I couldn't help but smile once my mind had processed what Zach had just asked me. Emmett might have been the right "date" for me, but maybe Zach was the right "guy" for me.

No, not maybe. Definitely.

"Yes."

Zach's eyes widened as if he was shocked by my answer. "Really?" he asked.

"Yes really," I said as I raised an eyebrow. "What, did you want me to say no?"

"No, I just didn't expect you to say yes so easily."

As much as I hated how overprotective my brothers were, I always told myself that if and when a guy asked me out, I wouldn't say no and I wouldn't say yes (even if I wanted to say yes)—I would tell him that I needed to ask permission first. But I was so pissed at Cooper that I couldn't care less whether any of them approved of me dating Zach or not.

"Yeah well, a lot of things aren't really going as planned tonight," I said. "There have been plenty of surprises."

"You can say that again," Zach said. "Like the fact that you actually went to my secret hiding spot on your own."

"It's not really much of a secret since I got in so easily."

"Whatever," he said. "You still don't know my super special place where I like to hide in here."

"Oh really?"

"Nope."

"Well where is it?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?"

"Yes I would." I smirked. "And as your new girlfriend you have to tell me."

"Not so fast," Zach said, quickly smirking right back. "First you have to pass the initiation."

"The initiation?" My smirk dropped. "What is this, a frat house?"

"No, it's just something I like to do with all the girls I bring in here."

I rolled my eyes. "Well gee, that makes me feel special." As Zach gently pulled me closer to him, I looked up at him. "So enlighten me, how many girls have you done this 'initiation' with?"

"Including you ..." Zach looked up as if he were counting. "A total of one."

"Wait what?"

Zach then leaned in and kissed me. Even though I wasn't really expecting it, I didn't pull away at all. I never imagined that I would get my first kiss from my first boyfriend in a shed behind the school after I'd gone to the dance with a different guy ... but I guess there was a first time for everything.

Although there were fireworks as soon as Zach's lips touched mine, the experience wasn't as magical as I'd hoped it would be because we were interrupted by the sound of someone calling my name somewhere outside the shed. "Penny!"

"Damn it," I said as soon as I pulled away from Zach.

"Your brother?" Zach said with a sigh.

"Penny!" The familiar voice said again. This time it sounded closer to the shed.

I nodded. "It sounds like Cooper." I looked out the window to discover I was right. "Stay here," I told Zach quietly.

"Why?"

"Because I don't want him to see you."

"Wow, you're already embarrassed to introduce me as your boyfriend?"

"Penny!" Cooper called again as I looked at Zach with an annoyed face.

"You know it's not like that at all. I just need to find the perfect time to tell my brothers about you, and now is not the time." Zach opened his mouth to speak. "Please, Zach. Just stay in here."

"Fine," he promised before I then slowly opened the shed door.

"Penny!" Cooper called again as I stepped outside. He was facing the direction of the track when he called my name, so he didn't notice me until I closed the shed door behind me.

"I'm right here," I said. "No need to yell."

"What in the world were you doing in there?" Cooper said as he stepped closer to me.

"Trying to get away from you," I said. It was pretty dark outside so I couldn't see his face, but I could just imagine that it was a really angry one. Nevertheless, I was too pissed off at him to care whether or not he was pissed off at me for running off. "Obviously it didn't work very well."

"Why would you be trying to get away from me?"

"Is that a serious question?"

"Yes, Penelope, it is a serious question."

"Oh I don't know, maybe because you bribed Emmett to ask me to homecoming!" When Cooper just stood there and didn't come back with a quick comeback, I knew that I'd caught him off guard. "Didn't think I'd find out about that, huh? Well I did, and I've never been so freaking annoyed, betrayed, or embarrassed in my life!"

"Listen, Penny—"

"No you listen to me, Cooper. I can't believe you would ever do that to me—Dana maybe, just maybe, but not you. God, I don't even know what to say right now."

"My intentions weren't to hurt you."

