Art Class With My Enemy

Chapter Twelve

"Dakota! Get off the dirty ground right now and stop embarrassing us," my mother said harshly. I slowly got up, facing the amused faces of my friends—plus Gage.

"Your dad is a terrible driver," Gage stated, probably from observing our car from behind.

"Oh really? I didn't notice, I was just hugging the ground for fun. Of course I didn't want to thank the earth for letting me survive," I replied sarcastically. He rolled his eyes at me and was about to reply, when his mother interjected instead.

"Dakota! It's been too long since I last saw you!" she exclaimed, giving me a hug. I had to smile back at her; out of all the workaholic parents, she was my favorite. Even over my own parents. It was probably because she wasn't a workaholic lawyer like the others. She was an elementary school teacher instead, so you know she had an energetic personality to put up with those young children every day.

"It's great to see you too, Mrs. Jenson," I said as she released me from her warm hug.

"Please, call me Pam. You didn't tell me how well she grew up, Gage! You're absolutely stunning," she gushed, winking at her son. My eyebrows rose in confusion and surprise, but I thanked her nonetheless. Her grumpy son immediately rolled his eyes and walked into the hotel.

"Now, tell me how you've been," she said. I talked to Pam for a while until the rest of the adults came over and gave us our room keys. We were only given two between the four of us, but I didn't care. Knowing I'd be sharing a room with Harlow, I told her to keep the key since she was the responsible one, and we were off to our rooms.

Mason and Gage's room was on the seventh floor, while ours was on the eighth. I had absolutely no idea why they were booked like that. We settled into our room and I couldn't help but laugh at the thought of Gage and Mason sharing a bed. Our room only had one bed, so their room probably did too, which they would freak out about. Whatever, Harlow and I were best friends, so sharing a bed meant nothing to us girls.

We didn't really do anything until the next day, when we had to get ready for the banquet. I wore a strapless red dress that came just above my knees with a black embroidered pattern below my bust. Harlow looked gorgeous in a light blue dress that flowed to her knees, with a pretty design along the bottom of the dress. I thought we looked rather simple, which is why I had no idea why Harlow gave us a ton of time to get ready.

Anyway, I left my naturally wavy hair down, too lazy to do anything to it. Harlow braided her own hair, slipped on her white heels, and pushed me out the door before I could finish my candy bar.

"Hey! I wasn't finished with that! And geez, stop pushing me! These heels are already uncomfortable," I complained.

"I told you to pack the other black pumps, not those," she said.

"No, you forced me to bring these," I argued. She rolled her eyes at me and dragged me into the enormous room where we were eating dinner and dancing. Well, I wasn't planning on dancing, but I'm sure the adults would.

I abruptly stopped. "What if I told my parents I wasn't feeling well?" I asked Harlow, thinking of a plan to get me out of this mess. I could already see how boring this would be, judging from the old, snobby-looking adults who were taking their seats at the tables.

"No, now move it!" she said, pushing me again. Only this time, her forceful push caused me to bump into someone.

Their hands steadied me while I said, "I'm so sorry!"

"No worries," they said. I looked up and saw sparkling brown eyes twinkling with amusement. I smiled sheepishly and took a step back, causing his hands to fall off my waist.