Chapter 1
The fingers of morning light stretched over my body, waking me up. I sighed as I remembered what day it was. How fun.
“Kaylyn, sweetie,” my mom buzzed over the intercom that was installed throughout our house. “Wake up, it’s your last day of high school!”
I sat up, stretched contently, and walked to the intercom by my bedroom door as I yawned. I pressed the buzzer and spoke.
“I’m up,” I said groggily. I went to my closet to get ready for the “big” day. I threw on a navy blue V-neck and a pair of jeans, brushed my light blonde hair, and put on a little mascara.
I slung my school bag over my shoulder and ran downstairs, seeing I only had twenty minutes before the bell rang. I grabbed a pack of strawberry pop tarts and hopped in my new black BMW. I had saved up for it since I was sixteen, when I just got my mom’s old car.
I drove the fifteen minutes to school while eating my breakfast, and picked up my best friend, Lilly, on the way.
“So, Kay, did you see the cover of People magazine this week?” Lil asked after she got in my car, twisting her brown hair between her fingers. I groaned.
“No, sorry, Lil, I haven’t,” I said in a bored tone. I didn’t really care about what was going on with the stars, but Lilly always had. She could tell you exactly who was going out with who in Hollywood before the press could.
“Well, Jack Stone was on it,” she squealed. “He is so yummy.” She began to daydream and I snapped my fingers in front of her face as I stopped at a stop sign. It had been vandalized to say ‘don’t stop believin’.
“What did he do now that the world is obsessing over?” I asked, annoyed. Lil picked up on this, and she pouted.
“You’re no fun,” she stated, looking out the window. “You’re the only person I know who doesn’t like Jack.”
“I don’t see a point in wanting to know his every move,” I sighed. “He’s just a guy.”
“And I’m just a girl who loves him,” Lil said.
“I swear,” I said, more to myself. “I don’t see why all the girls at our school, despite the fact that we’re all graduating in two days, are still obsessing over him.”
“Kay,” Lil said, and I glanced at her. “There has to be some wiring in your brain that was incorrectly connected.”
“Ha, ha, very funny,” I said sarcastically. “We’re at Hogwarts.” I pulled into my parking spot and took the keys out of the ignition, throwing them in my bag.
“Our last day in this hell hole,” I muttered under my breath. I couldn’t wait to start college. I’d gotten into the Los Angeles Film School with a partial scholarship, so I had to work to pay for the rest. I wanted to become a director. It was kind of funny that it was a partial scholarship, though, since I was valedictorian.
The warning bell rang, snapping me back to reality as I began to think about my future.
“Are you ready for Saturday?” Lilly asked, referring to graduation.
“If you mean to ask if my speech is ready, not so much,” I admitted. I was to be valedictorian, and I had to the whole speech to write. I was dreading it like a penguin would dread the desert.
“Well, I’ll see you in history,” she said as we walked inside the school, heading to our respective classes.
“Bye,” I called after her, then went to English. The bell sounded just as I sat down in the front, silencing all noise.
“You’re all seniors,” my teacher stated. She was one of my favorites; she always let us do whatever we wanted on Fridays. “Why make you work on your last day? Continue talking.”
The chatter resumed just as loudly as before, and I pulled out my phone, going onto the Facebook application. According to my older brother’s status, he was coming home that day. I groaned, but then I heard someone sit next to me.
“Hey beautiful,” a familiar, deep voice said. It would be expected for me to turn, laugh, and hug him. It would also be expected that he was my boyfriend. Neither of those were the case.
“What do you want, Schumann?” I asked, still looking at my phone and not bothering to call him by his first name.
“Just checking on my girl,” he said easily. I sighed loudly.
“Randy, just ’cause you’ve been asking me out since kindergarten, doesn’t make me ‘your girl’,” I said, using air quotation marks. “It’s more border-line stalker.”
“Ouch, that hurts,” he said, and I looked up to see he had his hand over his heart. I rolled my grey eyes at him, shaking my head.
“What to do with you…” I sighed. The bell rang, and I was surprised at how quickly the period had passed.
“Will I ever see you again?” Randy asked dramatically.
“Just because it’s the last day of high school doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world,” I said from the doorway to the room, then booked it for calculus on the other side of the school. I ran in a minute late, but my teacher brushed it off. I breezed through the exam, then made my way to history.
“Hey!” Lilly said, sitting at our usual table in the middle of the room. My history teacher liked to be different in his teachings, so there were tables instead of desks, and they were low to the ground so we could sit on the floor rather than having chairs like normal, civilized people.
“What’s up?” I asked as I made myself comfortable on the hard carpet.
“I just got a new background on my phone,” she said dreamily.
“Lemme guess,” I said. “Jack Stone?”
“Jack Stone,” she sighed, sounding as if she were in a faraway place.
“Okay then, well when you’re back on earth, feel free to give me a buzz,” I said.
“Two per table! No cheating!” my teacher yelled as he began passing out our final exams. “Ms. Martin, please hand over your phone.”
A fake blonde hung her head and handed him the device. I tsked in the privacy of my brain as her friend snickered.
