JeromeASF's Little Sister

Ch. 9 : School

Sydney's POV
After about 10 minutes, we pulled up to a Staples store. The red SUV pulled into the parking spot next to us. We all got out and walked into the store. Jerome grabbed a shopping cart and pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket. The other guys disappeared towards the computer section but Jerome made me stay with him to get the supplies. We got all the normal stuff like pencils, pens, binders, notebooks, a backpack, and other stuff. Finally, we rounded up all the guys and paid for the stuff. We got back into the cars and drove home.
--time skip until Monday--
"Syd! Sydney! Come on, get up." Someone shook me awake early Monday morning.
I opened my eyes to see Jerome standing to the side of my bed.
"It's too early." I groaned.
"Come on, you have to get up for school." Jerome said.
"I don't wanna go to school." I mumbled, still not getting up.
"I have a surprise for you when you get home from school, but you actually have to go, to get the surprise." Jerome countered.
"Ugh, fine." I said.
"Good." Jerome smiled.
He left my room and I changed out of my pajamas and into a black, long sleeve shirt that had the Hollister logo on it and a pair of jeans. I put on my converse and walked downstairs. No one was up except for Mitch and I. I wonder where Jerome went. Mitch was standing at the toaster cooking frozen waffles. Mitch handed me a plate with 3 waffles on it. I sat at the counter and ate them. Mitch yawned and sat down next to me. He put his head down.
"You okay?" I asked him.
"I'm not a morning person." He mumbled without looking up.
"Neither am I." I said.
Mitch looked up at me and grabbed a waffle off my plate. Oh well.
"Do you know where Jerome is?" I asked, taking another bite.
"He went back to bed." Mitch replied, taking a bite of the waffle he stole.
"What? That's unfair. He tells me to get up yet he goes back to bed?" I asked.
Mitch nodded.
"Then who's driving me to school?" I asked, starting on my second, and final, waffle.
"That unlucky person would be me which is why I am the only other person awake." Mitch replied, finishing the waffle he stole from me.
"At least you don't have to go to school and do stuff." I said.
"I've lived through all of my school years and I actually do work. YouTube is my work." Mitch stated.
"Oh whatever." I finished my waffle and put my plate in the dishwasher.
"Oh crap! Come on, get your stuff ready, it's time to go." Mitch said while standing up.
I ran upstairs, grabbed my backpack and my phone and ran back downstairs. Mitch was standing next to the front door with a set of car keys in his hand.
"You ready?" He asked.
I nodded and we walked outside. We got into the black SUV and we drove for about 10 minutes until we pulled up to a large, one story, brick building. A sign out front read 'Ridge Middle School'. Mitch went into the line of cars dropping students off.
"Here's your schedule, locker number, and combo." He handed me a half sheet of paper with an index card paper-clipped to it.
I took the paper.
"I know this is going to sound cliche, but have a good first day." He smiled.
"Thanks Mitch." I gave him a small smile before opening the car door.
"One of us will text you this afternoon when we're here to pick you up." Mitch said.
"Okay." I replied.
"I know you're not my sister but it kinda feels like you are. Love you, Syd." He said.
"Love you too, Mitch. Thanks for the ride." I said.
"No problem. Alright, have a good day." He replied.
"Bye." I got out of the car and followed the rest of the students into the building.
I walked down the hallway marked '8th Grade'. I found my locker but there were a bunch of guys leaning and crowding around it. They were talking to the guy whose locker was to the right of mine.
"Excuse me." I said.
No one moved.
"Excuse me." I said louder.
Finally, one of the guys looked at me.
"What?" He asked.
"Um, that's my locker." I pointed at the one he was leaning on.
"Are you new here?" He asked.
I nodded. He nudged the others and they moved over. I put in the combo and took everything I would need for my first class which was Language Arts. The boys were still there when I closed my locker. I ignored them and went towards my class. The teacher, Mrs. Stoll, was standing at the door, greeting students. She stopped me and looked down at the clipboard in her hands.
"Are you Sydney?" She asked.
