Chapter One

I woke up to the sound of water rushing out of the shower in the bathroom.

Ugh!

I covered my ears with my pillow, trying to drown out the sound. It didn't work. I reluctantly sat up, rubbing my eyes and waited for them to adjust to the light. Shafts of light peeked through my blinds, dancing along my walls. Unpacked boxes were stacked on the floor beside my empty dressers. I ran my fingers through my tangled hair and felt around on my bed side table, feeling for my glasses and pushing them on my nose.

My hand travelled up to my chest and clutched at where my ring was. Or supposed to be. I instantly woke up, my eyes wide. I frantically scanned the room but there was no sign of my necklace. I jumped out of bed and ducked under it, but it wasn't there.

"Mum, have you seen my necklace?" I shouted at the door.

"No! Which one?" She shouted back.

"The one I always wear!"

"Haven't seen it!" I pulled open my door and ran out, searching the ground to see if I dropped it. I ran past the bathroom, about to run down the stairs when a hand grabbed the back of my shirt.

"Woah there. This what you looking for?" A hand dangled in front of my face, a sliver chain in it's grasp, droplets of water dripping on the chain.

"Yes! Give it!" I grabbed at it but the hand snatched it away.

"Marcell..." I growled in a threatening voice. "Give it here. Now."

I turned around to see my step-brother, soaking wet with a towel around his waist. I felt my face flush and I covered my eyes.

"Pu- put some clothes on first." I stammered, embarrassed.

I couldn't see him but I know Marcell was probably grinning like crazy.

"What? You don't like what you see?"

"Why'd you come out of the bathroom with no clothes on?" I grumbled, keeping my hands glued to my face.

"Hey you were the one screaming about your necklace. I thought I'd give it to you before you tore the house apart looking for it."

"Well?" I held out one hand, keeping my eyes shut.

"Well what?" Marcell answered innocently.

"Well give me the necklace!"

Marcell chuckled and dropped the chain in my open hand.

"You don't have to cover your eyes you know. I'm wearing a towel. Technically, I'm not naked."

I peeked out and bit my lip, annoyed at his amused face. I carefully slipped my necklace over my head, relieved to feel the familiar thump of the ring against my chest.

"Shut up and put some clothes on." I crossed my arms across my chest as he ran his fingers through his dark brown hair. His brown eyes sparkled playfully.

"You know, normal girls would be enjoying this right now."

"Shut up." I replied.

"Kyra! Marcell! Breakfast!" I heard my step-dad, Derek call from downstairs.

"Coming!" I yelled. "You going down there like that?" I raised an eyebrow at Marcell.

"You got me." He grinned. "I'm going to get dressed. But you probably need to change too. Unless you're going to your first day of our new school in pyjamas."

I looked down and saw my pyjamas with kittens on them. A blush rose onto my cheeks again and I pushed past Marcell to get to my room, closing the door with a slam.

I sat on the edge of my bed and took out my necklace, letting the light bounce off the silver ring. My gaze drifted to the window and I stared out into an almost familiar landscape. I was back after 5 years.

Is Theo still here?

I sighed and clamped my hand around the ring, enclosing it in my fist. I have to get dressed. I started to rummage through the boxes, looking for something presentable to wear. I hadn't gotten around to unpacking, even though we'd moved in a few days ago and now I had to go to school again, even though there was only like, two weeks left. I dug down until I founded a striped tank top and some light blue jeans shorts that had rips on them.

What ever. Good enough.

I yanked a brush through my hair, wincing when it pulled at the tangles. I tucked my necklace in my shirt, deliberately trying to hide it using my hair to cover up the part of the chain that was showing. Deeming myself alright, I was headed out the door and down the stairs to the kitchen where Marcell was already shovelling food in his mouth.

"What took you so long?" He asked but with all the food in his mouth it sounded like, "Watt took coo tho lrong?"

"Getting dressed. Duh?" He swallowed his mouthful of food and picked up another piece of bacon.

"I finished way before you did."

"That's because you're a guy." I answered as if that explained everything.

He smirked at me and gulped down his last bite of food.

"I guess it's also because I'm a guy that I finished eating first. And because I'm a guy, I get to drive to school." He grabbed the keys off the counter and twirled them in his fingers.

"What? No! It's my turn to drive!" I grabbed a piece of toast that had just popped up and stood up, snagging my bag that was on the floor, but Marcell was already out the door. I huffed irritatedly and nibbled on my toast. My mum was smiling at me like she had a little secret or something.

"What?" I slumped onto a chair and pouted a bit.

