CHAPTER 1
BEEP BEEP ... BEEP BEEP ... I did my best to ignore the sound. Picking up my pillow and folding it down over my ears. BEEP BEEP BEEP ... BEEP BEEP BEEP ... I grabbed the blanket and pulled it tighter down over my head. Just a few more seconds of sleep. Sleep, blissful sleep. BEEEEEP BEEEEEP ... BEE--- ... I reached over and slammed my hand down hard on my alarm. A groan escaped my lips as realization fully hit me. It was morning. Groaning again and muttering under my breath, I slid the covers down and pushed the pillow off my face. Opening my eyes into slits, I glanced over at my alarm clock on the night stand by my bed. 5:32. School started in an hour in a half. It would be my first day of Junior year and I was not ready for it. Sure, I had a brand new wardrobe of clothes and enough supplies to last me straight through year. I just meant mentally. My mind didn't want to grasp these new terms, of summer ending and a brand new year of learning moving in to take its place. It just wasn't fair. Why make school nearly ten months long and only give three months of summer vacation? Why isn't there a winter vacation? Kids don't want to go to school when its hot, so why would we want to go to school when its freezing outside?
I forced myself to sat up and pushed away these thoughts. This was how every first day started for me. I was tired and grumpy and relatively pissed off at the idea of sch-... I don't even want to think of the word. Its not as if school was a bad thing for me. I had great friends and I passed my classes without a problem. It was just so boring, it was the same every year. Wake up. School. Work. Sleep. Eat and shower along the way if there was time. It was the same routine and I was sick of it. I was a Junior now, only two years left of this and I'd be off to college. Harvard or Yale. Things would be different then. I could be more of the person I wanted to be. Not the goody two-shoes, Straight A student, always do as your told, Taylor Atkins. No, I would be...
"TAY-TAY! TAY-TAY! TAY-TAY!" my thoughts were interrupted by the voice of my five year old brother. I barely had time to brace myself for impact. The little booger launched himself right onto me, knocking me onto my back. My head nearly hitting the wall. "Mason!"
"It time to wakey up!" he shouted cheerfully, he beamed at me, that sweet smile of his immediately changing my mood. How could I be annoyed with him? "I know it is, Mase, I'm awake. Tay-Tay's awake," I replied and kissed his forehead. He had always called me 'Tay-Tay' and claimed it was easier and more fun to say than "Taylor'. I sat up again, wrapping my arms around him as he slid his around my neck. His brown eyes stared excitedly back up into my pale blue ones. "Its today, its today!" He was shaking with excitement. "It my firwst day 'o schoooool! I in kinda' garten now!" I stood up, holding him close as I walked out of my room and down the hall. "You are in Kindergarten. You're a big boy now," I agreed and he giggled. "I A BIG BOY, I A BIG BOY!"
In the Kitchen, I found my mother, standing over the stove cooking her big first day of school breakfast.
Tawnya Atkins was a good looking woman, for a thiry-four year old mom. Her blonde hair was in ringlets down to her shoulders, her blue eyes always bright and wistful. I rarely ever saw my mom without a smile on her face, which was surprsing to me, considering the circumstances. We lived in a little ranch house, in the small town of Lancaster, Ohio. My mom was single, now. Dad had left us when Mason was born, not wanting to raise any more kids. We have no idea where he is, if he is alive or dead and I could honestly care less. Mom was fine now too. She missed him a lot at first, and struggled to raise Mason on her own. Back then, I was eleven and found my own ways of making money to help out. Hosting my own little front yard bake sales and things like that. A little bit more extravagant than the usual lemonade stand. We were able to get by and my mom had been taking college classes throughout the years when she could and finally got a degree in education. She was a teacher at my high school, she taught Honors English for all grades except ninth. I would actually have her as a teacher this year. Mom owed a lot of loans back for her schooling but with my help, we'd eventually pay it off and she'd be home free. I blame this all on my dad, I don't understand why a father would abandon his family and leave his wife stranded and his own flesh and blood without a dad. It disgusted me, which was why when he left and my mom filed for divorce I demanded my last name be changed from 'Sawyer' to 'Atkins'. There was no way I was living life with that a*****e's last name.
"Good morning mom," I said as I set Mason down in his chair by the kitchen table and took a seat for myself. "Good morning sweetie, you excited for your first day of school as a Junior?"
"Not really," came my tired reply.
"Not even with me as your english teacher?" she asked, glancing at me as she brought two plates over to the table and set them down in front of Mason and me.
