When we got in the car today, it was eerily silent. As Jackie and I sat in the middle of all the boys, I watched as they each exchanged looks between each other.
When I would look at one of them, they would instantly look away, trying to keep a smile off their faces. It wasn't until Jackie fixed her baseball hat that I had let her borrow for the day for the hundredth time that I finally snapped.
"Okay, so who did it?" I asked. I was met with silence as suddenly everyone started to look out the window, enjoying the scenic view. I whirled my head around to look behind me and was met with Lee, Isaac and Alex staring outside.
"Well?" I crossed my arms, glaring at one boy in particular. We had eventually made it to the school and were making our rounds in the parking lot and not a single one of them had spoken up.
"Y/n, really it's fine." Jackie said from beside me. I clenched my jaw, ignoring her. We parked and everyone started to file out, still not answering me at all. When Jackie started to climb out and I went after her, I felt a hand on my shoulder.
I turned, being met with Lee.
"For what it's worth, Y/n, I think Jackie must look great with her new hair." he smirked evilly. I clenched my jaw, shooting daggers at him before he hurried out of the car and into the school with his brother beside him.
"Don't let them get to you." Jackie put a hand on my shoulder as we stood outside the car next to each other. "You look like you're gonna explode. Really, Y/n, I don't need you starting anything over this."
I knew my face was bright red from being angry but I only kept looking forward. "I don't know what you're talking about."
—
"Alright class, you guys are gonna do a quick reading assignment. Yes, I know it's your favorite thing to do, you don't have to tell me." Miss. Terbin walked around, placing papers on everyone's desk. "Everyone pair off and begin annotating To Be or Not To Be by Hamlet. Yes, Benjamin?"
"Who's Hammer, Miss?" a boy in the second row raised his hand. The class erupted in snickers as Miss. Terbin put a hand on her hip.
"Hamlet is a Shakespearean character and spoke the most famous soliloquy in the english language. Maybe if you pay attention instead of talking to Miss. Lopez, you'd know more."
The whole class oohed and began to rise, looking for their friends and whom ever they were going to pair off with. This is exactly one of the things I knew I would dread once we came here.
I stayed seated in my chair, as I knew that I had no one to go to. I wondered who was going to be the unlucky person that the teacher would pair me with.
That's when I suddenly felt a tap on my shoulder, "Hi. Do you have a partner?"
I looked up and saw the same girl from yesterday that I had asked to sit down. She was tall with long, dirty blonde hair. She smiled kindly at me, waiting for me to answer.
"No, I don't."
"Do you wanna be mine then?" she asked.
"Uh, sure."
She pulled the chair out from beside me and plopped down.
"I'm Ella by the way. You're Y/n, right?"
I looked at her weirdly, "How do you know that?"
"You and your sister are the new girls here. We don't get new people here often." she replied.
I felt a rush of worry fill my stomach, "Does that mean everyone knows me?"
She tilted her head, as if weighing out her thoughts, "Sort of. But don't worry, it's only those who care enough."
"And you're one of those people?"
"Obviously! I've been wanting to ask, I love your style. Is this how typical New Yorkers dress?"
Before I could answer, a sudden thud came from the table, making us both jump. Miss. Terbin stood in front of us with a large textbook in front of her.
"Miss. Yonden, are we working here?" she asked, looking at Ella. Ella flashed her a smile.
"Of course we are."
"Really? So what's the soliloquy about?"
"Uh..." she began to skim the lines on the paper. I placed my elbows on the desk, leaning forward.
"It's about Hamlet questioning the reason for living. Why do we as humans choose to live a life of suffering if we can go to the afterlife and live peacefully?" I said. Miss. Terbin looked at me, her brows raised in amusement.
"And how does he answer that question, Miss. Howard?"
I shrugged, "Something about not knowing. When we die, we don't know where we go or what happens. Here in the living world, while we may be suffering, at least we know what's going on and have some sense of control. It's like our fear of the unknown or something."
Miss. Terbin nodded, smiling, "Impressive, Y/n. I take it you're familiar with Shakespearean texts."
"A little. My sister is more into them so I've read some of hers." I shrugged, picturing Jackie in our family room, explaining to me how she doesn't feel one bit sorry for what happened to Romeo and Juliet.
