My father wheels me out of the hospital with the wheelchair, and we see over a hundred camera crews outside of the hospital. “Brittany, what exactly happened?” Some newswoman asks me. I look around me and than at my dad and I start to cry. He holds me close and I see Robert and Luke running up to us. They start shooing away the camera people away from me although it’s not working out too well. I look at my father and he takes his phone out. “Don’t make me call the cops.” He says to the reporters. They don’t move a muscle and keep asking me questions. Two minutes later, the security of the hospital come out shooing everyone away. We get to the car and my father pulls out of the parking lot speeding back to our house.
“Are you sure you want to go back to school sweet heart? It’s up to you.” My father asks me on the way home from the hospital.
“Yes, there’s only a month left, and I’m going to need my diploma, I don’t want to be a high school drop out.” I say and he nods.
“That’s my girl.” He says ruffling my hair and I laugh. “And are you sure about Luke?” He asks.
“Yes, dad, I’m positive about Luke. If he didn’t really love me he wouldn’t have come to the hospital crying his eyes out.” I say. “It’s going to be hard, I know, but I have to deal with it.”
“I’m so proud of you sweetheart. You don’t know how proud I am.” He says pulling into the driveway. He helps me get into the house and into my room. “Get some sleep. I’ll wake you up when dinner is ready.” He says kissing my forehead.
After dinner, I go back to sleep since I’m going back to school the next day and I want to look pretty.
“Brittany, wake up.” Someone whispers in my ear. I open my eyes and see Luke in my face. “Good morning sunshine.” He says with a smile.
“What time is it?” I ask.
He looks at his watch and looks back at me. “It’s almost seven.” He says and I jump out of bed. I try to walk on my leg but it starts to shake. Great I forgot my leg is sprained. He picks me up and walks me to the sink. “I’ll be waiting for you downstairs. Don’t take too long we can’t be late on your first day back.” He says.
I walk into my room and get on my summer dress and flip-flops. I would wear heels but I’m in crutches and I don’t want to end up in the hospital again. I do my makeup flawless and get to the stairs. “Luke, I need help getting down the stairs.” I yell from the top. He runs up to me and helps me to his car. “Thank you.” I say getting into the passenger seat.
“Don’t mention it.” He says turning on the radio.
We pull up to the school and I see a few camera people and paparazzi at the entrance. Luke ushers me through the back doors like he did a while back. Everyone looks up at me and start to whisper. I look at Luke and he shrugs. “They’re all just worried about you. That’s all.” He whispers in my ear adjusting my book bag that his hung on his back
“I’m not sure if I could do it.” I whisper. He kisses my head.
“I’m sure you’re not, but I know you’re a strong girl. You could do it. Just ignore everyone.” He says walking me through the halls.
All of Luke’s friends run up to us. “I’m so sorry about what happened are you okay?” They ask me and I nod.
“I’m fine, really. Don’t worry.” I say to them and they all smile and give me hugs. The bell rings and we all walk our separate ways to class. Luke had managed to arrange his classes so that we have all classes together.
“We’ll catch you guys at lunch.” They say walking away.
Luke walks me to my locker and I open it up. Five balloons fly out and one of them has a paper folded up in it.
WILL YOU GO TO PROM WITH ME?
I look at Luke and he smiles. “Would you go to prom with me?” He asks again I nod my head and he spins me in a circle kissing my lips when he sets me back down.
I put the balloons back in the locker and he takes us to class. We sit all the way in the back corner and scoot our desks together. “I love you.” He whispers in my ear before the teacher walks in.
“I love you too.” I whisper and everyone starts awing at us. Luke looks at me and smiles than kisses me, giving the class a show. I laugh into the kiss and back away. “Okay, enough.” I say to the class turning to the front of the class.
The teacher walks in and looks at me right away. “Ah, very good to have you back Ms. Calasto, and I’m sorry about your accident. I hope you’re feeling better.”
“I’m fine.” I say with a smile.
She smiles back and goes on with the lesson not caring if the class is talking. “When is prom anyways?” I ask and Luke turns around to look at me.
“Two weeks from Friday.” He says and my mouth drops. “Don’t worry about a thing. All you need to do is get a dress and show up, with me of course.” He says which makes me laugh.
“Do you want to come dress shopping with me?” I ask and he shakes his head. “Why not?”
“I want it to be a surprise, of course.” He smiles.
