Chapter One

Impenetrable
Chapter One

  “Did you get a toothbrush?”

  “Yes.”

  “Socks?”

  “Yep.”

  “Underwear?”

  “I have everything, Felix, I swear!” I exclaimed, finally getting annoyed with my older brother, Felix.

  Every time I would travel nearly two thousand miles from home in the middle of August to go to boarding school in Ohio, he would ask me if I remembered stuff.

  Asking me if I had underwear always drew the line.

  “Well, I’ll talk to you later,” Felix said.

  “Okay, bye,” I replied before handing up.

  I sighed and stuffed my phone in my pocket.

  My eyes zoomed past the familiar buildings as the taxi sped past them.

  Eventually, the cab pulled up in front of the school dorms. I paid the driver, climbed out, and grabbed my luggage.

  I wasn’t expecting the driver to drive off as soon as I slammed the trunk down, and so the driver drove off with my cell phone.

   I frowned. My time at Rowan Academy was already off to a bad start and I hadn’t even walked through the doors.  

  Then I walked through the doors.

  “JO!”

  I looked around trying to find the source of the voice.

  “Wow, am I that imperceptible?” I look behind me and saw one of my best friends and fellow teammate, David Moore. His brown hair hung in his blue eyes, his height towered over me, as usual, and his camera hung around his neck, which was also usual.

  I smiled. “Hi,” I said.

  “A whole summer without my best friend and I get a ‘hi’? What kind of world is this?” He shrieked. He takes a picture of me.

  “Do you know where Sam is?” I said, ignoring him.

  “No, I don’t think he’s here yet,” David replied. “How was your summer?”

  “Boring,” I stated. He smiled. “You’re so gonna go to my house for Thanksgiving Break,” He said.

  “Don’t I always,” I muttered. “Oh, I’m going to Sam’s for Thanksgiving, yours for Christmas.”

  “Yay! Christmas is the better holiday,” he exclaimed with a huge grin on his face. I laughed at him.

  “I’m going to go figure out where I’m living and who I’m living with,” I told him.

  “Okay,” he said.

  I set my luggage against the wall and walk over to the teacher with the clipboard.

  “Name?” she asked.

  “Jocelyn Wade,” I replied.

  “Wade, Wade,” she mutters as she flips through the pages on her clipboard for my name.

  “Got it,” she proclaimed. “You’re in room 2B. Your roommate is Lauren Johnson.”

  “Thanks,” I acknowledged.

  I go back to David and wall of my luggage.

  “Is Sam here yet?” I asked.

  “I just entered the party room,” I heard him say. I turn around and there was Sam Ryan, with his short blonde hair and brown eyes, and the towering over me.

  Why was I so short?

  I sighed and grabbed my luggage.

  “I will see you two at dinner,” I told them before ambulating down the hallway.

  Eventually I found my dorm room and unlocked the door. My roommate �" Lauren �" was already in there unpacking.

  “You must be Jocelyn,” she said, holding out her hand for me to shake.

  “Jo,” I amended. “And you’re Lauren?”

  She nodded and I shook her hand.

  “I’ve already overtaken the bottom bunk,” she said. “Do you mind?”

  “Nope, I prefer top anyways,” I replied.

  “Cool,” she said with a smile. I smiled back.

  “So which dressers and closet sides did you take?” I asked.

  “The right for everything; right side of the closet, right dresser, right desk, and so on,” she clarified.

  “Thank you for making everything manifestly!” I exclaimed.  

  “Manifestly?” she asked.

  “It’s a variation of manifest. It means clear or easy,” I explained.

  “Oh. So are you here on scholarship?” Lauren asked.

  “Yeah. There’s no way I could’ve afforded this school,” I answered.

  “Okay.”

  I started to move my clothes from my suitcase to the left dresser.

  I left my clothes for the warmer weather in my suitcase and stuck it in the closet. I didn’t have anything to hang up, so I told Lauren that she could just have the whole closet if she wanted it.

  My laptop, iPod, and CD/DVD case went on top of the left desk, along with my notebooks, pencils and pens, and the book I was reading (The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes).

  “Lauren, can I borrow your phone?” I asked.

  “Um, yeah, sure, what happened to yours?” she asked, handing me her cellular device.

  “Taxi cab drove off with it,” I muttered.

  I dialed in my number and waited to see if the cabbie would pick it up.

  “I’m assuming you’ve misplaced this?” I heard a definitely masculine voice ask.

  “Um, yes,” I replied. “Is there a possibility that I could retrieve it before tomorrow?”

  “Yeah, I’m dropping another kid off over there, as we speak. You’re at Rowan Academy, right?”

  I nodded, but then remembered that I was on the phone and couldn’t be seen.

  “Yeah,” I said quickly.

  “Alright. I’ll be there in an estimation of ten minutes,” he said before hanging up.

  I hung up and handed Lauren back her phone.

  “Thanks,” I told her. Then I headed to the lobby and outside. I sat on a bench just outside the doors.

  I fiddled with the hem of my shirt out of boredom of waiting.

  Someone came out of the building.

  “Jo, why are you out here?” it was David.

  “Waiting for a cabbie,” I answered.

  “Why?” He asked, taking a picture.