"I'm glad. Maybe you can help Ella, here, focus." she arched a brow, sending Ella a look.
"She most certainly can." Ella said cheerfully, leaning in closer to me, "How about at lunch? If you have no one to sit with?"
I felt myself smiling, "Yeah. Yeah, sure."
—
Soon, the period went by and I had yet to make anymore friends, other than Ella — if you can even consider us friends. In second period, Isaac still had the same girl attached to him as he very clearly flirted with her and she did the same.
Not that I minded, other than the fact that I couldn't confront him about this morning, which I was almost positive was his doing.
When lunch rolled around, I spotted Jackie in the cafeteria again, talking to Cole.
"Jackie, Cole." I greeted them with a nod.
"Y/n." Cole nodded back at me. "How are you doing here so far?"
"Decent." I shrugged.
"Have those two idiots been causing you trouble?" he nodded his head and looked behind me. When I turned, I saw Isaac and Lee on the far end of the cafeteria eating with a group.
"You could say that." I muttered. Cole laughed.
"Don't take what they do personally. I think they're just excited to have someone new to mess with."
"Does that explain why they stole Jackie's towel and clothes and put bleach in the shampoo this morning?" I crossed my arms. At this, he opened his mouth, about to say something before he thought better of it.
"Now, I never said that they were responsible for that. That could've been anyone of us."
I sighed, disappointed that he hadn't taken the bait to fess up about who actually was the one behind this morning's shenanigan. I looked at Jackie, who stood looking at her phone and adjusting her hat in the camera.
"It's looks fine." I assured her. She sighed, putting her phone down and fixing the straps on her bag.
"I don't understand why they like to mess with me. You're the new girl too."
"That's cause she's scarier." Cole explained, making the two of us look at him. He put his hands up defensively, "Look, no offense, but Y/n just has more of a tough act. She's a little less predictable so they actually have to play their cards right to get her."
"They might actually have a point there." Jackie nodded, grinning at me. Eventually we made it to the front of the line where we got our trays of food and were able to pay with our own money.
"Are you guys both gonna sit with me today or is it just gonna be me and Jackie again?" Cole asked. I looked around the room, spotting Ella at a table.
"Actually I'm sitting with some friends today, so I'll pass." I replied.
"Okay then it's just me and you today, New York." Cole looked at my sister. Jackie gave him an apologetic look.
"Sorry, Cole, I'm sitting with friends today, too."
"Fine at least let me walk you, yeah?" he offered, to which Jackie nodded.
"Bye, Y/n."
"See ya."
The three of us split up as I made my way to Ella's table. Once I became close enough, Ella smiled widely, waving me over.
"Y/n! Come sit." she patted the seat next to her after removing her backpack from it. "Okay, Y/n, this is Nicole, president of the band club."
"Nice to meet you." Nicole waved, showing off her ring covered fingers. She had long, silky jet black hair and narrow eyes with pale skin.
"And this here is Wendy, owner of the school's gossip page."
"Hi and that's supposed to be very lowkey thing, Ella." Wendy smiled, shooting Ella a look. She was tan with dark brown hair and bright green eyes.
"Oh it doesn't matter. She's our friend now." Ella clapped her hands together.
"Nice to meet you guys. I'm-"
"Oh, they all know who you are. We all do! Remember?" Ella interrupted throwing her hands up.
"Relax, El, that doesn't mean she's an A list celebrity." Nicole shot her a look.
"I like your jeans, where'd you get them?" Wendy piped up from beside Nicole.
"Oh thank you. They're by my mom, actually." I ran a hand over my thigh.
"Your mom?" Ella frowned, then gasped, grabbing onto my arm, "Oh my gosh! Angelica Howard, right? The famous fashion designer?"
I chuckled nervously. "Yeah, uh, she was..."
"Knock it off, El." Nicole said, then laughed as Ella pouted, "Sorry about her. If you can't tell, she gets excited."
"It's okay, I get it." I half smiled at her.
"So, Y/n, how are you liking Colorado?" Wendy asked, taking a bite of a carrot.
"It's been alright. It's pretty different from the city though."
