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Ring! Ring! Ring!

Smiling as the 2:15 bell sounded, I picked up my French IV folder and left class to see none other than the infamous Christopher Frazier standing before me smiling. He had been one of my best friends since we attended Pot Spring Elementary School together. In the first grade, Lacey Harris had kicked dirt on me in the sand box and Christopher pushed Lacey off the swing set as revenge. Since then, we were almost inseperable.

Looking down I began laughing with my hand covering my mouth. "Chrizzy, why in the world are you wearing girl pants?" I asked, calming my laughter to a giggle. "They aren't mine, are they?"

Christopher frowned at my reaction. "I'm introducing this to Dulaney High. It's going to be a big thing one day," he said in a matter-of-fact tone. "And no, they're not yours. Your ass is too skinny for me anyway." I simply rolled my eyes. People had always told me that I had great hips.

"Skinny ass? I don't think so. And what's with the pants Chris?" A pair of hands rested on my hips. Chris made a face that only I caught. I simply made a face right back at him. I smiled and leaned back, looking up to see Alexander Gaskarth staring right down at me with that smirk of his. "Hey babycakes, what do you want to do today?"

"Shut up, Alex. I'll catch you later, Aimee." Chris walked off down the hall to a group of metal head kids. Sounds of praise could be heard; they liked the pants he had.

I turned around, wrapping my arms around his middle and hugging him. "Hey handsome, maybe next time you won't try to get on Chrizzy's nerves? You two aren't exactly close friends anymore."

Shaking his head, he scoffed, "Whatever. The only one that matters here is you. What did you want to do again?" This was something I had to put up with when it came to Alex: he never thought he was wrong and believed he was the greatest thing since rock n' roll.

"Well, I was thinking we could go to The Ugly Muffin. We haven't been there for weeks and I've really been wanting an ugly muffin for a while," I said smiling at him. It seemed he was about to reject the idea. "Oh come on, it's only three minutes away from the school." Leaning up, I kissed his chin and then along his jaw. "Please?"

He sighed. "Do we need to go by your locker first?" I smiled, giving him a chaste kiss. He walked down the hall with me, his heavy arm slung around my shoulders. Grabbing my canvas shoulder bag and putting my AP Calculus and French folder inside, we walked out to his little car. Eversince Alex had begun wooing me the last few weeks of summer, I had no reason to drive.

Blink 182 poured loudly from his speakers, making me smile. I sat silently, bopping my head to the song while Alex sang along goofily. He looked over to me and laughed. "What?" I asked laughing.

"Sing with me," he tried to coax me. I gave him a smile and shook my head 'no.' I was a terrible singer. "Aimee, I'm taking you to get muffins. Sing."

"Do I have to?" I whined to him. He gave me a serious look and I sighed, laughing. "Fine." Listening to where the song was at, I sang along, "I just bring her down. I said Don't let your future be destroyed by my past. She said Don't let my door hit your ass!" We looked at each other and laughed.

Soon enough he parked the car and we went inside. I ordered a few muffins and he paid for me which was another thing about him. He never let me buy anything if he was anywhere near me. Dating him has caused me to be dependent on him, but I didn't really mind, well not now anyway. It was a nice change for me, and I was enjoying it. Of course I never go to him for every little thing; that would terrible of me and I'm sure he wouldn't like that.

As we walked out of The Ugly Muffin, he turned to me. "We're going to my band's practice now," he said simply. I simply nodded, not minding. I loved his band and his bandmates. They were all so funny and sweet. Jack was crazy and perverse. He never truly settled down. Rian was the funny guy, always having something funny to say when the time was right. Zack was the oddball from Towson High School, but he was as sweet as can be. His sense of humor was slightly more conservative though.

After begging him a little, Alex swung by my house. "2627 Pot Spring Rd. Now hurry it up," he said. He was getting testy again. I had seen him be testy with my friend Marc Shilling before and that was pretty intimidating. I hurried inside dropping my bag off in my room, using the bathroom, and changing my shoes from my short heels to my comfy AE moccasins. I hurried it up back to his car and got in. "What took so long?"

Looking to him, I rolled my eyes and looked back out the window. "Sorry..."

He shrugged and drove to the awaiting four hour practice at Jack's house. When we got there, we said hello to his family. They were nice enough and they made amazing Lebanese food. His mom was great at making Baklava, Manaeesh, and Batata harra.

We went upstairs after that and into Jack's room. Usually I took a nap in whoever's bedroom, depending on the house, to pass some time and one of them would come wake me up when they were for dinner. Opening Jack's door, we saw only Jack and Rian sitting inside playing video games. Alex dove in and tackled Jack off the bed and I took a seat beside Rian on a bean bag chair, my ugly muffins in hand.

"Here Rian, want one?" I asked him, handing one to him.

He took it happily. "Thanks Aims," he said taking a bite out of it and watching Alex and Jack wrestle each other.

The sound of bounding footsteps stole the attention of Rian and I. Zack walked into the room, slightly panting. "Hey guys, sorry I'm late. My mom was yelling at me for laundry," he admitted with an embarrassed look on his face.

"It's okay, Alex and I just got here too," I told him with a bright smile. He looked back to me thankfully. After the two wrestling kids got a hold on themselves, they went down to go practice. I, on the other hand, crawled into Jack's comfortable bed.