It was my first day of school, I glanced down at my schedule. 2nd period- Music. I smiled, brushing back a piece of hair from my face as I started walking down the hallway. It was pretty empty, since everyone was already in class. Since it wasn’t the first day, I was excused from being late, since I was still trying to figure out this school. I was a sophmore, my father is in the military, so we have to move a lot. But, since he’s now retired, this is supposed to permanently be home. I just hope L.A. isn’t as bad as the last town.
I was almost to the room when I literally ran into someone. I fell to the ground and heard a male voice.
“Oh my gosh! I’m SOO sorry. Here,” He exclaimed, reaching down, holding out his hand. I took it, and he pulled me up quickly. Dusting myself off, as he picked up my bag. “I’m Ross. I don’t think I’ve seen you before, are you new here? ”
“Yeah, I just moved here. I’m Courtney.” I told him, taking my bag from him and smiling up at him. He looked to be about a foot or two taller than me, with really blonde hair (like my own), and a goofy grin to match his glowing hazel eyes.
“Well, it was nice running into you Courtney, and I hope to see you at lunch, but I REALLY have to get to class.” He said, straightening what I now noticed was a guitar case, on his back. “Do you need help finding your class real quick?” He asked me, motioning to the paper in my hand..
“umm yeah. I think I’m close, 10th grade Music? Room 205 with Edwards?” I said, reading my schedule.
“Hey that’s my class too! I’ll walk you.” He said, taking a the books in my arms and leading the way. “So, sophomore?”
“Yep. But my dad just retired from the military, so we’ve moved around a lot. This is about my 7th school. And hopefully the last.” I told him, smiling as we turned.
“Really? Wow. Have you ever been out of the country?” he asked, amused.
“Yeah, we lived in England for a year.”
“That’s so cool. I want to travel all around the world one day.” He told me, looking up dreamily as he slowed down. “This is it. Look, I’m gonna get yelled at, so be prepared.” He told me, handing me my books, and opening the door. I walked in first, followed by Ross.
“Ahh. You must be our new student Courtney. I’m Ms.Edwards. I see you’ve already met Ross. Who is late AGAIN…” the teacher said, walking towards me and glaring at Ross a bit at the end.
“sorry” he mumbled as he took a seat. I looked around the room. There were about 15 people in the class, plus me. It seemed fun. I noticed they were all paired off and talking in their pairs.
“Well. We’re working on duets today. And since you two are the last ones, You will be working together.” Ms. Edwards told me as she pulled out a piece of paper, explaining the assignment, to me. I nodded, walking over and sitting down next to Ross. The assignment was to sing a song together, and since it was right before winter break, (I started school at a great time right??) it had to be a Christmas duet.
“I think we should do something different. Like a song that isn’t normally a duet, and make it into one.” Ross said as we were discussing song choice. “What are you doing after school? Do you want to work on this at my place?” He asked me as the bell rang.
“Sure! I’ll call my mom at lunch and make sure. But I think so.” I told him.
“Ok. Well I’ll meet you outside your last class, and you can just come with us. My older brother will drive us.” Ross told me, taking my schedule to find my last class. “Oh cool! We have like almost the same schedule. Except 1st period, and 5th. So come on lets go to math.” He said, grabbing my books again and leading the way.
“So how old is your brother?” I asked as we walked out of math class on our way to lunch.
“Well the one driving us home is 20. He’s working with the band teachers and choir directors and stuff as an intern. I have two other brothers though, that you’ll get to meet, and then a sister too.” He explained.
“Wow. That’s a big family! I’m an only child, you’re so lucky.” I said, looking up sadly at him.
“Hey, cheer up.” He said, stopping and forcing me to look up at him. “You’ve got family now. Trust me. Just wait.” He said with a laugh, and began walking into the lunchroom. He led to a table with 4 other people, you could tell they were family. “Hey guys. This is my new friend, Courtney. She’s new here. Courtney, this is my sister Rydel, she’s a senior, Our best friend, Ratliff, and my brothers, Rocky, who’s a Junior, and Ryland who’s a freshman.” Ross told me, sitting down next to Ryland, with Rocky across and Rydel next to him, and Ratliff on the other side of Ross. Ratliff scooted over so I could sit next to Ross, and we started a random conversation. After Lunch, we went to our 4th period class, together, waving goodbye to his siblings and Ratliff.