"I get what you mean." Wendy nodded, "I was born in San Diego and moved here in seventh grade."
"Really? We used to rent a beach house there every year when I was younger." I smiled.
"A beach house? I wish. I've only been to the beach in Oregon at my grandpa's house." Nicole said.
"But don't the Walters have, like, this huge lot of land for themselves? I mean, how could you not like that?" Ella asked, taking a bite of her grilled chicken. When the two girls in front of me shot her a look and she gasped, covering her mouth, I knew she had said the wrong thing.
"Wait, how do you know I know the Walters?" I asked. Just then, another girl came, plopping down on the seat beside Wendy. She was dark skinned with curly hair that framed her face and had a pair of headphones around her neck.
"Hey, guys." she greeted. When no one responded to her, she looked up, her eyes darting to each of our faces and finally resting on Ella.
She sighed, "Ella, did you already spill the beans?"
"I'm sorry!" Ella exclaimed.
"You just can't keep a secret, can you?" the girl shook her head, narrowing her eyes, "Anyways, I'm Brooke. You must be Y/n."
"How does everyone know my name?" I groaned, rubbing my temple.
"Cause you're from New York. I don't think I've ever met someone from the east coast before." Brooke said, opening her lunch pail. "Plus, your sister's in my english class. Did you guys know her and Alex Walter are, like, two of the only sophomores allowed in AP english?"
"Not surprising. Isn't Alex, like, wicked smart?" Wendy bit into a chip.
"Yeah, I mean, isn't he, like, top of their class?" Nicole asked.
"No, I heard he was second. Some other boy is first." Ella piped in.
"Wait, wait, wait, hang on. I'm still on the Walter thing. What do you guys know?" I put my hand up. They all looked at each other, waiting for someone to answer.
"Nothing. Just that you're living with them." Ella shrugged.
"But how would you guys know that?"
"Like I said, I have your little sister and Alex in a class. I sit behind them." Brooke explained.
"So that explains yesterday's whole lunch situation and the parking lot thing." Nicole said. Then clicked her tongue at my confused face, "Look, yesterday when you and your sister got off the car, everyone was curious to know who these two mystery girls were with the Walter Boys."
"It was a huge thing too. The column on my blog got over 300 views in an hour." Wendy said cheerfully.
"But," Brooke turned back to me, "everyone also saw Cole Walter buy you guys food yesterday too."
"And today again at lunch." Nicole added.
"Okay, that was only yesterday, he just stood there today." I corrected them.
Ella scoffed, "Does that matter? I mean, Y/n, you and your sister are literally friends with thee Cole Walter."
"So?"
"So..." Ella grinned, taking my hands in hers, "Cole Walter is literally a god! I mean, all the girls wanna date him and all the guys wanna be him."
"But why?"
"No one knows. It's a complete mystery." Nicole shrugged, then smiled, "Other than the fact that he's smoking hot."
"Yeah, I mean, have you seen his body? I had gym with him last year and almost fainted everyday." Wendy gushed.
"And it's not just Cole either. All those Walter boys are fine." Brooke said.
"Seriously?" I scoffed, crossing my arms.
"Yes, seriously. I mean you've got Cole, whose just — Cole, obviously." Ella giggled.
"Then you got Alex, whose got the whole video game nerd going on." Nicole added, "Danny is the really cute theater guy-"
"Nathan's the super nice guy, obviously again." Wendy pointed out, "Lee's like the hot skater guy, and of course there's Isaac, the sexy, flirty, cool bad boy."
I grimaced. "Ew. Please do not call him sexy."
Ella and Wendy gasped.
"You don't think he's sexy?"
"Not even cute?"
"He's more annoying if anything." I rolled my eyes. "If you ask me, he's a complete douchebag that only cares about himself."
"You cannot be serious right now." Ella looked at me with her jaw practically on the floor. "Isaac Garcia is, like, our own class heartthrob. He's so cute and has such a good style and I even heard that he's got a six pack. Plus, he's just...charming to any girl he talks to."
"Well not to me. Wait, but doesn't he literally have a girlfriend though?" I asked, arching a brow. They each looked at me completely confused, to which I sighed, "I'm talking about the girl he's always with. I have a class with both of them."
