Alex left the locker room as soon as she grabbed her clothes. She brisk walked to the teacher’s lounge, ignoring anything else as her cheeks turned red.

When she opened the door, she found Mr. and Ms. Smith at the small sitting area. Both teachers had their laptops out along with some papers.

“Alex!” Ms. Smith beamed at her, “Any progress on your English project?”

Alex smiled politely, “We have come to an agreement.”

“Wonderful” her English teacher nodded, “I can’t wait to see it.”

“We’ll do our best, Ms. Smith” Alex looked over at her husband, “And good afternoon to you, Mr. Smith. I’m sorry I can’t stay around to talk more. I kind of need to change.”

She held up her set of casual clothes.

Mr. Smith waved his hand, “Don’t worry about it, dear. I don’t think anyone is using the women’s bathroom. Better get to it before someone else does!”

He laughed heartily and Alex couldn’t help but chuckle, “Thanks for the tip.”

“Most welcome, dear.”

When Alex came out of the bathroom, both teachers were already gone. There were others in the room but they paid her little attention. Checking at her reflection for one last time, Alex left the lounge.

The day finally ended. She couldn’t wait to get home and relax for a bit.

One hallway stood before her and the light.

“Hey, Alex!” A perky male voice interrupted from behind her.

Alex grimaced. It had now come to the point where she knew immediately who the voice belonged to. She kept walking towards the entrance but the footsteps behind her didn’t disappear.

“Logan” she replied, “What do you want?”

Logan raised his eyebrows. Alex didn’t even look at him. How could he tell it was him who called her? Were they becoming best friends now? So cool!

Logan had a new spring in his step as he walked next to Alex, “I heard you killed it at gym class today! I didn’t know you had some power in these scraw—plump arms of yours.”

“Beginner’s luck” Alex muttered under his breath.

“Beginner’s luck for a home run?” Logan gasped, hardly believing Alex’ words. He heard it had been a perfect home run from Max. The guy wouldn’t shut up about it as soon as he saw Logan. He actually felt like he missed out.

“Is this really all you wanted to say? Because I’m leaving.”

They had reached the entrance of the school and Alex knew Logan had basketball practice left so he needed to go as well. What Alex wanted to know was did Logan really just come all the way to see her just for a talk about gym?

So she had become a target because of Logan and the others but it didn’t mean she’d let that happen. That incident at lunch was done.

What mattered now was what she could do about it and she wouldn’t let those bastards try to humiliate her.

“I, uh…” Logan scrambled in his mind for something to say. Since was friendship so hard? The baseball thing seemed like a good thing to talk but baseball didn’t seem to be part of Alex’ interest so now he was in a slump on what to talk about.

Logan licked his lips, “I was wondering if your sister said anything about the phone?”

Alex breathed out, “She said you didn’t get any brownie points for stealing her phone and that you should just hand it over to me.”

Please just give me my phone, she chanted in her mind, please please just let me have it already!

“What? I thought we totally bonded on that car ride” Logan shook his head, a wrinkle on his forehead.

“Her words, not mine.” Alex tried again.

This time Logan went silent. It stretched for a bit that Alex wondered if Logan’s brain broke. If she didn’t hope that she could get her phone back on the spot, she would have left him already. But what else could Logan be thinking about?

Logan rethought his plan. True, he had second thoughts earlier but he really needed Xandra’s help to win Alex’ favor. It had only been the first day of his declaration to her and he already felt lost. How did his brother and the others make so many friends? While he, on the other hand, only really had Colin. Well, Max counted... just a bit that is. Lauren did too but she had her own group to hang out with regularly. And Jae… that’s another story.

How could he make Alex talk exactly?

Alex’s eyebrows scrunched. Logan had been staring out the parking lot for a few minutes now. He looked like he was having a conversation to himself. She saw one of the corners of his mouth frown while he nodded his head.

When he finally looked at her, she raised an eyebrow. Something was wrong in Logan’s face. He seemed to be in distress. His green eyes were dim and his lips were pressed together.

Logan took a step closer to her and Alex didn’t back away.

“I really do want to be friends you know?” He said softly. She could almost smell the mint candy in his mouth.

It was Alex’ turn to shake her head, “No.”

“Seriously?” Logan groaned.

“Do you really wanna be my friend?” Alex rolled her eyes.

“Yes!”

She placed a hand on his shoulder and said, “Then, leave me alone.”

Logan brushed off her hand and wrapped his arm around my shoulders, “Aw, buddy, buddy, buddy. That’s not how this friendship thing works.”

“Don’t call me buddy” she growled, shoving his arm off and walking down the stairs. Logan still followed her.

“That’s alright. I still need your number”

“No, you don’t” she protested. Even if she wanted to shut him up about it, she had no number to give. Since he still wouldn’t give her phone back!

“Yeah, I do. For the English project, remember?”

Alex waved off his persistence, thinking of a plan to fix it, “You already know where I live. Might as well just drop by.”

Logan jogged around her to block her way, “See? Now, you’re getting the hang of this friendship thing.”

“What? No!” Alex glared, pointing a finger at him, “Pure business only!”

“Of course, of course. No pleasure whatsoever” Logan nodded, “I’m not even into that kind of stuff.”

Alex raised an eyebrow.

…

…

...

“With guys.” Logan winked.

“Ugh, too much information” she scoffed, smacking his arm and walking away.

Logan caught up to her easily. Curse his long legs!

“Hey! Hey! Back to square one again, huh?” He suddenly grabbed her skateboard.

“There was never a square” Alex tightened her grip, pulling it away from his hands, “What are y—”

“Dude, you have to trust me if we’re gonna have this project together.”

Between the two of them, Logan effortlessly held the skateboard hostage while Alex struggled to free it. She shuffled her feet for help but Logan outmatched her in strength.

“Fine!” She finally caved,

“There you go!” Logan smiled, gently letting go of the skateboard so Alex wouldn’t suddenly trip, “Trust. The beginning of all kinds of relationships.”

Alex placed the skateboard on the ground. She put a foot on it to test its wheels. They rolled easily, “You’re way too dramatic. I’m out.”

“Wowoah, okay, okay. I’ll tone down my theatrics” Logan compromised in return for her agreement, “See? We’re learning about each other already.”

Alex squinted at him with utter disbelief on her face. Her hands paused mid-air, an earbud in each.

“Do you ever stop talking?” She finally asked. Logan remained unfazed by her short-tempered voice.

“Um... now that you mention it...” He looked up at the sky, rubbing a thumb against his chin.

…

…

…

“There!” Logan yelled triumphantly but Alex already skated away from the parking lot, “Hey! I just paused for a moment for you. In the name of friendship!”

“Go to hell!” Alex screamed without looking back.

Logan chuckled. He finally figured out how to make Alex talk. Yes, they still argue but a talking Alex was better than a non-talking Alex. He gave himself some bonus points for knowing how to tick him off.

Max may irritate Alex but he still held the record for being his #1 piss off person.