1 Chapter 1.

Who is ready to go to school?

Definitely not me. I mean who in their right mind will wake up early in the morning just to go to school. And the things they teach there don't even make sense. Like for example, you don't need Sin or Cos to calculate your house budget.

Even though I'm an A-grade student, I still hate school. But we don't always get, what we wish for.

I'm sorry I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Melissa Davis.

I'm just an average 17-year-old girl who is in the senior year of her high school. Now you must be thinking how I'm a senior when I'm only 16, well you see, I simply skipped 2nd grade because my teachers said that I'm too intelligent to be in that class, so they simply promoted me to 3rd grade. Technically, according to my age, I should have been completing my sophomore year now, but I'm going to complete my senior year now. Awesome isn't it? And also I go to Jacksonville High School.

Jacksonville High is the only High school in our small town of Jacksonville. The population of our town is a mere 500. Jacksonville is a lovely community with a romantic feel, offering something for everyone, from shoppers to foodies. Its main street is brimming with gorgeous, 19th-century buildings housing specialty, shops, art galleries, antique stores, and exotic dinings.

Anyways, we have talked too much about our town.

Moving on, today we are having a fundraiser in school to raise money for the local orphanage. We will be washing the cars of the local residents and the money collected will be donated to the orphanage. Our school likes to host these types of activities so that we can help the people in need. Honestly, the fundraiser is the only thing that I am looking forward to, except meeting my two eccentric best friends, but we'll talk about them later.

Moving on, my parents own a small bakery shop and I must say that their business is doing good. I usually help them out on weekends and during holidays. I love to cook, and cooking and baking are my most treasured hobbies, apart from reading books and listening to good music.

Now, let's go over my appearance. I'm not exactly tall but just an average of 5'4, I have long brown hair which falls up to my mid-back and I have blue eyes. I am not exactly skinny but I'm also not thin like a stick but I have curves in all the right places. I will say that I look okay. I don't consider myself pretty but I also don't consider myself ugly. Enough about me now.

I went downstairs to see my mom in the kitchen cooking something mouthwatering and my dad was sitting in the dining room with today's newspaper in his hands. I went straight towards my dad, kissing his cheeks lightly, and said "Good Morning" I ran into the kitchen without waiting for his reply, to repeat the same activity with my mother. She replied, "morning," with a bright smile, before handing me two plates filled with pancakes and waffles.

I went out of the kitchen into the dining room and placed one plate in front of my dad and placed one in front of me. I filled my glass with some orange juice. My mom came out with a tray, filled with a plate of breakfast and two mugs of coffee. She placed the plate in front of her, after sitting down beside my father, and placed a mug of coffee in front of him. I started to gobble the food down my throat.

My mom gave me an uneasy look before saying "Mel, eat slowly honey, no one is going to snatch your food away." I just gave her a toothy grin and once again started to eat but this time more slowly.

"Mel, can you stop by the bakery after school today, we have to go see your aunt, she is very ill." My mom said with a sad look. My mum and aunt Jane(the one who is ill) are sisters and they are really close to each other, and the 5-hour distance between their houses didn't weaken their bond. Aunt Jane is practically the coolest person you will ever across. She is like a teenage girl stuck in a grown woman's body. And it's really a sad thing that she is sick and bedridden. I hope she recovers quickly.

Anyway, moving on, I nodded silently giving them a small smile. It's not a problem for me to manage the bakery, in fact, I love working there. After finishing my breakfast I picked up my book bag and said goodbye to my parents before walking out of the house. I usually walk to my school but occasionally hitch a ride with one of my friends. But today I felt like walking since the weather is pleasant. After walking for nearly ten minutes, I finally reached my school. I looked around to find my friends and quickly spotted them. I mean who can avoid these two monkeys.

