Not only was last night the most embarrassing night of my life, this morning is the most confusing one of my life. I don’t know how, but I ended up failing asleep in the bathroom. The confusing part is I’m now waking up in my room. I was pretty sure I had locked the door. Did Ken get in and bring me to my room? Not only did I run away from him, I had to be broken out of the bathroom. I really can’t show my face to him now.

“Oh no!” My confusion left as I looked at the clock and saw it was 7:45 a.m. There was no way I could make it to school on time. It’s no surprise Ken didn’t try to wake me up after last night.

I ran for class after getting ready. I was still ten minutes late, and Mr. Hallens wasn’t happy.

“Miss Macky, your tardiness has been high recently, go wait for me in the hallway. I want to have a word with you.” He said. There wasn’t anything I could say to explain myself. Or rather want to explain.

“You too, Masidone. If you’re having some lovers spat, do it when it doesn’t concern my class!” I looked and saw Ken had been right behind me.

“No, Mr. Hallens, you got it wrong,” I told him.

“Whatever the case may be, you need to get to my class on time, now go!” He put both Ken and I in the hall in total awkward silence.

I had no idea he was still home. I figured he was going to ignore me after I ran away from him. I watched the clock down the hall as the numbers didn’t change. It felt like forever already standing out here with him waiting for Mr. Hallens to talk to us. Should I say something? What’s the appropriate thing to say?

“I see you’re late huh? Guys like you should learn to be on time,” I tried to stay cool.

“I could say the same thing about girls like you,” he said back to me. I just kept my head down not saying anything else.

When we got back into the classroom after Mr. Hallens gave us a “why its import to be on time" speech, all eyes were on us. Even Sano had been looking.

“Today is you last chance for questions. Speak now or forever hope you’ll do fine tomorrow on your midterm,” Mr. Hallens officially started class, “For some of you this can make or break you. Test and quizzes count for the biggest part of your overall grade. If you have a B average and do poorly tomorrow, it could knock you all the way down to a C or lower depending on your percentage. So I’ll ask one more time, any last minute questions over the study guide before we move on?” A few hands went in the air. I spent most of my time studying my math last night. I spent little time on history even though this is my worst class. I didn’t want to draw any more attention to myself, so I hoped someone had a question about the whole packet. 

“What was this morning?” There were no questions about the whole study guide, but Katie did question me.

“Absolutely nothing. I just overslept,” I said.

“Ah, must have been because you were finishing that packet for our next class, right?”

“Uh, yeah.” I said just agreeing.

“That doesn’t sound too convincing.”

“It is convincing. Ken even helped me with it.”

“Really? He helped you when I left?”

“It was just a few problems I didn’t understand, so he showed me how to do them.” I explained to her.

“Is that why the both of you showed up late? Staying up studying all night? You prefer his help over mine?”

“No, it’s just that I got confused and he said he’d show me. But I don’t think it was worth it now.”

“What do you mean it wasn’t worth it?” She asked.

“Well, he only helped me under a condition.”

“A condition? What kind of condition?” I could see the glow in her eyes as she wanted to know the condition I haven’t fulfilled yet.

“W-well, in order for him to help me, he wanted me to repay him by giving him a kiss.” I was nearly at a whisper then. But unfortunately, Katie has good hearing.

“He did? Did you?”

“No I didn’t. I ran like a little girl and now I can’t even face him right.”

“I think that’s because you’re starting to like him.” She said with an evil smile.

“I do not! I just couldn’t do something like that with him. He had no right to ask me to do that.” Flashbacks of the feeling of him so close to me went through my head. I kept quiet wanting to forget the subject as we walked to our next class. I looked back noticing Ken took off in the opposite direction to his next class. I’m probably making a big deal out of nothing. He didn’t say anything about it earlier either. Maybe he’s over it and won’t ask for it again?

I walked into my class and saw that the teacher wrote the answers on the board to the problems we had to solve so we can check them ourselves.

“I’m sure they’re all right since I helped you,” Katie said.

“No, actually they aren’t. At least the ones you tried to help me with.”

“How is that so? If you followed my steps and instruction, you should have gotten them no problem.”

“Your instructions might as well have been in another language. You didn’t even check to see if I did them right or not.”

