Patriot

Chapter Four {Elijah}

Beep, beep. Beep, beep. Beep, beep.

The monotonous tone of my alarm clock wakes me up, as well of the sight of my little sister Camryn at my door.

"Eli, get up! It's the first day of school!" She says peppily. Looking at her, she's wide awake and already ready for school because it's her first day of high school, of course she'd be excited. I'm sure she'll change her mind a few weeks in when she realizes how much getting up at six in the morning sucks. She probably isn't registering my groggy expression because she keeps talking anyway. "Mom said to hurry! She wants to take pictures and she made our favorite for breakfast!" Cam exclaims happily, and this gets me out of bed. Moms homemade cinnamon raisin bread is to die for, we love that stuff.

I walk over to my dresser and pull out some khaki pants and a maroon button down, one of our school colors. After brushing my teeth and fixing my hair I'm about ready for my last first day of high school, so I slide on my shoes and make my way downstairs where I'm greeted by my mom who, much like Camryn, is wide awake and all smiles.

"Honey you look so great! Oh, and your football bag is by the door so don't forget it when you leave!" She states, and I thank her and sit down at the bar for breakfast. While munching away at my toast, I wonder what this year is going to be like. Obviously after breaking things off with Carrie last week I'm going into senior year single. And everyone knows about my dad, so that'll come up I'm sure. At least I know something that will be 100%; football. Practice starts today and I'm just glad about that because it means I can get to know the new teammates that tried out last year and hopefully take my team to states since I'm the captain. I finish the last of my toast and orange juice and head on over to the door, while mom takes some photos of Cam and I before we leave.

"Bye mom, love you!" I say, giving her a hug and kiss and walking out to my car with Camryn. She waves to us as we get into my gray Ford F-150 and stays in the door frame until I pull out of the driveway. I turn the radio up on the country station, even though Camryn hates it, and roll the windows down.

"So, is high school, like, is it scary?" She stammers out. Ahh, I remember my first day jitters too. Nothing to really be quite worried about though. I wait until a read light and look over at my sister and smile.

"I wouldn't be worried, kid. Listen, you've got all your friends and you'll make tons more. Plus, since you already made varsity cheer you'll be after school whenever I am and you'll never have to take the bus." I laugh and so does she, because honestly the buses are the worst, especially when you're a freshman. "You'll do great, Camryn." I tell her and ruffle up her hair a little bit.

"Hey, don't mess with the hair! I got up early to do this!" She scolds me and flips the mirror down to make sure everything is just perfect. "You wouldn't want me to mess up your hair!" Well, that is true. Oh well, she's my little sister, of course I'm going to annoy her.

After a few more minutes with just the radio playing, I pull into the school parking lot. WR High School stands tall in front of us, Cam looking up at it with with eyes. I hear her mutter out a little "woah" but I know she'll be just fine. If I didn't think she'd be fine, I'd let her know. We exit the car and walk up to the school together, going out separate ways once we reach the inside.

Walking past the office, I notice a girl who I've never seen before. She looks old enough to be a senior, and there are two smaller girls next to her, probably freshman. I'm pretty involved with school activities, if I do say so myself, so I'm kind of surprised to not recognize this girl. She must be new. She seems shorter than me, with long brown hair done into soft curls and she's wearing a dress, with a hand port backpack slung over one shoulder. I can't get a good look at her face though because she's turned to one of the secretaries, Ms. Janett, probably asking about her schedule.

Who knows, maybe I'll see her around or maybe I won't.

Continuing through the crowded hallways, I see familiar faces and wave hi to my friends I saw just yesterday. After initially canceling on them last week, I made up for it by throwing a little end of summer party with some of my friends during the last week of summer. Pulling out my phone I check my schedule to see where I have homeroom and first block. I don't even bother going to my locker, I figured over these last few years it's easier to just leave everything in your backpack. My schedule loads and the teacher, subject, and room number pop up on my screen.

History
Room #213
Mr. Costello

Yes! I've heard so many great things about Mr. Costello, I'm so excited to have him. Luckily his class is just down the hall, so I keep walking and make my way into his room. I wave hello to him and introduce myself, then scan the room and see some of my friends in the front corner. Making my way over I take a seat next to them and we chat until the warning bell rings. Just as Mr. Costello is about to take roll, the girl from the office earlier walks in, taking a seat in the back. This time, I finally get a look of her face.

She's got these greenish looking eyes, full lips, and a little bit of makeup. Pretty cute, but I'm sure she's not interested. It would be like any other cliché high school movie, new girl hates the jock. Oh well, maybe I'll talk to her sometime. I did just break up with Carrie, so I don't want to move right on to the next girl, that'd just seem wrong.

Mr. Costello does roll call and I learn her name is Reagan DeLane. Ha, like President Reagan. I wonder if her parents were into presidents like my dad was, I immediately thought of that when her name was called. Throughout class she's raising her hand, not missing a beat with any of our teachers questions. She must really know her history, wow.
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History seemed to take the longest and soon the entire day passes by, until the final bell rings, dismissing everyone home. I say bye to my friends and head to the locker room, where all the guys are getting ready for our first after school practice.

"Yo Eli!" My best friend Dan walks up to me, bro-hugging me when he gets here. "Ready to take us to states, captain?" He says and I laugh, looking down at my feet.

"You better hope so man!" I say, because I really want to do that. We made it last year and won, so it'd be nice to hold that title for a second year in a row, especially being a senior and I want to make my dad proud. I make my way to an empty row of lockers and set my bag down, changing into all of my gear.

We all get outside and, after doing our jog around the field before track takes over, we all have our shirts off because of the sweltering LA heat. Even in September it's still in the 80's. A few girls from cheer are staring, even Carrie. I told my sister to stay away from her, she doesn't like Carrie either though, so I'm sure she'll listen.

Then I see the girl, Reagan, again but this time I'm not the one staring. As she's warming up with track for tryouts, she's looking dead at me.