"Daniel, mom says to take out the trash." I say as I pass by his room.
"I don't have time, Marcus and the boys are about to drive up." he says.
Walking out of his bedroom, he wore tan dress pants, a white button up, and a navy blue blazer, with a red and white handkerchief sticking from the blazer pocket; with his dirty blonde hair, messy on the top of his head.
"You know mom doesn't like when you don't do your chores." I say leaning against the hall wall.
"I know, but come on shrimp, will you do it just this once?"
I rolled my eyes, "You've been saying just this once for years, maybe it's time to think of a new line?"
Daniel cocked his brow and says, "So you'll do it?"
I sigh, "Do I have a choice?"
Smiling his award winning smile, Daniel leans down kisses me on my cheek as he pats my arm, "You're the best." Looking down the hall to my room he asks, "Wolfy left?"
I nodded, "Yeah like an hour ago."
"I swear that lil dude be on the move, Asher still picking you up?"
I nodded, "Yup."
"Good." tying his tie around his neck a car honks from outside as Daniel says, "Alright that's my ride." Kissing me once more on my cheek he says, "See you later little sis."
"Bye Danny." I say.
Grabbing his backpack Danny walks down the stairs and out the front door.
Running a brush through my hair I adjusted my skirt and stocking as I went to grab my book bag. Swinging it over my shoulder I grabbed the trash as I sat it inside of the trash bin as my dad drives up in his police car.
"Hey honey, shouldn't you be on your way to school?" asked my dad as he steps out of his sheriff car.
"Yeah Asher is picking me up." I say crossing my arms, blocking the cold breeze.
"Asher? Asher is that kid Ashton right?"
"Yes dad Asher, the one I've been best friends with since freshman year."
Out on the street an old Camaro drives up, stopping next to the curb,
"Wass up, Sheriff!" Yells Ashton as he rolls down his window.
"Hello Mr. Irwin." says my dad as he give him a wave.
"Alright dad I have to go." I say quickly giving him a peck on the cheek.
"Have wonderful first day back sweetheart."
"I'll try!" I say as I jog to the sidewalk opening the door to get into Ashton's car.
"Morning Anna Banana." Says Ashton.
"Morning." I say placing my bag on the floor as he drives off.
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"So! Are we morbidly excited about the new school year?" ask Ashton pulling down the normal street that lead straight to or school.
"I don't think so. What is there to be excited about in 11th grade?" I ask.
"Um a lot of things!" says Ashton, "There's new kids, a new semester, new classes, and new hotties."
"Hotties? Asher have you forgotten again that I like guys?"
"What? No I'm talking about for me. All the honeys when they come back from break are breath taking, their tan, fit and still bubbly from losing all the oxygen in their brain when they went swimming all summer."
"So you're excited to see, tan, tall lanky cheerleaders who have a mild case of brain damage because they lack air circulation from over break?"
"Basically."
I laugh, "Asher will you ever change?"
"Probably not." he laughs.
---------------
The ride took about 10 minutes from my house to the school and every minute we grew closer I a nervous knot in my stomach grew tighter and tighter.
"Charlotte 1 o'clock." Says Ashton as we park in the student parking lot.
"Anna!" yells Charlotte as I get out of the car.
"Char!" I yell back as she runs to me giving me a bear hug.
"I missed you." she says.
"I missed you too!" I say.
Pulling apart from me she locks her arm with mine as Ashton steps up beside me and she says, "Tell Mr. and Mrs. A that they aren't allowed to take you from us for 4 months anymore."
"They thought that it would be a nice getaway, you know you could've came."
"Yeah, but I had to go on the family trip as always."
"Was it fun?" ask Ashton.
"If you call clawing out my eyes with a plastic fork fun then yeah it was damn there like visiting Disneyland." Says Charlotte as she adjusted her skirt.
Charlotte was about my height and she was like my twin sister just bubblier. She had blonde long hair to my light brown long hair, and we both had blue eyes. Ashton was about 6 foot 1. He had surfer blonde hair, with a surfer body to match. Perks of being a professional high school swimmer. Charlotte and I have been friends since 2nd grade ever since she stole my juice box and poured it into the boy who was picking on me, hair.
We both met Ashton when he moved into town during our freshman year and it was like our little circle was completed. They were there whenever I needed them and when my whole 'fiery dream' thing happened I was surprise that they stayed by my side. I was even more surprised when they talked their parents into letting them attend this private school with me. Charlotte mom was all for it because she thought it would calm down Char's partying, while Ashton's parents thought that it would look good on his college applications.
"So are you going to stop being such a prude and actually participate in this year's school activities?" ask Charlotte as we walk over to the front of the school where all the kids stood at.
"What do you mean? I participate." I say.
"No you don't." says Ashton.
"Do to." I say.