“I had to have you do something on your own.”

“Yeah well it’s a good thing this isn’t being graded.”

“Okay, so what, the help you received from Ken paid off?” she asked. I flipped the page and checked the last few problems.

“Actually, it did.” I said a bit of shock.

“Humph, just couldn’t except the help from a female mind.”

“I can’t believe all it took was a little of Ken’s help and tips.”

“You know, you should probably give him more credit then you have been. Or does your pride not let you?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.

“It means that if you don’t get your act together, you’ll end up blowing a good thing.”

“I hope your future career isn’t a therapist,” I said to her. Sometimes she doesn’t make any sense. But I think I understand what she was trying to say.

I tried not to think about it too much during the day, and before I knew it, school was over. I have to do some more serious cramming to make sure I pass tomorrow. I can’t very well ask Ken for help. He may still want his payment for yesterday. Katie has a study date with Eden, my parents are always away for work. I seriously can’t ask anyone other than Ken.

It’s still a bit hard to believe I went from a lonely crush to living with a rich son looking for a wife. The idea of marriage is far from my mind, but the idea of dating wasn’t.

I still don’t know much about Ken yet. Granted, I still don’t know a lot about Sano either, but the time in which I’ve known Sano is longer and I still have more of an interest in him then I do Ken. Judging by the way he was looking at us in class today, he probably believes that we are together. My plan to try and change his mind is taking longer than I thought.

My walk came to an end when I was suddenly at my front door. I slowly opened the doors to walk in and see Ken already home and out cold on the couch. I don’t know what Ken does at night, but it must be a lot to leave him passed out right after school.

Looking at him like this, he actually looks like a normal guy sleeping on the couch after a long day and not the usual pervert looking for advances. I guess he’s kind of cute with the way his hair has fallen on his face. And he has surprisingly long eyelashes.

I shouldn’t be watching him sleep. But maybe I should take this chance to pay him so he won’t come after me later. The agreement didn’t mention anything thing about being awake or not. So I went to the front of the couch and slowly faced him. My heart rate began to increase again.

I can’t believe I’m going to do it!

Even though he’s sleep and can’t see me, I shut my eyes, not trying to witness it. I could hear his slow breathing from his slightly parted lips. Being this close to his face, I can actually smell the shampoo he uses in his hair.

I know I was closing the gap between us, but I still hadn’t landed. I looked to see I was just half an inch away from him. I also saw him looking back at me.

“Attacking someone while sleeping is foul play you know,” he said.

“Uh, Ken. I was uh, j-just seeing what color your hair was. It’s actually brown up close."

“Yes, I’m aware of that,” he said. Silence filled the air as we’re both still staring at each other. Before the moment got more awkward I tried to back away from him. Ken saw my movements and put his hands on my shoulders to hold me still. My eyes widened, not expecting him to stop me like this. I was forced back in his line of view. Words couldn’t find their way out of my mouth. But Ken’s mouth did find mine.

It was official. Ken and I have now kissed.

“Now your debt has been paid,” he said, letting go of me.

“Y-you jerk!” I got up and moved back. I had my hand over my mouth hiding my lips.

“Why are we getting all shy now? If it was to my understanding, I was an innocent individual trying to relax when suddenly I was about to be attacked.” He said sitting upward.

“That doesn’t mean you can do what you like!”

“It was simply self-defense.” He put his hands behind his head seeming satisfied. I was still in shock and still feeling the sensation of Ken’s lips on mine even though it was only a couple second.

“I should probably mention,” Ken started again, “I got a call right after school from my father who wants to see me today and someone should be coming any minute now to get me.”

“You’re going to miss the midterms tomorrow?” I asked.

“I’ll more than likely go to school from home tomorrow morning. Sorry for not giving more notice, but I was just informed myself. I was going to tell you when you came in, but I must have actually dozed off for a minute due to a late-night locksmith activity I had to do.” My eyes widen. He really did break me out the bathroom. I’m once again at a loss for words.

The sound of a horn outside stopped my search for communication.

“That must be my ride.” Ken said getting up from the couch. He picked up his book bag and put it on his shoulder.

“Don’t do anything fun while I’m out.” His smirk seemed bigger today. I just watched him as he left out the door. He got into one of their expensive cars. I could never see who is picking him up, but they drove away quickly this time.