“It’s not my wedding. It doesn’t need to be a surprise.”
“Yeah, but still, might as well be my bride.” I blush a deep red and he chuckles. “I’m serious. We’re going to get married one day.” He whispers.
“Luke, we’re in high school, who knows what happens in our life once we graduate.” I whisper back.
“Brittany, I know you’ll be part of my life, whether it is you being my girlfriend for the rest of my life, or my wife. Either way you’re stuck with me.” He takes my hand and kisses my fingers.
The bell rings and we both jump out of our seats with excitement. “Brittany Calasto, please report to the principles office.” Someone says through the loud speaker.
“Want me to come with you?”
“No, get to class I don’t want you to be late because of me.” I say. “I’ll be there in a little.” I add before walking away. He takes my hand and pulls me back to face him.
“Forgetting something?” He asks. I look at him confused when his lips land on mine. I smile through the kiss and kiss him back for another second before pulling away. “See you in class beautiful.” He whispers in my ear. I nod my head and walk toward the principles office.
Once I walk in, I see my father sitting in one of the chairs and looks up at me, and smiles. “Hey sweetheart,” My father says pulling me into a hug.
“Hey daddy,” I say with a smile. “What’s going on?”
“We’ll talk about this with the principle, but don’t worry. You’re not in trouble or anything.” He whispers and I nod.
“Mr. and Ms. Calasto, please come in.” The principle says opening her door. My father and I walk into her office to see two huge men.
“Ms. Calasto. I don’t know if someone has informed you, but from now on, these men are going to be your bodyguards. To make sure nothing happens to you whether it is in school, or out in public they will be there for your safety.” The principle says. I look at my father who is looking at me to see my reaction.
I shrug. “Do I have a choice?” I ask my father he shakes his head. “Then I have to learn to get used to it.” I say with a smile. I look at the two huge men and smile at them. One is bigger than the other with a few tattoos’ covering his neck, while the other one looks gentler, but still tough enough to keep someone safe. He has blue eyes and blonde hair. I’ll learn to get used to them being around me.
“I’m Brad,” The blonde one says and I smile at him. “This here is, Mike.” He says pointing to the bigger man.
“Hi, I’m Brittany but you probably already knew that.” I say with a small smile. They smile back at me. I look them over, someone on the street would think they were mean, but they actually seem to be friendly enough for me.
“So when do they start?” I ask and the principle looks at me amused. “Uh, I’ll take that is in right now?” He nods and starts to write me a pass to my next class. I stand up taking my pass and walking to the door. My new bodyguards follow me out followed by my father.
“Don’t be mad at me.” He whispers in my ear.
“I’m not I understand you’re worried about my safety while you’re not around. After everything with the media and with my accident I sort of feel safer with someone around to keep an eye out for me.” I say and my father breathes a sigh of relief.
“Well thankfully, the man that hit your car offered to pay your hospital bill and repair your car.” My father says.
“Are you really going to make him pay? It was an accident.” I say, although I don’t mind paying those bills.
“Yes, I’m really going to make him pay. He sent you to a hospital and he was being a careless driver. Since he’s paying for the hospital, and the car, I’m not going to sue his ass. He is very sorry for what he did to you and one way or the other he’s going to lose the money.” My father explains. I get where he’s coming. I’m glad the man offered to pay for my car repair and my hospital bill. I t shows that he’s sorry for being reckless. I honestly don’t care about my car now. I’m just grateful that nothing happened to me. I mean a car is easily replaceable while, I’m not, so it’s not a big deal that my car is damaged. But it’s good to know that it’s getting fixed to perfection, unless he means he’s buying me a new car, because I’m sure my car isn’t fixable, I mean it flipped over.
My father walks me to class and I hug him good-bye. “I’ll see you at home daddy. I love you.” I say before opening the classroom. I walk in followed by Brad and Mike. I hand her the pass. “There’s a message on the back that you might want to read.” I say while taking my seat next to Luke who looks at me confused. “I’ll explain after class.” I whisper. He nods going back to taking notes.
A few minutes later, the teacher dismisses the class for the day. She calls me to the front and I walk up to her after telling Luke to wait for me. The bell rings and everyone piles out, except for Luke and my new bodyguards. “What are the body guards for?” She asks and I shrug. “There has to be a reason.” She whispers.
“My father’s just worried about me getting hurt.” I whisper, and she nods and tells me to go to my next class.