"Don't flatter yourself," I joked and perked up a bit at the sight of food. It was bacon, eggs, and sausage. I know some girls liked to watch their weight or whatever, but eating salads all the time wasn't my thing. I loved food, I didn't care what I ate and I exercised enough that my figure was fine. I probably was one of the more skinnier girls in my grade anyway. Not that I really cared what I looked like. Peoples opinions didn't matter to me, I just didn't bother paying attention to those things.
Mom rolled her eyes, "Thanks for the support dear," she joked back but sounded serious.
"You're welcome." Wasn't I such the loving daughter? All right. Sarcasm aside.
Mason started eating his eggs with his hands, causing mom to smack him lightly on the back of his head. "Use your fork," she scolded him softly.
Mason looked up at her innocently, "But it funner to eat like 'dis!" he exclaimed, I held back a laugh."That's not how you're supposed to eat. I thought you knew that already? Well, if you don't want to eat like a civilized young man then I suppose you aren't ready for your first day of Kindergarten," she threatened.
His jaw dropped and his brown eyes grew wide, "Nuh-uh! I still go!"
"Not if I don't take you," she added.
"You wouldn't do 'dat!" he glanced at me helplessly, and I held my hands up in a gesture of defeat. Showing him he was on his own on this one. I knew mom wasn't being serious, he would be turning six this December and was more than ready to go to school. Mason didn't know this.
A smile appeared on mom's features when Mason picked up his fork and began to eat like a 'civilized young man'. She patted his head fondly, "That's better. I suppose you're ready to go to school." Mason smiled again, and the rest of breakfast was uneventful.
After breakfast, I retreated to the bathroom to take my morning shower. When I finished, I stepped out and wrapped a towel tightly around myself and started blow-drying my hair. My hair was a pain. It was long and blonde and thick, flowing down to the middle of my back. All my friends adored my hair, especially my closest friend Whitney Morghans who always complained about her shoulder length brown hair. Going on and on about how bland and average it was. I would trade my hair for her's in a heartbeat. The joys of being a brunette, one of the crowd. And her hair was so thin and short, imagine how easy that would be to style and maintain! I finished blow drying my hair and did a quick two minute brushing and flat ironing job on it. A smacked on a bit of mascara and lip gloss and I was good to go. In my bedroom I slipped on fresh lingerie, a pair of dark skinny jeans and a simple Aeropostale T-shirt. Blending in was my thing.
Glancing at the pink watch I always wore on my wrist, it was now 6:44, class began at 7. Looking out my window, I saw mom already putting Mason in the car, struggling to get him to calm down long enough to strap him into the carseat. I grabbed my bookbag off the floor and slipped on a pair of flip flops, I headed out the door ready for my first day of hell.
~~~~~
Twenty minutes later I was sitting in my first period of the day, Social Studies with Mrs. Hitch. I had stolen a seat at the back of the room, beside my best friend Whitney, luckily we were in a lot of classes together. The whole class was chaos, the teacher wasn't in the room and yet and there was a good twenty five or so kids in there. Being a Junior, it was easy to block out the commotion and focus on talking with Whitney.
"Can you believe it? Summer's over! Never thought I'd see the day! Feels like its still June 1st!" she said loudly over the noise. I nodded in agreement, twas a horrible shame, summer was over and here we sat in this wretched classroom!
"Had to end eventually. You ever met this Mrs. Hitch?" I inquired.
"She's new here!" a new voice piped in, it belonged to Cameron Lowry, one of the football jocks here at my school; Fairfield Union. He was one of the good looking guys, a Junior, brown hair with matching brown eyes. He was muscular and the captain of the football team, currently single yet held and on and off relationship with the most popular girl in school and my sworn enemy, Trinity Block. She thought she was the s**t, she was highly mistaken.
"Hey Cam," I greeted as he plopped down in the desk in front of mine. He had the usual smirk on his face. I bet she's ugly if she's teaching social studies. The only hot ones are the ones that teach english!"
"So you're saying you gotta' a thing for my mom?" I asked, raising my eyebrows.
He looked at me like I had just slapped him across the face. "I'm talkin' about the young chics. Straight outta' college chics."
Whitney waved her hand in front of his face to gain his attention. "Thought you were dating Trinity?"
His face fell upon hearing her name, "Nah. She broke up with me over the summer, said that my football was a bigger priority than she was and if thats how it was gonna be then I wasn't worthy of her time."
"Not banging her enough for her likings?" I guessed, not really joking either. I'm sure they'd done it together before, knowing Trinity, the s**t.