I nodded.
"Well, hello! I'm Mrs. Stoll. You can take a seat next to Sarah. She's the brown haired girl with glasses on the far side of the classroom. Do you see her?" She asked.
I nodded and walked into the room. I went over to 'Sarah'. She was talking with a light-blonde haired girl, and a girl who had brown hair with blue tips. They stopped talking and looked at me as I sat down next to Sarah.
"Are you new here?" Blonde girl asked.
I nodded.
"Hi, I'm Rachel Manson." She extended her hand.
"I'm Sydney." I said quietly as I shook her hand.
I am always shy around new people.
"I'm Ariana Stratton." Brown hair with blue tips said.
"And I'm Sarah Walters." Sarah said.
"What's your last name, Sydney?" Ariana asked.
"My last name is Aceti and you guys can call me Syd, it's easier."
"I feel like I've heard that name before." Sarah said.
"Anyways, what do you like to do, Syd?" Ariana asked.
"I like to sing, draw, play video games and play soccer." I replied.
"Cool." Sarah said.
Mrs. Stoll walked in and began teaching the new vocabulary words. She handed me a vocabulary book. After Language Arts, I went to Art, then Science, Social Studies, then Math. I walked into Math with Sarah and as soon as we sat down, the teacher gave us a pop quiz. I finished quickly. I walked up to Mr. Kassalow's desk and handed him my quiz. I went back to my desk and began drawing in my notebook. I drew a detailed eye. 10 minutes later, Sarah finished. As she was coming back to her desk, which was right next to mine, a folded post-it landed on my desk. I opened it. It read 'how did you finish so fast?! Cool drawing btw'. I looked up and saw Sarah staring at me. I flipped the note over and wrote 'idk, and thx' I handed the note back. People finally started finishing the quiz with 15 minutes left in the period. After 10 minutes, Mr. Kassalow began handing back the quizzes.
"Highest grade was a 100, lowest grade was a 30." He said glumly as he handed the papers back.
My paper was the last one he handed back.
"Well done, Ms. Aceti." He said as it landed on my desk.
There was a '100' written in the upper right corner. I smiled.
"What'd you get?" Sarah asked as the bell rung, signaling the end of class.
"100. You?" I replied.
"88. How'd you get a 100?" She asked as we walked out of the classroom.
I shrugged.
"Okay, well, it's time for lunch. Come on, you can sit with me." Sarah smiled.
We put our stuff away in our lockers and walked to the cafeteria. We got our lunch from the food lines and I followed her towards a table in the corner that was kinda isolated from the other tables. There were 5 other people there already and 3 open seats. Sarah and I sat down in two of the empty seats. At the table, there was a redhead, a blonde, a girl who was in my science class, and 2 Asian girls.
"Guys, this is Sydney. She's new here." Sarah said, "Syd, this is Grace Schroder, Taylor Hearth, Caitlin Jones and Alyssa Miller." She introduced.
"Hi." They all said.
"Hi." I said quietly.
"What's your last name?" Grace asked.
"Aceti."
"I think I've heard that before. Do you have an older brother or sister?" Caitlin asked.
"Yeah, I have an older brother."
"Tell us a little bit about you." Taylor said.
"Uh, well, there's not much to tell. I'm 13, I like to sing, play soccer, and draw. But I'm not really good at any of them. And I know this is kinda nerdy, but I like playing video games and watching YouTube." I said.
"What video games?" Caitlin asked.
"All. I don't know if you guys know this game but, I like to play Minecraft." I said.
"Everyone knows that game but most don't still play it." Alyssa said.
"I still play it." Sarah replied.
"Really?" I asked.
She nodded.
"What do you watch on YouTube?" Grace asked.
"A group of Minecraft YouTubers, actually. The Pack, which I doubt you guys know." I answered.
"I watch them." Sarah said.
"Me too." Grace smiled.
"Who's your favorite?" I asked.
"Um, Jerome or Lachlan." Sarah said.
"Jerome, Mitch, or Vikk." Grace replied.