Once I saw they cleared the block, I went and did a drop slash crumble to the couch as I was free to let everything out. For the first time in my life, I, Misa Macky, have finally been kissed.

And it was with a guy named Ken Masidone.

My focus on the test was gone. After all my last-minute cramming, it took one little act to take me off track. 

“Good luck with your results,” Katie said to me as she was going to her seat. It was only yesterday that we had our midterm, and they’re already graded and ready to hand back. What teacher grades test overnight? I can’t bear to see the results.

The bell rang and Mr. Hallens came in to the classroom. “Time to get your test back.” He couldn’t wait to humiliate us. That was his specialty. Along with pretending to be a role model teacher when the principal would stop by. After that, he’d go back to his off-subject conversation.

Mr. Hallens turned to the whiteboard and began writing names. He didn’t intend to write our scores out publicly like that did he?!

“Alright you all. I have ten of your names here. The five on the left side are the ones that scored the highest on the test. The five on the right are the ones that scored the lowest and will be moved to the front of the class. The five of you on the right can grab your stuff and come to the front. A few of you will need to move to the back.”

I saw five people in the front get up to move to another seat while four others around me got up and moved to the front of the class. The fifth person was still processing the fact that they were a part of the bottom five.

“Now, Miss Macky, I know you could’ve done better than that. With this grade, you may need to take the summer class in order to pass.” Mr. Hallens said to me as I still didn’t move. I can’t believe I was in the bottom five. When will the humiliation stop?

“I think you all should do a bit more studying as well,” he continued. I finally decided to get up and go with my failing crew. I studied the top five names. Ken, the A+ student, was first. Sano was number two. As I figured, he was really smart as well. I don’t dare look in his direction and show my shame. I went to a desk by Katie, who was number four and already at the front of the class.

“I thought you prepared for this?” Katie whispered to me after I came over.

“I did, I-I must have been distracted,” I told her. And that wasn’t a lie. I was completely distracted by what Ken did, but I definitely couldn’t tell her that. I wouldn’t hear the end of it.

“You all made it just barely through the first milestone, it’s time to start the second session.” Mr. Hallens put us in the center of the class to make sure we could give our full undivided attention. The only good thing about this was the fact I didn’t have to look at the two distractions up here anymore.

The other teachers followed Mr. Hallens’s overnight grading trend and had them ready for us to look over. I did a lot better in my other classes in comparison. Since that history grade brought my average lower than it already was, it’s almost impossible to bring it back to passing. I should go thank Ken for putting me in this situation.

“I’ll see you later.” I heard a voice around the corner of the hall from me. I was headed to the exit doors when I saw who the familiar tone belonged to. I stopped as I saw it was Sano headed out the main entrance as well. It was rare to see him this soon after school not at track. Either he doesn’t have practice, or he wasn’t going.

I was planning to take my time going home, but never thought I’d have this chance to try and talk to him. I tried to catch up to him, but slowed down as I was gathering what to say. We both were now outside and he made a left, going the opposite direction I’d go for home. I didn’t know he lived in walking distance. Would it be wrong to just trail behind him a little to see what the actual distance is?

No, I can’t follow him!

But why won’t my feet stop moving.

He was going further than I thought. And I was still behind him. I kept my head down in case he decided to look back and notice me. The gloomy and cloudy sky made it seem all the creepier. He crossed the street and went up to a big brown brick house.

“Hey look, Sano is home!” Sano opened the front door and kids flooded the entrance. I was hiding behind a car across the street. I had a clear view through the windows. There were three little ones no older than eight or nine. Those must be his little brothers and sisters. I didn’t know he had such young siblings. He greeted them all and told them to stay in. The graying sky showed signs of rain, so outside playing wasn’t happening.

And neither was me getting home dry.

The crackle of thunder came. And it started pouring.

I didn’t bring my umbrella with me to school so this is going to be bad getting back.

“You might want to come in until it lets up.”

My heart almost stopped at the sound of Sano’s voice a bit loud. Loud as if he’s talking to someone far away. Someone far, as in me.

I peeked from behind the car and saw him standing in the doorway looking my way. He knows I'm here.