It was strange to Wynona that suddenly she had Ferris' attention. Even stranger that she could not get rid of it. Of course she was happy to talk to Ferris, but it all just seemed too sudden. Once their fourth period was done Wynona was quick to get out of the css. However, Ferris caught up to her. They walked side-by-side, but Wynona had no idea what to say to him. She never had to think about it since they never talked to each other.

  "Who do you usually hang out with at lunch?" Ferris turned to Wynona.

  Wynona smiled smally. "My friend, Elijah."

  Ferris nodded his head. "Not your sister?"

  "No," Wynona shook her head. "She has her own friends."

  "Oh." Ferris fell silent and then they were walking in silence again.

  Wynona looked around, hoping to find anything to talk about. "Um, don't you hang out with Cole?"

  Ferris shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah, usually, but he's hanging out with our other friend, Aimee since they have their next css together after lunch."

  "Is that why you're still here?" Wynona asked. She stopped at a small table and sat down.

  Ferris ughed dryly and sat down across from her. "For the most part, yeah."

  Wynona was becoming uncomfortable. "What's the other part?"

  "Excuse me?" Ferris asked.

  "What's the other reason why you're here?" Wynona reiterated.

  Ferris hesitated for a moment. "Uh, I just want to be your friend, that's all."

  "All of a sudden?" Wynona asked.

  "What–" Ferris shifted in his seat. "What do you mean?"

  Wynona looked around. "It's just you didn't even know my name this morning. Now you want to be my friend? That doesn't really make sense."

  Ferris was quiet for a while.

  "Look, I'm just pointing this out because it's kind of weird." Wynona slowly started to get up to get away from the situation.

  "Okay, okay!" Ferris held up his hands. "I know it seems like I'm coming off as too much, but to be honest I'm not very good at making friends. I mean I only really hang out with two people."

  Wynona stopped and stared at him for a while. He seemed genuine, but something still did not sit right with her.

  Ferris continued, "I–I'll back off, okay?" He got up and grabbed his bag. "I'll see you in our next css." He waved and quickly disappeared into the crowd.

  As Wynona sat back down, confused, a boy sat down where Ferris was sitting. He had light brown hair and very bold brown eyes. His uniform jacket was over his shoulder and he had a rge grin on his face. "Hey, Wyn, who was that guy sitting here?"

  "Hm?" Wynona looked at him. "Oh, no one important, Elijah," She lied.

  Elijah nodded his head. "Cool. Anyways, guess what I heard."

  "What's up?" Wynona asked.

  "I heard, Mr. Krona is giving us this big project today. It's like some end-of-the-year type thing." Elijah seemed to be excited with this news. "I hope it's solos. I've been dying to do a solo."

  Wynona nodded her head. She had never had a big project for that css. It was only her piano css, but she was in the advanced css so she should have expected a big project. "I hope it's nothing too hard."

  Elijah waved her off. "Nah, I doubt it. Krona isn't that cruel, right?"

  "Hopefully." Wynona forced a smile, hoping he was right.

  After lunch, Wynona had chemistry with Ferris, but Ferris did not talk to her. They sat at the same table, but that was about it. Wynona felt bad for what she had said to him at lunch, but by the time she picked up the courage to say something the css had ended. Instead of Wynona running away, Ferris ran away. She thought about running after him, but she decided against it. There was always Monday after the weekend.

  Wynona went straight to her st css, piano. She was not the first person to show up, but she was still able to pick her seat which was all the way in the back near the window. Elijah came in shortly after and sat down next to her. Once the css began Mr. Krona did his usual greeting although everyone pretty much already knew him from the year prior.

  Mr. Krona must have noticed the bored looks on everyone because he quickly swerved away from introductions. "Anyways, I'm sure you guys just want to get straight to the point."

  Everyone in the css verbally agreed and sighed with relief.

  Mr. Krona ughed and sat down on the stool in front of the css. "Okay, then let's get straight to business. You guys might've heard that I've been assigning a big project for every advanced css."

  Everyone nodded their heads.

  "Good." Mr. Krona smiled. "I've already decided who's going to be doing what. There are different topics and I've chosen all of you based on your skill. There will be one group of ten people, five duets, five soloists, and five composers." Mr. Krona started reading off the names of who was in each group. He started with the rgest group of ten people, then the duets, after he did the soloists. Elijah had gotten exactly what he wanted and was chosen to do a solo. Mr. Krona named the st soloist and it was not Wynona. Mr. Krona named the st five students who were not called, including Wynona.

  He cpped his hands together and smiled. "My group of ten will work on a complex piece together, my duets and soloists will decide what piece they decide to perform, however no doubles. And finally, my composers," He stood up and paced around the room. "I want you guys to create a song with the keyboards or the piano. The song has to have lyrics. You can ask someone else to write the song for you, but then they need to perform with you. If not then you will py and sing on stage alone with your own song. I trust that you will be honest with your work." He looked around at everyone and his grin widened. "I'll let you guys brainstorm for the rest of the period." He walked to the back of his css and sat down at his desk.

