Chapter Two
I abruptly awoke from my dreamless sleep only to the blaring sound of Ke$ha's song Tik Tok. Tahnee stretched out her arms from under her sheet and fiddled around with her phone until the song stopped.
"Morning," I reluctantly said, I am not a morning person at all,
"Morning, are you going to come for a jog with me this morning?" Tahnee asked excitedly while slipping her hair up into a pony-tail.
"Me? Running?" I laughed at this and stalked my way through her door and out into the kitchen. I sat myself down at the breakfast bar and immediately turned to glare at Aaron - Tahnee's older brother, and my older cousin - who was whistling some tune. Why is everyone in this family so happy in the morning?
"Morning, big day today" Aaron shot a smile in my direction but I chose to ignore it. Ugh, being half asleep had made me completely forget that today was my first day at Modbury High. I walked back into Tahnee's and my room, pulling out my new uniform.
I had purposefully bought a size to small, although I still felt the need to pull my skirt up just that little bit more. Black tights were mandatory to wear under the blue and red plaid skirt (now mini-skirt). The white button-up shirt was meant to be done up all the way, with the tie that matches the skirt, so tight it would choke you to death. Of course, me being me, I loosened the tie and un-did the first few buttons.
I started straightening my blonde hair when Tahnee came bursting through the door, huffing and puffing like a steam train.
"Hey, I'm just going to have a quick shower. Oh and Aaron said he was going to take us to school today," Tahnee grabbed a few things from her wardrobe and left the room once more.
I continued straightening my hair, and started putting on some make-up when Tahnee came back into the room - she wasn't kidding when she said it would be a quick shower.
We finished getting ready in silence and headed outside towards the garage where Aaron was already sitting waiting for us to get in the car. __________________________________________________________________________________
I stepped out into the warm air, wishing I was back in the cool car with air conditioning. I followed Tahnee into the main building where she was greeted by one chatty girl, who Tahnee did not look interested in talking to.
"Tahnee! Oh. My. Gosh! It's been, like, forever since I have seen you!" One small wanna-be Tahnee shrieked. I guessed she was only 13, maybe 14.
"Brooke, it's only been a few weeks, and I told you that if you keep annoying- I mean, talking to me, then your friends will get jealous of me and won't want to be your friend, so you better go and make them feel like you still care about them even though you're just so cool." Tahnee rolled her eyes as the little 8th grader happily skipped off.
"I'm so sorry," Tahnee apologized before continuing, "Ok, so I talked to the principle and I convinced her to put your locker next to mine." I looked up from my heels click-clacking on the ground and into her large brown eyes. They twinkled with excitement and her large grin was spread wide across her face.
It was hard to not notice the crowds of people separating for Tahnee when she walked, and the young girls waving at her, trying desperately to become like her.
"Wow, you have quite the reputation here, Little Miss Popularity?" I laughed and watched her blush deeply, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear.
We finally reached the end of the long corridor and found our lockers. A pretty blonde came running up to Tahnee giving her a tight hug, her brown eyes shutting tightly before letting go and staring at me questioningly.
"So, who are you? Some blonde-bimbo who thinks she is going to come in here and become the new Queen Bee and take that away from my best friend?" The blonde's loving brown eyes I saw just a second ago, hugging my closest cousin had now become sharp, and oddly painful.
"Um, Elle? Remember how I said my cousin from Sydney was coming to stay with me?" Tahnee paused waiting for the so called 'Elle' to nod before continuing, "Well this is her."
I smiled at Elle trying to hide the fact that she was nowhere near being on my good list.
"OH!" suddenly I was pulled into a large bear hug, finding it quite difficult to breath. "I'm so sorry, I thought you were just some fake trying to steal Tahnee's popularity, well that's what it looks like anyway." Elle's eyes took one glance at my outfit and quickly looked away.
Tahnee looked at me apologetically. "No that's ok, some people just need to learn not to judge before they learn the whole story," I smiled smugly.
We stood there in an awkward silence, before another of Tahnee's friends came up and hugged her, and then Elle. Her brown wavy hair was pulled back with such care and so precise, that it looked like it had been styled by a hair-dresser.
"Hi, I'm Kelsey," I timidly stated when I could see she was done with her friends. Her hazel eyes dazzled, and she was quite beautiful. She stared at me for a brief moment, before bringing me into a hug.
"I'm Mindy." She responded into my hair, pulling away from the hug. Her accessories she had dangling from her wrist and ears were gorgeous, as well as her headband she had carefully placed on her head. I took one look at her and knew we would become shopping buddies.
"Where's Sam?" Elle asked no one in particular, but Mindy answered anyway.
"She told me she had an orthodontist appointment, getting her braces off,"
"Oh my god that's so good! Do you know if she'll be back to tomorrow?" Elle replied,
"Well she said..." The conversation continued but I zoned out, not knowing who someone is talking about really doesn't get you very excited for them. I let my mind wander, thinking about anything and everything. I looked around the hallways trying to memorize which rooms were where and what direction the other buildings were, until my eyes rested on probably the most gorgeous sight I could come across.
He was leaning up against the wall, his head leaning back on it. He slowly stood back upright and started walking in my direction, with his head down as he walked. The world slowed down as he lifted his head up and ruffled his hair.