"Nothing. I'm just glad that you get along so well with your step-brother."

"I get along with all my step-brothers." I said meaningfully. I saw my mom's smile become a bit forced, but we were interrupted by Derek coming into the kitchen.

"Well, off to work!" He kissed my mum on the cheek and smiled at me. "You should probably head off to school now."

I nodded, taking another bite of toast and tossing the rest on the counter. I slung my bag over my shoulder and headed out the front door, calling out bye as I left.

Marcell grinned at me from the driver's seat of the car. I stomped over and crawled into the passenger's seat, throwing my bag into the back.

"I get to drive tomorrow." He smiled.

"I don't know. I'm a guy so I might get to drive tomorrow."

"Oh, get over it!" I whacked him on the arm, and he playfully whacked me back. His eyes travelled to something swinging in front of me. My necklace had fallen out of my shirt so I grabbed it and tucked it back in, stroking the engraving first. Marcell looked curiously at me.

"You know, I never understood why that ring is so important to you. It doesn't look like anything special."

"It's... a promise." I answered quietly, thinking back to the time.

Our promise is infinite.

Even though through the years, my memories of Theo and I had blurred, his words stuck with me.

I shook myself out of my daydream and looked at Marcell.

"Are you going to drive or do I have to step on the pedal for you? We're about to be late!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"This is all your fault!" I grumbled, going up the front steps of the school two at a time.

"Are you kidding me? You should thank me for making us fashionably late!" Marcell's laughter echoed along the empty halls as we entered. I took the lead, since I'd been there before when I lived here, and led him to the office. An old lady was sitting behind the desk and peered distastefully at us as we ran in.

"Hi. I'm Kyra Cooper and he's Marcell Evans. We need out class schedules please."

I pushed up my glasses with my finger as the lady provided us with schedules.

"Home room’s the next hall on the right, room 315."

I nodded thankfully and handed Marcell his schedule.

"Okay. Good. We have the same home room." I felt myself start to twirl my hair on my finger nervously. Marcell caught my nervous gesture right away.

"Hey. Calm down Kyra. It's no biggie. And I'll be right here so it'll be fine."

I smiled gratefully, biting my lower lip and taking a deep breath.

"Okay. Let's go."

Marcell patted me on the back and swept past me, taking the lead. We walked past purple lockers and bright lights. I stared at the ground, watching the blurry reflection of the lights on the shiny tiles, until Marcell stopped and I walked into him.

He had one hand on the door, but before he turned it, he looked back at me.

"Ready?"

I gulped, my throat feeling too dry to say anything, and nodded. He twisted the door knob and pushed the door open, walking in. I followed, partly hiding behind him. The classroom was buzzing with chatter and a frazzled looking woman came up to us.

"You must be the new students! I've been expecting you." She tucked a piece of red hair behind her ear and offered a tired smile.

"I'm Mrs. Campbell. Why don't you two introduce yourselves?"

We went to the centre of the room and Marcell pushed me forward first. I game him the evil eye and turned to the the teacher who nodded encouragingly.

The class didn't even look at me and kept talking. There was a cluster of people around one desk. The guy sitting there was laughing loudly, looking at home in the group of people. He had black hair that was bleached a golden blonde on the ends and it flopped over his eyes. He caught my eye, or at least I thought he did since black sunglasses blocked my view of his eyes, but looked away like he hadn't seen me at all.

I cleared my throat and started to speak.

"Hi. My name's Kyra." My voice was barely loud enough to hear over the noise but when I said my name, I thought the guy with the sunglasses looked up but he turned to a girl beside him instead. I flushed, embarrassed and stepped back, letting Marcell introduce himself.

The instant he stepped forward, his commanding presence made everyone look at him. The noise died considerably and I felt the heat on my cheeks rise.

Damn him for not being socially awkward!

"Hey everyone! My name's Marcell. Nice to meet," His eyes landed on a pretty girl. "You."

He flashed a smile at her and she giggled behind her hand. I rolled my eyes at him.

What a charmer.

Mrs. Campbell ushered us to sit and Marcell chose the seat next to the pretty girl he smiled, leaving me with the only free seat left. Which happened to be in the very centre of the room. I slid down into my chair, slumping low in hopes that no one would notice me.

No such luck.

Sunglasses guy, as I've now dubbed him, leaned over from across the aisle as Mrs. Campbell shooed everyone back to their desks.

"Hey." He whispered, smiling cockily. "I didn't catch your name. What was it again?"

