Chapter One: Highschool

A Chapter by walking.in.rain

"bleep Bleep BLeep BLEep BLEEp BLEEP!!!"

Alarm clocks and me. Not exactly what you'd call friends. I'd rather stay in my nice, safe, cozy warm bed than get up and face my first day of high school.

"ALEX!" I heard my Mom scream up the steps, "Turn that damn thing off!" I sighed, reaching over to turn the "damn thing" off and reluctantly crawled off my bed towards my closet pulling out my black Panic! At the Disco hoodie, faded jeans, a lacy pink cami, and of course my Chucks.

"ALEX!" I heard my Mom yell once again, "Are you dressed yet?!"

"Getting dressed as we speak!" I called back down to her.

"You have exactly 17 minutes until the bus comes so hurry up!"

I groaned, running my fingers through my messy brown hair, knowing I'd never be able to get it to look even slightly decent in that amount of time. I finished pulling my clothes on and in defeat threw my hair up into a slightly messy bun dubbing it good enough for now. When that was done, I headed into the bathroom adjoined to mine and my sister, Chris's, room. Luckily she was already gone and I had it all to myself. I applied a fair amount of makeup - mascara, eyeliner and light silver shadow. I redid my bun various times, finally satisfied after the millionth time it was perfect. Brushing my teeth I heard my mom calling, once again.

"Alex! You have exactly 2 minutes!"

Crap. Ugh, and what did she care anyway? It's not like she was there for my first day of elem. school or middle school so why did she think she could be there on my first day of high school? It's not like those kinds of things even matter anymore. I wish she'd never come back. Dad and I had been perfectly fine without her.

Right… Perfectly fine.

Ugh, whatever!

I ignored my inner voice trying to reason with me and spit the foamy froth of toothpaste out wiping at my mouth and applying a quick gloss before hurrying back into my bedroom grabbing my shoulder bag. I rechecked my appearance once more in the mirror before finally deciding I was finally ready and dashed out into the hall. I stumbled down the stairs, slightly out of weariness but mostly because of the rush. I stopped short of front door at seeing…her.

"What now?" I asked folding my arms across my chest with a roll of my eyes and leaning back to rest against the banister. She sighed, "Alex, come on now, don't be that way."

I widened my perfectly lined eyes, "Don't be 'that way'. Oh, what way, 'Mom'? If I can even call you that. You can't just leave for 8 years and come back and expect everything to be okay!"

My "Mom" began moving towards me, her arms open, "Alex, honey, I don't expect everything to be okay. I just-"

"You just what, Mom?!" I pushed my rigid spine fully against the stairs in an attempt to get father away but she kept coming. Just as her arms were about to enclose me in an embrace, I broke away, squirming between her and the banister to swing open the front door. I paused in the doorway and turned, tears beginning to stream down my delicate features.

"Don't you ever touch me again." I stated in a deadly whisper before fleeing out into the open world.

I ran until I was within sight of the bus stop before slowing, not once glancing back over my shoulder. I stopped, composing myself, until I could pull myself together and disappeared onto my bus, 199.

I slid into a seat relatively in the middle, hating the front but not having the courage to take the back. Unfortunately for me, none of my friends lived in the same neighborhood so I would be forced endure twenty minutes of insane babbling. Except… I had remembered to shove my ipod into my bag last night which I only now just remembered.

I grinned to myself and began digging through my bag, finally finding it and pulled the twisted thing out. I expertly untangled the cords of the headphones and fit them perfectly to my ears allowing the music of Panic! to fill my ears. I sighed in pleasure, eyes drifting closed and my body relaxing, until I received a sharp jolt from the left. I bolted upright, only to stare into the most captivating green eyes I had ever seen.

"Drooling much kitten?" the owner of the gorgeous eyes teased.

I blushed, dropping my gaze, before realizing it was he who had sat next to me.

"Hey!" I exclaimed, raising my gaze to see he had turned away "You're the one who sat next to me!" I sharply poked his stomach to get his attention.

Those gorgeous green eyes swiveled back to me, widening in shock.

He leaned close, his black locks brushing my cheek, as he whispered into my ear "Got a problem with that...darling?"

This guy was gorgeous and obviously he knew it but damn if I was going to help to inflate his ego. I pushed him away from me and scrambled as far into the corner of the seat as I could.

"Yeah, actually I do. I prefer not to associate with arrogant a******s." I choose my words carefully, surveying his expression as he took in what I had said. He shrugged, leaning back against the seat before suddenly turning to me and glaring.

"Hey! You just called me an a*****e!" he accused.

"And you just realized that!" I mocked sarcastically, trying to figure out if this guy was for real or not.

Suddenly his forehead was pressed against mine, "Did you mean it?" he breathed against my skin.

My senses were in overload. Just as I opened my mouth, not even sure what I was about to respond with the bus jerked to a stop, startling both of us away. I pushed against his chest, crawling over him to get off of the bus and stumbled down the steps. I stopped almost immediately, scanning the crowd for someone I knew and trying to slow my rapidly beating heart. I put my hand to my forehead, how had he affected me this much?