He stopped dead when he saw me. We both just stood there, 4 metres separating us.
"Mick! Leave her alone! You are the scum of the Earth. Just leave, no one wants you here." Elle snorted in his face, before walking away outside, dragging me towards the other building with her, where all four of us had our first class. I tried mouthing 'I want you' but whether or not he understood was another question.
Once we were outside and away from Mick I yanked my arm out from her grip. "What is with you?!"
"Excuse me?" Elle's eyes went from caring and loyal, to total bitch in one second flat. This girl has serious mood swings.
"You didn't need to say that, that was totally uncalled for. He wasn't even doing anything!" Anger started to rise up my chest now. Elle sighed and sat down on the bench under a large oak tree.
"Kelsey, that boy is bad news. He is always skipping out on class,"
"Well what if he doesn't need school and wants an apprenticeship instead?" I stubbornly answered,
"He is always stealing from places and breaking into stores to raid the till."
"He probably just needs the money to come to this school."
Elle sighed before continuing, "This school is hardly expensive. I mean, we are not some poor school that doesn't give a shiznick-" I stared at her weirdly and she cut herself off, "I'm trying not to swear. It has kind of become a habit of mine, so I'm trying to break that habit."
I laughed but let her continue, "Anyway, who don't care about the students, but we aren't some prissy rich school - like I'm sure you went to - either, I suppose we are lower middle-class. So he wouldn't need to steal to pay, I'm sure."
Elle started leaning in and naturally so did I, "Also, he smuggles drugs, even into the school. I mean I haven't seen him dealing, but everyone knows he does." Her voice was a whisper and her eyes searched mine frantically, pleading with me to give up, but me being me, I didn't.
"That's probably not even true. I have seen him outside of school and-"
"You have seen him outside of school?!" Elle stood up panic flashing across her face. "Did he talk to you?!"
"Well, yes." I hesitantly replied.
"Did he try to mug you?"
"What? Are you crazy? You are just being ridiculous."
"Well Ashley from 11th grade was mugged by him a few months ago!"
"Who saw it?" My stubbornness was really going to get me into trouble one day, but hopefully this was that day.
"Well, no one. But he was even charged by the cops, and they somehow proved it was true." I stared at Elle in disbelief, then the bell sounded and I remembered the old saying I would say in primary school 'saved by the bell'. I think that definitely applied to this scenario. __________________________________________________________________________________
It was the end of the day. I was hot and sticky from a long day at school. It seemed to drag on forever, which was why I was glad when I stepped into my cool shower. I had just got out of the shower and was patting my hair dry when I walked into mine and Tahnee's shared room, only to see four girls look back up at me.
I jumped back and screamed, then the screaming turned to laughter when I realised who they were. Tahnee's brown hair fell in front of her eyes, Mindy's hazel eyes dazzled in my direction, Elle's loose blonde curls bounced around her shoulder's, and a girl I hadn't seen before flashed me a huge perfect grin.
"Kelsey! Come and sit here next to me." Mindy enthusiastically moved over in the circle they had formed on Tahnee's bed and patted the free space.
"But please don't get to close to me, I like my personal space." Elle pointed out rudely, before laughing at her own 'joke'.
I sat down, slightly enjoying being part of their group, but also missing my own friends back home. When we would hang out, it wouldn't be sitting around at home. We would go to malls and the beach.
"Who wants some choc-chip biscuits?" Tahnee excitedly clapped and stood up off her bed.
Everyone followed her out into the kitchen and sat around the island bench while Tahnee got the packets of biscuits out from the pantry, and I got a bowl from them. We sat around the bench and munched into the biscuits.
"Oh right, Kelsey, this is Sam, Sam, this is Kelsey." Tahnee explained,
"Hi," the tall girl timidly said. Her hair was a natural red colour, reaching down to just past her chest. In fact, she was quite stunning. Her teeth were quite close to perfect, and I suspect that was because she got her braces off this morning.
"Hi, nice to meet you." Sam looked down at the laminated floor, while mumbling a short 'yea, same'.
"Sorry about Sam, she's all shy and doesn't want to talk, and then you get to know her and its like BAM! A whole different person." Elle explained
"Yea and you're the one that says what she thinks, without caring what other people feel!" Mindy burst out, Elle pretended to look shocked and then they all burst out laughing.
"At least she's not bouncy around on a cloud all day being little miss happy!" Tahnee shouted in between laughter.
All four of them were doubled in laughter by now while I sat there, not knowing how to react.
"Yes, but Tahnee, she doesn't take in strays like Kelsey!" Sam immediately stopped laughing and looked down at the ground again. They all looked at me, waiting for my reaction,
"Don't worry, it means you're part of us when you start being hated on," Mindy reassured, I must of had my worried face on because I hadn't said anything.
I could feel a smile itching for an appearance on my face, and I couldn't help let it break out. I saw Sam lift her head and start laughing with us again out of the corner of my eye.
It felt good. I was a part of them. Sure I was in a 'middle-class' house and attending a 'lower middle-class' school instead of what I was used to, but I think that I could definitely get used to living like this.
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Sorry for a short an fairly uneventful chapter, but it is necessary for character information :)