I bristled at the fact that he wasn't even listening when I said my name and now he dared to ask for my name? I narrowed my eyes, feeling a bit angry.

"Why should I tell you?" I hissed back, letting my anger at this guy carry away my shyness.

He arched his eyebrows up, looking surprised, then amused.

"Looks like the new girl's got a bit of a fiery temper." He smiled genuinely. "I like that. Nice to meet you."

I blushed, pushing up my glasses to hide my face. I reverted back to my usual awkward self as soon as he was nice to me.

"Ni-nice to meet you too. What's your name?"

His smile turned devilish.

"Why should I tell you?"

Then he moved back, properly sitting behind his desk, facing forward.

Ugh... Did I just make a friend?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I stammered through the rest of my classes and by lunch, I wasn't even sure if anyone knew my name yet. Luckily Marcell was in my next classes so that helped a bit, but he had a group of friends already. When it was time for lunch, I followed Marcell's group to the cafeteria and was about to sit when a voice boomed across the room.

"HEY! What's you name! Over here!"

I was Sunglasses Guy! I felt my cheeks burn red and I hurriedly sat down, ducking so he wouldn't see me.

"TOO LATE! I saw you and I know you saw me! Get over here! What's your name!"

I gave Marcell a helpless look and he rose an eyebrow as if saying:

He calling for you?

I nodded and tried to ignore Sunglasses Guy but he kept shouting. Finally, I couldn't take it any more and stood up to go to him. I motioned for Marcell to come with me and he told his friends something, then came over to me.

I started to push through the crowd, getting jostled around relentlessly. Marcell trailed behind and caught up with me as I reached Sunglasses Gu's table. He was sitting with a bunch of other people, a girl at the end giving me a dirty look. I chose to ignore that and turned to see Sunglasses Guy with a huge grin on his face.

"I knew you'd come what's your name. And who's this guy?"

He cocked a dark eyebrow, arching it over his sunglasses.

"H-he's my step-brother." I stammered out, internally slapping myself trying to straighten out my speech.

Sunglasses Guy's smile faltered but reappeared instantly.

"Cool! Step-brother huh? Why don't you two sit down?"

He pushed the people next to him over, making more room on the bench. Then he patted the spot next to him.

"You can sit here."

I awkwardly sat down, Marcell sitting beside me on the very end of the bench. I tried to put as much room as possible between me and Sunglasses Guy and he looked at the empty bench with an amused expression on his face.

"I don't bite you know. Sit closer!"

I inched closer a bit and he let out a low chuckle.

"Come on. Closer!"

He snaked his arm around my waist and pulled me right next to him. I squirmed under his touch and looked desperately at Marcell.

He yanked off Sunglasses Guy's hand and stared dagger at him.

"Get your hands of my sister." Marcell's brown eyes glinted and narrowed menacingly.

"Step-sister." Sunglasses Guy corrected easily, taking a bite out of his food. "Get it right."

Marcell opened his mouth to retort but I put a hand of his arm.

"It's okay."

He closed his mouth and turned to face forward, noticing the pretty girl from class who was sitting across from him. He reverted back to usual and began to flirt with him shamelessly.

How typical.

I squirmed uncomfortably, trying to move away from Sunglasses Guy without him noticing but he looked at me, taking another bite of food, and smirked.

"So," He eyed the growing room between us. "You going to tell me your name yet?"

I smiled at him.

"No. Unless you want to tell me your name first."

He grinned, brushing his golden bangs out of his face.

"Nah. I don't think I'll do that."

"Then I guess you'll just have to keep calling me what's your name now."

"How 'bout I give you a name." He scanned me, settling on my face. "I'll call you Glasses Girl!"

"What a coincidence! I already called you Sunglasses Guy!"

Sunglasses Guy looked surprised for a second, then he threw his head back, letting out a loud laugh. Several necklaces glinted around his neck and his black and gold hair flopped over his eyes. A couple of people started to stare at him so he stifled his laugh until he stopped.

"Alright. How 'bout we start over. Hi. I'm Sunglasses Guy." He smiled broadly at me.

"Hey. I'm Glasses Girl. Nice to meet you." I couldn't help but smile back at him. How was it that I could be so unawkward around this guy I just met?

Marcell chose that moment to tear himself away from the girl and he peered at us who were still smiling at each other.

"Did I miss something?" He asked quizzically, looking from me to Sunglasses Guy.

Sunglasses Guy and I looked at eachother at the exact same time. Then we burst out laughing. I giggled behind my hand, seeing Marcell's confused eyes.

"Nah. You didn't miss anything."