Less than ten minutes in Texas and you already wanted to leave.

The heat was unbearable, your grandma’s farmhouse looked like it was falling apart, and the only thing louder than the cicadas was the country music playing somewhere down the road.

You dropped your bag beside the porch with an irritated sigh before pulling a cigarette from your pocket.

And of course — because apparently the universe hated you — a familiar jeep pulled into the driveway next door right at that moment.

The driver’s door swung open.

Maddison stepped out.

Perfect shorts, perfectly styled hair, perfectly annoying.

She froze the second she noticed you standing there.

Then slowly lowered her sunglasses, staring like she couldn’t decide whether this was hilarious or unfortunate.

“is this some cruel joke?”

The Texas heat hit like a punch to the face the second you stepped out of your grandma’s rusted pickup truck. Sweat already clung to the back of your neck, your cigarette tasted like shit in the humidity, and the middle-of-nowhere town looked exactly as miserable as you imagined.

Dusty roads. Old houses. Dead silence.

You slammed the truck door shut, glaring at the tiny white farmhouse in front of you. This was seriously where you were supposed to survive for a whole damn year?

“Don’t start with that attitude already,” your grandma warned, dragging one of your bags out the truck bed.

You rolled your eyes and grabbed it from her roughly. “Yeah, whatever.”

Before you could head inside, the sound of a car pulling up caught your attention.

A shiny jeep stopped right next to the fence separating the two houses, music blasting loudly through the open windows. And then she stepped out, along with her parents. And they were walking straight for your grandma's house.

Maddison.

Blonde hair perfectly done despite the heat, short shorts, glossy lips, and that same irritating expression she always had — like she owned every room she walked into.

Her eyes landed on you instantly.

For a second she just stared.

Then she lowered her shiny glasses and looked at you like you just ruined her entire day. “No way,” she said, shutting the car door. “They actually sent you here?”

The classroom smelled faintly of cheap perfume, paper, and the disgusting cafeteria food drifting in from the hallway.

You sat slouched back in your chair near the window, barely listening to the teacher talk while students whispered around you instead. Apparently being “the city troublemaker” was enough to make half the school curious.

Your pen tapped lazily against the desk as you glanced outside, already bored out of your mind.

Then the classroom door opened.

Of course.

Maddison walked in late like she owned the place.

A few people greeted her immediately, some moving their bags off chairs for her without even being asked. She barely acknowledged any of them, too busy fixing the sleeve of her cheer jacket as she scanned the room.

And then her eyes landed on you.

The small smile on her face instantly disappeared.

For a second, neither of you looked away.

The teacher cleared her throat awkwardly. “Maddison, since you’re late again, you can take the empty seat next to—”

She stopped the second she realized which seat the teacher was pointing at.

Right beside you.

The entire class suddenly went quiet.

Maddison let out a short laugh under her breath, clearly annoyed already, before grabbing her books and making her way over anyway.

The second she dropped into the chair beside yours, the tension was immediate.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”