"Oh, Monica?" Brooke laughed, "They've been friends since, like, middle school. There's a rumor that she's had a crush on him since seventh grade but he's never given her a chance."
"He says that it's cause he doesn't wanna be tied down or something." Wendy shrugged, then looked at me, "I wrote an article about them last year."
"But then why would she still even hang out with him?"
"Because who wouldn't hang out with him?" Nicole said in a duh tone.
"Me?" I scoffed, then laughed. "Honestly, if you guys lived with him you wouldn't be saying half the stuff you're saying right now."
And that was the truth. If these girls even had a clue what the real Isaac Garcia was like at home, they wouldn't know what hit them. I mean, he literally stole my sister's clothes and bleached her hair! What sane person does that?
But then again, what sane girl would actually have a crush on that thing?
Brooke shrugged, "I don't know, Y/n, but all we're saying is that you've landed in boy heaven. And not just any boy heaven, Walter boy heaven."
—
After the incredibly weird conversation at lunch, I started to think back on everything that the girls had said. Was it really possible that these guys that we were living with were all secretly heartthrobs or something?
I decided to take the time in my fifth period with Lee and Isaac to study them for this exact reason.
I watched as they constantly poked and shoved each other while joking around. I watched them constantly turn to the people behind them and make stupid jokes insulting the teacher. I watched them crush paper into balls and throw them at each other just for the fun of it. And after all this studying, I came to one finally conclusion:
They were idiots. Two stupid and very annoying idiots.
It was a complete mystery why exactly these two were considered "hot" in Ella's words. I had no idea how they were given the reputation that they had.
But nevertheless, as I sat there I received a text from Jackie, making my anger for them come flooding back into my system.
Jackie <3
this bleach is starting to burn, do you think it'll come out??
Even though that was a little bit of stupid question from my sister, I felt myself raging all over again. And this rage continued to follow me all the way to my next and final class of the day, where I could finally confront the one person that I just knew was behind all of this.
When I walked into my math class, Isaac happened to already be there with his phone in his hand. Our teacher began the lesson and I patiently waited for him to finish until he finally gave us time to work on our homework, just as he did yesterday.
"Okay, class. The rest of the time is yours. Work on the homework and you may work in groups." Mr. Benging instructed. Immediately, people started to move around and find their friends, and just like yesterday, Isaac stayed seated.
I stood, taking this opportunity to slide into the new open seat in front of him.
"Hey." I slammed my hands down on his desk, making him jump in surprise. He put a hand over his heart.
"Jesus, babe, you scared me."
"Enough messing around, Isaac, I want the truth."
"Okay, fine." he sighed and put his pencil down, "I don't just not like your converse. I really don't like them and I think they look terrible."
"Not about my converse!" I rolled my eyes, "Who took Jackie's clothes and put bleach in the shampoo this morning?"
At this he snorted, slamming a hand down on the desk, "I don't know but if you ask me it was pretty funny."
"Really? Cause I don't think it was."
"Well, babe, you don't seem to know anything about funny or fun in general so I'm not surprised."
"Okay, well, if I had to guess, I think you were the one that did it." I shrugged, to which he gasped.
"Moi? Little, poor, innocent me?" he pouted, "What makes you think I did it?"
"You seem to be the type to cause misery on others — and I can talk because I have experience." I smiled smugly at him. His lips went tight and he flared his nose annoyingly.
"Look, Converse, I'll have you know that I don't like to put misery on people. That's just wrong. I like to put misery on you."
"And why exactly is that?"
"Because you're easy." he shrugged, then smirked, "And Lord knows I like them easy."
"You're disgusting." I grimaced, leaning away from him. "You're a stupid little pervert and the biggest jerk I've ever met."
He scoffed, "Oh says you. What was is again that you said about me having to shut up in front of my whole family?"
"Oh don't act like it was uncalled for when you were being a complete asshole!"
"Miss. Howard, Mr. Garcia!" someone suddenly yelled from behind me. When I turned, I internally cringed as Mr. Benging stood right beside my desk. "What is going on here?"
"She started it."
"He started it."