During every class everyone eyes me weirdly, one because I haven’t been to school for almost a month and I’m the new student… again, two because I walk in with two huge men behind me. Everyone looks from me, to the two random men, to me again and I sigh in frustration as the teacher asks what’s going on. For the millionth time today, I have to explain myself. It’s finally lunch and Luke and I walk hand in hand to the cafeteria. “So Ms. Calasto, who should we keep an eye out for?” Brad asks.
“Everyone, except for the people we’re going to sit with today, but please, call me Brittany.” I say and they both smile at me. “Don’t you guys feel weird?” I ask them and they shake their head.
“It’s our job, and plus, this isn’t the first time we had to watch out for a young high school student.” Mike says and smiles. “Well it isn’t my first time, I don’t know about Brad here.” I smile at that.
“And here I thought I was the only famous girl in L.A going to a public school.” I say with relief.
“She wasn’t famous. But her family is billionaire’s, she got attacked one day and from that day on it was me and another dude following her around.” He explains.
“Oh,” Is all I manage to say.
“So what’s your story? Why are we protecting you?” He asks and I shrug.
“Over protective father I guess.” I say with humor in my voice. “I guess, after what happened with Brian, and Drew, my father wants to make sure none of that happens again.” I say and they shrug dropping the subject. I walk them to the lunch table. All of my closest friends look at me confused, since they don’t have any classes with them. “Guys, this Brad, and Mike my new bodyguards,” I say and they start to introduce themselves to my bodyguards. Once the bodyguards got everyone’s name, I looked at them. “So do you guys do this as a strictly business thing, or do you make friends with the people you watch, and their friends too.” I ask, and they both shrug.
“The easiest way to work as a bodyguard is to make friends with them.” Brad answers and I nod understanding. “So who do you dislike the most in this school?” Brad asks me and I start to look for Crystal.
“Crystal, definitely,” I answer.
“Who is she?” Mike asks. I point my finger to Crystal who happens to be walking this way. “Why, what did she do to you?”
“One, she’s a bitch, two, I bitched slapped that motherfucker, three, I never in my life hated someone as much as I hate her. Well besides Brian that is.” I say. Crystal walks up to Brad and starts batting her eyelashes at him.
“Are you new here? I haven’t seen you around, I would have known if someone as good looking as you were here before.” She says and I nod my head.
“Uh, yeah I’m new here. It’s actually my first day here.” He says and everyone starts playing along.
“Do you need help finding your way to your classes?” She asks touching his shoulder. He grabs her hand and removes it from his body.
“No thank you. Brittany beat you to it.” He says and she glares at me. All I could do is smirk and laugh. “You’re out of my league anyways.” He shouts at her as she started to storm off. By this time, everyone in the cafeteria started to crack up. I mean everyone, even her followers.
“That was epic.” One of Luke’s friends says and I laugh at him gaining a few more comments about what Brad just did.
“Thank you.” I whisper to him.
“It’s what I’m here for.” He says wrapping his arm me pulling me into a hug. I look at Luke and smile he smiles back. I’m so glad I don’t have to worry about a possessive boyfriend always getting jealous. He could talk to girls, hug them and all, and I could do the same to boys knowing that we’re not cheating and it’s in a friendly matter.
“Why’d she think you were new here?” I ask and he shrugs.
“She’s stupid. I don’t look young enough to even be in high school.” He says and I look at his face to see if he’s right.
“Some people might believe it. I mean if you weren’t my body guard I would think you were new here too.” I say and he smiles knowing I’m right. “How old are you anyways?”
“Uh, 23?” He says more like a question I look at him not believing him.
“Are you really?” I ask and he just laughs.
“Okay, I’m 22. It’s just that usually people start this at 25, and it’s very rare for someone my age to get hired.” He explains. “I only got hired because of these guns.” He says flexing his muscles. Everyone starts to laugh. Even Brad begins to laugh just as the bell rings signaling that lunch is over. I walk with Luke, Brad, and Mike to my next class. Yet again, I have to explain why Brad and Mike are now in this room with me. I mean, it’s not like my teachers mind it. I mean after all they told me they wanted my school year to be safe. What’s safer than two bodyguards are? I pull up my seat next to Luke. Brad and Mike sit in the back corner of the room next to us since that’s where Luke and I decided to sit. The teacher starts teaching as the late bell rings and I zone everything out drifting off to sleep.