketches of me, but still pretended like he didn't know my name. Frankly, I was the last person to frown at someone for lying. In Maine, lying was like breathing to me. I did it so often that I even fooled myself on what was the truth and what was false.

Pierson announced that it was time to get back to try-outs. We gathered our things and started to walk. Since it had rained earlier and was still raining, the coach said they'd split the try-outs into two different days. They were working in the gym for today.

A light conversation floated in the air between the four of us, nothing that had to do with Dakota...until Dakota came into view, more toward the end of the hallway.

"I...I'll catch up with you guys." I said, stepping away from the group.

"You can't be serious, Silvia," Beth sighed.

"I have something of his," I said. "I'm just going to give it back to him."

"Do you have his sanity by any chance?" Pierson teased.

"Get a new joke," I huffed.

I rolled my eyes. What was up with him? I didn't know what his issue was with Dakota. I knew the soccer and football players were also the Lacrosse members in the spring. If Pierson was on the Lacrosse team last term, then that meant that he knew more about Dakota and Diana's than he was giving off.

Dakota had a set of keys in his possession, bouncing them from hand to hand. I tried to call out his name, but he wouldn't respond to it. I walked a little faster, catching up with him, and tapped his shoulder. He shot me a cold look, wearing his permanent scold. He had head phones in.

"What?" he growled, pulling out a head phone piece, and stepped outside. He was making his way to the bike rake.

"You can't be seriously riding your bike." I lifted my hand into the air and stuck it out into the rain, catching rain drops into the palm of my hand. "It's pouring out."

"I rode my bike to school this morning, I don't see why I can't do it again."

That explained why he was soaking wet this morning. But he had a different set of clothes for his other classes. I was presuming that he had this all thought out.

"You don't have a ride?" I questioned. I knew he drove a classic mustang to school, cruising with his windows down and loud, angry music spill out from inside. "What happened to your car?"

"I'm sure you already know why I don't have a car." He leaned down to his bike. It was no Fixie. "I have to get it fixed because of the master piece they did on it."

What did that mean? Had Pierson been behind the reason he didn't have a car? Or was it my stepbrothers?

I went to ask those questions, but stopped myself when I saw him finishing his task in unlocking his bike free. There was no way he could go out into the rain. It was coming down hard, banging on the pavement and the rooftops of cars.

"You can't. You'll get sick."

He muffled a laugh, starting to roll out his bike. "I don't need you to tell me what I can and can't do."

"I'll drive you." I brought out Evelyn's car keys from my pocket. The request came out of me before I could stop myself. I glanced over my shoulder, back at the inside of school. Doug, Pierson, and Beth were already gone. They would understand, right? Right. "I can drop you off at your house."

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Song: Crave You by Flight Facilities

[Song Above]

Lyrics:

❝Why can't you want me like the other boys do?❞

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