Placing her hands on her hip Charlotte says, "Name one thing that you did last year?"
"I-"
"And it can't be anything book club related or something you volunteered for." Says Charlotte.
I squint my eyes and rolled them.
"See told you. You didn't do anything. We're in the 11th grade we have to do something this year!" says Charlotte.
"I hear that were having a carnival for a back to school fundraiser in a few weeks." Says Ashton.
"Really!" yells Charlottee as her face lights up.
As Ashton goes into detail about what he heard at his swimmer's meet a few days ago, I glance around at our fellow students. There were cheerleaders, the jocks, the band geeks, the emo crews, the nerds, and the theater. It was just like a regular high school we just had an enforced dress code, that was unless you were a jock or a cheerleader (and that was only on the days we had pep rallies or games.) looking around at the jocks I took in the sea of boys that gathered around each other laughing. I'd be lying if I didn't say they were breath taking.
"Yo Shrimp!" yells someone.
Glancing over to where the football players sat I saw my brother standing there looking at me smiling.
"Come here!" He yells over the crowd.
Nudging Ashton I say, "I'll be back."
Ashton and Charlotte nod's, going back to their conversation as I make my way over to Daniel.
Daniel was what you would call Mr. Popular at school. He played whatever sport that was in season and he was great at it. Daniel was a senior, 1 year and a half older than me, and even though he was popular and known around school like he was the president, he never made me feel like he was ignoring me or embarrassed to be seen around him. I told my brother once that he didn't have to act like he liked me at school, because I knew how people were looking at him, with him being popular and his sister being considered as 'middle class'.
His response to that was, "It doesn't matter if I'm 'popular' you are my sister and I'm not about to ignore you nor am I embarrassed to be seen with you. If my friends don't like you then they don't need to be around me then. It's that simple." I loved my brother he was the only sibling I had and I was glad that I had him.
Approaching the jocks I saw off to the side, leaning against a fence a tall guy, with dark curls. I never saw him around before. He had to be a Jr. by how tall he was. He had his back to me, but you could obviously see that with his shoulders squared and the way he stood, arms crossed, with his feet pointed in different directions, that he had to be, breath taking.
As if he could sense me staring he turned around towards me. He stands there for a moment eyes narrowed on me, before he pulls his lip up on the left side in a smirk. Oh god he's gorgeous. I thought as my brother called me again. Taking my eyes off of the dark haired stranger I looked at my brother as he walks up to me holding a cupcake as he hands it to me.
"So you leave the house early this morning to go get," I held up the fruity pebble covered vanilla cupcake, "To get cupcakes?"
Daniel smiled, "No, Stacy bought one for you."
"Stacy?" I ask raising a brow.
"Stacy," he repeated as he turned nudging his head to the auburn hair cheerleader that sat in the spot next to where he was sitting.
"Ah. She new?"
"Yeah transferred over the summer."
"I've never met her before. So how did she know that I liked fruity pebble cupcakes? How does she know me in the first place?"
"I met her at football, and cheerleading camp. Word is she wants to talk to me, and the girls told her about you and that she had to get along with my sis before we dated."
I laughed, "Since when was that a rule?"
He shrugged, "I don't know. I guess they made it up considering I turned down Nicole, and Ashley for a movie, after they got into it with you."
"But you didn't find out about that till like a week later."
"Yeah well," he runs a hand through his hair, "I guess they came upon that conclusion themselves."
Shaking my head I looked at the cupcake and said, "You sure it's not poisoned?"
He laughs deeply, "No I had like 3."
"God Danny!" I laugh as one of his friends called him.
"Gotta go shrimp, see you around during passing." Kissing me on my cheek he turns and walks off.
"Sup Annabelle!" yells his best friend Marcus.
"Hi Marcus!" I call back as I wave.
Flashing me a smile and a wink I smiled as I turned around to walk off, stopping when I saw the dark hair boy leaning against the fence, arms crossed as he still staring at me. He wore the required uniform (Dress pants, shirt, and blazer) apparently he just forgot that he hadn't tied his tie. For a second I thought he was looking at someone behind me, but when I turned to face him again he was staring right at me. Our eyes locked for a moment and for some reason something felt familiar, like I knew him or seen him somewhere before.
Charlotte walks up and bumps me with her hip as she says, "Where the cupcake come from?"
Tearing my gaze from the guy I turned and say, "What?"
Looking at me Charlotte looks at me and says, "What are you looking at?"
"There's this..." I stop as I turn looking at the fence where the guy was to see he wasn't there anymore. "Nothing." I say shaking my head.
"Are you okay?" ask Ashton.
"Yeah, just can't wait to get the first day over with." I say.
"Well that'll happen soon enough, the doors are opening."
Turning to the huge double doors I take a breath and say, "Well hello to the new school year."