"Really?" I asked.
They nodded. Suddenly, Sarah's eyes went wide.
"Jerome is your- holy shit." Sarah said.
"What?" Everyone asked.
"That's why your name is so familiar." Sarah said as she looked at me.
"Wait, what? I'm so confused." Grace said.
Everyone looked confused.
"Jerome is your brother, isn't he?" Sarah asked.
I nodded.
"That's why you looked familiar! I remember seeing you in his video!" Grace said.
I took a bite of my pizza as the two of them started freaking out.
"Honestly, how did none of his fans know about you? Why are you new here?" Sarah bombarded me with questions.
"Well, you see, our parents divorced when I was less than a year old and Jerome stayed with my dad in Jersey while my mom took me and went to Pennsylvania. My mom had remarried so I have a stepdad and 2 stepbrothers. I didn't even know Jerome was my brother until last week. My mom never told me about him." I explained.
"So, wait, you live with your brother now, right?" Alyssa asked.
I nodded.
"What about your mom?" She asked.
"She, uh, she died a few years ago. Since Jerome is now 21, and he's my only blood family, I'm living with him now." I explained.
Finally, I got through lunch, then guide, and gym, and finally I made it to French. Sarah was in every single one of my classes and we either sat next to each other or at least near each other. In French, Madame Burke, the teacher, assigned us a partner project. I looked at Sarah and she looked at me. We were immediately partners. For the project, we had to plan out a vacation to Paris. We had a budget of 2,000 dollars and we had to go to at least 8 historical sites in Paris. Sarah and I started working on it immediately. We worked for the entire class period but we didn't make a whole lot of progress. With a few minutes left of class, we shut down our laptops.
"So, you wanna come over to my house tomorrow so we can work on this?" Sarah asked.
"I'll ask Jerome." I said.
She grabbed a piece of paper and wrote something down.
"Here, text me what he says." She handed me the paper.
I looked down and saw that she had written her phone number on it.
"Okay." I put the paper in my pocket as the bell rung.
Sarah and I walked towards our lockers. I put in my combo and opened my locker. I had gotten all of my textbooks today so my bag was very heavy as I put my arm through the strap. I pulled out my phone and walked outside. I quickly put Sarah's contact into my phone as I walked past the buses and towards the cars waiting to pick up students. My phone buzzed. I got a text message from Rob. It read 'hey Syd, I'm in the pick up line, in the blue and silver car, 8th in line'. I looked towards the cars and a blue and silver Shelby Cobra immediately caught my attention. It was the only blue and silver car I saw. I counted how many cars were in front of it. Sure enough, the Shelby Cobra was 8 cars in. Some people had stopped and stared at the car. I walked towards the car and saw that the principal of the school, Mr. Cook, was talking to Rob, who was in the driver's seat. I was about four feet away when Rob noticed me.
"Hey, Syd." He said.
Mr. Cook turned to me and seemed confused.
"Hi, Rob. Hi, Mr. Cook." I said politely.
"Robert, do you and Miss Aceti know each other?" Mr. Cook asked.
"Yes, her older brother is one of my roommates. He asked me to come get her." Rob explained.
"Oh! Well, I guess I'll let you two get going then. I'll see you tomorrow, Sydney. As for you Robert, have a good day. Come back and visit sometime." Mr. Cook stepped away.
"I will, Mr. Cook." Rob smiled.
I got in the car and Rob pulled away from the curb.
"So, how do you know the principal?" I asked.
"He was the principal when I went to school here." He replied.
"Oh." Was all I said.
"How was your first day?" He asked.
"It was fine, I guess." I replied.
"Fine? That's all I get?" He said.
"Yeah, it was fine." I repeated.
We were quiet for the rest of the ride. After 10 minutes, we finally pulled up to the house. We both got out and walked inside. I went up to my room to start my homework. I sat down on my bed and began doing the large amount of homework I had. Every teacher had given out at least 2 pages of homework. After about 2 hours, I had finally finished. I put my pencil down and sighed out of relief.