"No? Then what were your 'intentions?' Because that's the only thing you accomplished."

"I thought you liked Emmett."

My eyes narrowed. I refused to let Cooper turn this around on me. "Answer my question, Cooper. Why did you bribe Emmett to ask me? And don't lie—you always tell me not to lie to you, so don't lie to me."

"Fine. You want to know why? Because I was afraid that my baby sister was going to make a mistake and go with someone else."

"Go with someone else? What are you talking about—" Then it dawned on me. "Wait, you did it because you were afraid I was gonna go with Zach Oliver, weren't you?"

"It's obvious that he likes you, Penny, and I don't want him to influence you in any way."

"So you decided that humiliating me was the best way to stop it?" I clenched my fists. "And for the record, Zach is a great guy who you should really get to know before you go around making judgments about him."

"He's a student here—I know enough about him to know that he's bad news," Cooper said. "And that you need to stay away from him."

"You can't make me stay away from Zach," I said. Cooper then moved close enough so that he was towering over me and I could clearly make out from his facial expression that he was done with my back talking.

"Yes I can, Penelope," he said as he grabbed my upper left arm, causing me to flinch a little.

"No you can't," a stern voice behind me said. I looked over my shoulder to see that Zach had emerged from out of the shed.

"What the hell is going on here?" Cooper demanded as Zach walked towards us.

"What are you doing?" I sternly whispered to Zach.

"Helping you," he said.

"This doesn't concern you," Cooper snapped at Zach.

"It does now that you're bad mouthing me and grabbing my girlfriend," Zach said.

I smacked my forehead with my right hand—this couldn't be happening.

"Grabbing your what?" Cooper said, sounding more shocked than before. I used that opportunity to rip my arm out of Cooper's grip. "Wait. Penelope, were you just in that shed with him?"

I placed my hands on my hips. "Yes I was."

"Are you F-ing kidding me!"

I rolled my eyes at my brother's reaction. "Oh c'mon, Cooper. Does it look like we were doing anything bad?"

"Yeah, all our clothes are still on," Zach chimed in. From the way Cooper was now looking at him, I could tell that he definitely wasn't helping.

"Beat it," Cooper said, "Before I beat you." Clearly he had switched from being in older brother/teacher mode to completely being in older brother mode.

"You can't threaten me like that," Zach challenged, but I quickly grabbed his arm.

"Please just go, Zach," I said. The last thing I needed was a fight breaking out between Zach and Cooper. "I'll talk to you later."

"No she won't," Cooper said to him. Zach looked at me.

"I said go!" I said while glaring at Zach.

I think Zach could tell that I was dead serious, because he just nodded and started to walk away.

"You are way out of line if you think I'm gonna let you date him," Cooper said as Zach went in the direction of the dorms.

"The only person who's out of line tonight is you," I said. "And I can date whoever I want."

"Penelope, I understand that you're angry with me, but don't test me," Cooper warned.

"Or what are you gonna do?" I challenged as I crossed my arms.

Cooper crossed his arms as well. "Or else you and I are going to have a discussion with my belt as soon as we get home."

"Wow, you're gonna spank me for dating someone after what you did to me tonight? Fine. Go ahead, Cooper. But don't you ever, EVER, expect me to forgive you for it. Ever."

As Cooper glared at me, I glared right back. I wasn't going to back down in this situation. I was dead serious about what I'd said, and if Cooper wanted to test me on it and risk our relationship any further, then that was his prerogative.

"Just start walking," Cooper finally said, sternly extending a finger in the direction of my brothers' house. "We'll talk about this when you're less emotional."

"Whatever," I said as I started walking in the direction that he was pointing. Even though I was listening to him didn't mean I was happy about it. I made sure to keep my strides quick enough so that I was walking far ahead of Cooper. To be honest, I didn't want anything to do with my third oldest brother just like I wanted nothing more to do with Emmett. And it was going to take a lot to change my mind about that.