One Of The Boys

Chapter 1 - Avery

 Avery

  

     “Bryn! ¡Vuelve aquí! Usted necesita los pantalones!” 

 I took off running after my little sister with an exasperated groan, barrelling my way down the stairs as she paraded about the living room in her "Disney Princess" undies. Don't get me wrong, I love Bryn like crazy. She's my kid sistre and mi familia are all Mexcian, so we look out for one another. But sometimes this little chica could drive me up a wall and make me want to hit things - especially when she refused to wear pants.

  Bryn took a running leap and landed on the leather couch with an excited little peal of laughter, her brown ringlets a tangled mess.

  "Can't catch me, sissy!" Bryn taunted, sticking her tongue out at me.

I stopped short and went hands on hips, giving my little sister a raised eyebrow look.

 "I don't think so, hermana," I retorted with a frown. 

She made to take another leap off the couch, no doubt to run off to some other hiding place, but she was stopped almost immediately by the arrival of my little brother, Jason.

  Don't even get me started on Jason.

If Jason so much as even walked into a room where Bryn was, she immediately dropped whatever she was doing to attach herself to Jason's side and do whatever he asked of her.

  "JASON!" Bryn promptly shrieked before tossing herself into his arms.

"What's going on here, mi chava?" Jason asked Bryn, trying to sound stern.

  The whole scolding sibling thing would have worked if he hadn't looked like he was seconds away from bursting into laughter.

  It was no use trying to knock some sense into either of them, since they got into more trouble than I'd care to admit - and Bryn was only four.

   Being siblings, we all had similiar physical features, but we couldn't be more different. We all had the same dark hair, dark eyes, and lightly tanned skin. Jason was tall and lanky like our dad, whereas Bryn and I had softer, more delicate features, like our mother.

  I was a hard working, straight-A student who stayed out of trouble, knew what was expected of me, and did what I was told.

  Jason liked to screw off during class half the time, was a total ladies man, and rarely ever followed the rules.

  I'd long since gorwn out of my rebellious streak. Or at least I thought I had.

It was sort of hard to maintain a squeaky clean record when your best friends were five boys. 

 "This one here won't put on her pants," I told Jason, still hands on hips.

"Bryn," Jason sighed heavily. "It's you first day of school. You've gotta wear pants."

  "But I don't like pants!"

Bryn immediately started to whine and buried her face in Jason's shoulder.

  We were both working on coaxing Bryn into her pants when there were a few short knocks at the front door, catching my attention.

  I glanced over my shoulder in surprise and could see the blurry, distorted figure of someone standing out on the front porch through the stained glass on the front door. Wondering who on Earth it could be, I crossed the living room, unlocked the front door, and whipped it open.

  The guy outside standing on the front porch was freakishly tall, probably peaking out about 6'5''. His hair was long and dark, falling across his forehead in waves, occassionally flopping into his bright green eyes, and he was definitely whiter than me.

   A lot of girls fawned over him and thought he was the hottest thing to walk this planet (and believe you me, he was fully aware of this) but I just preferred to think of Justin Richards as one of my closest friends. Hell, maybe even a little brother, too, since there were times when I was tempted to kick his ass. 

  "Hey, Aves," Justin greeted me in a husky deep voice with his trademark smirk. "You ready to go?"

 I raised an eyebrow, crossing my arms over my chest. "Ready to go where exactly?"

  "There's this thing. It's called school? You know, the hell hole we're required to return to every year?"

  I went slack jawed and slapped a hand to my forehead.

Of course I knew that today was the first day of senior year - the beginning of the rest of our lives.

  But I'd been so caught up in trying to get my little sister ready for her first day of preschool, I'd barely even remembered that I needed to get ready myself.

  "Shit," I muttered under my breath. "Give me a second to get changed."

 Justin's smirk widened as he noticed that I clearly wasn't ready to leave.

  "Take all the time you want," he reassured me, holding up his hands in a defeated gesture. "Just, you know the guys are gonna give you shit for being all 'girly' and stuff."

  Almost as if they could hear our conversation, a baby faced guy with a buzz cut stuck hsi head out the window of the truck idling in the driveway to shout, "Hurry up, babe! We haven't got all day!"

  "Culero!" I shouted in response, flipping him the middle finger.

All the guys instantly cracked up laughing; falling about in their seats like this all was the funniest thing they'd ever seen.

  Or rather, Nick Petrolas and Jack Wilson burst into laughter.

The tall boy crammed into the front seat with dark brown curls, bright violet colored eyes, and a pale, handsome face was the only one that didn't laugh. He was staring at me with this look in his eyes that I didn't know how to read. There was a small curve at the corners of his full lips, making it seem like he was thinking about smiling. 

  I flushed bright red and immediately dropped my gaze to my feet. And then turned even redder at the fact that I was wearing tattered Superman pajamas that used to be Jason's.

  Don't get me wrong, I loved Justin's and the guys like they were my own flesh and blood - but damn it all to hell, because sometimes it got downright annoying being the only girl around them. Not to mention completely embarrassing.

  But I'd been treated like "one of the boys" for so long, they probably barely even realized that I was actually a girl. It was just like I was another one of their brothers, hanging out and being stupid like always.

  "I'll be right out," I blurted out hastily to Justin before turning around and dashing back into the house, slamming the door shut behind me.

  I leaned against the front door, trying to get my breathing under control, hoping that I wasn't about to keel over. This was absolutely pathetic. 

  I'd known Marshall Addison since I was in the freaking second grad.e

I'd seen him burst into tears when he'd dropped his ice cream on the sidewalk when we were seven. He'd seen me when I tripped and landed on my face during recess in the third grade.

  So why did everything have to change once we hit high school?

I muttered a string of obscenities under my breath while I dragged myself up the stairs to my room to go change into something presentable. Superhero pajamas would simply not do.

  I was going to have to try my hardest not to think too hard about anything today, I realized - especially about Marshall.

  But today, just like any other day, I was probably going to fail miserably at it.

  School sucked enough as it was, but it was exponentially worse when you happened to be head over heels for your best friend.