He shook his head rapidly. "No! I wasn't tryin' ta' ignore her, its just I had two-a-day football practices and they're mandatory and.... "
I held up my hands, "I get it. You love football. Its understandable, you're the best on the team and you have to be realiable and look good in front of the coach." I'd heard it all before. Cameron had a way of repeating himself.
"Anyways, she was just being totally unreasonable. We coulda' hung out around my schedule but she didn't want to have none of it," he exclaimed.
Whitney sighed, "That sounds like Trinity. Cam, I don't understand why you date her, you deserve better. Like Taylor here."
I stiffened up a bit, "No no no no, we're just friends. Whitney, you know I'm not on terms with the whole dating thing."
Whitney leaned in closer to me. "Its just because you haven't met the right guy yet, or have gotten to know the right guy. Maybe Cam is that guy," she whispered fiercely.
My friends were always trying to hook me up, but I wasn't the typical high school girl. I'd never had a boyfriend in my life. Its not like my parents were holding me back or anything. I only had one as far as I was concerned and she trusted me fully. The choice was all mine. It wasn't like I was one of those 'stay pure till marriage' types. Not that I'd be going out and having sex left and right with any poor misguided boy that managed to seduce me either. Dating just wasn't my thing. I'd never had my first kiss, my first date, my first banging and it wasn't on my list of things to accomplish.
"Taylor, please?" Whitney begged.
I shook my head. "No, you know boys aren't my thing. I'm not one of those girls who-... " my well rehearsed speech was cut short with the loud clapping of hands. Glancing towards the front of the room, I saw a fairly ugly woman standing at the front of the room. She had to be atleast fifty, and she was all wrinkly and gray haired. She had to be a grandma, no doubt about it. She even had glasses on the end of her nose like those nasty bitchy librarians in the movies. No way could she be...
"I'm Mrs. Hitch, and I'll be your social studies teacher for the year. I transferred here from Amanda Clearcreek when they had to make a few cuts," she began.
Cameron turned back and whispered to me, "She'd be the first I'd get the hell outta' my school too."
I smirked in agreement, her beady old eyes focused back on us. Cameron turned back towards her and gazed at her innocently. I sat straight and tall and pretended to be completely focused on what she was saying. "I'm hoping this class doesn't cause any problems for me this year," her gaze bore down right on us, mostly at Cameron as she said this. I could see Cam stiffen up in his chair, his dislike for our new teacher was obvious. She went on and on about what she expected out of us this year and began to pass around her rules which she expected us to sign to prove that we wouldn't be an issue for her. When she set the rules sheet down in front of Cam, she leaned down close to him. "You're not gonna give me any trouble, are you, mister?"
I didn't know what the 'mister' crap was all about, no one I knew ever said that except my mother when she was scolding Mason.
"No ma'am," Cameron said quickly and signed his rules. She collected it from him, "Good, because I've taught your kind before. Good looking, bull-headed, and athletic. You all got big mouths and a lot of arrogance. I've whipped 'em all into shape within a matter of days, hopefully you're not gonna have to deal with that, now are you?" Mrs. Hitch asked him sharply.
He shook his head.
Mrs. Hitch nodded tautly and moved on to me, not saying a word as I signed the rules and handed them back to her. When she was a ways away Cameron turned back to me with a scared look on his face.
"There's your out of college girl," I joked, holding back a giggle.
He frowned at me, "No way man. Mrs. Hitch," he scoffed. "I but she ain't neva' gotten hitched in her life!" he sounded exasperated.
Whitney, who had been listening put a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing out loud and Cameron quickly turned back around and faced the front, fearing that Mrs. Hitch had noticed them again. Lucky for them all she was making her way back to the front of the classroom, she must be so old that she couldn't hear that well. Which only made it better for us. Cameron behaved himself the rest of the period, I listened absently to Mrs. Hitch's rant about what she had planned for us for this year and practically shot out of my seat when that bell rang.
All the students made a mad dash for freedom, Whitney, Cam, and I quickly stepped out into the hall. "Glad thats over with," Whitney breathed a sigh of relief. Social studies would no doubt be hell this year.
"I'll catch y'a guys later, I'm gonna go talk with Trinity and see if she can forgive me," he said, already walking down the hall.
"Don't get b***h slapped on the first day!" I called after him and he turned around and flipped me off teasingly before disappearing around the corner.
"He's so insane," Whitney began. "This is the third year in a row he's been dealing with Trinity. Why can't he move on?"
I rolled my eyes. "Whitney, boys are stupid."
"He needs a little help! Who else is gonna give it to him other than us?" she asked, perplexed.
"Whit! Its the first day of school! Don't worry about it. They'll be making out in the janitor's closet by the end of the day anyway. You know it, and I know it, so let's forget about him."