The both of us shot each other a scowl.
"I don't care who started it, the point is that it was very disrespectful of you both." he looked at me, "And Miss. Howard, I don't know how they handled things in New York but here in Colorado we do not tolerate such vulgar language."
He began to walk away before calling over his shoulder.
"The two of you will stay after class until your homework is finished."
I felt my jaw drop at the comment, but quickly turned my face into a glare as I looked at Isaac, pissed off.
—
Once four o'clock came around, Isaac and I grudgingly walked out of Mr. Benging's class. The halls were mostly empty, as school got out almost 40 minutes ago.
I walked around with my arms crossed over my chest and kept a fast pace to keep as much distance as I could between me and the boy behind me. I had never, ever had detention before and after just two days of meeting this kid I was suddenly sitting in there.
When we walked outside, it was hot and humid, my least favorite type of weather. Isaac walked up beside me.
"Great. No one's here anymore."
"Can't you call anyone?"
He didn't answer, instead he held up his phone and showed me a black screen with a low battery sticker.
"I'll call Jackie, then." I turned away to make the phone call and waited for her to pick up.
After a few rings she answered, "Hello?"
"Jackie, hey."
"Y/n, what happened to you? You weren't at the car after school."
"I got, uh, busy. Listen, are you home?"
"No, I'm with Cole."
"Why are you with Cole?"
"He took me to this wat-"
"This what?"
"This wa — ing — ole."
"J, you're cutting out."
"This watering-"
"Watering what?" I repeated, but suddenly the line went dead, "Jackie? Hello? Jackie, answer." Finally I sighed and put my phone down turning back to Isaac.
"Jackie said she's with Cole somewhere. A watering something."
"The watering hole." Isaac groaned, running a hand through his hair. "They can't give us a ride."
"Seriously?" I looked at him with wide eyes, "So — So what do you we do?"
"Isn't it obvious, smart ass?" he scoffed, pushing past me and beginning to walk down the sidewalk. With a groan I began to follow after him and begin our long journey home.
—
We had been walking for almost an hour and I was close to collapsing. If I thought summer in New York was brutal, Colorado single handedly made me rethink that.
I had, however, managed to pass Isaac as he walked a few feet behind me now. We had also managed to walk through the whole town and had begun our journey into the long dirt roads and woods.
Of course the Walters had to live in the dead middle of nowhere and not in an actual community like everyone else in this town.
I had even managed to cool down a bit up until five minutes ago when I began to feel a rock hitting my heel every five seconds.
"Can you stop that." I said, not bothering to turn around. He didn't say anything, the only thing I felt was the rock still hitting my foot. I kept walking for another minute or so, before I finally stopped and turned to look at him. "I said knock it off!"
"Why? Is it too much for you, Miss. Delicate Flower?" he narrowed his eyes at me. He had taken off his leather jacket and had hoisted it over one of his shoulders. I rolled my eyes and continued walking, letting the silence between us occur once more.
But of course he had to ruin it, "You know, we wouldn't even be here right now if you hadn't gone off on me in the first place."
"We wouldn't be here right now if you hadn't decided to bleach my sister's hair." I retorted.
"It wasn't me and it was a joke! How many times do I have to say that?"
"Enough to get it through to you that it wasn't funny at all and for you to admit to it."
I heard him scoff, "Why do you even care so much? It's not like we did anything to you."
"Because you did it to my sister. I don't know if you've noticed, but I don't let people mess with her too often."
"Why though? Doesn't she annoy you?"
"Yeah, but she's my sister at the end of the day. Only I get to be mean to her if I wanted to." I explained. He was silent for a moment.
"Is that why you're so grumpy all the time?"
"Grumpy?"
"Yeah, I mean, you're always wanting to start something. Especially with me."
At this I stopped and turned on him once again, "I start stuff? Do you really see whose talking. Besides, how does that make me grumpy?"
"I only start stuff to annoy you. I thought that was obvious." he put his hands up defensively. "As for the grumpy part, you just get so heated so easily. I mean, didn't they ever teach you to take a joke in New York?"
"Believe me, I could take a joke."
"Doubt it." he scoffed, and began to walk past me. I jerked my head back and raised my brows, beginning to catch up and walk beside him.