He finished passing out the tests, and I finished with ten minutes until the bell. I sat and waited until the holy moment: the lunch bell. Once it rang, the whole class ran out of the door and into the cafeteria.
I got in line with Lilly, where we quickly got our lunch. We sat at our lunch table with at least ten of our other friends, who all had their own small conversations going on.
Ben was talking to Ashley, who had a crush on Jonathon. Jonathon was talking to Kayla, who was obviously in love with Ben. Ben liked Ashley, but he was dating Jennifer. Jennifer was talking - or at least trying to talk to - Jon and Kayla. I could have gone on with my other friends, Lou, Alexis, Blake, Cooper and Trish, but I actually wanted to eat my lunch.
“Can I see your phone?” Lilly asked me as I started picking at my sandwich.
“Lil, it’s an iPhone, not an usPhone,” I said. Everyone at the table laughed, then went back to their conversations again. “But sure, whatever.” I handed it to her and began eating my sandwich.
We went through the rest of lunch, talking about what we were going to do over the summer. My personal summer consisted mainly of working my butt off to pay for my tuition, since my parents obliged to pay for everything else. I had a scholarship, but that only paid for so much.
When it was time, I went to my film class, which also happened to be my favorite. As I walked in, I enjoyed the familiar atmosphere of the room, and said hi to all my film buddies. I took a seat at my desk, which was on one of the sides of the U shape in which the desks were arranged. The tardy bell rang and I sighed happily.
“Hello, children!” Mrs. Mayes said in a sing-song voice. “I assume that is no longer a proper title, since you’re all seniors. In that case, hello, seniors!”- this part to herself -“That doesn’t sound quite right either.” A kid towards the back snorted. “Anyhoo, we’re finishing Alice in Wonderland.”
Everyone settled into their seats as we watched the familiar tale of Alice, in Tim Burton’s portrayal of the story. Soon enough, I was heading towards my last class, science.
“You are not going to marry Jack Stone!” a girl screeched.
“Dear Lord,” I said under my breath as I tried to get through the crowd that was forming.
“Watch me,” another girl hissed. I heard what I thought was a slap, then a teacher broke it up. I got to my class without being late, thank powder puffs.
I quickly took my last final, and hooted and hollered with everyone else when the very last bell rang. I met Lilly at my car, with a huge smile on my face, happy to never have to set foot in a high school again.
“Finally it’s over,” I said, sighing as my car started and I drove to my house. Lilly and I threw our bags in the front hallway, climbing the stairs of the three story house to my room. Funny; my family was well off, but wouldn’t buy me a new car or pay for my college tuition. How nice of them.
“He’s so dreamy,” Lilly randomly said as she pulled out her phone, admiring her background while she inadvertently walked into a wall.
“The door’s right here,” I said, pointing to it as I walked through.
“Right,” she mumbled, following me to flop down on my bed. “You’re so lucky to have a king sized bed.”
“Well, you know too well that I need space to sleep,” I pointed out.
“Don’t I know it,” she said, wincing as she remembered the first time we’d had a sleepover, and I had nearly beat her up as I tossed and turned in my sleep. I chuckled and picked up my remote, turning on the radio.
“-confirming Jack Stone will be in L.A. the next two months, filming his new movie, Opposites Attract,” a radio-Hollywood news announcer was saying. Lilly squealed, sitting up, but I just rolled my eyes.
“He’s just a guy,” I said for the billionth time in my life.
“Yeah, yeah,” she said, on her phone again. “But his beautiful brown eyes, and his dirty blonde hair, and his abs, oh his abs. . . .”
“I’m starting to worry about your mental health,” I noted and tried to listen to the song playing. “Crud! I have work today!” I shot up and began running out of my room.
“I’ll have my mom pick me up!” Lilly called when she realized I was already halfway down the stairs.
“You can stay if you want!” I called back, pulling my jacket on.
“Nah,” she yelled. I ran to my car parked in front of the house, quickly turning it on and it hummed to life. I drove to the quaint little boutique that I called work and casually walked in, luckily only a few minutes late.
“Late again, are we?” Rosie, the college student who worked with me, said as she walked past, restocking. I looked at her, noticing her liquid green eyes were accusing. She stopped in front of me and put her hand on her hip.
“What ever are you talking about?” I asked in an innocent voice.
“Don’t worry, I won’t tell,” she said, smirking. When we were bored at work and weren’t busy, we would tell each other everything, so we’d come to be close. I heard my phone go off as I walked behind the counter and I looked at it.
“What the fudge monkeys?” I said aloud.
“Language!” Rosie playfully scolded me as she hung up a shirt. I stuck my tongue out at her and looked at the twitter update from Jack Stone. Lilly must have been behind it.
Gee, who even cared enough to follow his every move on twitter? Oh wait. About every girl I knew. According to the tweet, he was in my part of L.A. Fun-tastic.
“I hate Jack Stone and all his little stalkers!” I yelled, frustrated at my generation for picking a seemingly normal guy who just happened to be famous to idolize. Well, he was normal until he had to go and get all famous. He had pretty much become Hollywood’s new sex idol.
