Oh Joy (On Hold)

Oh Joy: Chapter 2 (Picture of Luke)

Oh joy

Chapter 2: School days go by fast? I wish.

A boy leaned over to me in the middle of class, a bright smile adorned on his face. He was tan and skinny, with freckles and brown hair.

"That girl glaring at you? Don't mind her. She hates everybody."

I smiled shyly and nodded. "Thanks."

"I'm Shaun, you're Dagen, right?"

"Yeah, just moved here from Philly two days ago."

The smile on Shaun's face became larger. "Philly? That's all the way across the country! Wow, the jet lag must suck."

"Nah, it's not too bad, Oregon's only about 3 hours slow. I do miss home though."

The teacher walked over and leaned down. "I DO hope you're talking about the math homework. You are, aren't you?"

Shaun and I leaned back into our seats, nodding sheepishly. she smiled. "Good." And with that she walked back to the front of the room.

The rest of the school day was easy; Nobody really talked to me except Shaun and two others; Tammy and Clara, Shaun's friends. I had 3 classes with Shaun, 2 with Tammy, and 4 with Clara. The only class I didn't have with any of them was photography.

When lunch came around I hopped out of my seat, gathering up my things. I walked through the crowded hallways to my red locker and unlocked it, stuffing my books and binder in and grabbing the money out of the side pocket for lunch.

I grabbed lunch and deposited my money. I looked around the large cafeteria to find Shaun and the girls, along with a couple others, in a table at the corner. I smiled and went over to them, sitting at the spot next to Shaun.

"Everyone, this is Dagen, the new chick. She's a bit shy, so don't be too hard on her." He laughed, clapping my shoulder. I smiled slightly and looked down. The boy next to me leaned down, whispering in my ear.

"Remember me?"

I jumped, looking to my right. Luke smile and me and waved. I smiled.

"I ran into you in the hallway this morning."

Luke laughed, running a hand through his black hair. "Yeah, you did."

Luke introduced me to everyone else; Clark; who was a boy my height with blonde hair and blue eyes, and Jay; Clark's identical twin. The only difference was that Jay's hair had an orangey-red tint to it, and he was more talkative. I ate my lunch happily, chatting occasionally and laughing at the guys' jokes. I was just glad I'd made friends already.

The next half of the day was really effortless; all my classes were simple, and Jay had photography with me. Right now we were focusing on taking pictures of single objects. I took pictures of a plant they had in the room, and Jay took pictures of a single leaf on the same plant. Every once in a while he'd snap a picture of me, teasing me that my concentration faces were too funny.

When the day ended I walked out of the classroom with Luke and we headed to our lockers. I looked over to Luke's to find that his was covered with pictures of football players. I giggled.

"You like FOOTBALL?" I asked. He did't strike me as the jock type.

Luke laughed, shaking his head. "My locker partner is on the freshman team. All these pictures are his."

I nodded, shutting my door and slinging my bag over my shoulder. We walked out to the side entrance to wait for ourbuses with the rest of the group. Clara rode my bus, and Tammy was going home with her. They sat behind me, leaning over to chat over the roar of the bus. I didn't tell them much about me, they knew I was shy, so they didn't ask. I was glad, I'm not really the type to talk about myself.

My mom was there when I got home, and so was my older brother Taz. He's a junior. Taz had his own car, so he didn't need to go on the bus. My mom looked up from the TV and smiled.

"Hi honey, how was your day?"

"Good, I have a bunch of homework though, so I have to go work on that."

My mother nodded and went back to watching her show. My brother was immersed in some 360 game in the basement, and gun shot noises drifted upstairs. I Climbed up the creamy white carpeted staircase and into my room, collapsing into my dish chair after throwing my shoulder bag onto my bed. I whipped out my phone to find two new text messages; one from Clara, and one from Jay.

Clara: Hey Dage! Wanna come hang out with Me and Tammy later?

I texted back a yes immediately.

Jay: Hey Dagen! What's up?

Me: Nothin much, just got home, you?

Jay: Hangin out with Clark playin video games

Me: nice xD

Jay: You goin to Clara's later?

Me: yeah

Jay: Cool. I gotta go, Clark's winning

Me: K, bye!

I settled back into my chair, grabbing the book I'd been reading earlier off the floor. It was the latest in the house of night series, one of the many vampire books I was addicted to. What can I say, they're extremely entertaining.

Tammy texted a little later saying Clara and her wanted me to come over now, and sent me the address. I slipped on a jacket and walked a couple streets down and to a large brown and grey house.

I knocked on the door and was dragged in by an exuberant Tammy. She lead me into a large open living room with multiple couches and aflat-screenTV. Luke, Clark, Jay, Clara, and Shaun sat on the couches, laughing and eating chips from family sized bags. I smiled and sat down on the couch next to Jay, who smiled brightly and offered me the bag of Cheetos. I grabbed a handful and began munching on them as i tuned into the movie that was on screen. it was some comedic movie, and I immediately began laughing with everyone else.

After a while my eyes began to droop, I looked down to my phone to see it was almost ten. I was supposed to be home by eleven, so I tuned back into the movie. Slowly, my eyes closed and I fell asleep.

I was awoken by someone shaking me softly. "Day, wake up!"

My eyes fluttered open to see Jay looking down at me, his blue eyes soft. I smiled lazily.

"Hey, it's almost eleven, Don't you need t go home soon?" He spoke softly. I nodded, stretching and getting up. Giggles erupted from the other side of the room.

"You two done snuggling?" Luke teased.

My head snapped over to him and I stuck my tongue out, blushing. I guess I'd drifted to sleep against Jay's shoulder. I started towards the door, calling goodbye. I wrapped my jacket tighter around me as I strolled home.

When I neared my house, I saw my dad walking in the middle of the street. How'd he get outside? I ran over to him.

"Daddy, are the voices talking again? Did they say something?" I grabbed his frail shoulders lightly.

He looked over at me. "He doesn't like you. Why doesn't he like my baby girl?" And with that he began to cry. I wrapped him into a hug, and pulled him back inside.

You see, My dad is schizophrenic.

"Mom, Dad got outside again!" I called to the upstairs.

My mother ran downstairs, shock on her face. "I thought he was in his room! Are the voices coming back?"

I nodded, handing my distressed father to my her. Shemurmured soothing words to him as she lead him up the stairs and into his room.

"We forgot to lock it after his meal." She announced quietly.

I stumbled up to my room, changed into my pj's, removed my makeup and brushed my teeth before crawling into bed. Overall, it had been a good day.

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~Lion