"Wait a second. You really think I can't take a joke?"
"Oh I know you can't take a joke. That's a fact."
"And how do you know that, huh?"
"Because if you could, you would've laughed at yesterday's spaghetti fiasco and today's bad hair day." he looked down at me.
"Yeah, but — but those weren't funny. Those were just plain mean."
"Exactly why they were funny." he pointed a finger at me. He took his leather jacket and moved it to the opposite shoulder before continuing, "Being able to joke and make fun of each other is how we all get along. It's nothing personal."
I looked over at him and he looked back at me. Then he sighed, noticing my confused look. "Okay, you're telling me that you don't ever tease your sister to get a rise out her."
"No." I shook my head. He sighed, again, making me look at him to see his disappointed face looking straight ahead. "Well, maybe."
He gasped. "No! You actually did something? I don't believe it."
"Don't act like it's some miracle now, okay?"
"So what'd you do? Did you wrinkle all her ties? Did you throw her polos into the dryer to shrink?"
I looked at him with a look that said, Are you even being serious right now? "Haha, very funny. No, I didn't do any of those things."
"So what was it?"
I felt myself fighting back a smile as I recalled the memory, "Well at our old school we had an animal laboratory-"
"Why would you guys have an animal laboratory?"
"Because it was a bunch of rich kids that wanted an animal laboratory, okay?" I explained quickly, "Anyway, I wanted to get Jackie back for messing up my paint supplies so I snuck in with a friend and stole one of the spiders from their cage."
"And they just let you?"
"Well, yeah. My friend was, like, part of that whole thing that's why they didn't question us." I shrugged, "After that I went to the gym where she was planning for a dance and put it in her backpack without her knowing."
"You did what?" he exclaimed, putting a hand over his mouth.
"Don't act all surprised. I felt terrible after though cause I didn't know the spider was pregnant at the time..."
"Wait and minute. Wait a minute. Hold on." He put a hand on my shoulder and stopped me. "You took a pregnant spider from your school and put it in your own sister's backpack because she messed up your art?"
"Mm-hmm. Trust me, I don't mess with my art stuff." I shrugged. beginning to walk again. He quickly fell into step beside me.
"You're insane, Converse. That's not even a joke, that's just plain revenge."
"Well, I originally didn't think it was gonna be a big deal. I mean, we had taken spiders out of their cages before, and I had my friend there to take it back as soon we Jackie noticed it was in there. It was just supposed to be for a quick scare to teach her a lesson."
"I have to say, that's classic. How did she ever forgive you for that?"
I began to fiddle with my hands nervously, "She may, or may not, know that it was me..."
"No!" he gasped again, "She still doesn't know it was you? 'Til this day?"
"No, she has no idea. And if you say anything I wouldn't mind doing the same thing to you." I sent him a look, to which he put his hands up defensively.
"I never said I was a snitch, Converse. Walter-Garcia's honor."
"What is Walter-Garcia's honor?"
"We have this rule in our house that we don't snitch on each other." he explained, "We keep everything to ourselves because if we didn't, well, our house would be in total chaos."
"Like it isn't already?"
"Hey, I think our house is very cozy and fun. Not chaotic."
"Says you. What kind of family has ten kids?"
"A fun one, duh." he gave me a funny look. We were silent for a moment before he spoke again, "Hey, and don't think that this little conversation earned you anything. I'm still pissed about the detention thing."
"Okay you act as if that wasn't a two person thing."
"I could think of a lot of two person things actually," he smirked, "but that was not one of them."
"Okay, so is this a threat?" I scoffed, crossing my arms.
"You bet your sorry ass it is, Converse." he grinned evilly. I looked back at him and sent him a harsh glare.
"Bring it on, Timber."
Suddenly we heard a honk come from behind us, making us turn around. In the distance, we could see the Walter's car driving along the dirt road towards us.
They drove right beside us, lowering the window to reveal Jackie and Cole.
"You guys need a ride?"
—
hi everyone! hope you enjoyed this chapter! what do you guys think? I think y/n and isaac are so cutesy with their banter. let me know in the comments, make sure to vote!
nessa