“Well, if you hated me you could’ve just said it to my face,” someone said, walking out from behind some racks. They had a face I would know anywhere, from seeing so many posters and billboards and movie trailers. My eyes narrowed to slits.
“I don’t hate you, I just don’t necessarily enjoy your existence. And what in the name of brownies are you doing here?” I asked, annoyed.
“Brownies are good, don’t use their name in vain!” Jack Stone said, feigning shock. I jutted my chin out while crossing my arms over my chest.
“Why are you here?” I repeated, a slight edge to my voice.
“Your friend is hiding me,” he stated, as if it was obvious. “A mob of crazy girls - - and the media - were chasing me.”
“You say that as it happens every day,” I pointed out.
“Very observant!” Jack replied in a tone that would be used with a toddler. “Maybe that’s because it does.” I rolled my eyes at his cockiness and over-confidence.
“You know, we don’t have clothing revealing enough for whatever skank - by the way, I pray for her sanity for being with you - that you’re dating at the moment.” I gave a confident smirk as his muddy brown eyes narrowed. “Has anyone ever told you it looks like you have mud in your eyes?” I cocked my head to the side as I said it.
“Oh, how you flatter me. But what exactly did I ever do to you?” he asked, his eyebrows raised.
“You breathed,” I said through gritted teeth, my arms at my sides with fists clenched.
“So, I’ve finally found the one girl who isn’t in love with me,” he said, grinning happily.
“Very observant!” I mocked. “And actually, quite the contrary. I hate every intestine and blood cell in your body.” He seemed to wince a little.
“Harsh,” he said. “However, I take this as a challenge.”
“What?” I asked, bewildered, all anger gone.
“I don’t know you, but I’m going to make you fall in love with me,” he said, happy with himself at this idea. My eyes tightened once again, anger resurfacing.
“I never wish to see you again,” I spat. “So, sorry, that’s not possible.”
“Hey, Kay? Sorry to interrupt, but can you help me over here?” Rosie asked. Glaring at Jack the whole way, I went to help Rosie fold jeans.
“So, when will I see you again?” Jack asked, leaning against a rack of shirts, hands in his pockets. His shirt showed that he clearly had muscles but was hiding them with a thin layer of fabric.
“In hell,” I said. “Since that’s where I’ll be going after I murder you.” I thought I heard him chuckle under his breath, but I couldn’t be so sure. I heard a lot of noise outside the shop, and I wondered what the what all the commotion was.
“What’s your name?” he asked. I sighed in annoyance.
“Kaylyn,” I said through gritted teeth.
“That wasn’t so bad, was it?” he asked with a smirk. I glared at the pair of jeans I was folding. The noise outside kept getting louder, so I automatically assumed it was the press looking for Jack.
“You’re cute when you’re mad,” Jack said quietly. I turned to him, seeing he had a kind glint in his eyes.
“Who do you think you are?” I asked, slowly walking towards him.
“Jack Stone, and your name is?” he said sarcastically. My grey eyes, for the third time, became slits.
“I don’t know why you have to be such an arrogant, cocky player, but I’m not interested,” I said, beyond furious at him. He obviously could get anything he wanted in the blink of an eye, which ticked me off, because there were people in the world who actually had to work.
“What if I’m interested in you?” he asked, and he looked genuinely serious. I was confused for a moment at his sudden change in attitude.
I actually started to smile, but not because of what he said. At that moment, I randomly remembered the time I went with Lilly and her family to Colorado, and when we were skiing, she had fallen at least twenty times. Jack didn’t know that I was thinking about that, however, and I could tell he thought I liked him.
The noise outside got even louder, and I knew it was coming from the door of the shop. I wondered why the media was follo-
Jack’s lips came crashing down, and he kissed me as if his life depended on it. My eyes were wide for a moment as I was caught off guard, then already in a coma-inducing glare.
I pushed with all my strength off of his chest, and soon my anger boiled over to smoldering hatred.
“No!” I said to him, my voice broken. Tears stung in my eyes. He had taken my first kiss. I slapped him across the face, earning a glorious red mark, showing all five fingers of my hand. I turned towards the back of the shop and ran out to my car, wishing the day would just end.
+ + +
Jack’s POV
I sighed as the press continued to take pictures of my face, where I knew a red mark would be.
I hadn’t expected her to slap me or be angry, I thought she would kiss me back like any sane teenage girl would. Maybe she really did hate me.
“Jack, do you love her?”
“Jack, over here! What did it feel like?”
“Jack! Why did you kiss her?”
“Jack, does your face hurt?”
“Jack!”
“Jack!”
“Jack!”
I wanted to yell at them all to just shut up already, but I knew that would make headlines. As if Kaylyn and I wouldn’t already be on there.
“Listen,” I snapped, silencing them all. “I had never met her until five minutes ago. I got caught up in the moment and kissed her.” And with that, I began shoving my way through the small paparazzi crowd that had somehow fit at the entrance of the little shop I’d been hiding in.
My car pulled up, and as I got in, I couldn’t stop thinking about this mysterious Kaylyn.
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Author's Note: My new book:D if this made you chuckle or laugh, please vote!! This is the teaser, and I'll upload the second chapter in a week or two, depending on how much of a reaction this gets.
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