Chapter 3

     By 7:00, Josh and Mary had left the house to go to the bus stop. James had the luxury of driving his fancy car to school while Josh had to save up enough money just to take drivers training. Mary skipped happily alongside Josh. He had pulled Mary’s hair back with a headband then braided it, just the way Mom used to. By the time Josh and Mary got to the bus stop the bus had just pulled up. When they boarded the bus, Josh immediately spotted his 2 friends, Alan Perkins and Jenny O’Neil, waving him over. There was an empty seat right across from them.

      ‘I wonder how many people they had to scream at to save that seat,’ he thought.

     Just as he was about to take his seat next to Mary, Jenny stood up and pushed him down in the seat next to Alan. Josh was about to protest when Jenny gave him a look. Alan grabbed his shoulder and turned him around.

     “Did you hear the news?” Alan asked eagerly.

     “What news?”

     “That there’s going to be a hot, rich, new girl coming to our school,” Alan told him.

     Josh smiled. “What’s her name?”

     Alan shrugged.

     “Her name is Patricia Gale and she used to be enrolled in a prep school until she recently broke up with her possessive boyfriend. He supposedly started stalking her and hanging around her house so the family had to move away,” Jenny explained.

     “Stalking her? Hanging out at her house? Dude, that’s just wrong,” Josh stated and shook his head.

     Jenny nodded. “Tell me about it.”

    “Anyway, rumor has it that she’s been looking for another boyfriend,” Alan concluded. “Hey, you could impress her by writing her a poem.”

     Josh looked at him sternly. “You know that I don’t like to flash my poems to every hot girl I see.”

     “I agree with Alan,” Jenny stated.

    Josh threw up his hands. “Great! Now my friends are against me!”

    “Were not against you Josh,” Jenny countered.

    “Even if I did want to show this girl my poems, it’s not like they’re even any good,” he argued.

    “Are you kidding me? You have a whole notepad full of them, you’re bound to at least have one good poem,” Jenny implied.

     The bus stopped in front of the daycare. Josh stood up and escorted Mary off the bus; he hugged her and went back to his seat.

    “Will you at least let me read your poems?” Jenny asked.

    “Fine, but don’t make fun of me if they’re too girly,” Josh warned. He pulled out his notepad and gave it to Jenny.

     “Can I read them after her?” Alan asked and batted his eyelashes.

     Josh pointed a finger at him. “Just for doing that, now I’m not going to,” he joked with a grin on his face.

     “Pleeeaaase,” Alan begged.

     “Okay, now you’re just creeping me out. I’m ignoring you now,” Josh stated and turned away.

     After another few minutes of bugging him, to no prevail, Alan gave up. Josh’s thought drifted to Patricia as he watched Jenny read one poem after another. She was clearly engrossed in it. ‘Would Patricia really like my poems?” he smirked. ‘I doubt it’. Just then, the bus stopped in front of the school and opened the doors to let the students off.