  “Would you stop with the pictures for a second?” I vociferated.

  “Okay,” he said, turning off his camera.

  “I’m waiting for a cabbie, because my phone is in a certain cab, and I will be right back, because said cabbie is here,” I bloviated.

  I got up and walked to the cab, as another student got out. I knocked on the window of the driver’s side.

  “My phone, please?” I asked.

  He put my cell phone in my hands.

  “Thank you so much!” I exclaimed.

  “No problem.”

  I walk over to the student. “I’m Jo Wade,” I said. “And you are?”

  “Jax Peters,” he answered.

  “That’s funny,” I told him. “I knew someone in elementary and middle school by the name of Jax Peters.”

  “Yep, that’s me,” he said.

  I was taken aback. “You-you’re joking,” I stammered.

  “Nope,” he said. “I transferred, because MAHS wasn’t really working out.”

  “MAHS doesn’t work out for anyone. I mean, even Felix transferred and he’s the most mediocre person I know,” I said.

  “You’re the most ingenious person I know,” he laughed.

  I roll my eyes. “Adolescence really got the best of you,” I said. Jax rolled his brown eyes.

  “That exactly proves my point,” he said.

  “What?” I asked.

  “You’re using words most juniors wouldn’t. Normal teenagers would say puberty. And average instead of mediocre,” he explained.

  “Dude, I’m the most sagacious and perspicacious person I know.”

  “You just really love proving points,” he said with a lopsided smile.

  “Get your luggage, so the cabbie can leave,” I said, changing the subject.

  “Thank you!” the cabbie vociferated.

  “So you knew that guy?” David asked, taking a picture.

  “Yeah, he’s my brother’s best friend,” I replied.

  “Huh.”

  “What?” I asked. David looked at me. “Oh, nothing. Just hungry. Want to get food?” he asked.

  “Sure. Let’s go get our pizza on,” I muttered.

  David and I go inside, and Jax followed behind us.

  I told Jax that I would catch up with him later and then David and I head to the cafeteria.

  As soon as we infiltrated the cafeteria, I scrutinized the cafeteria and noticed that Sam and Lauren were already there. Sitting on opposite sides of the room, no doubt.

  “One second,” I told David, before heading over to Lauren.

  “Hey,” Lauren greeted.

  “Hi,” I replied. “I want to familiarize you with some of my friends.”

  “Okay,” she said. She grabbed her tray, with two pieces of untouched pizza on it, and we walked over to the table where Sam and David were sitting.

  “Who’s this?” Sam and David asked contemporaneously.

  “Lauren, my roommate,” I answered.

  “Nice to meet you, Lauren, I’m David.” Lauren shook David’s hand.

  “I’m Sam.” Lauren shook Sam’s hand.

  “Nice to meet you,” she said.

  “I’m going to go get pizza now,” I disclosed. I stood up and went to the back of the line for aliment.

  I grabbed a tray and two pieces of cheese pizza and some water before heading back to my table. I noticed that there was an augmentation to our table. It was Jax.

  “Done unpacking already?” I asked.

  “Never started,” Jax replied with a grin. I rolled my eyes and took a bite of my pizza.

  “So how’s Felix?” Jax asked.

  “I haven’t been home in more than 1,819 miles,” I stated.

  “But you talk to him on the phone,” Jax reminded.

  “Yeah, but he was asking me if I had my underwear,” I said.

  “TMI, but okay,” he said rolling his eyes.

  “Besides,” I began. “Don’t you speak with Felix on the phone?”

  “Not a lot,” he admitted.

  “Oh.” I took another bite of my pizza.

  “Is that good?” he asked. I nodded. Then he got up and got himself some aliment.

  David and Sam both gave me a look.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Nothing,” David replied, snapping a picture of me.

  “Would you quit that? I’m eating.”

  David rolled his eyes. “Too bad. Pictures are my hobby. Talking is yours and you just won’t shut up.”

  “So tell me to shut up!”

  Lauren burst into a fit of laughter.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked. “Why are you laughing?”

  “I have no idea,” Lauren breathed through her laughter.

  I huffed and took another bite of my pizza.

  “You never answered me Sam,” I realized.

  “What was I answering?” he asked.

  “I don’t remember,” I admitted.

  “Really, Jo,” Jax popped up again. “You’re so smart, you’re dumb.”

  “Well, that’s commending,” I muttered.

  “Soccer tryouts are next Monday,” Sam told me.

  “Yeah, soccer tryouts…” I faltered.

  “Why are you so nervous?” David asked with wide eyes.

  “You are trying out, right?” Sam asked.

  “Whoa!” I exclaimed. “I’m being bombarded with questions about a proposition that I don’t want to talk about at the moment!”

  After wrapping my pizza into a napkin, I walked away and went to my dorm room.

  I wasn’t planning on trying out for the soccer team, because my heart wasn’t in it at the end of the spring season the previous year.

  I wanted to be more centralized on school so I could get a scholarship to a really prestigious and illustrious school.

  These things ran through my mind as I finished eating my pizza, and then drifted off to sleep.

__

A/N Hello! Just pretty much an introduction chapter, not much really went on. But I hope you enjoyed it!