  Wynona was shocked. She gnced at the other people in her group and they looked just as terrified as her.

  "Dude, you got the hardest part!" Elijah grabbed Wynona's arm.

  Wynona turned to Elijah. "Not helping, Elijah."

  Elijah let go of her arm and chuckled. "My bad." He shifted in his seat. "At least I got what I wanted, right?"

  "Yeah," Wynona smiled. "I'm happy for you, I know you would have hated working with ten people."

  "Ain't that the truth." Elijah rolled his eyes. "I don't know what piece I want to do though."

  "I have no idea what I'm going to do. I can't write a song. Compose one, maybe, but lyrics aren't my forte." Wynona slumped in her chair and groaned. "I'm dropping this css."

  Elijah ughed. "You're funny, Wyn. I'm sure you'll figure something out. Worse comes to worse, ask someone in the choir css to help you."

  Wynona nodded her head slowly. "True. I'll probably do that."

  "You'll be fine." Elijah pced his hand on Wynona's shoulder and smiled reassuringly.

  Wynona looked at him and felt the dread built up in her more. "I'm a dead man."

  When the css ended, Wynona tried to find a choir student, but by the time she made it to the css the door was locked and the css was empty. She groaned and when she left the gate she usually left out of was locked. Even more frustrated, she had to walk across campus just to get out of it. She assumed June was already walking home. Wynona walked as fast as she could to get home. She sped past the diner and caught a glimpse of Ferris inside at the counter with Cole and a girl. Wynona would have stared longer, but she had other things to worry about.

  As she made it to the corner she heard someone calling her name. Wynona stopped and turned around and saw Ferris walking toward her. Wynona forced a smile. "I don't have time for this…" She uttered to herself and walked to Ferris.

  "Hey, I saw you walking by. Wanna join us for a milkshake?" Ferris pointed back at the diner.

  Wynona shook her head. "No, I have something to work on."

  "Oh? Already? It's barely the first day." Ferris shoved his hands in his pockets.

  "I know," Wynona groaned. "It's an end-of-the-year project for my piano css." Wynona slowly started inching across the street.

  Ferris followed her. "Damn, must be a big deal then."

  Wynona nodded her head. "Very big deal and my teacher was kind enough to give me one of the hardest task."

  "And that would be?" Ferris asked.

  "I have to compose my own song, which I've done before. But he wants like an actual song with lyrics. I'm not good at songwriting, I'm good at composing." Wynona ran her fingers through her curly hair pushing it out of her face.

  She gnced at Ferris, whose face was brightly lit up. "Hey, I–I know how to write songs."

  Wynona stopped walking. "You do?" She had never known Ferris to write songs. He never seemed like the type to be interested in things like that.

  "Yeah, I do it all the time. Maybe you could use one of mine," Ferris offered. "I've been trying to get some exposure and this would definitely help."

  Wynona could not help but grin. "Yeah! This is perfect! We can work on the song and then I'll py on my keyboard and you can sing it!"

  Ferris' face quickly went pale. "S–Sing it? Like in front of people?"

  "Yeah, that's part of the assignment. If we get help then the person has to perform with us so they get the credit they deserve. You don't mind right?"

  Ferris was quiet for a while. "Y–Yeah, it'll be great…"

  Wynona smiled and she had not noticed that they were already in her neighborhood. She stopped in front of a light blue house. Ferris stopped beside her. "This is my house." She pointed at the house behind her. "Thanks so much for this, Ferris, you have no idea how much you're saving me."

  Ferris nodded his head. "Um, when should we meet up to work on it?"

  "Oh," Wynona crossed her arms over her chest. "How about next Monday?"

  "Can you do Tuesday instead?" Ferris asked.

  Wynona nodded her head. "Yeah that works. I'll see you then. Bye."

  Ferris grabbed her arm. "Wait. Can I get your number? So we can talk about it ter in case things change."

  "Oh," Wynona felt her face heat up. This did not mean anything, but she could not help but think of it as something more. "Sure, give me your phone." Ferris handed her his phone and Wynona shakily typed in her number and gave Ferris his phone back. "Bye." She quickly opened the door and ran inside.

  Wynona leaned against the door, her face fiery hot. She covered her face with her hands and could not help but smile.

  "Everything okay, Wynnie Bear?" An older woman with wavy jet bck hair was standing in the kitchen staring at her confused.

  Wynona nodded her head and ran toward her room. "Everything is perfect, Andrea!" She needed to tell June everything that just happened. She could not keep such big news to herself. Her dream came true, she was going to hang out with Ferris and she could not contain her excitement. "June!" She screamed, barging into her room. "June!"