My best friend's brother

Not again

I was shaking as I walked through the gates of the school, not because it was cold- which it was by the way- but because I had no idea of what was going to happen today.

New school, new town... Did I mention that I hate new things? There's just something so good and reassuring about old stuff. No wonder I hated my mom's job.

She was a branch manager at a big company which had branches all over the United States. Apparently they had this policy that the branch manager had to change every two years. So in every two years she uprooted me from the godforsaken place I was currently living in and dragged me to another godforsaken place.

It hadn't really bothered me at first. I didn't have any close friends and I had never wanted to make any. It started bugging me when I turned 14 and started noticing boys. That's when I came to realise the drawbacks of my nomad ways. I could never have a serious boyfriend, because in two years- lo and behold!- I'd vanish! I had dated a couple of guys, but I had never really let them in because I knew that it would lead nowhere. Yeah, my life kinda sucked that way.

But back to the matter in hand. It was my first day (again) as a Junior in yet another school. But this time I was shit scared. I had heard that high school could be tough. I had never really had to face that toughness in my last high school as the last town I had lived in had been one of those I-know-everyone-and-I-wave-and-smile-at-them-as-they-pass-by kind of towns. Suffice to say high school there hadn't been difficult. They practically fell over themselves trying to help me and mom. I personally kinda felt that the people there were a little too nice for my liking.

Well this place definitely didn't have the reputation of being 'too nice'. This is why I was dreading my first day in a real high school.

I walked in through the doors to find utter chaos in the hallway. People milling about their friend's lockers, looking at schedules, skateboarding through the hallway. Whew! This was a normal high school after all.

I relaxed my shoulders and walked to the locker I had been assigned the day before by the admin incharge. I quickly put my books in the locker and looked over my schedule. I had English as my homeroom. I asked a girl where English was and made my way to the class quickly.

There were a lot of empty seats when I entered the class. I looked at my options. I could sit behind that goth-looking girl or probably the guy with the cute curly hair or probably that goofy looking guy who seemed friendly. I had developed a good sense of reading people and how they'd accept me.

I finally decided to just sit in the first bench. "Nice T-shirt", the girl sitting behind me commented. I smiled at her compliment. I loved wearing cool slogan tees and according to an ex of mine I looked hot in fitted tees. Today my T-shirt read "Millions of men. Why animal testing?" I had paired it with my favourite skinny jeans.

"I'm Amanda," the girl behind me said, extending her hand. She was pretty with dark brown hair and brown eyes.

"Perry," I said. She was about to make some comment on my name when the teacher entered the class.

After homeroom, I headed off to my next class, giving a quick friendly nod in Amanda's direction. To my surprise she turned out to be in two of my classes.

"Give me your schedule," she said at the end of my second class with her.

"Oh my God! We are in all the same classes after lunch!" she said excitedly. She insisted that I have lunch with her at her table. There she was joined by a few other people who she introduced me to. They didn't look like they were worth my time and I promptly forgot their names. It was clear from how Amanda only talked to me during the entire lunch hour that she wasn't close to any of them.

Amanda was a really bubbly, chirpy girl. She proceeded to tell me how her summer was without any questions from my part. She was constantly smiling and asked questions about me- Why had I moved? Where was I from? I slowly began warming up to her. I couldn't help it. She had this natural charm that made me wanna be her friend.

The only time she lost her smile was when her friend- Louisa maybe?- asked her where her brother was. She stiffened and then said that he had managed to get a cold in the summers and had to stay at home for a day. I stared at her. What was all that about? Maybe she didn't like her brother or something.

But as she talked about her summer and how her brother-who was a senior in our school- had bugged her in the last three months, it didn't look like she felt anything but love and the normal sibling repulsion towards him. I thought maybe I had misread her expression earlier.

"Earth to, girl", she said waving her hand over my face. She had asked me a question while I had been thinking about all this.

"I'm sorry," I said sheepishly.

"Any plans for tonight?" she asked me.

"You are gonna make me admit that I've got no life here?!"

"Haha! That's what I thought. You're new to this town. I'm gonna take you to Gregorio's," she said.

"What's that?"

"What's Gregorio's? Only the most awesome pizza joint in the world!"

I rolled my eyes at that.

"Okay maybe not the world, but definitely this town," she conceded. "So tonight, at say about 6, to Gregorio's?" she asked.

"Its a school night. Won't we have like homework to do?" I asked.

"Babe, its the first day of school. High school ain't that brutal. I doubt you'll get much homework today."

She was right. After school when mom picked me up I asked her, "Mom, you mind if I go out with friends tonight? Actually not really friends, just this one friend... Amanda. "

"Yeah sure, honey. Just don't be late, its a school night."

"I'll be back by 11," I promised.

She nodded at that. My mom didn't impose a lot of curfews on me because she knew how difficult it was to make new friends year after year.

Amanda texted me to ask my address. We had exchanged numbers in the morning. I changed into a fitted shirt paired with my skinny jeans. I met her at the gate sharp at 6. I was always punctual and apparently so was she. She was dressed in a cute dress with ballet flats.

Gregorio's turned out to be a large pizza joint, probably the biggest in the town. It was loud and boisterous and half the crowd consisted of high school students laughing and shouting at the top of their lungs. I loved it!

On seeing the big smile on my face, Amanda turned to me and asked me excitedly, "You like it, huh?"

"Its okay," I muttered nonchalantly but my smile gave me away.

"Haha! I knew you'd love it. Come on, lets eat the best pizza this town has to offer," she said taking my arm and leading me to a booth.

"So what are your plans for college?" she asked me.

I shrugged. "Um I'm not really sure... I have some-" I broke off mid sentence as I saw a guy enter Gregorio's.

Woah! Hottie alert! I thought as I looked up into the eyes of the hottest guy I had ever seen. I'm not kidding. That guy could beat the likes of Zac Efron. He was that hot!

Amanda noticed my distraction just then and looked back. I was shocked to see her bored expression, when she turned back. "So... That's my obnoxious brother Josh." I'm pretty sure my jaw fell to the ground.

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