The Child Who Holds the Power

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"Josh?!"

Our eyes met and we moved towards each other instantly.

"Jezebel!" he exclaimed.

We reached each other and he gave be a tight hug.

"I told you so," he said smugly as he pulled away.

"What?" I asked laughing.

"I told you that we would be seeing each other soon. Remember the see you soon hug and now it's a hello hug. I was right," he explained.

I shook my head but was unable to not laugh. I couldn't believe this was happening.

"Wait how do you two know each other?" Chase asked confused.

"You know how I went to Australia for a few weeks with my parents? Well on the flight back to LA I sat next to Jezebel," Josh grinned.

"Huh, small world," Chase replied somewhat annoyed.

Josh held me at arm's length, "I see your wearing your favourite colour."

"Yeah, I was hoping it would give me good luck. Turns out it worked," I replied happily.

"So if you haven't guessed already but all these bozos are the football team," Josh explained.

"Hey, aren't you on the football team so aren't you calling yourself a bozo?" I asked pretending to act innocent.

He narrowed his eyes at me but couldn't keep a straight face. He was about to give a comeback when a group of four girls walked up to the football table. Anybody in high school would be able to recognise this group of girls. The popular girls. I was never a big fan of those sorts of girls because they always seemed mean.

The one which I guessed was the leader walked up to Josh, who was looking a little irritated that the group had shown up.

"Hey, Josh. How was your week in the land down under?" she asked seductively.

"Mmm, Courtney let me see. Australia is great, but I'd have to say the flight back was the most enjoyable part of the whole thing," he replied honestly.

This seemed to confuse Courtney slightly but I heard the true meaning to Josh's words. I smiled a little embarrassed but quietly happy that he liked being around me. I ducked my head slightly so Courtney wouldn't see me smiling.

"Um ok then. You must have been looking forward to seeing us again," she gestured to herself and the people around her.

Josh slightly tilted his head clearly enjoying messing with Courtney, "Hmm not really. The flight was great because I met a really awesome person."

I was biting the inside of my cheek now to stop myself from laughing.

"Oh, ok," Courtney replied abruptly.

Josh burst out laughing. Chase and some of the people who heard that Josh and I were sitting next to each other on the plane cracked up too. I couldn't hold in the laughter anymore so I started to laugh too.

Courtney took great offense to this, made a huff noise and then stalked off to where ever she had come from. It took a while for us all to settle down. And afterwards I felt a little bad for laughing like that at Courtney. So much for first impressions. The jocks didn't have any objections with me sitting with them. I think that was because that Josh seemed to be the kind of well-liked head of the chain.

Josh explained to me how to order from the menu and how the Cafeteria worked. Everything was really well done. Josh said the menu changed each day and that they had a different pasta each day. From our long flight together he knew what my favourite food was.

Around half way through lunch a different bunch of girls walked up to the football table. Josh got up to talk to them and he ushered me over.

One girl grinned at Josh, "Are you ready to get your ass kicked tomorrow Josh?"

He laughed, "My ass won't be getting kicked. Yours will be."

The girl looked at me, "You must be Jezebel. The word is that there's a new kid from Australia."

"Ah yep that would be me. Why are people getting their asses kicked?" I asked.

Josh cut the girl off, "My team won't be getting their ass kicked their team will be."

She rolled her eyes, "I'm Carly. The girls' soccer team is challenging the boy's football team to a game of soccer tomorrow and we're going to win."

Josh turned to me, "Didn't you say that you played soccer."

I held up my hands as if to ward him off, "Yeah, when I was like ten and I haven't played much since."

"You should play. We're one person down anyway," Carly said.

I gave her an unsure look, "I don't know. I haven't played for a while."

"Come on. It'll be fun and you'll be able to see that the football team aren't as great as everyone says they are," Carly persuaded.

I gave Josh a mischievous look, "I think I might just take you up on that offer."

From there Carly took me off to her table with the girls' soccer team and talked. She and her group were actually really nice to me. She asked what sort of skills I had. I told her I could play any position but I had a secret trick that I'd learnt years ago. Carly begged me to tell her what it was but I said she'd see it tomorrow. She narrowed her eyes suspiciously but we all laughed it off when I reassured her that it gave us an advantage.

Thankfully she was also a Sophomore and one of my classes.  The rest of the day passed pretty uneventfully and when I thought about it the day hadn't turned out all that bad. I went and found Courtney later in the day and apologised for laughing at her at lunch, which she seemed pretty happy about. She wasn't all that bad when I got talking to her.

Everybody seemed to be really nice to me. Everybody except for Carter who kept staring at me. You could tell he was staring because I got that feeling of being watched and it was really freaking me out. Besides that I went home after my first day feeling a lot more positive about going to school in LA.

Things were starting to look up.