Unfamiliar arms snaked around my waist and I jumped nearly a foot in the air. I twisted around, looking up, to meet the eyes of the same guy on the bus.

"You never answered my question." He spoke, still not releasing my waist.

I sighed in frustration.

"No."

His eyes sparked with surprise and a bit of...something. I couldn't quite figure it out. He broke away from me and stumbled a few steps back. I looked at him with confusion and he grinned at me before turning to walk away.

"Wait!," I called a tad desperately after him.

He stopped and turned with a questioning gaze.

"Whats whats your name?" I spluttered out.

"Andi" he spoke before turning around once more, "Goodbye Angel."

I starred after him as he walked toward the entrance to the school, Bellview High. He was tall, very tall. I'd had to crane my neck just to see his face when we'd stood side by side. My gaze shifted down his body just as he disappeared into the building.

He's not half bad from the back..

I shook my head at that thought and snapped out of my daze to scan the crowd again, this time spotting someone I knew. Jenni. My best friend or really better known as my other half. I headed up towards her, laughing as I realized where she was sitting.

Jenni snapped her fingers in front of my face, getting my attention.

"This spot, right here, is ours. In the next four years, if anythings ever wrong, we'll meet here. Boyfriend problems? Here. Friendship b*****s? Here. Anything? Here. Agreed?" Jenni demanded of me.

I laughed at her insanity. Just like Jenni to go and designate a place and plan for anything that could possibly go wrong.

"Agreed." I assured her.

I smiled fondly at the memory and laughed once again at her spontaneous/crazy idea as I approached.

"Jenni!" I cried, pouncing on my best friend as soon as I was near enough.

"Hey fatass get. off. of. me." Jenni gasped out as I lay collapsed over her tiny body.

Just as I was about to get up and obey her request I yanked up by a pair of welcoming arms. I spun around with an enormous grin on my face.

"Dave!" I squealed, wrapping my arms around his large frame. He obliged and gave me an enthusiastic hug back.

"How've you been beautiful?" He asked holding me at arms length.

"Me? I've been fantastic! But you, how've you been? I mean Italy, that's amazing, I've always wanted to go there. And the girls, isn't Venice like the city of love or something? Did you meet a girl? Did you fall in love? Did woo-" Dave placed a hand over my mouth in effort to end my rambling. I playfully swiped his hand away and opened my mouth to speak only to be stopped once again by the entire group.

"Alex, for the love of god, SHUT UP!" came from Jenni and a chorus of shut ups from the rest of the group.

"Fine," I pouted beginning to walk away, "I guess I really don't need to talk to my best friend who I haven't seen in over a month!"

Not a second after I spoke, I was pulled back to where I had stood before.

Dave laughed at me, "You know something Alex? You really suck at being mad."

I simply shrugged, I really couldn't be mean when it came to my friends.

Dave drew me in close, leaning down to speak into my ear, "Why don't you come over tonight and I'll tell you all about it?"

"Sounds good." I replied twisting around to greet everyone else who I had neglected in my excitement at seeing Dave.

"So...how was everyones summer?" I asked, plopping down between Jenni and Michelle. I turned to Michelle first, she generally had the most to say.

"Well...I spent most of it at the beach scouting out the hot guys. Had a few summer romances. Mall....hmm..not really much of anything else," she mused turning to Crystal.

Crystal blushed as all the attention was turned off Michelle and onto her. She was the newest to our group and could still be little shy but she was pretty cool once you got to know her.

"Um...I.. I went to this camp for children with disabilities and was a counselor there. And then I did some fund raisers. And then I spent the rest of the summer in Washington visiting with relatives," she spoke, her speech becoming more relaxed and even as she went along. She shifted her gaze over to the only two left, Jenni and Evan.

Jenni twisted her neck up to view her boyfriends face, seeing as he didn't appear to even be following the conversation she began.

"I can't really say I did anything too amazing, just kinda chilled around home and friends and stuff."

She nudged Evan, "Your turn babe."

He stared blankly at her.

"Your summer..? How was it?" she encouraged.

He blinked. "Oh right. My summer. I spent it here with my beautiful baby of course!" he began furiously tickling Jenni as she screamed out of control.

I shook my head at the both of them. Man, how I had missed these guys.

"BRINNNNNNNGGGG"

There was a collective groan among the group as the bell sounded and we all got up from our places beside the tree.

We went up the steps together but my mind was elsewhere. In the moment of excitement at seeing all my friends, I had completely forgotten about Andi. He was...intriguing.

Dave pulled me out of my thoughts as he literally pulled me aside, "You alright? You seem kinda out of it." he questioned in concern.

I rolled the thought over in my mind. I had been planning on talking to Jenni about Andi but maybe Dave was the better option.

I looked up at him and smiled genuinely, "Can we talk about it tonight?"

"Yea, sure. Whatever you want. I'm here for you." he smiled back, hugging me tightly before grabbing my hand and pulling me the rest of the way up the steps. I braced myself, this was it. High school.