After fourth period, Ross walked me to my 5th period, since I didn’t know my way around yet, then walked to his, which was just down the hall. I tried listening to the teacher, but my mind kept flickering back to Ross, he was so nice to me, and I had no idea why. He was just so nice, but I really shouldn’t be thinking about him like this, I just met him, and anyway, we’re practically best friends, we can’t be more, right? My thoughts were interrupted by the bell and I gathered my books and bag and went to wait outside for Ross, so we could walk to our last class together. Finally, he walked up.
“Hey, how was class?” He asked, taking my books and beginning to walk towards the room. I shrugged, smiling, and brushing back a piece of hair.
“Boring.” I told him, looking over to see his smirk.
“Of course it’s boring. It’s school.” He told me with a wink as we walked into 6th period.
Once we were done with that class, Ross took my books again and lead the way, he explained that we were gonna go to the music room to help his brother pack up, then we’d head to his house. I nodded and we walked to the music room.
“Hey Riker, this is Courtney, the one I texted you about?” Ross said to the older blonde boy we saw when we got there. Ross turned to me, “Courtney, this is my older brother, Riker.”
“Nice to meet you.” I said to Riker honestly, with a smile. Ross set his bag down on one of the chairs, putting my books on another chair, and taking my bag, and putting it there too. Riker smiled back to me, and then got to work. Apparently, we had to clean up some instruments, pack up Riker’s personal ones, and stack the chairs. Luckily, we had help. Rocky, Rydel, Ryland, Ratliff, and another girl, who I assumed to be his girlfriend, showed up and we all got to work. After about 20 minutes of work, we were done, and I had been introduced to Kelly, Ratliff’s girlfriend. Ross handed me my bag and picked up the rest of his stuff, and we all walked out towards Riker’s van. It was pretty big to hold the 7 people it usually holds, plus all the music equipment, but it didn’t really have 8 seats. They all got into their normal seats, and I stood awkwardly by the door.
“Ohh yeah. Umm. We don’t really have another seat, so just sit on Ross’ lap. It will just be for a few minutes anyway.” Riker told me. Ross looked at me and nodded his approval to the plan. I still wasn’t sure and looked at them skeptically. Finally, Ross was tired of it, and leaned down, holding me by my waist and putting me on his lap as Rydel closed the door from the row of seats behind us. Ross pulled the seatbelt loosely over both of us and I turned, so I could look at him and the others, crossing my arms and glaring. Ratliff and Rydel giggled.
“You know you don’t have to look so unhappy, “ Ross whispered to me.
“Yes I do. This is really embarrassing.” I whispered back.
“Hey, at least your on top!” He whispered to me, smiling. “and you’re definitely a lot lighter than I expected, so that’s a plus” He whispered again.
“What so you think I look fat?” I asked him, partially jokingly, pretending to look offended.
“No, It’s just… no. um. Uhhh…” He stuttered, obviously with no idea what to say next. Laughing, I put my head on his shoulder.
“I’m just kidding, relax.” I whispered, ending the conversation.
Then we all got into a conversation about their band. Apparently, they had a little band, Rydel, Riker, Ross, Ratliff, and Rocky. It sounded cool. I told them I’d be sure to go to their next show and they all smiled and agreed. Soon after, we dropped Ratliff and Kelly off at Ratliff’s house, and I climbed off of Ross and onto the seat next to him, where Ratliff had been. Glancing over at Ross, I swear he looked a little disappointed. I shrugged it off, getting into a conversation with Rydel about Hello Kitty. Soon, we pulled up to a huge house. I noticed the neighborhood, this wasn’t far from my house. In fact, our new house was just down the block from the Lynches. I smiled. I was going to like it in L.A.