Whitney was boy crazy, it was all about boys, boys, boys! Especially Rafe Harris, her boyfriend of three months. They'd started dating at the beginning of the summer, June 3rd to be exact. I remember the day because she didn't shut up about him for three weeks straight until I told her she was starting to drive me crazy!
She sighed, but reluctantly agreed. "All right. Lets go find Cassie, we always meet by your locker on the first day of school." At Fairfield Union, Students were assigned lockers for all four years and I was lucky enough to get a top one so I didn't get stepped on. All three of us always met there to share schedules and catch up on things even though we probably saw each other a million times during the summer. Together, we walked a little ways down the hall and found Cassie waiting impatiently by my locker. She grinned at us when she spotted us and was bouncing with excitement by the time we made our way over. "There you guys are! I thought you forgot about our little meeting spot! Anways, have I got knews for you! There is a new dude. Junior. And sexy hot! He's also in my Science class! Wait till you see him! You'll forget all about Cameron Lowry! This guy is the new 'thing'!" she rambled on and on without even bothering to say hello. Cassie MacDonald, she was the hyper one of our trio, and she got annoying at times. Whitney and I had both learned to deal. Without Cassie, our group wouldn't feel complete, and we wouldn't have all the latest gossip.
Whitney was practically ecstatic. Asking a thousand questions to which Cassie answered them all. "Whats his name? How tall is he? His hair? His eyes? Is he muscular? What about his a*s? Is he hot enough to be an Abercrombie model?" she inquired.
"Whitney! You have a boyfriend! It doesn't matter!" I said flatly.
"But if he's good enough, I can set him up with you!" she retorted, her eyes flashing with determination.
"Its not gonna happen," I told her sincerely.
Cassie ignored me. "His name is Cade West," she began. Whitney let out a girly squeal, "Cade? Thats so sexy!"
Cassie nodded, "Let me finish, babe. He's probably around 5'10, at least. He's got the most adorable floppy brown hair. Its all over the place like he just rolled out of bed. His eyes are one of the best parts. They are this striking bright brown and they almost look amber. I've never seen anything like it. He is built even sexier than Cam. He is soooo muscular and I bet he is hiding a six pack under his black T-shirt."
"He wears black?" Whitney frowned a bit.
"Yeah. All black, even has a pair of shades that he didn't take off until Mrs. Ranniger told him to. But he's not gothic, not one bit."
Whitney raised her eyebrows, "And the state of his a*s?"
"Amazing. Its the cutest thing I've ever seen and it looks so nice in his jeans and I just... " I interrupted Cassie. "ENOUGH! Why does his a*s even matter? I mean seriously! Its a butt! Everyone has one!"
Cassie and Whitney both rolled their eyes at me. "Its very important, Taylor. If a guy has a cruddy a*s then there really is no point in seducing them."
"Seducing?" I said slyly. "Seriously?"
"Yeah! Why try to win their affection when they have a saggy a*s!" Whitney clarified.
"Its not like it matters! Whitney, you're dating Rafe. Cassie, you refuse every guy that asks you out and I'm not the dating type. None of this matters. I'm sure one of Trinity's crew will swoop in and steal him anyway, so don't get your panties in a twist!" I said, hoping to get through to my friends. The first week always went like this.
Cassie almost looked pained. "I wouldn't say no to this hunk. Not that he'd give me the time or day. I'm fat."
"You are /not/ fat!" Whitney and I both said in unison. Cassie had a tiny, super super tiny belly in the front that was barely noticable and she was convinced she was fat.
Cassie shook her head. "Don't try to flatter me."
Whitney pressed on, "Stuff it, Cass. You're not fat but that isn't the subject of the matter. The whole point is, if this guy is as sexy as you describe him and he's not a goth or a total jerk, then he would be perfect for Taylor."
Cassie nodded, "He seems like a total sweetie, and he almost looked a bit innocent and sensitive."
The two of them both 'awwweeeddd' at that. I was disgusted. I could not believe these two.
The last minute bell rang, my friends quickly snapped out of their girly girl modes and we shared schedules for a few moments. We all had different classes the next three periods but we shared Lunch together for fifth period and Cassie was in my Seventh period class. Whitney was also in my eighth period class, the final one of the day. We said quick goodbyes and decided we would meet each other here after fourth period so we could pick our table together in the cafeteria. It was nearly impossible to find your friends in that chaotic lunchroom. I departed, heading for my second period class which happened to be english with my very own mother. How exciting. I was embracing myself for total embarrassment. Hopefully my mother knew better than to do anything stupid.
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