September 7th, It was the first day of my senior year of high school at McAdams High, I could say I had a “development” in the looks department, but I think that would be an understatement. There is one thing, or should I say person, that I am not ready to see this year, Nate Tayler. Nate has been making fun of me since middle school because I was “physically challenged”. You would think bad karma was a thing in this instance, but no, karma has been extremely good to him. He’s captain of our football team, and his girlfriend, Hannah Wilson, is captain of our cheer team, everyone thinks they’re going to be high school sweethearts, and frankly I kind of agree. Nobody except my best friend Maya, and my family of course, have seen me this summer and they all say I look unrecognizable. I ditched the grandma glasses, learned how to do my hair and makeup, and discovered a sense of style I didn’t even know I had; I am so ready for senior year. I get a text from Maya that she’s outside, I leave as fast as I can, so I don’t have to get stopped by my parents to take our annual “first day” pictures for 30 minutes. When I get in the car, Maya’s already blasting our song, “Party in the USA” by Miley Cyrus, as loud as her car will let her. We get to school, and everyone is looking at me like I’m an alien, I try to ignore it and just get through the day. “We just barely got to lunch and so far, I’ve gotten four, “are you new here?”, three, “who is that?”, and five, “You look so much better Ruby!” I’m starting to feel self-conscious again.” I tell Maya. “I told you! I knew no one would recognize you. Girl bye, you look so good.” Maya says loud enough for everyone to turn towards us as my face grows red of embarrassment. I make it through the rest of the school day without seeing Nate and his sidekick, Luke, they’ve been best friends since elementary school, and I will say that Luke is the nice one out of the two. It’s now October and I’ve managed to only pass by Nate a couple of times, and he hasn’t even looked my way, maybe senior year really is my year. Turns out, I spoke way too soon, I walked into my English class and saw Nate sitting in my seat. I stared for at least a full minute before he told me something, “Ruby?”. I came back to reality and could feel the blood rushing to my cheeks as he’s looking at me in disbelief. “Um yeah? You’re kind of in my seat Nate”. He gets up quickly and lets me sit, still staring, he says, “Wow Evans you actually look kind of approachable”. I let out a fake smile and a small laugh trying to break the tension between us, he sits in the seat in front of me. As class goes on, I notice he’s struggling but I don’t say anything because I know he would’ve been making jokes about my appearance if I hadn’t changed it. Our teacher, Mrs. Hawkins, dismisses us but tells me and Nate to stay back, we give each other a confused look but walk towards her desk together. She pulls up Nate’s grades on her computer and starts to say that Nate needs a tutor and thinks that I would be the perfect fit considering my perfect one hundred in her class. “Are you freaking kidding me?”, I let out on accident and immediately cover my mouth with my hand after. “I wish I was kidding miss Evans, Nathans grade has dropped dramatically, and he needs to fix it, or he won’t be able to play this season.”, “Wait what?” Nate says with a shocked look on his face. Mrs. Hawkins rolls her eyes and directs her attention back me and asks what days work best for me to tutor him as he sat down on one of the desks with a pout on his face. We agree on the days I need to tutor him and that our sessions will be at my house. I walk out and he follows shortly after, I can feel him behind me, but I keep walking and not long after, I see Hannah waiting for him by his car. “Where have you been?” she says with an attitude that immediately annoyed me. “Hawkins held me and Ruby back because she wants her to tutor me.”, she turns her face towards me as I’m walking by, and I can feel her glaring at me harder than people were seeing me on the first day. “It’s just temporary so Nate can get his grade up for football, nothing else.” I say in hopes of her not starting any rumors about me like she did last year, “Okay whatever.” I keep walking to my car and can hear her talking, I’m not sure what she’s talking about, but I make out my name a couple of times, so I know it can’t be anything good about me. I hear the doorbell ring and I get off the couch to open it, I see Nate leaning on the doorframe in a hoodie with our school’s football logo on it, when did he get kind of cute? “Quit drooling Evans” he laughs, “You wish, don’t let that slip around Hannah, she might actually do something to me” I say while letting him in. I’m in sweats and an old T shirt, I don’t exactly look presentable, but I wasn’t even sure he was going to show up. Thirty minutes pass and we started warming up to each other, talking about football while helping him with his work. Somehow, we got on the topic of how he used to make fun of me, “I’m sorry Ruby, you were never actually ugly, I used to think you were cute, but I never knew how to tell you because I thought you would reject me” he says while his cheeks turn pink, and he lets out a small smile. I let out a big laugh, “What?! Dude I would cry because of you, it never occurred to me that you had a crush on me” I say teasingly. “Okay Evans don’t flatter yourself”, he laughs, and we make eye contact for what feels like forever, I just know my face is red, how embarrassing. “Well, it doesn’t matter now, you have Hannah”, “Yeah you’re right I guess”, we stay quiet for the rest of the time he’s here and when he leaves, I walk him out. “I’ll see you in class Rubs”, he smiles, “Okay I’ll see you tomorrow Nate”, I smile back and let out a giggle because him staring at me makes me nervous. He goes in for a small side hug and kisses my cheek, he knows exactly what he’s doing. I shut the door, walk to the couch, and scream into my pillow. It’s December now and we have had a couple more tutoring sessions, and we started talking more. Then talking turned into texting, then texting turned into calling. Nate and I always tried to keep our chemistry as a “just friends” dynamic because of Hannah but sometimes a flirty comment slips out here and there, but full honesty, I’ve started developing feelings for Nate, but I know I could never act on them. Maya tells me to just go for it because she thinks I’m better than Hannah, I agree, but that’s still his girlfriend and I can’t be one of those girls. He comes over today with an indescribable look on his face, “What’s the matter Nathan? Hannah finally dumped you?” I say jokingly, “Other way around Evans”, his eyes are fixated on mine and I could feel my stomach start to form knots. “Wait really?”, I’m in disbelief because maybe I can finally tell him. “Yes really, I realized my heart was somewhere else and it wasn’t fair to her”, he shrugs trying to not give too much away. “Well where is your heart then?”, I try not to sound desperate to know but I totally am. “Umm, I think you know her Evans. I’ve always had a “crush” on her, if that’s what she calls it”, he put the word crush in air quotes and we both let out a laugh, “Me?”, I ask with a shocked look on my face. “Obviously Ruby, football season ended a month ago I wouldn’t be coming to these boring tutoring sessions just to get my grade up”, he snorts. The tension between us grows stronger the longer we stare at each other not knowing what to say or do next. I take a risk like Maya told me to and kissed him, thankfully, he kissed me back and it felt right. Maybe I didn’t speak to soon after all, senior year is my year.