"Someone's in a good mood I see," Mia said. Now let me introduce you to Mia. Mia Reynolds is my best friend since elementary school. She's a year older than me. And when I shifted to 3rd grade(Her class) from 2nd grade, she was quite ecstatic. Now let's go over her appearance. She has fiery red hair which makes her come out as a daredevil. And she is indeed a daredevil. She is quite attractive and a boy magnet. But she didn't like to flaunt her beauty and is still waiting for her 'the one' as she likes to say. I actually admire her for this. And then comes Ryan Eaton. He is two years older than me, as he was held back for a year, he is now in our year. Frankly speaking, every single student in my grade is older than me and sometimes these two stupid people treat me like a toddler.

What's going on girls," Ryan asked us while casually leaning against his locker which was right beside me.

"Well, the rumors are that Nina got pregnant again and this time we think that baby is Josh's," Mia said.

"Really" both I and Ryan gasped on hearing this.

"Well, I'm not 100 percent sure but that's what I've heard" she shrugged and went towards her locker, which was adjacent to mine, to take out her books.

The warning bell rang informing us that we have to head to our classes.

The three of us parted as Mia had American history and Ryan had Maths and had AP English.

Magically skip to the end of the school.

I was walking towards my parent's bakery after bidding farewell to my friends. Today was an exhausting day, the fundraiser was successful but also stressful, and I was thoroughly exhausted. I don't know how I was going to take care of our shop in this state. After walking for about 15 minutes I reached the bakery. I decided to bake some cookies since all of our cookies were finished. I put on my apron and tied my hair in a loose make-shift bun and started to work on my cookies.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I finally breathed out in relief after arranging the cookies on the shelf and started to decorate a cake.

As I was decorating the cake, the bell above the door rang indicating that there's a customer.

It was a man, a really really tall man. He was talking on his phone while his back was facing me and continued to walk towards the back of the shop and took a seat at the last table.

Since I was the only worker present, I had to take the order. I took off my apron and kept it on the counter, and grabbed a notepad and pen before making my way to the mysterious man's table.

I stood in front of the man. Apparently, he wasn't able to notice my presence as his eyes were glued to his phone. I cleared my throat to get his attention, and he finally did avert his eyes from the screen. And when he finally looked, I swear that my heart stopped beating for a second. His sharp jaws, straight nose, his dark brown hair.

It looked so soft that I wished to run my hand through it. He had a slight subtle and oh my God, his eyes. His eyes were of rich chocolate brown color, but Alas! Void of any emotion. It looked like they hide so much pain and secrets behind them.

He was wearing a suit, probably an Armani, because he looked Rich enough to afford one, and also he had that businessman-type look. I guess he is one. I finally snapped out more of my trance when the man cleared his throat and we smirking. I blushed deep red when I realized that he knew that I was checking him out.

"Hi, I'm Melissa and I will be a server today. What would you like to drink."

"I will have a black coffee with no sugar," he said.

Hmm.... bitter just like his personality. I thought.

I quickly jotted it down in my notepad.

"and anything to go with it," I asked.

"No" came his short and curt reply.

I quickly nodded my head and walked away. Somehow deep down in my heart I felt that man was having a bad day and being the good person that I am I decided to do something that will cheer this strange man. I quickly grabbed two of the chocolate chip cookies and placed them on a plate and went to prepare his coffee.

It took me five minutes to return with his order and placed it in front of him.

When he saw the plate of cookies, he looked up at me with a raised brow, I turned to leave.

"Excuse me but I didn't order....." he started but I quickly cut him off.

"You seemed upset and I thought that maybe cookies can cheer you up as it does to me. Enjoy," with this said I walked away briskly without waiting for his reply.

I got back to the kitchen and started cleaning up the mess that I made while baking the cookies. By the time I returned the man had already left and hundred dollar bill was neatly tucked beneath the empty coffee mug.

Wow, he left a pretty good tip.

I quickly tucked the bill in my pocket and went around to do the final check, that whether all the doors are closed or not. After that, I closed the shop and started to walk home quickly, too exhausted to notice the pair of eyes that were observing my movements from afar.